A couple of years ago, I joined a climate action group called CALL – Climate Action for Life-long Learners.
The group is essentially post-career boomers who spent much of their lives in corporate offices, long before the threat of 1.5 degrees, carbon emissions and micro-plastics became the backdrop to all decision-making. Of course, many in the group planned to travel the globe when they jumped off the corporate treadmill. But raging wildfires, floods and extreme global weather trends have forced many of us to rethink those plans as we hand over a much-damaged planet to the next generation.
Our climate change group meets regularly on Zoom, and we tackle issues ranging from home retrofitting and EVs to the green energy economy and eco optimism.
Desperate for a dose of that sunny optimism, I suggested the group might want to put WINE under the climate change microscope – per my last blog post. The leadership team smiled, raised a glass and promptly said ‘over to you’.
Who to invite to the panel?
Fellow Canadian and fellow Winnipeger – Steve Matthiasson of Matthiasson Wines in Napa Valley was an obvious choice. I interviewed Steve in 2019, and his deep commitment to sustainable winegrowing and certified organic farming was off-the-charts uplifting for me. What’s more, his deliciously refreshing, low-intervention Napa wines, have resurrected the classic, food-friendly styles that earned Napa a place on the global wine list back in 1976 (Judgement of Paris).
Of course, drinking local and drinking sustainably is critically important to managing our personal carbon footprint. In Ontario, we’re extraordinarily fortunate to have a bevy of wine regions making outstanding cool climate artisan wines. Andrea Kaiser – Chair of Sustainable Winegrowing Ontario (#SWO) and a winemaker herself – led the SWO certification revitalization program in 2022. Andrea joined us to explain SWO and her plans for Ontario’s next generation sustainable certification (measuring and quantifying carbon emissions!!).
Our goal? To encourage you to think about the environment when you drink wine
Yes Virginia, there are more responsible ways to drink wine, and no, that’s not an oxymoron. A few things to think about….
Bottles and transportation are the most carbon intensive part of the winemaking process and use a lot of planet-warming fossil fuels, so start by buying local.
Support growers and winemakers who have an eco-mindset and consider environmental and climate impacts at every turn. Does the producer use chemically intensive agriculture like synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides? What water, waste, soil health, cover-cropping, pest and biodiversity management practices are employed?
Do they have a carbon emissions plan? When will they be carbon neutral? Do their bottles contain recycled glass? Are they transitioning their wines to lighter bottles? Are shipping materials (i.e. -cardboard, labels) produced from recycled materials and is the producer introducing packaging formats (keg, bag-in-box, cans) that reduce carbon emissions?
Please enjoy the discussion – and thanks to Karen Robbins and Caroline Taylor of CALL for their help in coordinating this learning session.
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