More and more of us are looking beyond the wine in our glass and demanding to know how the wine is made. Whether we want wines that are “natural,” biodynamic, organic or sustainable, increasingly we want to know that winemakers are doing their best to protect the environment and not relying on chemicals to ripen their grapes.

And the wine industry is listening. The Wine Institute in California has developed standards for sustainable winegrowing, defining environmentally friendly practices that leave growers maximum flexibility to deal with the vagaries of the weather. Industry associations in Napa and Sonoma counties, the areas most affected by the recent wildfires, have declared their goal for 100 percent of their members to be practicing sustainable viticulture.

In the Pacific Northwest, a hotbed of environmentalism, regional certifications for wineries in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and British Columbia include LIVE, or Low-Impact Viticulture Enology, and Salmon-Safe, which focuses on maintaining the health of rivers around vineyards. Organic and biodynamic practices are also popular.