Sustainability in the Wine Industry

Musings From The Vines

Mark Holford, owner, winemaker Rocky Creek Winery Cowichan’s most award winning winery.

As many know while my passion and interests have always been around making and enjoying wine, my education and career have been focussed on the environment. I’ve worked in the environmental field for almost 30 years and took my master’s degree in “Engineering for the environment” back in 1998. One of my master’s level courses was on sustainability and it really sunk in. When we started the winery seven years later, every decision we made on how to proceed was always anchored with the concept of sustainability and making sure we used the smallest environmental footprint possible in pursuing our dreams.

So, sustainability is a wonderfully nebulous word, but what does it mean in real life and what concrete actions can you take in the wine industry to be sustainable? Well one of the best tools for evaluating sustainability is a life cycle assessment (LCA) which looks at all the environmental factors from cradle to grave so you incorporate all aspects involved in the product you are making. It accounts for a wide range of environmental impacts including global warming, ozone depletion, smog creation, eutrophication, acidification, toxicological stress on humans and ecosystems, depletion of natural resources, energy consumption, land and water use.

So what did we do to minimize the environmental burden of our products? In the vineyard, we started with steel posts, rather than pressure treated wood. ‘Keep those nasty toxic chemicals away from my grapes please.’ Also, wood posts rot and require replacement after 10-15 years. We purchased experimental grapes that were known to be highly resistant to powdery mildew. This allows us to forego the usual sprays of fungicides to prevent disease. Because spraying wasn’t necessary, we grew the vines in a novel trellising design called Geneva double curtain, which has the trunk high in the air, and shoots drape down into the rows. This reduces the need for any work in the vineyard during summer, eliminating the use

of tractors, and hence reducing fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions. We also didn’t install an irrigation system as irrigation fundamentally increases water use (and in many cases much of the water ends up in the atmosphere rather than in the plants), but rather forced the grapes to look for water naturally in the ground. We kept a natural cover crop, rather than tilling the soil which reduces the impact and we don’t apply fertilizers, using only vineyard compost and some micro-nutrients to encourage good fruit set.

Most importantly we only use grapes and fruit grown in the Cowichan Valley. Transportation is a huge environmental cost. Trucking grapes from the Okanagan dramatically increases the environmental footprint of raw material acquisition.

The actual winemaking contributes a relatively small amount to the overall environmental impact, however even there we chose to install on-demand hot water systems, forego expensive chillers in favour of using Mother Nature’s natural cooling during winter months. We even eliminated the need for a pump by using a 30L bucket to move grapes from cold soak to the press. One of the other big impacts is from the glass that the wine is packaged in. Empty bottles are shipped long distances from the manufacturing plant to the winery, and once full on to the customer. One of the biggest opportunities is in using eco-friendly bottles, which are 30% lighter than traditional bottles. We use Eco glass in all our grape wines, they take fewer resources to create, and cost less to transport. Eco glass can reduce the environmental footprint of a bottle of wine by almost 25%!

As noted above, the last big impact is from transporting wine to the end consumer. The further wine is transported to the customer, the bigger the environmental footprint. Buying from wineries in your back yard is the most eco-friendly decision as emissions from transportation are minimized. So as a consumer, what can you do to help encourage sustainable winemaking? Well, ask lots of questions. Where is this wine from? Where were the grapes actually grown? Locally grown and produced wines will typically have the smallest environmental footprint. Some wines labelled “international blend from imported and domestic wines” actually mean the grapes were grown on a different continent, made into wine and then transported bulk to Canada to be bottled and foisted on the consumer as a pseudo-Canadian wine. Not the most eco-friendly option. If you’re in a tasting room, ask about things like irrigation, what they spray with (organic?) Do they import any grapes from other regions? Do they use lightweight glass?

We’re certainly not the only winery in the Cowichan Valley focused on natural and sustainable wine production. Many of our colleagues are as concerned with protecting the environment as we are. If you are concerned about the environment and climate change seek out wineries with small environmental footprints and support them.

Silverside Farm Team