Wine used to be reserved for special occasions and the elite. Now brand marketing geared towards novice drinkers and a wider variety of wines has attracted an entirely new and much sought-after 21-year to 30-year old age group known as the Millennials.

This new interest has helped wine sales to steadily increase over the past 13 years. In 2004, wine consumption came to about 2.3 gallons per person, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

All of this wine drinking comes at a significant price to the environment. The planting and cultivating of grapes often requires insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and fertilizers that can pollute water, air and soil. And wine packaging—typically glass bottles—can also leave a significant environmental footprint.

Almost 13 million tons of glass waste was generated in 2005, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Some of this is wine bottle waste.
Grape production and containers are a necessary part of winemaking. So how can eco-conscious wine drinkers make their favorite drink more environmentally friendly?

Environmentalists in the past focused on the cork versus screw cap. That debate is old, weathered, and, quite frankly, insignificant. Corks require wood, screw tops require aluminum. Either option requires resources. Enough said. When it comes to finding great wine that’s good to the earth, consumers have options.

(Organic) Seal of Approval

Over the past few years, consumers demanded organic options for manufactured goods. The term “organic” can be found on just about anything. Wine is certainly no different.

U.S. sales of certified organic wine and those made with organic grapes hit $80 million last year, according to the Organic Trade Association. And, wine enthusiasts buy nearly twice as much organic wine today as they did in 2003.

Matt Tyler, a campaigner for the Organic Consumers Association, a non-profit organization campaigning for health, justice and sustainability, said the increased sales in organic wine is probably due as much to health as environmental reasons. “Studies show that the nutritional quality in organic wine is better in general because there’s better soil fertility, which increases micronutrients in the soil,” said Tyler. He explained that the tendency of non-organic farmers to use artificial ammonia fertilizers—which give plants a quick burst of nitrogen—burns out organic matter in the soil over time, decreasing its nutrient content.

“There’s a higher probability that the organic wine will have more flavanoids and phenols (positive attributes) in the wine because the organic grower is adding micro-nutrients throughout the process without taking shortcuts with artificial fertilizers,” Tyler said.

For a wine to be certified organic by the United States Department of Agriculture, it needs to be made of organically grown ingredients—meaning no pesticides can be used—, have an ingredient statement on the label and provide information about the certifying agency. To find a wine that is certified organic, look for the USDA seal on the wine bottle or box.

Using fewer fertilizers and pesticides is all fine and well, but what about water conservation, energy efficiency and ecosystem management?

Sustainable wine-production—practices that take into account all environmental effects of wine production—is a new phenomenon exploding across the country.

Sustainable Wine Production

Sustainable wine production has been on the minds of many California winegrowers lately, due to the launching of the California Sustainable Winegrowing Program by the Wine Institute and the California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG). The program, launched in 2002, was created to help California earn a reputation as the world leader in environmentally sustainable winegrowing practices.

The program includes workshops designed to establish voluntary high standards of sustainable practices. It provides wine growers and makers with information and tools to increase sustainable practices.

“Over the past few years, it’s been getting harder and harder to farm in California because of the population increase and strain on natural resources,” said Gladys Horiuchi, communications manager at the Wine Institute. “If you want to survive in California, you have to do these practices anyway.”

Horiuchi said that sustainable growing is a more holistic approach to wine production. “Sustainable growing means taking care of the entire surrounding environment, not just limiting pesticides for three years,” she said.

Sustainable practices such as planting cover crops, using solar power or other alternative energy, harvesting at night to decrease the amount of energy needed to cool the grapes, using recycled bottles and soy-based inks for labels and using pulp instead of Styrofoam in shippers are all encouraged.

The program has found wide success among growers in California. More than 1,100 vineyards and wineries in the program have evaluated their sustainable practices for 33 percent of California’s 552,000 total wine grape acres, according to a 2006 report. That includes 53 percent of the state’s total annual wine production of 273 million cases.

“Many people are doing this because economically it makes sense,” said Horiuchi.

Though certification for sustainable winegrowing is not yet available, Horiuchi said that people in the industry are working hard to change that. “We’re hoping that there will be a label made available within the next couple of years,” she said.

But consumers don’t need a label to support sustainable practices. Winegrowers who have participated in the program can be found at sustainablewinegrowing.org.

Think Outside the Bottle

Yet another option consumers should consider when looking for an eco-friendly wine option is boxed wine.

Face it: Glass bottles only made sense when wine was opened for celebrations and romantic dinners. Now that good quality wine can be found at a reasonable price, merlots, zinfandels and chardonnays are popping up in picnic baskets, on beaches and at the family dinner table. These new settings create a need for durable and transportable beverage containers like boxes and even plastic bottles.

Companies like Three Thieves Bandit, an American wine brand with an environmental conscience, are launching more portable—and more eco-friendly—wine containers. The containers are made of paper, a renewable resource. And they are much lighter than glass, which means that, pound for pound, more wine can be shipped or stored.

In 2006, Three Thieves launched a 250 ml (eight fluid ounces) container that’s made with 70 percent paper. These juice box-like containers are designed to be easy to store, easy to carry, easy to recycle and easy on the environment.

“Over the past few years there’s been an awakening among consumers that what we choose to buy can limit our environmental impact,” said Charles Bieler, one of the original owners of Three Thieves.

As the popularity for boxed wine increases, retail stores are also making room for the eco-friendly packages, and in some cases are starting their own brands. Just recently Target began selling its own brand of wine cubes, eco-friendly packs constructed of durable, renewable resource materials. The 3-liter wine cube holds the equivalent of four bottles of wine while the 1.5-liter wine cube holds the equivalent of two bottles of wine.

Clearly, wine is set to go green. Whether it’s organic, sustainable-grown or in an eco-friendly package, there are now a variety of options for drinking green.