Germany was once considered the land of poets and thinkers. That was when Goethe and Schiller, Kant and Hegel were alive. So a long time ago. Today, Germany is a country of engineers. From cars and pharmaceutical products to electron microscopes – Germany is the world market leader in many of the things that engineers have developed. But the Germans have not completely lost their penchant for poetry and thinking. As far as wine is concerned, it can be said that nowhere else is the subject of organic wine analyzed as thoroughly and described as richly in words and images as in this country: in books, on television, in podcasts, on YouTube, at symposia and, of course, in the relevant winegrowing circles.
Wine without chemicals – that’s not enough today
There is nothing wrong with that. On the contrary: if cars and gas heating systems do not meet ecological standards, then at least wine should. In concrete terms, this means doing without herbicides, fungicides, insecticides and mineral fertilizers in the vineyard and working without pure yeasts, without fining agents and with as few sulphides as possible in the cellar. It works quite well. In the meantime, 12.5 percent of the German wine-growing area is already certified organic by Bioland, Ecovin and Demeter.
Sustainability means more than just producing organic wine
In California, on the other hand, organic wine is only a milestone. The commitment to nature and the environment extends beyond the vineyard and cellar. The wineries are focusing on the entire production process, including marketing, in order to keep theCO2 footprint as small as possible. Sustainability,
includes purchasing, materials management, energy supply, supply chains, logistics, construction and employee motivation. This means that the sustainability efforts in California are more far-reaching than in Europe. They extend into other „systems“ that go beyond pure wine production: into retail, shipping, architecture, technology and even politics. 60 percent of California’s wine-growing area is cultivated by wineries that are certified for sustainability.
In Germany, initiatives of inspired individual winegrowers…
Of course, there are also extended sustainability efforts in Germany (and its neighbors). But they are mostly based on individual initiatives by soulful organic winegrowers who are privately committed to a better environment. They hang up nesting boxes, plant hedges and trees, install photovoltaics on their roofs and drive to their vineyards on e-bikes instead of SUVs. Such measures are almost the norm at Californian wineries that have committed themselves to organic farming.
…a big movement in California
A few days ago, I came across the list of this year’s winners of the Green Medal Award, a sustainability competition organized by several Californian winegrowers‘ organizations and the California Wine Institute. Anyone who reads the list of winners (and also that of last year’s winners) quickly realizes that sustainability is more than just greening vineyards and avoiding agricultural chemicals.
- This year’s Green Medal Business Award went to Vino Farms in Lodi, which minimizes the consumption of resources with many small measures: for example, with moisture probes to prevent overwatering of the soil. Or by consistently converting its vehicle fleet to biofuel.
- Lange Twins in Lodi, this year’s winner of the Green Medal Leader Award, has taken 17 hectares of vines out of production to encourage wildlife in the area. Deer and roe deer are allowed to feast freely on the buds of old Zinfandel vines. We reported on this in detail two years ago.
- Bogle Family Vineyards south of Sacramento has launched a new line of wines bottled exclusively in aluminum bottles. They weigh just 50 grams. The energy consumption in their production is five percent of a glass bottle.
- Scheid Family Wines produces 4700 megawatts of clean electricity per year with a wind turbine in the Salinas Valley, which covers the entire energy needs of the winery and 125 households in the area.
- Trefethen Vineyards in Napa Valley has invested in an industrial water treatment plant, which is an important step towards a circular economy.
- Fetzer Vineyards in Mendocino, the Californian organic pioneer, has been certified as the first zero waste winery.
- For many farms, animal husbandry is part of organic farming. The vineyards of Spottswoode in the Napa Valley, where biodynamics are consistently practiced, are home to chickens, sheep and donkeys.
- Wente Vineyards in Livermore Valley is the first winery to use an electric tractor in its vineyards, which produces 87 percent lessCO2 emissions than a comparable diesel tractor.
- The Silver Oak Winery in Napa Valley has set itself the goal of using as many renewable raw materials such as wood as possible in the construction of new buildings.
- Large companies are increasingly controlling supply chains and urging suppliers and haulage companies to convert their fleets to electric trucks or biodiesel. Other award-winning wineries do without high-gloss cardboard for wine boxes and only use boxes made from recycled cardboard. Wine labels are printed with water-soluble natural inks instead of chemical inks.
- Tablas Creek Vineyard in Paso Robles invests heavily in the training of its employees and provides them with subsidies for medical care in order to retain them as qualified workers. Sustainability also means increasing the attractiveness of rural areas and offering people – especially our own workers – a high quality of life.
- His neighbor J. Lohr Vineyards and Wines offers its workers permanent employment contracts with annual bonuses – a rarity in the hire-and-fire nation.
- A year ago, we reported on the Kendall-Jackson winery empire, for which sustainability is deeply rooted in social issues. Ethnic diversity, a high proportion of women, no wage dumping – for the Jacksons, this is all part of the principles of organic farming.
- Some wineries go even further. Cakebread in the Napa Valley and Cooper-Garrod in the Santa Cruz Mountains are active in the social and political sphere and are involved in community associations in order to have an impact on political bodies.
American pragmatism makes its mark
In Germany, certification is primarily focused on the product and its winegrowing production. Ecovin, the most important German certification institution, writes „biodiversity“, „resource protection“ and „social compatibility“ on its banners, but is not more specific. Demeter also only supports the idea of sustainability in the abstract. „We protect the climate and resources,“ says the biodynamics program. And: „We are committed to diversity.“ So the mindset is definitely there. But the American mindset is different. It is more focused on making. Not that Americans don’t think and write poetry. But they are famous for their pragmatism.