Q: I like wine, red wine. I am trying to define the greenest wines. I have thought about harvest practices and shipping methods and their impact on the environment. It would be great to get help defining which wines are greener.
Asked by Jorge Tabares, MS ’01, Cypress, Texas
Unfortunately for us vino lovers, wine is not a very green product, no matter what color it is in the glass. Making and shipping wine uses up fossil fuels and vast quantities of water, and often causes runoff of chemicals and sediments into water systems. By the time an average bottle of wine ends up in your hands, it has required about three times its weight in petroleum and 300 times its weight in water to get there. The good news is that with a few simple guidelines, you can reduce the environmental impact of the wine you drink—and still enjoy it.
Some wines are easier on the environment than others. Which wines you consider “greener,” however, will depend on your own definition of “green.” If your top worry is wine growing’s effect on local environments, then look at how the grapes were grown. If you are more concerned about the carbon footprint of your wine, you’ll want to consider how far the wine had to travel from the vineyard to your table, and how it was transported.
On the grape-growing front, the number and variety of catchphrases and certifications on wine labels now can be a bit overwhelming—“certified organic,” “organically grown,” “biodynamic” and so on. See my Nitty-gritty answer for more details, but at their heart, all of these growing practices mean that the winemaker is paying more attention to the health of the local environment. You can’t really go wrong selecting any wines sold with these labels.
Keep in mind, however, that the label may not always bare all when it comes to green growing practices. AJ Ferrari, a wine expert in San Francisco, estimates that “upwards of 30 percent of wine in Europe is organic just because.” If you want to expand beyond the labeled organic category, a rule of thumb is that small- to medium-sized wineries are more likely to practice Earth-friendly viticulture.
When it comes to carbon, your criteria for green selection may be quite different. The single largest portion of the carbon footprint of wine comes from shipping heavy glass bottles, and the wine they contain, around the globe. One way to reduce this carbon cost is to buy bigger, thinner bottles—skip that half bottle and go for the magnum. Or better yet, if you can stand your wine-snob friends snickering: Nothing ships lighter than a box.
The other way to minimize the carbon footprint of your wine is to minimize the distance it has to travel. If wine is grown close to your home it’s a no brainer: Go local.
If your wine is coming from farther away, remember that ships are more fuel-efficient than trucks. For U.S. wine drinkers, there is a sort of Mason-Dixon carbon line running roughly from the west coast of Texas, northeast up to northern Ohio: West of the line, West Coast wines require less gas to get there; east of the line, the “closest” wine, unpatriotically, comes from France.
In Cypress, Texas, you are right on the line, Jorge, so I’d say go for the most colorful label.
Cheers!
Jess McNally plans to receive her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in earth systems in 2010.
