What is SOLA?

People sometimes ask us if we are organic or sustainable and we have tended to shy away from defining our vineyard and wine with labels. This morning, I was reading an article on wine categories, I came upon this acronym: SOLA---what is it? Short for [sustainable, organic, lower alcohol] opportunity index. This index is a multi-category assessment of the alternative wine sector. I did not know that.
I used to think that sustainable was a really squishy label, but in 2014, Sonoma County Winegrowers announced it's goal to become America's first 100% certified sustainable wine growing region by 2019. These growers must complete a self-assessment of 138 best practices and have an independent third party audit.
Some of these 138 best practices include land use, canopy management, energy efficiency, water quality assessment, carbon emissions, healthcare and training for employees and being a good neighbor and community member.
The article then went on to define the various categories of wines and how they are defined:¹

Category	Definition
Organic Wine	Produced from grapes that have been grown organically, often without the use of pesticides and other synthetic materials and where the winemaking methods employed adhere to the rules and regulations of an organic certifying body. Precise definitions vary from market to market.
Biodynamic Wine	An extended version of organic wine, first developed by Rudolph Steiner in the 1920s stimulating the health of the vine by homeopathic means so as to avoid disease. Applications follow the lunar calendar.
Natural Wine	Farmed organically and made without adding or removing anything in the cellar (or use of processing aids, heavy manipulation, etc.) creates a "living wine".
Orange and Skin Contact Wine	White wines made in the same way as red wines; skins are left on and the wine is left to ferment often resulting in an orange hue.
Vegan Wine	Made without interaction from animal products (conventional wines may use fining agents such as isinglass and casein).
Sustainably Produced Wine	Generally considered to be produced in an environmentally-free manner (such as at a carbon-neutral winery or water and energy efficiency) or using grapes which have been grown with minimum chemical input and an effort to maintain the quality of the land. But there is no consistent definition.
Environmentally-friendly Wine	No definition or certification but centers around the concept of 'green' products.
Fairtrade Wine	Products certified by Fairtrade International, an organization that promotes products that meet social, economic, and environmental standards set by the foundation, including protection of workers' rights and the environment.
Sulphite-free Wine	The legal definition for sulphite-free wine under both EU and USA law is a wine containing no more than 10 parts per million total sulphites and 5 parts per million free sulphites. Wine with an excess of 10 mg/L must state "it contains sulphites" on the label. All wines contain some level of sulphites, as sulfur is a natural by-product of fermentation.
Preservative-free Wine	Typically refers to no added sulphites.

Who knew there were so many categories of wine? We don't really fit nicely into any category.
References:
1. Rachel Arthur, Organic, natural, biodynamic...What Next for Wine?, Beveragedaily.com, August 8, 2018.