Since 4th of July is approaching, it seems like an appropriate time to raise the flag and shout a call for the unity of the American Wine Industry. I was inspired to write this post after a call to action that Jerry Lohr made last week at a conference in California. The wine Industry still suffers the lasting impact of the repeal of prohibition experiment which resulted in the balkanization of the alcohol business in this country. The resulting landscape today are many small local wine industries, sheltered (or not) within their State borders that do not talk and do not propel forward American wines as a whole. This is probably accentuated by the powerful Wine Institute of California which, by mandate, focuses on California wines thus inhibiting a country wide conversation about American wines in general (California still represents 90% of the US wine industry). . Today wine is produced in all 50 States, old post prohibition laws are slowly fading away broadening commerce, vines are being planted from the high plains of Texas to the great lakes, and did I mention the internet? – We are wine nation under Bacchus and it is time to unite and build the future of the American wine industry together.

Despite the growth and the influence of the wine industry we are, so far, the most disorganized heavy weight producer in the world – every major producing country (France, Italy, Chile, Australia, Germany, Portugal etc…) have strong national body promoting their domestic wines, making sure that wine is “on the table” during commerce talks between nation and channeling monies for research and development of their domestic industry. Did you know that Chile and China have a bilateral agreement that will reduce the duty on Chilean wines imported to China to 0% by 2015 – Meanwhile the USA’s wineries will still be paying duty at 41%. Does anyone care? Believe me, when a US  agricultural trade employee talks about American products that needs support they talk about meat, poultry, corn, soy, cotton, potatoes, you name it – way before wine. Why is that? Because the meat producers are organized and can get their voice heard (they are also much larger than the wine industry, I concede) – not the wine industry – we need to get our message to Washington that we want their hears. The same goes around for research – what if China, or France finds a way to make their vine mildew-resistant (a good example that Jerry has used during his talk above mentioned), they will use it, take a gigantic advantage over us and by the way sell us those vines so they can do more research – America can do better than. It is time for American wineries to unite and time for the Wine Institute of California to show some leadership in that direction. Happy 4th!

I have been looking lately at the environmental impact of screwcaps closure and I came accross an interesting survey from a company called “Quantis” related to the carbon footprint of the wine supply chain. I think the study was sponsored by the European Aluminum producer, so not fully removed from the industry but Quantis is a serious third party with good credentials: http://www.quantis-intl.com/

Above is the chart that sort out the different sources of carbon emission during the supply chain – from the vineyard to the consumer’s table. Several very interesting points:

1) The winery impact is really small, may 9% of total carbon emmission. So solar panels, water reduction program and other winery improvements are nice but really they don’t move the needle much – though at Pacific Rim we have very good water, waste and electrical conservancy program

2) Glass is about 40% of the total carbon emission – holy molly, that is a lot. Please note that Pacific Rim is using 95% EcoSerie glass, the lightest glass available in the USA (made in USA – 393 g/bottle). We also don’t use pallets for our case goods (they are heavy, they take room, they have a carbon footprint from manufacturing, etc..)

3) Stopper is really not a big deal as far as carbon emission is concerned – Retail transportation (ie from the winery to the retailer) is more important than closure – again light weight glass would help here

4) The other big carbon emiter is the consumer driving to the store, picking up the wine, using the wine etc… – about 25% of the carbon footprint.  We should buy 12 bottles at a time to make things more efficient!

Will report on my screwcap findings next week