Wakefield launches first fully-sustainable wine range
The Eighty Acres range from Wakefield Wines has become the first wine brand to be certified 100 per cent carbon neutral.
Having partnered with Carbon Neutral to help offset its emissions through domestic projects certified by the Australian Federal Government, the wine range produced in South Australia’s Clare Valley is completely carbon neutral through every step of the production and consumption processes.
The Eighty Acres range comprises of a Chardonnay Viognier 2007, Cabernet Shiraz Merlot 2006, and a Shiraz Viognier 2006.
www.wakefieldwines.com/eighty-acres
Sustainable vodka and gin launched by William Chase
William Chase Distillery, the producer of the UK’s first sustainable potato vodka, has launched two new spirits using cider apples from its local farm in Herefordshire – Naked Chase Vodka and Williams Elegant Crisp Gin.
Made using organic cider apples, Naked Chase Vodka is smooth and crisp in taste with no apple flavouring. Using water taken from the farm’s aquifier, which runs under the Chase orchards, the vodka is diluted to 40% ABV.
Williams Elegant Crips Gin is made using the same cider apple vodka produced onsite. Infused with botanicals such as juniper, coriander, elderflower and Bramley apples, the gin is distilled over 100 times to create a textured, complicated taste.
All three spirits are produced using less than one ‘drink’ mile per bottle, and with the farms cattle fed on waste potatoes and apples, potato peel used as compost, and a vision to power all farm machinery with biofuel, the Chase distillery products are an eco-friendly way to help hospitality businesses perfect their sustainable practices.
The world’s first sustainable Champagne
France’s most environmentally-friendly Champagne producer, Vranken-Pommery Monopole, has launched the world’s first sustainable Champagne, POP Earth.
Presented in recyclable 75cl glass bottles, which are 85g lighter than the industry average, reducing CO2 emissions by more than 1,350 tonnes each year, POP Earth has been made entirely from grapes – Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay - grown from Pommery’s sustainable wine-growing programmes.
Vranken-Pommery Monopole also works to cut its carbon footprint through improving water efficiency, banning the use of toxic pesticides, reducing the use of herbicides, and training all staff members to adhere to the producer’s sustainable practices.
Put a cork in it
Restaurateurs and sommeliers can further ensure the wine they buy in is as sustainable as it can be, by requesting cork-fitted bottles from their suppliers over plastic or aluminim caps.
Cork manufacturer Amorim has become the first packaging company to gain Forestry Stewardship Council status for its sustainable cork sourcing practices, and supply wine producers worldwide with natural, sustainably-produced corks to seal their bottles with.
Research conducted by the company showed that not only were corks most suitable for closing wine bottles, due to their ability to adapt their shape, but were the most environmentally-friendly to produce.
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