Wine Carbon Study Says East Coasters Should Drink French
by Mairi Beautyman, Berlin, Germany 
on 11. 6.07
A new study analyzing transportation methods including container ships, trucks, and planes suggests East Coasters should take home the bottle from Bordeaux--not the Napa Valley tipple. Using an imaginary line running down Ohio, wine blogger Tyler Colman, Ph.D. A.K.A. Dr. Vino and sustainability metrics specialist Pablo Paster examined the carbon footprint of wine.
While not specifically a life cycle inventory (LCI), which gives us the green lowdown on energy consumption, solid waste generation, atmospheric emissions, and waterborne emissions, the study offers an in-depth look at greenhouse gas emissions from wine production and distribution.
The carbon intensity of several different wines (normalized to the 750 ml
bottle, grams of CO2/tkm)
Notable findings include:
• Organic does not mean less carbon
• Bigger is better: Go for the magnum, not the half bottle
• Tetra-Pak or bag-in-a-box is better than glass (read a full study on this here)
Colman and Paster acknowledge quality is naturally a factor for those who don't have world-renowned vineyards nearby:
"While “drink locally” is one finding that may not be problematic for residents of California or Bordeaux, it may give New Yorkers or Miamians pause.
but say environmentally-conscious transportation can make all the difference:
"However, not all miles are the same, since shipping is better than trucking, which in turn is better than air freight, and packaging matters too. As a result, of our three bottles, despite coming from half-way around the world, consuming a glass of wine from a magnum of Yellow Tail has a third less carbon emissions per once than a cult winery from Napa. "
Read the summary, or a full report is online. (pdf) ::Dr Vino via Tips@TreeHugger.com
Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!
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People on the East Coast shouldn't forget there are plenty of wineries in their own backyard from Virginia to Massachusetts. In fact, there is at least one winery in every state-Alaska included.
Here here anonymous! This weekend we enjoyed a bottle of wine produced less than 10 miles away - and this is northern Vermont.
Or, they could just avoid drinking wine altogether. That would be even more friendly to the environment!
"While “drink locally” is one finding that may not be problematic for residents of California or Bordeaux, it may give New Yorkers or Miamians pause."
Actually, New York is full of wineries! I'm not a big fan of NY wines myself, but...
http://www.newyorkwines.org/
I love my 6 buck Australian skunk extract. How is it that things coming from the furthest away ca be the cheapest?
Don't forget about the international award winning wines from the Niagara Region fruit belt on the Canadian side of the border. Wine is big business here, with household names such as Dan Aykroyd and Wayne Gretzky taking ownership of wineries in the area.
Trucks, planes, ships..........what about trains?
"Tetra-Pak or bag-in-a-box is better than glass"
Yipes, that's a broad statement. I've read the "full study" but it seemed to be half full, or half emnpty, depending on how you look at it. The extensive report is a very in-depth study, but is limited to current mainstream packaging processes. If we change nothing about the way we live as consumers, the box beats the bottle in terms of energy. But if we do not improve our ways, there isn't any point in worrying about which is the lesser evil. As others pointed out on TH's article (link above), bottles can be re-used many times before recycling them. I re-use my glass water bottle over a thousand times a year. My glass milk bottles from Straus Family Creamery are used an average of 7 times, and are made partially from recycled glass to begin with. I'm sticking with glass, and keeping it local.
Thank you to all that commented above! This study clearly illustrates a couple of big problems with "measuring green".
The first is the false choice. Napa and France are not the only two options, as most of the comments noted. Drink local. It may not be wine, but it may be delicious.
The second is the tetra-pak crap. Tetra-paks are seldom recylable, as they are a seven-layer mix of aluminum, plastic and paper. This is what William McDonough calls "a monstrous hybrid". So the Life Cycle Analysis numbers, which show Tetra-paks being less damaging than bottles, are fundamentally flawed. There can be no accurate comparison between the impact of recyclables and non-recyclables. We may assign some value to a tetra-pak, but our children may assign a very different value.
Bottles can be re-used dozens of times, as the thriving beer bottle reuse industry shows. Mark my words, there will soon be a winery that goes green by making a big deal out of refilling mismatched bottles.
Please do not ever use tetra-paks. Drink local, from bottles.
the renowned Icewine comes from the area of lake ontario. it is rediculously delicious.
One might also take pause and consider the agricultural practices involved (i.e. a huge mechanized operation like Fred Franzia's Bronco Wine, producer of Charles Shaw, versus a small organically-farmed estate), as well as labor laws concerning treatment of farm workers.
How can you forget about Long Island wines? There are many really great ones. I just had an incredible Riesling from Vineyard 48 a couple of weeks ago at a restaurant in Greenport, NY that focuses on local foods.
How can you forget about Long Island wines? There are many really great ones. I just had an incredible Riesling from Vineyard 48 a couple of weeks ago at a restaurant in Greenport, NY that focuses on local foods.
Interesting article and commentary. Just wanted to add that wine drinkers that wish to have wine with a lower carbon footprint should consider making their own wine. No vineyard required, if you live in an area unsuitable for growing grapes just go to a winemaking supplier and you can purchase everything from fresh juice to concentrated bag in a box kits of premium quality and make your own wine, taxfree for $1-$3 a bottle. Winemaking is really not difficult at all and easy to learn. The most important factor is to allow sufficient time for it to age in a cool dark room. A minimum of 3 months is usually needed and at least a year is sure to make you smile. The wine kit packaging is recyclable and reusable. The bottles are reused from the commercial wine industry and last almost forever. If I could I would invite you all over to my house for a wine tasting. You bring your favorite wine and we will blind taste test them along with the many wines in my collection. I am quite confident that my wines will measure up easily against anything in the $10-15 a bottle range. Homemade wines do not taste amaturish at all. I have a wide selection of red, white, dry, sweet, light, full bodied, and ice wines. So if you are tired of paying too much for wines of unknown or dubious quality, invest in your own wine cellar and enjoy.