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An independent verification standard and discovery guide, switching the world's drink onto clean, regeneratively farmed sources.
Independently verified · Certifications checked at the source · No producer pays to be listed
The crops behind the world's wine and spirits rely on some of the most pesticide-intensive agriculture on earth, poisoning the farmworkers who grow them, collapsing pollinator populations, and contaminating the soil and water around every field and vineyard. The drinker rarely tastes it. The land always pays.
Free Bacchus exists to switch the world's wine and spirits onto clean, organically and regeneratively farmed sources, and to make that switch verifiable, so "sustainable" stops being a marketing word and becomes a measured standard.
Pesticides leach into soil, water and air, and the pollinators they kill underpin $235–577 billion of global crop output a year, on IPBES's estimate. All for a product meant purely for pleasure.
Children and adolescents who may face exposure to agricultural pesticides, by their proximity to where they are used.
490 million children and adolescents may face potential exposure to agricultural pesticidesUNICEF, Underestimated and Overlooked, May 2026
Farms worldwide used 1.81 million tonnes of pesticide in 1990 and 3.82 million in 2022, more than twice as much. Move along the line to read any year.
pesticide use—more than doubling between 1990 and 2022UNICEF, Underestimated and Overlooked, May 2026The line: FAOSTAT, Pesticides Use, world agricultural use in tonnes of active ingredients, 1990–2024 (FAO estimates)
Every dot is a producer we have assessed: of them. stopped at the certification floor and more scored below Silver. cleared the standard, and are in the cellar so far.
Of the Champagne vineyard at the end of 2025: 2,728 hectares, certified or in conversion, 309 of them still converting. Every square is one per cent.
8 % de la surface du vignoble champenois·
2 728 hectares dont 309 ha en conversionBio en Grand Est, Fiche Observatoire, Chiffres 2025 (ORAB Bio en Grand Est, Agence Bio), June 2026
Children and adolescents who may face exposure to agricultural pesticides.
UNICEF, May 2026Pesticide use worldwide more than doubled between 1990 and 2022.
UNICEF, May 2026They did not clear the Free Bacchus standard, 392 of them on certification alone.
Free Bacchus databaseThe share of the Champagne vineyard at the end of 2025, certified or in conversion.
Bio en Grand Est, June 2026
Bacchus was the Roman god of drink and revelry, but that was a fraction of who he was. He was also the god of vegetation, agriculture, the harvest, and transformation. He presided over the entire relationship between the earth and the drink: from the soil that fed the root to the ferment that filled the cup. And the Romans knew him, above all, as the liberator of body and soul.
For thousands of years he embodied the covenant between clean land and honest craft. Then industrial agriculture arrived. Pesticides saturated the soil. The very earth he presided over was poisoned in the name of yield, efficiency, and shareholder return. The liberator became captive to a system he would never have recognized.
“It’s a piece of land first. I see it as a unique individual.”— Nick Mills, Rippon, on what he thinks he is actually farming
Across continents and categories, a quiet cohort has farmed clean for decades, out of view of the people who would choose them in a heartbeat. The gap was never quality. It was infrastructure. These are the first houses of the Free Bacchus standard.
Born in Whistler. Platinum in Los Angeles. The founding proof that outstanding spirits could be made entirely free of pesticide-dependent practice — and the bottle that showed how little infrastructure existed to carry it.
A Fifth Growth farmed with ten draft horses and no electricity in the vat room. Mid-conversion in 2007 mildew forced a conventional spray, costing three years of work — and the estate began the conversion again from the start.
Their own master distiller called organic barley an expensive waste of time. It then gave the whisky a depth nobody had expected, and the distillery is happy to repeat the insult — which tells you what kind of place it is.
The first producer to hold organic certification inside the Martinique AOC — harder than it sounds, because the appellation already dictates the cane, the harvest window and the distillation before organics adds anything.
Kevin Cullen was a doctor before he planted vines, and had seen in his own surgery what agricultural chemicals did to potato farmers. His daughter Vanya runs the estate now, carbon positive since 2019.
Biodynamic in Champagne since 1989, when no other house farmed that way and most of the region thought it reckless. Demeter held continuously ever since — and around eight percent of Champagne is certified organic even now.
Its founder’s objection is not that producers lie about sustainability, but that nothing exists to check them against — least of all for a spirit made far away. Certification here covers the cane and the still.
The Reserve houses, then the newest arrivals
Reserve
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Silver
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Five of the world’s greenest hotel groups transformed their water. On 107 drinks lists, fewer than one bottle in twenty came from verified clean farming.
Read · 9 Min
The first Champagne house to earn Regenerative Organic Certification has promised organic vines across its growers by 2031. Why it is Silver.
