While most of the attention regarding sustainability in the wine world understandably has been on the vineyard, many also recognize the importance of practices in the winery – winemaking, related production processes, packaging, distribution, and employee relations.
The industry still has a way to go but is showing progress. There has been extensive adoption of winemaking practices focused on eliminating or significantly minimizing use of chemicals and other additions (like sulfites, coloring, acids, commercial yeast).
More attention is being paid to building materials and construction, efforts to conserve energy and water, and reduce use of fossil fuels. Reuse and recycling, including barrels and shipping materials is becoming more common.
But working conditions and treatment for vineyard workers demand even more attention as labor abuse is still a problem in the industry. Just within the last few years, there have been high profile exploitation scandals in Puglia, Champagne, South Africa and California.
Still improving worker relations – including good benefits (health care, pensions, company-paid education, employee development, safety programs, fair compensation, and DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) is not just a fad or green washing. Respect for the contributions of every employee is becoming a hallmark.
Lately, there has been a seemingly sudden interest in “decarbonizing” packaging and transport, which contributes up to 50% of the carbon footprint of a bottle of wine. Bag-in-box wines have been around since the 1970’s but have grown significantly in the last two decades. Canned wines have achieved popularity, too. Now we seem to have crossed a threshold of concerns about bottle weight. Respected wine writers Jancis Robinson (Oxford Companion to Wine), Eric Asimov (New York Times), and Dave McIntyre (Washington Post) have promoted lighter bottle weights. And Karen MacNeil (The Wine Bible) has announced her company “will no longer write about wines that come in heavy luxury glass bottles.” Adding, “(m)aybe wineries continue to think we’ll be (and you’ll be) impressed by big overblown bottles, instead of what really counts – the wine inside. We are NOT impressed.”
If this interests you, you have a chance to sample numerous examples of sustainably produced wines at the annual Wine Spectator Grand Tour, which for the first time will be in Denver at the Sheraton Downtown Hotel, Saturday, May 11. The Grand Tour is known for bringing some of the best wines from around the world to its events. Attendees will have the opportunity to taste over 230 wines.
Among them you will find leaders in sustainability such as Archery Summit, Chappellet, Domaine Bousquet, Hamel Family, Kendall-Jackson, Masciarelli, Numanthia, Ponzi, Résonance, Rodney Strong, Seghesio, Seña, Three Sticks.
A ticket provides an evening of unlimited tasting and allows attendees to meet and mingle with winemakers from top regions around the world. Check out https://grandtour.winespectator.com/denver.