Horses ploughing on Symington’s Quinta de Cavadinha estate, Douro.
While the colossal changes still required to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions must come from a governmental level, as individuals we’re not powerless to make a difference ourselves. Which wine we choose to drink may seem somewhat trivial in terms of the global challenges we face, but all of the industry’s stakeholders – including wine producers and consumers – have a role to play in tackling the climate crisis.
With this in mind, in next month’s issue of Decanter we’ll be introducing a new column, ‘The ethical drinker’ – a guide to making informed, sustainability-led decisions when buying and drinking wine, and why this matters. Each month, I’ll be talking to leading figures in wine sustainability and offering hints and tips on which wines have genuine green credentials, along with handy explainers of confusing terms around the topic, myth-busters, updates and details of new projects.
We’re starting off with this introductory overview feature, which attempts to unpick the intricacies of sustainability.
More than a buzzword
Although it’s now often used as a catch-all term for doing good for the planet, sustainability was defined in 1987 by the United Nations Brundtland Commission as ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ – the preservation of resources, be they environmental, social or economic, for the future.
Conversations around sustainability in wine have started relatively recently in comparison to many other sectors, but as climate change has brought increasing challenges to wine-growers – including high temperatures, wildfires, severe drought, more frequent and extreme frost and hail, biodiversity loss and soil degradation – research and innovation into how the wine industry can adapt is charging forward. No one is doing everything perfectly, but many are doing at least some things right. Plenty of producers are taking steps to minimise their negative impact on the environment, create safe and valid employment, and adapt to climatic changes in order to ensure economic viability and their livelihoods for the future.
We’ve broken down sustainability in wine into the key issues and highlighted some positive nuggets of progress and change. There are still many questions to be answered and solutions to be found, and often there’s not one right way of doing things. There’s still a lot of grey among the green. Our ‘Sustainability hero’ boxes show people and companies at the forefront of developments.
Sustainability hero
EthicDrinks
Mickaël Alborghetti, EthicDrinks. Credit: EthicDrinks
This new-wave French négociant has an impressive reel of genuine sustainability credentials that have an impact on every aspect of its supply chain. A few key points are: bottling its entire range without capsules; using very lightweight bottles made from recycled glass; labelling with paper from sustainably logged forests and natural glue; avoiding all use of plastic; carbon-neutral certification. Look out for an interview with founder Mickaël Alborghetti in an upcoming column.
The environmental footprint of wine production
Viticulture is heavily reliant on natural resources, making it susceptible to both climate change and environmental degradation. Winemakers know this all too well. I’ve lost count of the number of producers who’ve told me that climate change is their biggest and most concerning challenge.
In February 2024, Spain’s Catalonia region was put under a drought emergency, which ended in June with devastating hailstorms that destroyed hundreds of hectares of vines. Wildfire season in California has reached catastrophic levels of destruction; over the last six years, tens of thousands of hectares have burned, and this year the fires have started much earlier than usual.
Cows graze on the cover crops at Frey Vineyards in Redwood…
Source : https://www.decanter.com.master.public.keystone-prod-eks-euw1.futureplc.engineering/magazine/sustainability-how-green-is-your-wine-536531/
