I am not by nature what I would call a great wine drinker, though I do have a slight fondness for claret, to which I was first introduced by a friend at SOF Conferences back in the late 1990s when these were invariably ‘live’ residential events. Each night at dinner we would share a bottle between ourselves or with others. So it was, during the Covid lockdown, living largely alone, that I resorted to an occasional bottle of the same, once or twice a week.
An inveterate hoarder, I still have have the bottles to prove it, all 20 of them on a shelf in the utility room – every one held a mere 250 ml!. A former neighbour across the way, whom I could see through his dining room window, once used to knock back a real bottle every night with his dinner. Some of you will remember TV Chef Keith Floyd perhaps, who would work wineglass in hand (a red wine fan too, as I recall) endearing himself to many of his viewers. Similarly, a colleague of mine once told me that she would regularly make the dinner to the accompaniment of a glass or two. And so it goes on.
Some statistics: Here in the UK, in 2021 49% of adults (aged 16+) drank alcohol on at least one day each week. 57% of men drank at least once a week compared to 43% of women. 8% of men reported drinking almost daily compared to 5% of women. Adults aged between 55 and 74 were the most likely to drink alcohol on at least one day each week whereas adults aged between 16 and 24 were the least likely (59% vs 31%). In 2021, only 21% of adults (aged 16+) did not drink alcohol at all. 18% of men did not drink alcohol compared to 24% of women. Adults aged between 16 and 24 were the most likely not to drink alcohol, whereas adults aged between 55 and 74 were the least likely. The proportion of non-drinkers increased from 16% to 20% between 2011 and 2021. 233 ml of wine was consume red per person each week – 492 ml really since 21% of us were drinking none.
I myself am just at the end of a few days of celebration as a member of the team which on May 2nd produced the first two Green Party councillors in Newcastle upon Tyne. What did we do? We had a glass of Prosecco – but was that Green?
A bit like Greta Thunberg, who in her massive tome tackled the negative environmental impact of almost everything (Sofia 149), and writing as I do under the banner ‘Going Green’, I feel obliged to put a bit of a damper on things again this month.
The occasional glass of wine may do your soul a lot of good, but what about the environment? Is the industry contributing to its own existential crisis? It might not be on your mind as you pull the corkscrew out or hear the glug glug of red or white liquid fill your glass, but the wine industry does itself contribute to the warming of the planet. The two largest global emissions sources in the trade are the glass bottles and packaging that are both difficult to recycle, and the weight of transportation resulting in higher carbon emissions.
Overall, the biggest problem with the wine industry in terms of a large carbon footprint remains the weight of the glass bottles accounting for nearly a third of the wine industry’s carbon emissions. Over 30 billion bottles of wine are manufactured and sent off for purchase annually, and those billions of glass bottles being sent around the world don’t just eat up carbon emissions on their global adventure; it requires an extensive amount of fossil fuels to make those wine bottles in the first place.
Maybe you think that the answer to this problem is simply to recycle the bottles. It is one answer, but think again – let’s take the United States as an example, the country that consumes the most wine globally, where only 25% of glass gets recycled. This means 75% of those heavy glass bottles end up in landfill. That contributes to even more waste and emissions in addition to the carbon footprint left behind from transporting wine.
In addition to this, wine bottles need to be properly padded and packaged to ensure their brittle glass doesn’t break during transportation – this often creates even more excessive waste, plus sometimes that packaging isn’t recyclable, and it too ends up in landfill. I might have taken some comfort from the fact that my own little bottles, which I have yet to recycle of course, were, in the main, plastic ones. But now I read that per litre of content, every plastic bottle produces 11 times more Greenhouse Gas emission, uses 27 times more water, and produces 440 times more plastic pollution than a reusable stainless steel water bottle with a plastic cap.
The way the vineyard land is worked, together with the land-use change brought on by vineyard implementation, can cause disturbances to soil health and biodiversity. The emergence of new pests and diseases and the increasing occurrence of extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, heavy rainfall and possibly hail, also challenge wine production in some regions. In contrast, other areas might benefit from reduced pest and disease pressure. At the more extreme end excessive droughts, wildfires, dry soil, and low reservoir levels reduce yields for wine producers and it isn’t unheard of for entire vintages to be lost in entire regions due to adverse weather events.
So, go red; It is suggested that we might switch the type of wine we drink in order to reduce our carbon footprint. Due to production factors white wine apparently emits more than rosé or red. White wine emits on average 0.92 kg of carbon dioxide emissions per 0.75-litre bottle, whereas both red wine and rosé emit around 0.89 kilograms of carbon dioxide per 0.75-litre bottle. A reduction of 0.03 per bottle doesn’t look much at first sight, but if just half of the 30 billion bottles a year saw a change from white to red wine that would produce a saving of 450 million kg. per annum.
Alternatively, seek out organic wines on the menu, or wines produced by smaller producers – hand-crafted, quality wines made with regenerative viticulture. This ensures that you are purchasing wine from a company that is committed to sustainability and the fight against climate change. Wines made by hand mean less machinery used in production of the wine. Overall, organic wines can lead to a 23% decrease in carbon footprint as opposed to a bottle produced by conventional methods. Independent wine merchants often provide customers with extensive information on the wine growing practices of the products they sell, so when you purchase them, you can be sure it is making a difference. A UK produced wine also cuts down on the costs to the environment of international transport. However, the responsibility of contributing to a more sustainable future for the wine industry isn’t just choosing the appropriate wine. It doesn’t just end when you open the bottle – don’t forget to recycle it!
If the above has all seemed a bit too much to take in, and a bit gloomy and censorious, can I suggest you sit down with a large glass of organically produced red wine to calm the nerves – or better still, a large glass of nice fresh drinking water.