Does This Wine Come in Green?

Chemical fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides and herbicides that can potentially contaminate the soil and groundwater have traditionally been used in wine grape production, unless the grower is organic. Fertilizers can lead to nitrate run off into nearby lakes and streams, encouraging growth of algae and bacteria, and depleting the water of oxygen needed for fish and other aquatic life. Nitrates degrade very slowly and are therefore extremely persistent in the environment. Application of fertilizers can also result in high concentrations of soluble salts in the soil, which can adversely affect seeds and established plants.

The fossil fuel consumption to make wine includes that used in running tractors, heating and cooling buildings, bottle manufacturing and shipping, wine production and shipping, worker travel, and chemical production and shipping costs. Growers retain workers for custom pruning, custom harvesting and for operating the machinery. Some are local and some may be transported in from other locations, even other countries. Grapes shipped in rather than locally grown result in a higher environmental cost.

Bottle corks are made from the bark of the cork tree, and as worldwide demand for wine continues to rise so may stress on these cultivated trees.

There are many practices that can have a significant impact on the environmental footprint of a wine. They include:

 following an environmentally conscious purchasing strategy and using local workers, grapes and other required products wherever possible
 improving farm and winery production energy efficiency, through gravity-fed wineries, using grower windmills to offset a portion of electrical grid usage and costs, and using geothermal heating and cooling systems to generate energy without burning fossil fuels
 utilizing organic soil management and organic pest management, examples of this include reducing the need for insecticides and fungicides by growing multiple varieties of disease and pest resistant cultivars, encouraging colonies of desirable insects to combat unwanted and destructive insects, providing habitats for owls and bats, planting a summer and a fall annual cover crop to keep a diverse habitat within the vineyard, using dry land or drip irrigation and using deficit irrigation to reduce canopy and water use and to promote cold hardiness
 minimizing or eliminating negative byproducts of winemaking using natural methods, for example using floating cattail mats to metabolize and rapidly remove ammonium nitrate from ponds and prevent contamination of groundwater

Corks are biodegradable, renewable and recyclable. Girl Guides Ontario runs a recycling program for bottle corks called Bag-a-Cork. Girl Guides Ontario collects used wine corks that Jelinek Cork Group turns into a wide variety of products such as upholstery and flooring. Proceeds from this are used to fund further environmental programs initiated and run by Girl Guides Ontario in their local communities. Cork trees are not killed by the removal of their bark and can produce more than one harvest so they are a sustainable product.

Buying 100% locally produced wines supports sustainability and helps reduce the greenhouse gases and carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. In March 2007 at the Grape Growers of Ontario’s annual state of the industry address, Debbie Zimmerman, CEO of the Grape Growers of Ontario said, “cheap imported grapes and juice from Argentina and Chile thousands of kilometres away have a much higher cost than any of us realized. Eating and drinking local products whenever available will [be], and is becoming, a responsibility of every individual.”

In April 2007, the Ontario Wine Industry via the Wine Council of Ontario launched an environmental program called Sustainable Winemaking Ontario. This program is designed to draw on the best environmental practices around the world to facilitate sustainability in the entire wine industry, and to provide it tools for assessment and improvements along with setting sustainability benchmarks. This program is the first of its kind in the Canadian Wine Industry.

One vintner who grows and blends multiple grape varieties is Stratus Wines. Stratus Wines also built the first winery in Canada to achieve LEED ® certification from the Canada Green Building Council, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

Henry of Pelham Winery was one of the founding wineries of the Sustainable Winemaking Ontario program and they have just turned two ponds into bio filters to clean the water leaving the vineyard.

Flat Rock Cellars also participated in the development of the Sustainable Winemaking Ontario program. They utilize geo-thermal energy for heating and cooling, have underground barrel cellars to minimize the need for heating and cooling, and have a natural bio-filter for waste water.

Château des Charmes uses no herbicides or chemical fertilizers and uses only
Sulphur, Lime and Copper solutions as organic fungicides and return all vine cuttings and pomace (leftovers from wine making) to the vineyard as fertilizer. They have introduced horses into the vineyards and also allow wild animals such as deer to graze there. They use wind machines powered by natural gas. They have a water management system using lagoons, and require no heating or air conditioning to maintain a steady year round ambient temperature in their underground barrel cellar. They also utilize a pump free gravity flow system from the fermentation room to underground aging cellars.

Niagara College Teaching Winery is building a Wine Discovery Centre that will house an environmentally sustainable winery and education facility.

