01454 313 300

Join Our Mailing List:

Newsletter Archive:

See our selection of carbon neutral wines

carbon footprints

Our climate does seem to be changing (see Climate change) and the majority of opinion now believes the cause is man-made and not just a natural phenomenon. As part of reducing greenhouse gases, in our view reducing carbon emissions can only be a good thing.

The food miles debate

Researchers have found that less energy is spent transporting food than in producing it - only around 2% of the environmental impact of food comes from transporting it from farm to shop. However for wine it could be as much as 34%, depending on the distance and method of travel.

Within the wine industry, there is an initiative led by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) to encourage bulk shipments of wine from eg. Australia where it is estimated there would be a 40% carbon emission saving compared to bottling at source. This can be suitable for large volume branded wines, but is not appropriate for smaller production quality wines.

It also seems that the distance travelled may not be as important as the transportation method. Nigel Greening of Felton Road Vineyard in New Zealand has calculated that shipping a case of his wine by container vessel to London uses 4.048kg of CO2 which is equivalent to 1,150km by truck, giving a bottle a 337g carbon count.

That could mean it's better to buy wine from New Zealand than it is from southern France, Italy or Spain where it comes by truck to the UK. He maintains more carbon could actually be used on a six-mile car journey to a supermarket than through a case by container vessel from New Zealand! This area is under-researched and more reliable data is needed.

Our own research based on WRAP's figures does bear this out. A bottle of wine from Chile, shipped by sea container from Valparaiso to Felixstowe and then by road to Bristol uses about 318g of CO2. But this pales into insignificance when you see that an average car emits 170g of CO2 for every kilometre you drive. So if you want to reduce your carbon footprint it is more important to drink organic (and use your car less) than to avoid buying wine from Australia, New Zealand and Chile.

See our selection of local english wines

Local English wines

Eating local produce does play a part in reducing carbon footprints and we have included English wine as 'locally produced' in our ethical criteria.

We believe in supporting local business and we use a local packaging company, storage warehouse, website designer. Many of our hamper ingredients are local too, for example our marmalade is made in Stroud and our soft drinks in Devon. It's nice to do business with people face to face and it makes good business sense too.

Ecological footprints

A flexitank

The focus has changed from food miles to carbon or ecological footprints. According to a report carried out by Cardiff University in 2005, food and drink accounts for nearly a quarter of Cardiff's ecological footprint (a measure of total environmental impact expressed as global hectares per capita) and is the largest single component, ahead of energy and travel. This is because of the quantity of food and drink that is consumed and the fact that much has been grown or reared in an intensive manner and then manufactured or processed in some way. Food waste amounts to nearly 100kg per resident per year. All in all this results in large amounts of energy.

The study revealed that the food items with the greatest overall ecological impact (production and transportation combined per 50kg) are beef, butter, cheese, fish, lamb, cream, chocolate, coffee and ice cream. To put alcoholic beverages into context: beef measures 0.787 gha/cap, ice cream 0.214, spirits 0.203, wine 0.109 and beer 0.023.

Easier to grasp is the fact that organic food is less energy intensive to produce than conventional food. A 5% increase in consumption of organic food would result in a 2% decrease in Cardiff's total food ecological footprint. An Italian study has suggested that an organic wine's carbon footprint is half that of a conventional wine because fewer chemicals are used (more research is needed).

To sum up, a New Zealand winemaker, Seresin's Colin Ross has said, "Organics is the single biggest thing a farmer can do to help combat global warming. It's quicker than planting trees, and better than buying carbon credits."

Useful Links:

(Ethical Fine Wines cannot be responsible for the content of external sites)

Carbon Neutral

A few wineries are now becoming 'carbon neutral'. This means calculating what your emissions are first of all, then reducing them where possible, purchasing power from renewable sources, setting aside land or planting trees and off-setting the rest (buying carbon credits).

Some 'bio-climatic' wineries are also being built using natural materials, natural ventilation cooling, solar panels and water purification and recycling programmes. Bodegas Martinez Laorden in Rioja said their photovoltaic panels have reduced their energy bill by around 35% and that only 6-7 litres of water are used to produce a litre of wine as opposed to 11 litres normally.

Useful Links:

(Ethical Fine Wines cannot be responsible for the content of external sites)

wines of the month

2006 Julien Schaal Merlot / Petit Verdot, Western Cape, South Africa red Mouthwatering Merlot fruit with notes of plum and cherry and lovely length £10.49 Ethical Principles Sustainable viticulture

2008 Adobe Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon, Colchagua, Chile - organic wine red Great value, blackcurranty Cabernet with mellow tannins from biodynamic producer £7.15 Certified Organic grapes Biodynamic practice