What makes wine (or anything) sustainable?
What makes a wine sustainable?
Many consumers might presume organic farming or low-intervention winemaking to be the answer and, to be fair, it’s a word that has a murky green-ness attached. One is right to be questioning, even cynical, about the word “sustainable” - it’s not a legal term and it’s as susceptible to green washing and marketing abuse as the words “fresh” or “home-made” when it comes to food.
The climate crisis is about urgently reducing the impact of global warming and the only way to achieve this is by reducing carbon emissions. The majority of emissions from the wine industry come from the packaging, namely glass. Glass is extremely heat intensive to produce and to recycle and accounts for about half of all CO2 emissions in the wine industry. One simple, obvious step is to reduce the weight of glass bottles - something which many producers are starting to do, especially for their mainstream or entry-level wines. However it is even more important to break the link between heavy glass bottles and the inherent quality of the product. Until producers also bottle their top cuvées in lighter-weight bottles, the consumer will continue to align a higher quality wine with a heavier bottle weight.
Regenerative agriculture is a new term that has entered the wine lexicon. The concept revolves around the enhancement of soil health and biodiversity, in order to better enable the soil to retain carbon dioxide. This throws the implied benefits of organic (chemical-free) farming or viticulture on its head - in order to control weeds, without the use of herbicide, famers and vintners had been tilling (turning) the soil, thus uprooting weeds. However, tilling releases the CO2 trapped in the soil, thus adding to overall carbon emissions. There are several ways to manage weeds that avoid tilling and the use of artificial chemicals - one being rolling or crushing weeds, which flattens them but keeps the root systems intact. Familia Torres are pioneers of the Regenerative Agriculture movement and it is a new string in their bow to help achieve net zero emissions by 2040.
Water is one of the key considerations when it comes to wine making. Vine-growing consumes a lot of water - in fact, in takes 600 litres of water to make 1 litre of wine and management of water is a vital part of any sustainable philosophy. Recent summers have seen intense heatwaves across the globe and drought is a major concern for all of agriculture. A move to permit irrigation in traditional wine production regions will like be inevitable in the face of global warming and intense heatwaves. Rainwater capture and re-use for winery and irrigation purposes will be essential for the future of food , cereal and vine growing, and installing a pond or reservoir will also encourage biodiversity of plant, insect and animal life.
Sustainability can be defined as a goal or an objective, rather than a means - it’s an ever-evolving journey to do better. Consumers want convenience in their quest for sustainability and the onus is on the wine industry to make it easier to purchase sustainable wine and to spread the message with clarity and consistency.
