Sustainable Wine?

The concept of a “sustainable winery” is difficult to grasp. With countless interpretations, sustainability [suh-stey-nuh-bil-i-tee] as a noun / environmental quality / goal is extremely subjective. Everyone seems to have an opinion on what is and isn’t harmful to the environment, depletes natural resources and supports long-term ecological balance.

Sustainable Wine = Green Wine = Eco-Friendly Wine = ?

Although the importance of “going-green” or “becoming sustainable” is reaching a record-level high in terms of public perception as being important and the number of green products in the marketplace today, the follow-up calls to action to “go green” aren’t so clear. I’d say that almost every industry, if not all, are going through a green/sustainable/eco-friendly identity crisis.

The wine industry is no exception.

There are several components that classify a wine as bring green. Organic, Biodynamic and Carbon Neutral each play a role in identifying a wine as having sustainable qualities. Learning from national and regional sustainable wine certification programs from around the world, Etica Wines has broken down the mission and goal of what becoming sustainable means from an environmental and socioeconomic standpoint. We developed a definition for sustainable wineries and have broken down the efforts wineries can employ to help them reach the goal of sustainability. Our icon system helps consumers learn about the ways a winery is working towards sustainability.

While there is no one absolute definition for sustainability, we like the way the US Environmental Protection Agency defines it.

Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations. Sustainability is important to making sure that we have and will continue to have, the water, materials, and resources to protect human health and our environment.

Extending the EPA’s definition to the wine industry, Etica Wines defines a Sustainable Winery as: A winery taking initiatives toward protecting natural resources including biodiversity and ecosystems that exist in nature while also protecting the health and well-being of humans.

The following initiatives help wineries work toward becoming more sustainable. In order to be listed on the Etica Wines website, wineries must be actively engaged in sustainable initiatives. 

Biodynamic wine grape farming and winemaking.

Download Halloween Wine Labels

There are a ton of great wine cocktail recipes from Drinks Mixer but here are a few of my fall favorites. They are perfect for a late-October shindig.

China Bend Winery

China Bend Vineyards makes wine with the notion that wine is food. I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am about this statement. We ingest what we consume and I am so pleased that China Bend Vineyards comes out and says it!

China Bend’s background includes growing and processing certified organic foods and believe organic farming methods not only create the most nutritious and flavorful foods but are produced in the most natural and simple ways. This philosophy is applied to growing grapes and at their winery. The result are vegan wines made from organically grown grapes that are perhaps the ultimate expression of health food.

Believing that the quality of the wine tarts in the vineyard, China Bend takes special care in nurturing its fresh commodity: grapes. Fresh grapes are among the most nutritionally complete of fruits, loaded with vitamins, minerals, easily digestible sugars, and endowed with cleansing curative properties. During fermentation the yeasts thoroughly extract and convert these nutrients making them even more available to our digestive system. Winemaking enhances and captures the health giving properties of the grape in an easily storable form.



Food and Wine’s article on Gary and Kit’s “The Ultimate Self-Guided Napa Valley Tour” August 2011, is a great example of how to integrate all that you love into your life while refusing to compromise on ethics. I admire Gary and Kit for creating a life around the things they are most passionate about: cycling, organic farming, wine and each other.

10 Reasons Why Farm to Table Wine Dinners Rock!

Farm to Table Dinners, I like to call them MAGICAL. There’s nothing better then eating fresh, organic, gourmet food and drinking organic wine at a long table filled with strangers outside on a farm. The food loving theme, simultaneous oohs and aahs and the clicking of wine glasses, brings everyone together.

Just a note to let you know that we are revamping the website. Apologies for not writing more blogs but we are expanding our website and content to include more food and wine pairings, lots of how-to’s for great entertaining and much more.
Don't' worry, we will be completely committed to sustainable wines - just bringing you a lot more information.

Once upon a dinnertime, a group of friends sat around the table and discussed food, music and wine. They came to the conclusion that music and wine were synchronistic and took turns writing down songs that best represented the wine in hand.

Music to listen to while drinking: