Letters to the Editor
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And by Rail ?
I am not familiar with the distribution of wine , but rail would be efficient as well.
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Tetra packs?
Aren't they so non-recyclable and non-biodegradeable that they'll wind up in the fossil record?
One solution - the larger wineries can ship the stuff in large aluminum kegs to be bottled locally.
Ex. Beringer can clean out an aluminum keg and send it to Milwaukee. Milwaukee decants it at a local bottling plant, cleans it, sends it to a brewery, fills it, sends it back to us. We decant their suds at a local bottling plant, lather, rinse, repeat. We can recycle the bottles used locally, too.
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Why Rail doesn't matter...
To mmckinl:
At least in the US, our contemporary rail infrastructure is so laughably under-maintained and disregarded so as to barely even qualify as "infrastructure" that it doesn't really even deserve mention.
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screw this
Most wine-snobs I know who actually really know something about wine have completely accepted the screw-cap and even prefer it to the synthetic cork.
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Pick grapes at night
I was speaking to the owner of a small local winery and he was bragging about how good his wines were and that he has the grapes picked at night because it is better for the grape, blah, blah.
After he left, it was disclosed that they pick the grapes at night because it was so expensive to have refrigeration available for the fresh picked grapes. The owner did this to save money.
This winery is being green without trying to.
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Sibling Rivalry Red (Vin de Pays du Michigan)
Three weeks ago, my brother and I plus family plus a few all-but-family friends picked wild grapes growing over tumbled down barns and along dirt roads in northern Michigan. We stomped them. Our mother lifted up her skirts like Lucy and stomped.
We had an uproarious Family Harvest Festival including original bawdy songs and embarrassing hilarious stories. That's great juju for the wine. This stuff probably will cure diseases and ensure heavenly salvation, even if it doesn't taste good.
These little Pinot Incognito grapes produce deep, deep, ever so deep red juice. Now that blood is fermenting in Brother Joe's basement up north. We expect about thirty bottles next spring or so.
Want a bottle? Order now for the low, low price of (let's say) $20 including shipping. Send Andrew Leonard an e-mail; he knows my e-mail.
Zero carbon footprint except for the gas we used to drive up north. Salud!
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Why not buy local?
There are more areas that produce wine than the ones you named. Your hypothetical New Yorker, for example, could buy wine from the Finger Lakes region of his own state.
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What about...
What about returnable wine bottles?
Why not buy local? Because our local Michigan wineries aren't very good (there, I said it) and we are required to use local rather than being able to order our own wine shipments from other states. All wine must be either local or from a wine merchant. No 'wine of the month club' memberships here unless it's a 'local' winery.
I know, bitch bitch bitch but why pay a middleman or have to drink local swill.
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Don't forget about bag-in-box
One of the fastest growing packaging segment in wine is bag-in-box, both for inexpensive wines, but now some truly upscale varieties.
Unlike the "juice boxes," the corrugated box can be recycled, and the empty bag and spout take up little landfill space.
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How about home brewing?
I had a neighbor who bought an inexpensive home-wine starter kit and then recycled used wine bottles from anyone in the neighborhood who donated bottles to him. He would then give free bottles of red, white, and sweet desert wines to his friends and neighbors. He bought his wines juice on the internet and probably made about 100 bottles a year. The wine was very good and the price was right. Not much of a carbon footprint here. If it works for you, brew locally and recycle. My Dad also made homemade wine for years from grapes that he grew in our backyard, sometimes using wild Mustang grapes or just grape juice from Safeway. He gave his wine away and everyone looked forward to his freebies. If you have some free time and a place (closet, garage, landryroom) with free space for a 10-gallon bottle or two, check it out and enjoy. Cheers!
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Local doesn't always mean local, but
if you live in Ohio, there are more and more wineries around each year. They get many of their grapes from the area but often do truck grapes in from other areas of the country. So local doesn't always mean completely local. I visit North Carolina often and they seem to be more wineries there too. Same issue of "local" sometimes means shipped grapes.
If you live in New York, the Finger Lakes have a ridiculous amount of wine (very very good wine). Most growers don't use anything but their own grapes. The best part is you can try the stuff before you buy it. Don't like it, drive a quarter mile down the road. I visit upstate NY every year and get more wine than I can drink. I encourage anyone who lives anywhere near upstate NY to visit the Finger Lakes.
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Buy local
I make a habit of never buying anything not made on the west coast and reusing the bottles for my own wine. Buying locally may be a less atractive option in other parts of the country. But almost everywhere has a particularly cheap, common fruit that makes a good wine. Up here it's blackberries. Well, OK and Chardonnay grapes...and Pinots...and Cabernets...
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Tetra Pak
The Tetra Pak is in fact completely recyclable. It's mostly cardboard; they turn it into a pulp which can then be used to produce paper towels, etc. The big issue is that not enough cities actually recycle the package; recycling of the Tetra Pak just began in 1990. Consumers need to ask their cities to implement recycling of this kind of package.
The Tetra Pak won a Presidential Award for Sustainable Development in 1996. It's eco-credentials are pretty strong.
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Thank you for the info on tetra paks
In case you come back in to read this, thanks for the note about tetra paks. I am always *very* happy when I hear that another thing is recyclable!