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Top Green Wine Tips
- Start with organic ingredients
The first step toward making an organic wine is growing organic grapes—which means no pesticides, chemical sprays, or forced growing processes. The root of all of this is the soil, of course, where animal manure and other natural fertilizers take the place of chemicals, and native predators (instead of pesticides) are allowed to defend the plants against mites and disease. Instead of lethal weed-killers, non-vine plants are allowed to grow around the grape plants—but then are trimmed and allowed to rot back into the earth as more fertilizer. - Follow Mother Nature's lead
The practice of biodynamic growing—developed by Dr. Rudolph Steiner in 1924—takes into account not just what you add (or don't add) to the soil and crops, but also the ways in which ecology ties into the movement of the moon, sun, and planets. Demeter USA—the current certification body for biodynamic farms—explains the process as one that lets the farm be as close as possible to its natural wilderness state; there's as little interruption as possible by humans, leading to a carbon footprint that's a fraction the size of other methods. Planting, sowing, spraying, and fertilizing are also done according to the natural rhythms of light and climate. - Respect the land
Sustainable wineries take steps that go beyond cutting back on paper and recycling glass: their main priority is keeping the land in good enough shape that it can support future generations of viticulture. Along with organic growing procedures, this means fertilizing only when necessary (instead of on a steady schedule); cutting back on erosion by planting cover crops and avoiding tilling; and staying on top of the soil's moisture to avoid over-irrigation. - Pay attention to the process
A vineyard may go to a lot of trouble to grow organic grapes, but that doesn't mean the finished product is organic; a winery that adds sulfites as preservatives can't be labeled organic under the USDA regulations. Watch out for labels that claim their product is "sulfite free"; small levels of sulfites are a natural part of the fermentation process and are unavoidable. - Don't assume it's vegan
Vegan wine sounds like a non-issue: it's made from grapes, so as long as you're not pairing that merlot with a steak, you're in the clear. But according to PETA, filtering the wine—to strain out protein, yeast, cloudiness, and other natural by-products—often means using animal-based fining agents, like egg albumen, gelatin, isinglass from fish bladder, and bone marrow. Vegan wines, on the other hand, use carbon, limestone, silica gel, and other non-animal products for equally smooth end results. - Check for certification
To be really sure you're popping open a bottle that lines up with your ecological morals, scan the label. Note the difference between "organic"—which means the wine is made with organic grapes and no added sulfites—and "made from organically grown grapes" (which means only the former is true). Other certification bodies—like French groups ECOCERT and BIOFRANC—govern wines from other countries. And an increasing number of wineries in Oregon are certified as sustainable by LIVE (Low Impact Viticulture and Enology), which grades growers on their plant protection, monitoring, and biodiversity methods. - Get out your map
Whether you're eyeing up the organic or biodynamic offerings at the wine store, remember: the benefits of eating locally apply to drinking locally, too. Supporting a local vineyard may be nearly impossible for folks who don't live in wine-growing regions, but on the West and East Coast, it might be just as green to choose a cabernet or pinot grigio that came from within 100 miles of your home. Smaller wineries tend to have smaller carbon footprints, too—and just imagine the carbon offsets you'd have to purchase to break even on that South African chardonnay. - Think of the bigger picture
A lot of energy goes into keeping a vineyard up and running—especially if you're looking at a wine from a region not native to grapes. The American Association of Wine Economists publication on wine's carbon footprint (pdf) shows that organic farms produce less greenhouse gas than their eco-harsh counterparts; though not by much, every little bit helps. And for U.S. wine drinkers, there's a sort of Mason-Dixon line that starts at the top of Ohio and runs through Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana before ending on the west coast of Texas: west of the line, it's more energy efficient to get your wine from California; east of the division, stick with France (or, even better: New York). - Consider the bottle (or box)
Less packaging means less waste on the consumer's end, but also more efficient shipping: Magnums are better than regular or half-sized bottles, since there's a higher wine-to-glass ratio, and shipping wine in bulk to be bottled closer to the distributor cuts the carbon footprint even more. Tetrapaks like those used by French Rabbit are 100 percent recyclable and reduce packaging by 90 percent-and keep wine sheltered from the air long enough to have a shelf life competitive with screw tops. (Next up: an aluminum bottle that turns blue when properly chilled). - Support green wineries
Becoming an organic producer comes with plenty of hard work, both from the costs and time involved. Even wineries that aren't bottling an organic product can green their operations by sterilizing barrels with ozone systems instead of chemicals, reducing water waste during cleaning, using vacuum pumps during bottling, installing solar panels, and converting unusable wine into vinegar. California's Bay Area Green Business Program offers a list of all wineries that are reducing their consumption and energy use.
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