Want sustainable wine? Read this first

We all want to do the right thing by the environment. More than half of us think sustainability is an important factor in our shopping habits, and the same stats show we’re willing to pay more for products that fit the bill, too. The catch? It’s not always that easy.

It would be nice to believe there’s some environmental utopia just over the horizon, all of us holding hands, singing and pouring wine picked indiscriminately off the shelf, safe in the knowledge that everything is made with environmental care. With sneaky greenwashing still an issue (that’s where companies make out like they’re environmentally friendly but aren’t really), we’re not quite at love-in levels of sustainable wine purchasing just yet. 

Instead, if we want to care for the planet while still drinking a lovely pinot noir or sauvignon blanc, we ought to make sure we’re supporting sustainable producers and making our own informed, sustainable choices. With so many different factors affecting sustainability – there’s vineyard practices, transport, packaging, even the type of wine itself – it can be hard to know if we’re doing the right thing. 

With all that in mind, here are a few things to help you make an informed decision when buying that next bottle of wine.

We love when things are made easy. Certifications, logos and trust marks on wine can indicate sustainable or environmental credentials, and there are quite a few to keep an eye out for, including:

• Organic and biodynamic: Organic winemaking is, in the words of Australian Organic, production without the use of “synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or fertilisers” as well as restrictions on the use of certain additives (called ‘inputs’) in the winemaking process. Biodynamic practices take things a little further, requiring quite specific fertiliser and compost preparations which we can go into another day (or read all about it here).
  
  In Australia, there’s actually no legal standard for businesses claiming to be organic. Because of this, it’s best to look for independently certified products, such as those bearing the Australian Organic logo, if you want to ensure you’re buying sustainably.
  
  
• Carbon neutral: Wineries going carbon neutral is a big tick in our books (non-wineries, too). Basically, this involves reducing or offsetting carbon emissions and then getting an independent company to certify it. Look for marks like Climate Active’s carbon neutral certification, though there are a few others on the market, too.
  
  
• Waste/recycling: We’ll talk more about packaging in a sec but, before we do, it’s worth pointing out that packaging disposal comes with its own trust marks. This is important because by reducing waste and recycling effectively, we’re putting less strain on producing new resources, reducing greenhouse gases and more.
  
  Wine comes in all sorts of packaging these days and logos like the Australian Recycling Label (ARL) will give you a good idea of how to best dispose of your empties.
  
  
• Sustainable Winegrowing Australia: This one gets its own dot point because it’s a bit of a catch-all wine sustainability seal. Sustainable Winegrowing Australia is a certification designed just for winegrowers and winemakers, and deals with broad environmental issues, as well as social and economic sustainability. We love to see it.

Well, the good news is that most wine packaging – glass bottles, cardboard boxes – is recyclable and, often, made from already-recycled material (at least in some percentage). If you’re hoping to shop with sustainability in mind, though, there are gains to be made. 

For instance, some producers (like Round Theory) have started using lightweight glass bottles to reduce emissions in transport. In general, traditional glass is energy-intensive to produce, meaning that non-glass alternatives like PET plastic, box/cask wine and aluminium can be lower-carbon options. The bagnum – a big old pouch, essentially – is another option that’s very much worth a look. While not readily recyclable, these long-life bags have a lower carbon footprint than glass. Plus they’re just cool, right?

The idea goes like this: food miles (how far your food – or wine, in this case – travels to get to you) should be reduced because more transport means more emissions. Despite some reasonable cynicism (see Forbes and the Guardian) suggesting that transport emissions are only a small percentage of overall emissions, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that, regardless, we could do well to keep things local. 

What the wine-buying public (hey, that’s you and me) can do here is simple: when shopping for that Friday night bottle, take a look at where the wine comes from. If it’s just down the road, that’s a pretty good indication of low food miles. Every little bit counts, right?

This one mightn’t seem all that obvious at first but, if you’re at all interested in wine sustainability, you’ll end up hearing about it. See, as climate change advances, global temperature averages are rising and dry areas are just getting drier. Outside of halting and reversing that change (which is an all-of-us sort of problem), winemakers have been figuring out ways of adapting to it – like planting heat and drought-tolerant grape varieties.

Producers are increasingly opting for Spanish, Greek and Italian varieties used to spending time in the hot sun – grapes like fiano and assyrtiko that are happy with less irrigation and more rugged conditions. This definitely isn’t to say that we should stop buying or planting pinot noir and chardonnay but, if you’re looking to support less resource-intensive winemaking, these hardy varieties can be a good tip-off. And they are mighty delicious, if you’re not yet acquainted.

File this under ‘research’. We’ve listed this last because it can be the least transparent and, generally, you won’t find much info on the label. You can infer a fair amount if, say, you can also see a biodynamic or carbon neutral certification, but it’s not always obvious from the bottle.

Sustainable Winegrowing Australia states its goals as protecting soil, increasing water efficiency, promoting biodiversity, using less energy, producing less waste and even being better to people along the way. As we mentioned above, you can look for the seal but not every winery is affiliated, so it’s not 100% accurate. 

Really, it’s on each of us to dig a little deeper if we really want to know more about how the wine we drink is being produced. Take the time to research online, go to the winery itself, where possible, and ask questions (or send an email!), keep reading Dan’s Daily, or even talk to your in-store experts and Wine Merchants – there are plenty of ways to find out which wineries are doing more for our planet.