How to be an eco-conscious wine consumer

Our purchasing decisions sometimes do go beyond what's in the glass

There should be cover crops between the rows …

Solar panels on our homes. Rainscapes in our yards. Permeable driveways to capture runoff into the groundwater. Hybrid or electric cars to reduce emissions. Paper over plastic. Organic produce, locally raised meat: Many of our decisions and purchases are influenced by a desire to reduce our environmental impact.

Wine is no different. Choices we make in our purchases can lessen our environmental footprint, however incrementally. More importantly, they can influence the wine community to reduce its carbon emissions and implement changes to help mitigate the effects of climate change.

Today is Earth Day. It’s a good time to reflect on our choices and how they impact our environment. We can dismiss it all by saying, “What matters is the quality of the wine in the glass,” but is that really all that matters? And if we believe the standard trope that “wine is made in the vineyard,” shouldn’t we care how that vineyard is farmed?

Look for organic or sustainable certifications

Yes, there is greenwashing, especially with wines marketed as “clean” or “better for you.” Yes, certifications — sustainable, organic, biodynamic and others — are confusing and often controversial. Rival organizations and convoluted government regulations can have us raising our hands in surrender. “Made with organic grapes” vs. “organic wine” vs. “biodynamic”? LIVE sustainable or Sustainability in Practice (SIP)? Lodi Rules or Napa Green? There’s a lot to parse out there, and you can dive down any of these rabbit holes to suss out the nuances. But you don’t have to.

Certifications represent accountability. They tell us that a winery has agreed to follow certain standards and be evaluated by a third-party organization. That’s an extra step of transparency that we should respect.

Some certifications are not for wine only, but add a social component. Certified B Corp or Regenerative Organic Certification include evaluations of how companies treat their employees and communities.

Favor small, family-owned wineries and importers or distributors

Families tend to be more concerned about their environmental legacies than corporations. The current generation of winemakers in Europe has largely rejected “conventional” farming, which uses industrial fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, for a more environmentally healthy approach. (See certifications, above.)

Small, local, independent importers often seek out these wineries because they produce distinctive, exciting wines. Our purchases not only can support these small family businesses here and abroad, but may also help fight poverty or social injustice overseas, such as with selections from Go There Wines.

The same is true in the United States: Small wineries make distinctive, often exciting wines by working to preserve heritage vineyards or old grape varieties. These wines may be hard to find or be sold only online, but they are worth seeking out. Buying online and having a few bottles shipped to your house probably has a higher carbon impact than traditional distribution — another reason to favor wineries using lighter bottles.

Shun heavy bottles

You’ve seen those trophy bottles, some so fat you need both hands to pour. They look impressive on a shelf or on your dinner table. They look expensive and exclusive.

Yet bottles, from their energy-intensive production through shipping (empty and full), account for the single biggest chunk of a winery’s carbon footprint. We know this in part because certifications such as B Corp and Regenerative Organic require a carbon footprint assessment. Yet the industry continues to blame us, consumers, believing we equate heavy bottles with quality. That is nonsense.

The industry is moving to lighter packaging. In the several years listed bottle weights in my reviews in The Washington Post, the number of bottles I rate as “heavy” (over 625 grams) has dwindled, with most rating as “light” (under 500 grams). Market forces are helping: Monopolistic regulators in Canada and Sweden, for example, are requiring wineries to use lighter bottles on wines sold in those countries.¹ We need to keep up the pressure.

Be open to alternative packaging

We are seeing more wines bottled in clear glass (easier to recycle) and without foil or plastic capsules over the neck of the bottle (wasteful and pointless). Cans offer convenience as well as easy recycling. Better-quality wines are sold in the 3-liter bag-in-box format, which, despite the plastic bag, has a lower carbon footprint than the four bottles needed for the same amount of wine. Some wineries have begun using aluminum or even paper bottles, which are light and recyclable.

Boxed wine is a good option for restaurant by-the-glass programs. In Hawaii, chef Peter Merriman is using high-end boxed wines at his four Merriman’s Hawaii restaurants and six outlets of his Handcrafted Restaurants group. He estimates that switching to boxed wines will reduce the carbon footprint of his restaurants by as much as 50 percent or more, just by saving on transport and recycling of glass. He partnered with Matthiasson and Frog’s Leap in Napa, Obsidian Wine Co. in Sonoma, Melville in Santa Barbara and Linne Calodo in Paso Robles for the program.

Recycle!

This should be second nature by now, but in many localities, recycling is not as simple or as easy as it should be. We think of glass as reusable, but for many counties and municipalities, recycling glass simply isn’t profitable. Some producers are experimenting with returnable bottles, but that works best with wines purchased and consumed near the source.

Drink local

By buying from local wineries — wherever you may be — you can often support small family businesses that take care of their land. When you purchase wine at a winery — in bottle, box or growler — you are reducing the cost and carbon footprint of shipping it to far-off markets. Buying local also gives you a personal connection to the vineyard, the vintner and the environment that you can’t experience in a store.

There’s an adage in this business that the package sells the first bottle, and the wine sells the second. There’s also a belief that a winemaker who takes care of the land, treats employees fairly and cares about more than just profits is going to make a good product. Considering these factors may help guide you toward better-quality wines that entice you to buy a second bottle, and maybe even a third.

None of these decisions we make to be eco-aware wine consumers will stop climate change. But, like the small steps we take to improve our individual environments, they can add up to a better world.

(This article is based on one posted on The Washington Post website on October 10, 2024.)

1. Yes, I’m aware of the irony that I’m praising monopolistic markets for pressuring wineries to lighten their bottles despite my advocacy elsewhere for free trade in wine (and other products).