Earth Day and Wine
Environmental Wine Packaging. Just in time for Earth Day is an article on Eco-Friendly Wine Packaging Options by Kate Burns, about the carbon footprint of different types of wine packaging. Burns refers to a study, Update of wine packaging LCA, done by Gaia Consulting and commissioned by Alko, the national alcohol monopoly of Finland, which found that boxed wine had the least environmental impact with 70 g of CO2e/per litre, compared to 675 g CO2e/l for a traditional glass bottle. A cardboard carton (85 g CO2e/l) and wine pouch (96 g CO2e/l) were the next lowest in impact.
Burns shares some interesting data when it comes to who is leading in alternative packaging formats, such as bag-in-box (BIB) wine:
The Scandinavian market leads when it comes to alternative wine packaging formats. The BIB format holds a 55% market share of total wine sold at the Vinmonopolet in Norway….
The BIB and pouch formats are also commonplace in Europe. In France, BIB represents 44% market share of all wine sold in grocery stores, up 10% between 2020 and 2021.
Burns goes on to talk about the UK, where BIB and wine pouches are the fastest-growing market according to a study by Smurfit Kappa. While Rich Hamblin of More Wine — a bag in box, pouch, and canned wine specialist who focuses on low intervention wines from small sustainably-focused wineries — says that consumers have been seeking out alternative and sustainable wine packaging formats since the pandemic.
To raise more awareness of alternative packaging, Hamblin was one of the founding members of the Wine Traders for Alternative Formats (WTAF), whose mission is to “help reduce the carbon footprint of wine industry through eco-friendly innovations such as alternative format packaging, innovative recycling schemes, sustainably made wines, carbon life-cycle assessments and reforestation schemes.”
Burns ends her article explaining that the North American market is slow to adapt when it comes to wine packaging, but highlights Prince Edward County’s Traynor, who offers wine pouches in two sizes (1.5L and a 187ml single-serve).
Climate-Driven Creative Wines. In the NYT’s Another Variable in the Winemaking Process: Climate Change, Eric Asimov writes about the effect climate change has had on the California wine industry, highlighting urban winery Donkey & Goat, who had to make up for grape shortfalls after the 2021 fires in Northern California.
Fire damage, along with smoke and ash, is devastating to any vineyard and producer. Those wineries owned by billionaires or big corporations have the resources to withstand diminished harvests, or even a year or two with no wine at all. But small businesses like Donkey & Goat now face existential threats each year and wonder if they will be able to make enough wine to cover costs.
Donkey & Goat is a small winery that works with growers who supply their grapes, primarily from organic and biodynamic vineyards. And while D&G’s wines usually highlight specific California appellations/vineyards, many of their 2021 wines were labelled “California,” given they were only able to salvage about 40% of their grapes, the rest lost to fire and smoke damage. Asimov explains that in the past a wine labelled “California” would suggest it was made from inexpensive grapes and be less expensive. And while that’s not the case for D&G’s latest release, winemaker Tracey Rogers Brandt “hopes that what she calls her ‘climate-driven creative wines’ will be recognized as inventive responses to disastrous events and valued accordingly.”
Climate Change and Wine. In 2019, Eric Asimov published a four-part series on winemaking and climate change which is worth a re-read this Earth Day. At the time, Asimov wrote about how “the accelerating effects of climate change are forcing the wine industry, especially those who see wine as an agricultural product rather than an industrial beverage, to take decisive steps to counter or adapt to the shifts.” In a Q&A with Asimov, he encouraged people to “start asking more questions about where their wine comes from, how it’s made, how the grapes are grown and how the producers take climate change into account in their production.”