Spittoon: We Spit So You Can Swallow
New Zealand producer Grove Mill has released a carbon neutral wine in the UK; not having seen any other wine claim the honour this could be the first carbon neutral wine for the country.
Grove Mill has worked on regenerating native forests to off-set the emissions made during production. By planting trees in the wildlife sanctuary in Cape Jackson, Marlborough the company will offset 312 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.
From a statement from the Chief Executive, Bob White, it would seem they have taken into account international shipping – one concern raised recently on getting wines from as far away as New Zealand – “by reducing and offsetting our emissions from production and international shipping, they will become the natural choice for people concerned about food miles and global warming”.
Part of their CarboNZero project involved a packaging redesign for the UK and USA that ensured containers bound for these markets will have 10-15% more bottles of wine in them.
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Grove Mill’s current offering – the 2006 sauvignon blanc – I think is an excellent wine. If this move to carbon neutral gets them more publicity and as a result leads more people to discovering what good wines they make, then I think it’s good all round not only for the environment.
It also help me with my conscience. I try not to buy too may foodstuffs out of season that have been shipped miles but it’s hard some times (think of bananas!). If I can buy a good wine and not feel TOO guilty about the effect of shipping it thousands of miles then I’ll enjoy it even more.
There is a New Zealand trade tasting this week; I will endeavour to have a slurp of the Grove Mill range as it has been an age since I last tried them.
While I agree on the airmiles thing I also believe we have an obligation to support the poorer producers around the world – those who provide our sugar, bananas, coffee etc etc which is just as important as reducing packaging, buying locally produced, seasonal foods. See http://thefoodielist.co.uk/wp/?p=63
Did you get a chance to try the Grove Mill? Were there any other Kiwi wines you were impressed with?
I did indeed sample a few from Grove Mill and plenty more too – notes to come but am falling behind a little as I still have notes from a pre-Christmas Bordeaux trip to add.