From hybrid cars, to energy-efficient lightbulbs, to the sustainability of the foods we eat, America has "green" fever. Heck, even the NFL announced Sunday Night Football to be green this week, forcing viewers to listen to the commentary of Chris Collinsworth and Bob Costas as they sat in a poorly lit studio. With all that focus on enviromentalism, it couldn’t be long before someone decided to examine the carbon footprint of the wines we drink.
Tyler Colman, of the popular wine blog Dr. Vino, recently teamed with sustainability metrics expert Pablo Paster to publish a working paper for the American Association of Wine Economists, titled Red White and Green, the Cost of Carbon in the Global Wine Trade. Just a few of their findings:
- Wine bottled at a winery, and then shipped, involves shipping a large amount of glass, with a little bit of wine in it. Thus, when drinking wine bottled at the source, magnum bottles are always the greener option. Accordingly, half bottles would be the least green option.
- Shipping wine in bulk from the source, and bottling at the point of consumption, greatly lowers carbon intensity.
- Using oak chips is more enviromentally friendly than oak barrels.
- For those of us on the East Coast, it is more carbon efficient to enjoy a wine that has been container shipped via boat from Bordeaux than a bottle that’s travelled by truck or plane from California.
So what do you think, readers? Will it be red, white, or green?
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