Earth Notes: Wine World Goes Green

Environmental assurance

Winemakers in the land Down Under are working hard to ensure eco-friendly wines are easily recognizable by consumers. The Winemakers’ Federation of Australia developed an environmental assurance program called Entwine Australia that measures the local wine industry’s environmental impact. To receive membership, a producer must obtain certification from a recognized authority, such as Freshcare Environment or ISO 14001, and pass a review performed every three years by an independent auditor.

Members are also required to report their carbon footprint yearly, which they can do using the Australian Wine Carbon Calculator developed by Entwine. Members report their carbon footprint under two categories, scope one and scope two. Scope one covers direct emissions from company-owned vehicles and fuel use in generators and heaters. Scope two measures the indirect emissions resulting from the use of electricity. The calculator also has a third scope that measures the environmental impact of the member’s packaging materials, freight transport, purchased wine products and waste disposal. Scope three does not count towards certification but helps participants measure their overall impact on the environment.

The Entwine logo, which can be put on bottles, identifies participating wineries to eco-conscious customers in an international market. But consumers are not the sole driving force behind the demand for green products. Major companies, including American mega-chain Wal-Mart, U.K. supermarket chains Tesco and Waitrose and Australia’s Woolworths, are pursuing projects that aim to cut waste and carbon emissions and promote green brands. (Karin Nybo)

Bentonite

Bentonite is a unique clay granule that has a negative electrostatic charge (static electricity). It is a naturally occuring compound which is one of the very few vegan fining agents used in wine production.

It is an effective clarifying agent for wine, as particles like yeast and tannins are attracted to the electric charge. Bentonite is used in wine production in a slurry form, and suspended particles cling to the compound as it settles at the bottom of the container, leaving a clean wine that is less likely to oxidize. (KN)

Less is More

An important part of maintaining a sustainable winery is the reduction of waste and getting as much use out of raw materials as possible. To that end, Koch Membrane Systems has developed a new filtration system, known as Crossflow Membrane Filtration (CMF). CMF will allow wineries to extract more wine from their grapes, thereby reducing waste and increasing output.

Wine lees — sediment that is composed of fine fruit particles, spent yeast, bacteria and debris — are left in the tank after the fermentation and fining processes of wine production, and are often disposed of. On average, 10 percent of the original volume of wine is left behind in the lees, and it is possible to recover this wine with the right filtration process. The CMF system allows winemakers to extract more wine from the lees, and the wine recovered is usually higher quality than those recovered through alternative processes, many of which use potentially harmful fining agents. (KN)