Raise a Glass For Earth-Friendly Booze
(These Green Drinking suggestions were provided by Ideal Bite, the best place to find bite-size ideas for light green living, covering everything from organic cosmetics to seasonal recipes from local chefs!)
Vino. Vidi. Vici.
Wanna conquer this whole wine connoisseur thing…or just throw a great party? Triumph over wine lingo and master a few red, white, and dessert varietals, plus food pairings that’ll have you and your guests saying (slurring?) “We came, we saw, we conquered.”
If Nothing Else, Try This…
Location, location, location…local, organic wine is best, but a local wine always trumps an organic one if it’s shipped from faraway. The average wine shipment adds over 3 million pounds of CO2 emissions into the air – that’s like 994 round-trip flights from France to Napa. So next time you’re at the wine shop, look for local vino (all 50 states make wine), but if you’re itching for a varietal not grown nearby, consider where a bottle’s produced – here’s a breakdown of how wine gets to you. For example, New Yorkers: a bottle from Bordeaux, France travels by boat, emitting way fewer emissions than wines trucked in from Napa. So consider the shipping source (boat, plane, or truck), then make an offer.
What’s Gracing Your Labels?
Store shelves stacked with 99 bottles on the wall? How to choose? Next time you’re in the wine shop, go in armed with a clear understanding of what all the terms mean before you grab willy-nilly.
- Sulfites – a preservative that naturally occurs in wine but is also used as an additive, making it possible for wine to age longer (it prevents oxidation).
- Biodynamic – a type of farming that tries to keep all aspects of the local ecosystem healthy, from soil bacteria to birds to waterways – it’s organic and then some.
- 100% Organic Wine – made from 100% certified organic grapes grown on an organic farm, and doesn’t contain any added sulfites (a preservative in most wines) per USDA standards.
- Organic Wine – contains at least 95% organically grown grapes from an organic farm, without added sulfites.
- Made with Organic Grapes – the wine has at least 70% organic grapes. Added sulfites are allowed.
- Contains Organic Grapes – contains some level of organic grapes (less than 70%), and producers can add sulfites.
- Vegan wines – wines produced without animal by-products like gelatin or milk protein. Here’s a list.
How Sweet the Sound…
…of a wine cork popping – but is it better than screw top when it comes to Mama Earth? Here, toppers battle it out along with boxes and bottles.
- Bottles vs. Boxes – Winner: Boxes. OK, OK… boxed wine’s got a bad rep, and often with good reason. But today’s boxed wines are getting ever more glug-worthy with many great brands like Alice White and Yellow + Blue boxing up. And since heavy bottles + extra packaging (so bottles don’t break) = more CO2 when shipping, boxes come out on top. Boxes use 50%-90% less packaging during shipments and some, like Yellow + Bl
ue, come in recyclable Tetra Paks. Plus, they sell in 1 liter boxes vs. the standard 750 milliliter bottle – that’s two glasses more. And if you’re a slow drinker (let us know what that’s like), the boxed wine will keep as long as a month whereas bottles go bad in a few days. Check out some of our fave boxed wines. - Screw Tops vs. Corks – Winner: Corks. Cork forests are endangered, but surprisingly, if we opt for wine with real corks instead of the newer plastic and metal caps, we’ll support these forests’ existence through supply and demand. Plus, cork’s made from stripping bark off cork oak trees, but it doesn’t actually harm the trees.
To learn more ways to imbibe with a smaller impact, check out the entire Biter’s Guide to Wine from Ideal Bite.
Got a favorite local, organic or biodynamic wine that everyone should know about?
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