Think wine, and chances are you’ll smile. Think organic, and chances are you may scowl. Put them together – organic wine – and who knows what to think?

So let’s take a test.

Organic wine is:

A. Made from organic grapes.

B. Made without sulfites.

C. Too weird a concept.

Paul Chartrand, founder and proprietor of Chartrand Imports, a Rockland-based organic wine importer, is the man with the answer. As one of only a few organic wine importers in the country, Chartrand sells more than 150 organic wines nationally and more than 60 in statewide stores, including food co-ops, mainstream supermarkets, natural foods stores, wine shops and restaurants.

Before he specialized in wine, Chartrand, who grew up in Worcester, Mass., studied chemical engineering at Columbia University and then worked as a businessman in the organic food industry in Massachusetts and Maine. He helped establish the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association in the 1970s, and for three years, was director of the Common Ground Country Fair, which promotes and showcases organically grown Maine products. By the 1980s, when a wave of interest in organic farming rolled over the country, Chartrand was riding the crest in Maine.

Still, he was looking for a niche of his own. In 1982, in pursuit of European organic farming methods, as well as his European family roots, Chartrand went to France, where he worked at an organic farm and vineyard. (His name is oddly similar to Chartron, a well-known wine family in France.) In 1985, back in Maine where his own family had spent summers, Chartrand began his business.

“It was a romance to me,” said Chartrand, who did a stint in the Maine Legislature. “I could have stayed with organic food as an administrator. Wine was a hobby before I went to France. Without intending to become a wine geek, my own heritage and the food and wine combination won me over. This was a new, fun thing, and I’d get to keep going to France.”

Dick LaPointe, a Maine sales representative for Canandaigua Wine Company, remembers when Chartrand joined the ranks of the state’s wine sellers. At first, LaPointe was skeptical.

“I thought it was a positive thing,” he said. “But that’s not to say I was overly enthused. Not knowing organic wine, I thought it would be good for the business. I just wasn’t sure the product would grow. Evidently it has. He’s been in it for 20 years.”

In his first year of business, Chartrand imported 830 cases of wine and champagne. Last year, he imported more than 7,000 cases of foreign organic wines and sold about the same number of domestic organic wines. The wines come from France, Italy, Spain, New Zealand, as well as from U.S. vineyards. He sells in 20 states, from Maine to California, and in about 100 stores in Maine. His goal, he said, is to get more than a few bottles of wine on the shelves in each market, including restaurants. Mostly, he has been successful in accomplishing that, but the path has not always been easy.

Several years after Chartrand opened his business, the U.S. Department of Agriculture began taking steps toward establishing national organic standards. Nearly 20 years later, in 2003, the government legally defined organic wine as having no synthetic ingredients, being made from organic grapes and having no added sulfites, a fruit preservative often added in winemaking. (It is also, coincidentally, a by-product of fermentation.) In order to be officially labeled “organic,” a wine has to meet these criteria.

Chartrand markets his wine as being “made from organic grapes,” with no synthetic ingredients, synthetic fertilizers or pesticides used on the vines or in the soil. They contain added sulfites. He also offers several with no added sulfites.

But most wine experts will tell you that sulfites have been a component of the winemaking process for centuries. Without it, wines can be inconsistent or fragile.

“Wines grown without chemical fertilizers and pesticides produce a grape that truly reflects its origin,” said Chartrand, 56. “They are grown using the nourishment of the region they are grown in, and that’s much more important in terms of the health of the grape. If a plant reflects its soil of origin, it tastes better.”

Chartrand learned early on that he might antagonize other wine salespeople and alienate his own work in the business by sweepingly declaring that organic wines are less dangerous than those without organic origins. But Chartrand’s belief, dating back to the 1960s when he began exploring the benefits of organic food, is that organic is better for your body. That has been a principle of his life and his work.

At a recent wine show in Ellsworth, Chartrand displayed his selection of wines and talked with buyers from restaurants and markets as they tasted his wares. Most of the buyers knew Chartrand and spoke highly of his products. Others found themselves in a moment of discovery.

“It’s organic. I love that,” said one woman from a local restaurant. She sipped from a 2003 bottle of Guy Bossard Muscadet, which recently showed up on a Wine Spectator list of 100 best wines under $15. “It’s really nice. A great finish. We serve a lot of tapas, and I think it would be great with that.”

Another restaurant owner came by to sample the whites. He and Chartrand were clearly old business friends.

“This is still organic wine?” the man asked. “This is going to extend my life?”

“Well,” said Chartrand, “at least it’s not going to cut it short.”

“Perfect,” the man said as he swirled the liquid and lifted it to his lips.

“There’s no benefit they have to accept including that these wines are better,” Chartrand said later. “You have to separate the romance and philosophy from the business. I am happy to run the business. I enjoy it. But it comes down to what the customer wants.”

Now, back to the quiz. What is organic wine? Here’s Chartrand’s answer: “It really is A and B. Historically, it was A before the government came along. Now it’s A and B.”

And, he has spent a career professing, the answer is certainly not C.

For information about Chartrand Imports, including a complete list of organic wines as well as where they are sold, visit www.chartrandimports.com, or call 594-7300. Alicia Anstead can be reached at 990-8266 and aanstead@bangordailynews.net.