Sustainable viticulture in Burgundy
With pioneering icons such as Domaine Leflaive and Domaine Pierre Morey who live and breathe biodynamics, Burgundy has long been at the forefront of green viticulture. But in a perfect marketing storm where almost everyone says they’re doing sustainable viticulture, even if they don’t really, how do you separate marketing myth from substantive sustainability?
The greening of the Douro Valley
A decade ago, the Douro vineyards were a brown, bare-earthed environment, where patches of dry, Mediterranean climate-adapted scrubland juxtaposed with bare earth beneath vines. As a result of a growing use of cover crop, the Douro vineyards are greening over, literally and environmentally.
A watershed moment in sustainable global viticulture
As it becomes more recognised that water is the new gold, stewardship programmes for water management are being created to develop systems of sustainable river basin management, considering issues such as water risk, availability, quantity, quality, and fair-share usage.
Sustainability seal for South Africa
The key initiatives, in terms of moving a little further along the path of sustainability in South Africa, are the IPW (Integrated Production of Wine) and BWI (Biodiversity and Wine Initiative), and a new one, SWSA (Sustainable Wine South Africa).
Re-discovering biodiversity
Biodiversity is the latest in a series of buzz-words in the field of sustainability as all agriculturally-based industries address the vagaries and pitfalls of mono-culture. Viticulture is also adapting to the new order.
Lighter Champagne bottles, and biomass potential
The Champenois have officially launched a lighter glass bottle, aimed at cutting carbon emissions. They’ve calculated a reduction from 900 grams per bottle to 835 grams could result in an 8,000 tonne reduction in annual carbon emissions.
Packaging formats, recycling and improving sustainability
Lower carbon emissions can be achieved by taking weight out of packaging, especially where long distances are travelled from point of packaging to destination market. Lighter weight glass, wine in cans, pouches and composite cartons … it’s all up for grabs.
Cork oak forests
The ‘business’ forests of the Mediterranean cork oak landscapes.
The language of green
Carbon footprints, carbon dioxide emissions, food miles, lifecycle analyses, sustainability, and what would be comprehensible on the label?
Follow the yellow brick road? The green grass track?
Across the wine world, different initiatives are evolving, all aimed towards greater sustainability.
