26/04/2007

You may not rate a glass of Pinot as top of a list of environmental villains – after all, what can be so damaging about a product made from a natural ingredient? But the next time you compile your wine list, you might want to consider viticulture’s prolific use of pesticides, fertilizers and, in some cases, optical brighteners, not too mention the carbon emissions emitted by shipping it around the world and the energy used to make the glass bottles that contain it.

In this month's 'How to...' tips and advice column for the food and drink industry, we offer you a green wine-drinking guide, which is not about choosing wines that are too young, but keeping an eye on the environment when selecting your favourite bottles – whatever shade of green you choose to be.

….the Pale Green Wine List

Organic & sustainable
A simple way to ease your conscience is to select wines grown without the use of pesticides, fungicides or fertilizers. British organic wines will display the Soil Association logo, while producers in other countries undergo inspection by organizations such as Ecocert (France) and the CCOF (California). Though most supermarkets have now flung themselves firmly onto the organic bandwagon, the best place to find organic wines is on the internet, from mail order companies such as Vintage Roots (vintageroots.co.uk) and Vinceremos.co.uk (vinceremos.co.uk). Viticulture’s other latest buzzword ‘sustainability’ probably has as many definitions as it does letters; nevertheless it too is impacting winemaking from the cellar to the retail counter. Several countries now have ‘Sustainable Winemaking Programmes’, such as South Africa and New Zealand (go to www.nzwine.com/swnz for accredited vineyards), and these encourage winemakers to preserve biodiversity and natural ecosystems. Independent wine merchants such as Tanners are also committed to sustainable viticulture and offer a selection of wines from small family concerns.

Recycle and recycled
Take used bottles to bottle banks and you could be neutralizing the buckets of fuel used in the glass making process (apparently, recycling just two bottles saves enough energy to boil water for five cups of tea). To find your nearest bottle bank log on to recycle-more.com, and don’t forget the corks and screwcaps too. Or, go one step further and use recycled glasses, made by companies such as Energy Wise Recycled Glass (energywiserecycledglass.co.uk) or Ectopia (ectopia.co.uk).

…the Mid-Green Wine List

Buy Biodynamic
Get even more in touch with nature by selecting wines that have been made using the principles of biodynamism. Pioneered by the father of biodynamics, Rudolf Steiner, biodynamic wine growers use homeopathic sprays, herbal preparations and special composts to get the best out of the soil and vine. As Monty Waldin, author of Biodynamic Wine, explains: "While organic farmers concern themselves with the soil and what's going on beneath their feet, biodynamists concern themselves with what's going on above their heads – the sun and the moon and their influence on how plants grow.” Though the biodynamic movement predates organics by some 20 years, it hasn’t managed to grasp the imagination of wine drinkers in the same way, with some branding it “muck and magic”. However, there is a growing band of winemakers across the globe producing good quality wines using these principles – log on to www.festivalwines.co.uk, or look out for the ‘Demeter’ symbol on labels, which signifies that the wine adheres to biodynamic standards.

Buy British
It’s said that £1 spent with a local producer is equivalent to £2.50 to the local economy so, by choosing English and Welsh wines, you will be pumping a hefty amount back into rural economies, as well as reducing food/drink miles. The number of vineyards in Britain reached a high in the 80s with over 400 operating around the country, predominantly in England. Today, although the number of vineyards has declined, the quality has improved and wines of real class are offered up from top names such as Three Choirs, Chapel Down and Nyetimber. The fact that our climate and soil are similar to the Champagne region of France also means that sparkling wine has become something of a diamond in the UK’s wine crown too, and just £8 will buy you a top-notch English fizz.

…for a Seriously Green Wine List

Finding closure
The debate about closures has been raging ever since the re-introduction of screw caps back in the 90s. Screw caps or Stelvin closures avoid nasty little habits like oxidation and cork taint, and clever marketing has led many of us to believe that traditional cork stoppers are un-environmentally friendly. In fact, the opposite is true. The cork forests of Spain and Portugal, from where the majority of the world’s cork is exported, are home to a rich variety of wildlife -– ranking among the top 10 biodiversity hotspots in the world, and a WWF study has shown that falling demand for cork would mean it’s more profitable to destroy the forests and replace them with other, less environmentally friendly forms of agriculture. Added to this, cork stoppers can be composted, and recycled without producing toxic residues. But choosing wine with a cork, instead of a screw cap, could mean missing out on a host of wines from New Zealand, where the majority of vineyards have converted to caps, as well as Australia, Spain, South Africa and South America, so it takes a dedicated eco-wine warrior to make the change.

Salmon-safe
If you really want to up your green credentials then spare a thought for the effects of winemaking on freshwater salmon. Though the relationship may seem a little sketchy, in fact, erosion and run off from hillside vineyards causes silt build up in rivers and streams, which can reduce the ability of salmon to spawn. More than 30 US vineyards are now producing ‘Salmon Safe’ wines that are labelled as such. Log on to www.salmonsafe.org for more information.

Plant a tree
According to food and farming action group Sustain, shipping three bottles of wine from New Zealand involves a journey of approximately 23,000km and emits some 830g of CO2. But you can take a jolly green giant step to counteracting these emissions by planting a tree. You’d need to plant at least one tree a year to counterbalance the carbon emissions of approximately five bottles a week and make your customers' wine drinking carbon neutral.

To read our other How to... advice features for the food and drink trade, click here