Read · 8 Min
Most of us assume the bottles at eye level are there because people buy them. A September federal settlement showed how some of them got there instead.
Read · 8 Min
Shipments have fallen three years running to a twenty-year low. But the bottles that left were the cheap ones, and the real threat is the growing season.
Read · 10 Min
Michelin published five criteria for its first wine guide — and put soil vitality and vine health ahead of everything in the cellar.
Read · 9 Min
Audited by one independent body against one framework — and read in order, the definition changes twice in eight years.
Read · 10 Min
A distillery in the Yarra Valley is wrapped in more than a mile of copper tubing — and the copper is, quietly, a heat exchanger.
Read · 8 Min
It is the world's largest international spirit — and it asks a harder question of a verification standard than any other category we cover.
Read · 8 Min
The 1855 Bordeaux classification has barely changed in 170 years. One estate near the bottom decided to argue with it — by hitching horses to a plough.
Read · 8 Min
Sake is the one category on earth whose labelling already does what every label should — and almost nobody in the West knows how to read the bottle.
Read · 9 Min
Half of all new food and drink products carry a sustainability claim. Almost none are enforceable — and the retailer that must stand behind its labels knows it.
Read · 9 Min
Islay made its famous drams from mainland barley for generations. One distillery has spent two decades changing that — and refusing to hide what it costs.
Read · 9 Min
The agave waits eight years in the field. How much of that patience survives the journey to your glass — and who kept faith with the plant.
Read · 8 Min
490 million children exposed, 385 million poisonings a year — and the houses refusing to be part of it.
Read · 8 Min
Inside the Kernza® fields where every harvest leaves the land richer than it found it.
Read · 6 Min
Pollinators, songbirds, watershed life — the quiet audience of the organic estate.
Read · 5 Min
Four terms, four different promises — and why some of the greatest wines on earth have been quietly biodynamic for decades.
Read · 7 Min
One of the most celebrated sustainable distilleries of its generation nearly disappeared — and why that should worry you about the ones you've never heard of.
Read · 7 Min
How a former alfalfa farm became the first Regenerative Organic Certified vineyard on earth — and the conscience of American wine.
Read · 8 MinThat is the ambition, not the present position. We are not a governing body and we certify nothing ourselves. We check the certifications against the bodies that issue them, corroborate quality with outside critics, and publish how we did both. Today Free Bacchus is a published methodology and a verified cellar of 326 houses across 26 countries, the working proof that clean farming can be checked rather than claimed.
It is a ladder, not a gate. Every verification finds one more house worth knowing about, and every house that falls short of a tier can see exactly what it was measured against and what would move it up. Becoming a reference worth using is earned over years, by verifying carefully and publishing the gaps as openly as the findings.
Independent verification a grower can point to, and a route to the drinkers who would choose them in a heartbeat. No fee to be listed, and no paying your way up the tiers.
Certifications checked against the bodies that issue them, quality corroborated by outside critics, and the methodology published in full — so you can check our working rather than take our word.
From Michelin dining rooms to the family restaurant on the corner. The same verified cellar, so any venue can build a clean, credible list without keeping a research department.
The long shift is from volume to value: fewer bottles, chosen more carefully, with more attention paid to what is actually in them. When people drink less, what they do drink has to be worth it.
Since December 2023, wine sold in the EU must declare its ingredients and nutrition, the first real crack in an exemption drinks had held for decades. Spirits are still outside it. Drinkers who read every label in the kitchen have started asking the same of the bottle.
Certification has grown steadily; discovery has not kept pace. Estates hold audited credentials, absorb the cost of farming that way, and remain unknown to the people actively looking for them. What is missing is infrastructure.
A former developer and restaurateur, Lewis’ passion for wine and spirits was built on the restaurant floor — choosing what went on a list, and answering for it. That is what prompted the concept for Free Bacchus, to put a limelight on the entire sustainable alcohol segment. He also channels a talent for bringing communities together. Deeply committed to giving back, he supports initiatives across Vancouver and currently serves the St Pauls Hospital Foundation as an ambassador.
A global adventurer who has redefined industries, shaping landmark partnerships for Ferrari’s Formula 1 team, then, as CMO of Campari, spearheading Aperol’s rise from regional aperitif to global phenomenon. He believes in a fairer, more sustainable future, and in building it.
Ben brings 10+ years scaling digital businesses at Nike, Meta, Apple and AppLovin. As SNKRS GM & Product Launch Platform Lead at Nike, he owned a $1B+ annual digital launch business and led the company’s biggest product drops. He brings deep growth and partnership expertise to our mission.
First investor and Founding Chairman of GogoVan, backing an idea into a logistics platform spanning Asia. Co-founder of Feeding Hong Kong, the city’s largest food bank. Champion of Egret Therapeutics from concept to a drug platform for concussion, heart attack, and stroke. Former Fundraising Chairman for UNICEF.
Andre is a wine, sake and spirits specialist with eight years in the drinks industry. He holds WSET Level 2 Awards in Wines and in Spirits, along with the Sake Scholar qualification. With more than 25,000 tasting notes across every major wine region, he still has an insatiable appetite for learning, from the producers themselves down to the composition of the soil.
Every producer on Free Bacchus is evaluated on two entirely separate axes — and must clear a minimum bar on both. Strong sustainability practice does not excuse weak quality, and critical acclaim does not excuse undisclosed chemical use. The two layers are never blended into a single hidden score; each is independently visible.
This is the public methodology behind the standard — the criteria every producer must meet to be listed. It is published in full, including the parts that are imperfect or asymmetric across categories, because a standard that hides its own limitations is not one the industry can trust.
| Sustainability Verification | Whether the producer's farming and production is certified organic, or independently verified as chemical-free in practice. Controlled by Free Bacchus, using the published checklist in Section 2. |
| Quality Corroboration | Whether the producer's quality, history, and rarity are independently recognised by established outside authorities. Controlled by external critics, publications, and competitions — never Free Bacchus's opinion alone. |
Every producer must qualify under one of two tracks. There is no third path. A producer who qualifies under neither is not listed, regardless of quality, fame, or critical acclaim.
The producer holds active, current third-party organic certification from a recognised accredited body — among them Demeter, USDA Organic, Ecocert, CERES, BioGro, Soil Association, and Naturland. The list is not exhaustive: Free Bacchus will recognise any body that conducts independent third-party audits to an equivalent evidentiary standard. Track A is the only path to the highest listing tier, and carries full point eligibility with no cap.
Some genuinely excellent producers farm without synthetic inputs but hold no formal certification — often for reasons of cost, philosophy, or regional infrastructure that does not yet serve their category. Track B exists so they are not unfairly excluded. It is deliberately difficult to qualify for, and the bar is non-negotiable. A producer qualifies only when all three conditions are met:
Producers verified under Track B are capped at the second-highest listing tier, regardless of quality score — because formal certification carries an independent audit and renewal process that Track B, by definition, does not. The cap reflects that difference in evidentiary strength honestly, rather than treating the two tracks as equivalent.
Free Bacchus does not score quality on its own internal opinion. Every producer's quality, history, and rarity must be corroborated by recognised outside authorities — a deliberate check against marking our own homework.
Here is the part we are direct about rather than quietly working around: the strength and structure of outside authority is not the same across every category. Wine and brandy have the deepest individual-critic traditions, built over roughly half a century of scored, independently-named reviewing. Whisky and gin have credible scored traditions anchored by specialist publications. Rum draws on a small number of cross-category experts alongside competitions. Sake and tequila have no equivalent individual-critic scoring tradition in English at all — authority takes the form of competitions and recognised expert voices.
| Wine | James Suckling · Wine Advocate · Jancis Robinson · Wine Spectator · Vinous / Antonio Galloni · Decanter |
| Whisky | Whisky Advocate · International Wine & Spirit Competition · World Whiskies Awards |
| Sake | John Gauntner · Zenkoku Shinshu Kanpyokai (National New Sake Competition) · International Wine Challenge, sake category |
| Tequila & Agave | Wine Enthusiast spirits (incl. Kara Newman) · Agavos Awards · San Francisco World Spirits Competition |
| Rum | Dave Broom · IWSC rum category · San Francisco World Spirits Competition |
| Gin | Dave Broom · IWSC gin category · The Gin Guide Awards |
| Brandy & Calvados | Wine Advocate · Decanter · Wine Spectator · Jancis Robinson · IWSC brandy & Calvados |
| Vodka | The Spirits Business Vodka Masters · San Francisco World Spirits / IWSC vodka · Wine Enthusiast spirits |
The standard is a living methodology. Every revision is dated, versioned, and accompanied by a one-line explanation of what changed and why — published in full and never edited retroactively without a visible note.
| v1.0 | Initial standard. Certification required, no exceptions — a single-track model. Covered wine only. |
| v2.0 | Introduced the two-track system to fairly account for producers whose practices exceed certified peers but who cannot or choose not to certify. Track B capped at the second-highest tier. Expanded to whisky, sake, and tequila & agave. |
| v2.1 | Added Ecocert to recognised bodies. Corrected wine's critic-tradition description to its roughly half-century history. Added five categories — rum, gin, brandy & Calvados, and vodka — each with explicit corroboration methods and category-specific transparency notes. |