Over the past couple of months, we’ve been looking into alternative wine packaging. The packaging technologies we’ve investigated are bag in box (BIB), Tetra Pak, and plastic wine bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET).
Interest in alternative packaging increased dramatically last year when the price of oil headed toward $150 per barrel. You might […]

Interest in the environmental impact of the wine industry has been a topic for sometime. Analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of wine suggests that the way wine is packaged, how it transported, and how far it is transported are the major contributors to the overall carbon footprint of a bottle of wine.
Of […]

As the price of oil increased this past year so did interest in finding ways to reduce the cost of transporting wine. Numerous studies have shown that about 50% of the energy and cost of transporting wine in a glass is associated with the bottle.
Recently, we wrote about the appearance of Labouré-Roi’s Beaujolais Nouveau […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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.

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 […]

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 […]