How long is the re-cycle cycle?

The subject of re-cycling has reared it's head again this week as our carton supplier subjects us to yet another round of huge price increases - between 20 and 30% (they have been a little vague about the last increment which is why my figure is not more precise).

Their justification is the strengthening price of re-cycled carton, which apparently has risen quite sharply in recent months - our cartons consisting of around 75% re-cycled material.

Now, I never take these 'excuses' on face value, and therefore did a little studying of the paper market myself, going back as far as 2006. Like any other commodity, the price of re-cycled paper and carton moves up and down according to market demand, and until the last year or two it has remained fairly stable. It was early 2008 when we witnessed the first spike in the market, and quite naturally our carton supplier took this as a signal to increase carton prices (albeit by a fairly substantial margin). However, by the end of the same year, the price of re-cycled paper had plummeted to an all time low, and needless to say, the tariff of our supplier did not!

By the spring of 2010 the market had climbed slowly back to the level of early 2008, and despite already having a tariff based on the previous 2008 peak, our supplier decided to increase yet again, by this considerable, and in my opinion, completely unjustified amount! Perhaps you can detect that I am a little unhappy - I really need to change my supplier rather than taking it out on my poor computer keyboard......

Actually, this whole issue of re-cycling started me thinking. When we put our waste paper, used bottles and cans etc. into the appropriate containers, how many times do they come back? In theory the re-cycling cycle could be never ending, or is there a limit to how many times certain materials can be resurrected?

Can man and fish co-exist peacefully?

It was our old-friend George W. Bush who once curiously declared, and I quote, "I know the human being and fish can co-exist peacefully."

Wrong George!..... Why not ask the poor fish that are having problems with the grape producers of Sonoma County, California?

Growers in this part of the world use a method called ‘ice encasement’ to protect their vines from late winter, or spring frosts. More specifically they are protecting the new buds and young shoots at the beginning of their growing cycle, as they will simply die when the weather dips much below freezing. For those who may not know, this is how the system works:

Well before the vines reach freezing temperature, water sprinklers or ‘misters’ are activated in the vineyard, coating the vegetation with a film of water. As the temperature drops below freezing, the water starts turning into ice, and given a little time, quite a thick coat builds up. This coating of ice actually keeps the vegetation at, or just below freezing, thereby preventing tissue damage in the young shoots.

So how does this affect the fish I hear you ask?

2008 and 2009 were both drought years in Sonoma, and as water was pumped from local streams and rivers to use as frost protection, so the water levels dropped. The unfortunate consequence of this was the death of hundreds of coho salmon and steelhead trout as the lack of water stranded the poor fish. Whilst the coho have a habitat that stretches from Alaska to central California, and still thrive in Alaska, their once plentiful stocks in California and Oregon are now under threat, and therefore new regulations are being proposed to restrict the amount of water that can be used. Quite naturally the growers of this cooler part of Northern California are not happy.

So here we witness a conflict between man and fish – the livelihood of the grape grower, against the survival of a species, and I have absolutely no doubt that in this case, the fish will win.

And no George, we didn’t misunderestimate you!

Bottles and the environment

Every bottle that we sell carries a 'green point' (the logo shown in the centre of the picture above), which you may have noticed on many of the products that you buy. This Green Point is an indication that we have paid, effectively in advance, for the bottle to be collected and re-cycled (assuming of course that it is deposited in the correct re-cycling container). I am informed that around 99% of all glass in Spain carries this mark, so it's nice to know that everyone is doing their part to help the environment.

Directly related to awareness in re-cycling is the recent push in the bottling market towards greater use of lightweight bottles. Personally I am in two minds about this....

The cheaper lightweight bottle is traditionally associated with less expensive wines, and therefore does not necessarily project the right image for your product. Now, I am not for one second supporting the use of the super-heavyweight receptacle (that nearly breaks your wrist when you pick it up from the table to pour a glass), but nor do I want something that will be blown over in a light breeze, or even worse, arrive broken at it's destination. There has to be some compromise.

Our bottle supplier is now offering a 'Prestige' bottle with new Eco-friendly credentials, or so they claim. It uses less glass, uses less energy to produce (and boy, does glass production use a lot of energy), and because it weighs less, reduces the carbon footprint of moving it around the world! To be very honest I quite liked the sample that they showed me, it actually looked and felt very much the same as the bottle we use now, until I put in on a scale in our laboratory.... et voila.... 103g lighter.

Without the aid of a calculator I was easily able to work out that a 12 bottle case would be more than 1kg lighter, and our average pallet could weigh between 60-70 kg less than it does now.

I think that we will certainly have to give this a try, and at least see how this new 'eco-bottle' performs on our bottling line.

Packaging

Like it or not we now live in the age of carbon footprints, global warming and all sorts of different (and sometimes contradictory) ecological issues. One topic that I have covered very recently is that of re-cycling, and more especially, packaging.....

