Life Cycle: Green Wine

Life Cycle is a series about the stories of our stuff.

Shall we raise a glass to the fact that no other item in our Life Cycle series achieves such praise for traveling long distances, in heavy glass bottles, by way of fossil fuel powered planes, boats and automobiles, as vino? While eating locally has become a real movement, drinking wine from across the globe is still cool. For amateurs and oenophiles alike, international labels are a pleasure of partaking.

Paradoxically, the same fossil fuels that transport merlots from Europe are changing the grape harvests there. Just as weather and location add texture and nuance to a wine, subtle differences in temperature hugely impact crops. That means climate change is already affecting the wine industry. Some theorize that Germany's Rhine Valley will be producing luscious reds in just 50 years, a major deviation from the crisp white Rieslings that thrived for centuries in the area's cold season.

By making a few alterations to your daily pour, you can work against the climate change that threatens our cold-climate grapes.

It's all about how far your bev has been shipped, and the materials used to package it. Aluminum screw-tops are more likely to be recycled than natural corks, and they prevent wines from going bad--a fate that sends nearly 1 out of every 10 bottles down the drain. Synthetic corks made from plastic also will guarantee against the wet cardboard taste of spoiled wine, but are rarely recyclable and can't be re-used as they expand once removed from the bottle.

Traditional cork can be thrown in the compost pile, used as mulch or recycled to make flooring, wallpaper, placemats and shoes. The Rainforest Alliance's SmartWood program works with the Forest Stewardship Council to certify sustainable cork growers, who harvest their cork from young trees that continue to grow and produce. Supporting sustainable cork farms means supporting biodiversity along the Mediterranean, and the rural farmers who have made their living off cork since Dom Perignon, a French Benedictine monk, first stuffed it into a bottle. Send your natural corks to Yemm & Hart or ask a local wine merchant about recycling programs in your area.

The average wine bottle weighs a little over one pound when empty, and about 3 pounds when full. That's a lot of glass to lug around the world, especially when the bulk of it makes up the heavy, concave base of the bottle, which doesn't really serve a purpose. California's Fetzer Vineyard began manufacturing flat-bottomed bottles this year, reducing weight by 11 percent. The lightest option is the wine-in-a-box routine, perfect for sunsets on the beach. But while the cardboard exterior is easily recyclable, the Tetrapak plastic inside goes straight to the landfill .

If you'd rather hit the bottle than the box (you snob), buy local to minimize shipping. And don't think you need a villa in Napa Valley or Bordeaux to score a decent local glass. A quick search reveals vineyards in every state, even Alaska and Kansas. Now you have an excuse to explore your local community, experiment with unfamiliar flavors and work up a buzz at the same time. If you live west of the Mississippi and must buy out of state, look for wines from California and Oregon. French imports have the lowest carbon footprint for East Coasters.

Organic wine means no pesticides, herbicides or insecticides on the land, seeping into groundwater or sloshing in your glass, which is always a good thing. Biodynamic growers take sustainability one step further, employing age-old farming techniques that even take sun and moon cycles into account.

In case you're thinking "wine is fine but liquor is quicker," look for choices like organic mixers and local spirits (in their grain state, Simran likes Most Wanted grain alcohol and Sarah favors Honor Vodka).

We all know where this drinking can lead. Stay tuned for our next posts on greening your sex life, from condoms to candles.

This post was written by Simran Sethi and Sarah Smarsh. Thanks to the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Merete Mueller for writing assistance and Rune T for the image.

 

 

Comments

[mhavener]

As a fellow Kansan, I'm with you on Most Wanted and Honor, but I did some tasting at a local winery from which I brought home a bottle only to be embarrassed after I served it and watched the faces of my guests pucker. Maybe that has something to do with the hold over laws from prohibition that make it difficult for vintners to hone their craft here?

[feistynyc]

great post. very interesting, but but confusing, too. on the transport front, isn't more than all about how far my bev was shipped. what about how it was shipped? big container ships are more efficient than trucks, aren't they? and where does the wine come into the country? it's all well and good to say that if you live in new york a french wine might be more energy efficient than a california wine. but not if the importer is in california, where it has to go first.

and how many aluminum screw tops get recycled? a scant few i'd guess. in that case which is better?

[Sarah Smarsh - Huffpost Blogger]

darthdarcy, you raise a good point re: re-using wine bottles. I have a neighbor whose wine bottle pile is most impressive by trash day... He doesn't recycle, and I cringe every time I see it (both due to the landfill implications and his obvious habit). Would be cool if local wineries would embrace the utter mis-matched-ness of sanitizing and re-using bottles dumped off by the public in exchange for 10 cents each, etc. Maybe this would be impractical or impossible. Just brainstorming here.

[darthdarcy]

I've helped for years now to make up to 300 gallons of top top quality wine here in the Hudson Valley, with no sulphites or preservatives in it from the top quality grapes from Europe mostly Italy and also California­..

It's not as difficult as you'd think but it does take a fairly large initial investment, the oak barrels have gotten rather expensive the best are from France over $400 per barrel of 60 gallons per barrel, but we use recycled bottles we get from a few of the best restaurants and apply new corks after sanitizing them of course..

[bluprojekt]

I live in the Pinot growing region of Oregon and there are at least a dozen wineries within 30 minutes of my driveway - looks like I'm going locavore for my wine ;)

"Now Go Away or I Will Taunt You a Second Time."

[KillTheMessenger]

If you put some fruit juice, corn syrup and a bit of alcohol into a bottle with a screw top, put a good looking label on it and sell it for $2.99, most Americans won't even notice the difference to a real wine.

[elephantwaylon]

Wow--like your chopsticks blog, this article will actually change how I spend my $$$ for the rest of my life. Hadn't somehow really thought about all that transport my French or Spanish etc wine was requiring. We have some great vineyards in Colorado, suprisingly—I'll make it a point to buy local or at least US in the future. I'm going to stick with cork tops, call me old fashioned—our local thekitchencafe.com and maybe other restaurants already recycles their hundreds and hundreds of weekly corks, probably through that Yemm & Hart link you mentioned, above. Thanks for the post, Sarah and Simran--and cheers!

[Rhenatan]

We've got apple wines and strawberry wines up here in Minnesota (along with a few grape wines). It's maybe not as sophisticated as the wines from elsewhere, but the terroir is solidly middle America.

[Simran Sethi - Huffpost Blogger]

That sounds terribly sophisticated AND delicious. And yes, I also a fan of my local winery's peach wine. Who says we have to stay with grape?