Does our love of wine contribute to climate change?

[Robin Garr]

The New York Times' Eric Asimov offers us a Tuesday Troll, in a good way: What's our responsibility for wine and wineries' impact on climate change, he asks. If you're not blocked by The Times' paywall, it's worth clicking through for the whole story.

How Does Your Love of Wine Contribute to Climate Change?
Consumers don’t have access to much information about how businesses operate, but they can ask questions and focus on one tangible item, the bottle.

The exquisite vulnerability of grapes to nuances of weather makes wine both particularly susceptible to climate change and a harbinger of what’s to come for many other agricultural products.

Do wine consumers have a role in encouraging producers to take stronger steps to combat climate change? Some in the wine industry think they do, particularly by throwing their economic support to companies that are already acting decisively.

[David M. Bueker]

Yeah, ditch the uber-heavy bottles!!

[Robin Garr]

Except for Champagne!

[David M. Bueker]

Well of course. Safety first!

Here's a link to the article for those who are interested. I am all for eliminating heavy bottles, as they just take up more weight and space. I have a small issue with getting rid of them altogether, though: portion control. I typically enjoy a bottle over two nights by decanting the rest into a half bottle, and then pour three or four glasses. Pretty much all the non-bottled wines come in liters or more, and while I can eyeball roughly what 6 oz / 187 mL is, trying to do that with 3 oz / 94 mL times four glasses is a lot of mental effort. Most wine would be fine in a 750mL soda bottle, like I see it in French supermarkets.

[Robin Garr]

Here's a link to the article for those who are interested.

Gaaah! I meant to post that in the original. Thanks, Walter.

Here in France, much of the agricultural business including viticulture is incriminated by environmentalists for the damage it does, not just by emitting greenhouse gases, but also by way of damage to the eco-system and to human health. For example there have been clusters of disease, including leukemia and Parkinsons, amongst vignerons and in communities bordering some Bordeaux vineyards. Much of this is attributed to pesticides and herbicides, especially the infamous RoundUp, and can be avoided by organic techniques in the vineyards. However, the organic specification allows the use of copper sulphate in bouillie bordelaise in place of other fungicides and it is now being said that this causes serious damage to the soils. There is even talk of banning bouillie bordelaise, but over the dead bodies of organic producers.

I confess to not so far worrying about the carbon footprint in any of the wine I buy (I'm against heavy bottles for other reasons) nor in the food I eat, but that is probably a function of my generation. I will try to make an effort. We read that it is urgent, for example, to eat much less meat and animal derivatives because cattle, sheep and poultry raising is a bad source of greenhouse gases. However changing things fast is an enormous challenge. Any attempt to curb the French agricultural business would cause an enormous backlash which would make the present round of protests from gilets jaunes seem like a boy scouts' picnic