The following Ontario Wineries, listed alphabetically, are participating in this program and working towards certification:

 Andrew Peller Limited
 Caroline Cellars Winery
 Château des Charmes
 Coyotes Run Winery
 Creekside Estate Winery
 Flat Rock Cellars
 Frog Pond Farm
 Harbour Estates Winery
 Henry of Pelham Winery
 Kacaba Vineyards
 Mountain Road Wine Company
 Riverview Cellars Winery
 Rockway Glen Estate Winery
 Royal DeMaria Wines
 Stratus Vineyards

Ontario is not the only province whose wine makers show commitment to reducing the environmental footprint of their wines. Located in British Columbia, Hainle Vineyards Estate Winery applies the Huber family “wine purity law of 1856”, used in this winery since 2002. The wine purity law states the label must declare the winery’s growing area, that wines must be produced by the winery stated on the label, and that the wines must be 100% from the country of origin. It states that a maximum of five fining agents can be added to remove cloudiness and that they must be organic. Grapes must be harvested only on dry, rain free days and that all vines must be grown naturally. Harvesting must be done on dry days and grapes must be processed within 48 hours of being picked.

Hainle Vineyards Estate Winery is in the process of having their vineyards and cellar certified organic. They have found that organic growers can expect to incur the same costs per acre to control insects compared with conventional growing practices, but will gain higher quality yields that will bring more dollars per ton from stronger, more disease resistant vines that are less susceptible to winter damage. Wild roses allowed to grow at the edges of their vineyard provide a home for predatory wasps that help control leaf hoppers, a common vineyard pest. Water sprayed at high-pressure to dislodge insects, and occasional sprays of a natural insecticidal soap are some other examples of organic pest management methods used. The winery utilizes natural ground cover (some might call them weeds, they call them “volunteers”) to help prevent moisture loss and to host beneficial insects. Three or four times during the growing season the ground cover is mowed or cultivated into the soil, helping improve the amount of organic matter in the soil. They cultivate just over half of their land and leave the rest to native plants. Hainle Vineyards Estate Winery recognizes soil as a living part of our ecosystem on Earth, and they strive to preserve the micro flora and fauna communities within it.

Lotusland Vineyards in the Fraser valley in British Columbia plants a wide range of grape varieties, uses no pesticide or chemicals on their fruit and limits additives during winemaking. They work with a program called World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) that provides organic farming experience to people from around the globe, which will help promote organic growing techniques.

Summerhill Pyramid Vineyard located in British Columbia cultivate organically grown grape varieties. They are a Pacific Agricultural Certification Society (PACS) Certified Organic Farm, and use no chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides in the soil.

Rollingdale Winery in Kelowna British Columbia is working towards making their entire production process certified organic.

In summary, Canadian wineries care about sustainability. If you are concerned about our environment, purchase and enjoy some organic Canadian wine and support our wineries as they work towards greater sustainability!


Health Benefits of Wine
Wine has always been thought to benefit health, and was used instead of or added to impure water sources. More recent scientific studies have led to the conclusion that wine can have specific health benefits. Ulcer-causing bacteria Helicobacter pylori, Type II diabetes, ischemic stroke, female bone density, and reduced risk of benign prostatic hypertrophy and coronary heart disease are all being explored as ways wine can positively influence human health.


History of Winemaking
7000 BCE – Neolithic stone age humans cultivate grapes at Shulaveri (present day Georgia in Russia)
3000’s BCE - Sumerians and Egyptians make wine and cultivate grapes
2000’s BCE - China makes wine
1500’s BCE – Greeks plant commercial vineyards
500’s CE - Catholic Church preserves knowledge of winemaking through the dark ages, wine produced in Southern Russia, Britain and Western Europe
800’s CE - Islamic Middle Eastern peoples make wine, Portugal creates first appellation system, and Emperor Charlemagne decrees wine will be pressed mechanically and stored in barrels
950 CE - Ancient Greeks cultivate vineyards in Italy, Spain and Greek Islands
1200’s CE – Moors halt wine production in Spain
1400’s CE Wine production resumes in Spain, wine becomes a staple of European diets due to lack of clean drinking water
1500’s CE - Spanish conquistadores bring grapes to new world
1600’s CE - vineyards begin to appear in Japan, Mexico and Argentina, followed by Americas
1700’s CE vineyards planted in Australia and South Africa , using cork to seal bottles reintroduced
1800’s CE – first sparkling Champagnes produced, Canadians try to cultivate European Vitis Vinifera vines
1863 CE Dr. Jules Guyot published papers on viticulture that led to development and expansion of wine industry
1860’s CE – European vineyards attacked by Phylloxera virus
1882 CE – corkscrew invented
1930 CE – appellation control introduced
1926 CE - Prohibition repealed in Canada
1988 CE - Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) standard introduced
1990’s – studies find link between moderate alcohol consumption and reduced risk of death
2001 CE - Ontario's Wine Content Act becomes law
2007 CE - Wine Council of Ontario launches Sustainable Winemaking Ontario

Trillium, 2008

Only when the last tree is cut; only when the last river is polluted; only when the last fish is caught; only then will they realize that you cannot eat money. Cree Proverb