Dunne on Wine: Winemakers slowly going green

Walk up to a shelf of wines at a grocery store, and what you find are the usual shades of red, white and pink.

Where are the "green" wines?

They're coming, vintners vow, but right now, the pickings are slim.

Winemakers who have discovered the marketing clout of "sustainable" and "organic" appreciate the potential allure to consumers of grape-growing and winemaking practices that contribute little or nothing to global warming, and thus are "green."

Besides, they also take seriously projections that the continued emission of heat-trapping gases around the globe could jeopardize both California's standing as a source of fine wine and their own livelihoods.

And on top of that, there's the state's Global Warming Act of 2006, which compels businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 -- a 25 percent drop.

But the development of standards, definitions and certification procedures to qualify a wine as "green" is in its infancy, with much research and commitment yet to be done.

Earlier this year, the Mendocino Wine Co. of Ukiah, whose best-known brand is Parducci Wine Cellars, began to crow that it is the first winery in the country to go "carbon neutral," meaning the greenhouse gases it produces are offset by mitigating measures.

Through such steps as installing $750,000 in solar panels, switching to biodiesel fuel for tractors, converting to more energy-efficient pumps and light bulbs, and buying carbon credits, the winery last year figured that it produced and offset 384 metric tons of carbon dioxide, says Paul Dolan, a partner in the winery and a longtime champion of environmental issues in the state's wine trade.

And yet, Dolan acknowledges that his winery's calculations don't include greenhouse gas emissions attributed to the manufacture and transportation of glass bottles, which account for 45 percent of the carbon dioxide that stems from winemaking, according to calculations by Roger Boulton, a professor specializing in chemical and biochemical engineering in the department of viticulture and enology at the University of California, Davis.

"We haven't put the time and energy into that yet," says Dolan of the bottle issue. "But we will address it."

If a wine enthusiast has "green" on the mind and wants to buy a bottle that leaves a softer carbon stain at the table, what should he or she consider?

Glass is green, but ...

Wine bottles are heavy. The glass alone accounts for around 40 percent of the weight of a bottle of wine, says Charles Bieler, one of three partners behind Rebel Wine Co. in Napa Valley. Bottles are transported long distances, first from manufacturers, which could be in Mexico or Italy, then about the nation when they are filled. All that weight and traffic pumps significant loads of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

As a consequence, Bieler and his partners package their 100,000 cases of Three Thieves "Bandit" and "Bonnie" wines in Tetra Pak aseptic cartons. For every 26 trucks filled with empty wine bottles, just one truck is needed for Tetra Pak cartons, says Bieler, basing his comment on calculations from Tetra Pak.

Not even Bieler, however, sees Tetra Pak replacing the traditional glass bottle, which is much more closely and warmly identified with the culture of wine than the blockish Three Thieves cartons.

"Glass will be an important part of wine tradition forever, but there is a cost to our wallet and to our natural systems, so we are trying to provide an alternative," Bieler says.

Another alternative is the reusable wine bottle, common in some wine regions of the world but not in the United States. Not even the country's more environmentally sensitive vintners, however, see the reusable wine bottle gaining momentum any time soon.

"A lot of people have looked into that, but it's never penciled out that they could make a business of washing and reusing bottles," says Susan Sokol Blosser, whose eponymous Oregon winery recently received Sunset magazine's "green award" for its environmental leadership.

About the writer:

• Reach The Bee's Mike Dunne at (916) 321-1143 or mdunne@sacbee.com.