Carpe Wine: Easy ways to enjoy wine while being kind to the Earth

This last Tuesday was Earth Day but shouldn’t everyday be Earth Day? By thoughtfully selecting your choices in wine, you can go a long way in reducing your “wine footprint” — aka being a eco-friendlier wine lover. There are a few easy things you can do every day to help save the planet one sip at a time.  

Recycle more

We all know recycling glass bottles helps the environment but, did you know you can also recycle your corks and screw caps?

Natural corks can be placed in your compost bins. Since natural corks do compost putting them in the trash bin isn’t a bad thing, but it takes about 10 years to decompose so recycling them would be better. There are a few companies that recycle corks into other product, such as, ReCork and CorkClub, the latter allows you to mail both natural and synthetic/plastic corks for recycling.

While screw caps and synthetic corks can go in your recycling bins at home most won’t get recycled since they’re so small and fall through the recycling machines only to end up in the landfill. If you want to recycle them at home, collect the plastic corks in a milk gallon that can contain them in the recycling bin and recycling machines. As for screw caps, do the same but with an aluminum container that can close. 

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Use eco-friendly glassware

I never recommend drinking wine out of plastic cups, not because I’m being a snob but rather it’s wasteful and the plastic can change how the wine tastes. Use something more sustainable like glass or a stainless steel wine tumbler, Corkcicle and YETI make some great ones.

Buy local wines

Wine is expensive to produce and distribute. Think about all the packaging, flights and trucks to get that case you ordered to your front porch … or your local wine shop. Embracing local and regional wines reduces the wineries carbon footprint and yours. Great wine can be found in your backyard, if you explore a little. Here in the Vail valley we’re only a few hours away from Palisade, the heart of the Colorado wine country. There are some amazing wines to be sipped there!

Look for eco-friendly wines

Grapes are challenging to grow and often require various pesticides, chemicals and technologies that extract nutrients from the soil and leach into water supplies. When you buy wines marked as organic, bio-dynamic or sustainable you are contributing to agriculture done right since these wines have stricter regulations around what can be used (and not used) during the growing process.

Ask about shipping materials

It drives me crazy when I order wine to have shipped to my house and it arrives in styrofoam and/or insane amounts of plastic padding. Neither are green solutions. I order a lot of wine so I’ve actually started calling wineries to inquire about what they ship in, if styrofoam is the only option I reconsider my order. Although, with the new styrofoam recycling center here the Vail valley I might be more open. Regardless, the best eco-friendly shipping materials are cardboard nested trays made from recycled paper. They stack nicely and can be crushed into recycling and compost bins.

Use a reusable wine tote

If you’re like me you have a zillion reusable grocery bags, but do you have a wine tote? I have a few in my trunk at all times for those last-minute wine purchases. For me, they’re easier to carry than a box of wine, but for the environment, they’re better than using another box.

When visiting wine country

When you visit wine country — or travel in general — consider staying at eco-friendly hotels. One of my favorites is H2 Hotel in Healdsburg, Sonoma County. It’s LEED NC 2.2 Gold Certified Green and has an amazing green roof, aka roof top garden. Even if your hotel isn’t technically an eco-friendly hotel, you can be a little greener by skipping the daily cleaning services and not asking for new towels or having the sheets changed.

Hydration is key for any successful wine vacation so pack your own reusable water bottle. If you forget yours, most tasting rooms sell them as a souvenir now. (If you take your own, try getting an Alkaline water bottle for even more hydration. My go to is my Dyln Living Water Bottle.)

As I mentioned earlier, buying from wineries who are practicing responsible agricultural process is great, but when you’re in wine country, make it a point to visit them too. If they offer a tour, take it. You’ll learn more about their farming practices, how they differ and how it impacts the wine.

Elaine Schoch is an award-winning travel writer and wine judge, certified by the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Level 2, and a certified American Wine Expert. She is also the editor at Carpe Travel, a content site focused on wine travel. You can follow her wine 101 and sipping adventures on Carpe Travel or Instagram.