A few days ago, we wrote about our first encounter with plastic wine bottles with a 2008 Beaujolais Nouveau from Labouré-Roi. This winery thinks it’s understood that plastic wine bottles have a lower impact on the Earth than glass ones. But do they? That is, all aesthetic issues aside, is there a real environmental motivation to using plastic wine bottles – do they really reduce the carbon footprint of the wine they hold?

This question leads to more questions. How much carbon dioxide (CO₂) is produced during the manufacturing of each? Clearly, plastic bottles weigh less than their glass counterparts and therefore generate less CO₂ as they are transported, but how much less? And what about disposal? Are both glass and plastic wine bottles recyclable and, if so, how much CO₂ does the recycling process produce? (And as always when recycling comes up, you must ask how likely the bottle is to actually be recycled.)

So when you take all these factors into account, can using plastic wine bottles really help you sleep better at night because you’re helping the Earth? [click to continue…]

With Thanksgiving having just passed by, the wine-drinking world has also seen the release of the 2008 Beaujolais Nouveau wines. Experienced drinkers each have their own take on this well-marketed, commodity wine made from the Gamay varietal. Being an intermediate wine drinker (that’s right – I’m no longer a beginner!) who’s been paying attention to wine for nearly a year, I was anxious to try one of these wines that has the reputation of being more fun than fine.

When I went shopping for one here in my temporary home of Morgantown, WV, the local grocery store had only two available. One of the two was the Labouré-Roi Beaujolais Nouveau 2008 ($11). It was packaged in a plastic bottle with a screw-top, so I just had to pick it up – since one of our main topics is low-impact wine. As a bonus, one tree is planted for every bottle sold of Labouré-Roi Beaujolais Nouveau 2008. [click to continue…]

After reviewing the rules, regulations, and practices for organic wines, biodynamic wines, and natural wines, there are a few interesting and important things I want to share with you.

First, having the word “organic” on a wine label does not tell you much. In fact, there are essentially no organic wines, only “wines made from organic grapes”, which is probably not enough information for concerned shoppers. The words biodynamic and natural offer even less assurances about what is in the bottle along with the wine. If you are looking for a wine without sulfur or wine produced without the use of animal products, there are not many choices and existing labeling regulations do not provide any help in identifying the few bottles of wine that meet these needs. [click to continue…]

The first thing that you have to understand about natural wine is that there is no one “Natural Wine Movement”, no governing or regulatory body, no labeling guidelines, and no consensus. Like beauty, natural is in the eye of the beholder, and in this case, the detractor as well.

I will attempt to provide some clarity to the ongoing discussions, debates, and character assassinations that are taking place in the name of natural wine, but remember that the wine community is still in the process of defining the idea of natural wine, which means things will continue to change. [click to continue…]

I picked up a bottle of Deerfield Ranch Merlot the other day, and I noticed this logo on the wine bottle.

I always thought that biodynamics was just some sort of French organic gardening system similar to biointensive gardening, but there was a lot I did not know. [click to continue…]

Organic, biodynamic, and natural are three adjectives that are being applied to wine these days with increasing frequency. Many wine drinkers may not know what these terms mean or why some people seem to get so worked up over the issues surrounding them.

To try and shed some light on the subject, WineEnabler.com is offering a three part series exploring these compelling and sometimes controversial issues. The first of the three-part series starts with organic wine. [click to continue…]

As environmental researchers, we are interested in both organic and biodynamic approaches to growing grapes and making wines. These movements are leading the wine industry away from a serious addiction to herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides, which is a good thing. However, both organic and biodynamic techniques employ certain historical agricultural practices without much critical analysis. One good example is the use of copper to treat mildew.

Copper has very effective anti-fungal properties. It is used as a biodynamic soil amendment, which has produced some controversy. It seems that anytime metals are applied to something we ultimately eat or drink it makes some folks nervous. In response to concerns expressed by some members of the wine community, Alice Feiring posted an email she received from Nicolas Joly, the famed biodynamist and leader of the Return to Terroir.

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We think to talk about low impact wines correctly, it is important to establish a vocabulary. That may sound too simplistic, but ask two friends what they mean when they say “sustainable” and you will get to different answers. So we’ll start with sustainability.

Sustainability is all the rage now, but things officially started more than 20 years ago. In 1987, the United Nation’s World Commission on the Environment and Development offered up a definition of sustainable development as activities that meet “the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The current definition on Wikipedia defines sustainability as a “characteristic of a process or state that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely.”

The underlying idea is that a sustainable process is one that can be continued over time, for all time. Hmm… that’s a pretty tall order. As a species, we have only been knocking around on the planet for 130,000 years or so, and we do not have many sustainable processes to show for it. In fact, it is not clear we would recognize a sustainable process if we saw one. Can you name one? (If so, we’d love to hear your take on it in the comments.)

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In our current era of pesticides and climate change, words and phrases such as sustainable, organic, biodynamic, salmon-safe, carbon footprint, and the always popular green are being used more often then ever. As wine drinkers, what should our response be to this information?

The wine industry operates in a $21 billion yearly US market, so this is an important question. It’s necessary that we carefully consider any proposed answers as we enter the 21st century, which is increasingly looking like a turning point for our species.

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It is with great interest that we have watched the wine industry begin to explore “green” and “sustainable” practices. WineEnabler.com applauds and supports these efforts. In the coming weeks and months, we will participate in the discussion with the wine community on these topics.

We think it is important to have a clear understanding of the problems we face as we start to propose solutions. There have been some excellent first steps to define the scope of the problem.

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