Short of selling our Albariño in tetrabricks, I am not quite sure how we could reduce the amount of packaging that we use - the bottle, some form of closure, and a label are fundamental, and therefore impossible to replace. I guess that the only valid argument could be made against the capsule, which in truth is probably more aesthetic than anything else. Our cardboard cartons (which are made from re-cycled materials anyway) are designed to protect our bottles in transit, and using an alternative, more flimsy material, would no doubt result in increased breakages.

And the real point of my story? - Living in a remote part of Spain as I do, I am a very big Internet shopper, and probably qualify as a UPS 'frequent user'. Parcels arrive from around the world in all shapes and sizes, but without doubt the most over-packaged of them all...... computer software. Have you ever stopped to wonder, why does the solitary disc of your programme upgrade need to rattle around in such a big box? Software manufacturers should simply use slimline jewel cases or CD sleeves, and include instruction manuals in a CD sized booklet. Your programme or upgrade would then fit neatly into a Jiffy bag. My guess is that it comes down to perception - value for money - if you're paying a couple of hundred pounds, dollars or euros for a computer programme, then you deserve a bigger, glossy box!

Witness two packages that I received very recently - see if you can work out which is the single music CD, and which is the single software disc?

Re-cycling

Re-cycling?... Sorted!

At the beginning of the year I wrote an entry in our blog about 'Green Issues' (the Environment) and how we work hard in our vineyards to be as ecologically friendly as possible. This is, of course, only half the story, as this work continues inside the Bodega too (albeit that the effects of this are much more difficult to quantify). Whilst we have no official accreditation, we are extremely pro-active on many different environmental fronts.

Angela is probably the most obsessive person I know when it comes to re-cycling ,and so it goes without saying that we have re-cycling bins throughout the bodega, and for every type of material - wood, glass, metal, paper, plastic and organics. Bottles that we open in the cellar for tastings (or even drinking at home) are carefully washed and re-filled at bottling (although these are not re-used for customer orders). Even our cardboard cartons are re-cycled if they are not too dirty or damaged.

The bottling line is probably the greatest generator of waste materials. The packing materials from bottles, corks, capsules etc are carefully separated (mostly cardboard and plastics) and then taken to the local re-cycling centre the following day.

In order to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible, we now use different ordering patterns for our ‘dry goods’, which in turn reduces the number of deliveries that we require. For example, bottles are now taken in full truck loads, and corks in full pallets (giving us enough materials to bottle three of our 9,000 litre tanks). As you can easily calculate, this reduces the number of deliveries to us by 66%. Cartons, capsules and labels are ordered in a similar way, with savings of between 50 and 66%.

So hopefully you can see that, in our own humble way, we do try make a contribution to preserve our environment.

Footnote: Please also note that our Albariño is suitable for vegetarians as we do not use any meat derived products during handling or vinification.

Green Issues

These days we are asked with increasing frequency whether any of our wines are either organic or biodynamic. I thought it was about time therefore, that I post some sort of statement that explains our approach to these 'green issues'.

As I have written many times before, we live in a very green part of Spain and have more than our fair share of rainfall. We are officially categorised as having an Atlantic Maritime climate, which means quite simply that our weather is damp and humid. Despite all the precautions that we take there is not a single vintage that goes by where we do not have to intervene at some point, and therefore we cannot honestly say that our wine is completely biodynamic. I would actually go so far as to say that it would almost be impossible to produce a genuinely biodynamic wine in the Rias Baixas denomination, and any producer who claims that he does should perhaps be treated with some suspicion!

As a reference for all our customers Angela has compiled a list of the practices that we follow in order to keep our Albariño as 'ecologically friendly' as possible. You will see that most of the procedures that we apply in our vineyards are preventive, to avoid disease and consequently minimise the use of chemical treatments.

1). Soil management: We do not use herbicides - we use the traditional system of ploughing the soil 2 or 3 times a year, especially when the vines are dormant (doing this in summer can damage the roots of the vines)

2). We have natural grass cover between the vines that is cut manually. In this way we can also use the natural organic material (mulch) to help replenish the soil.

3). We use natural worm humus, especially when planting new vines.

4). We use sheep and horse “manure” to add nutrients to the soil when required.

5). Plagues and Diseases: Mainly preventive strategies are used, such green pruning and thinning the canopy to avoid excessive humidity under the pergolas. This of course allows a better circulation of air and thus helps to prevent fungus attacks.

Sometimes these attacks cannot be prevented and so we are obliged to use some products (all approved in ecological viticulture), such as:

a). Copper in different combinations in the case of mildew attacks.

b). Soluble and powdered sulphur for the control of excoriosis and oidium.

c). Anti-botrytis (following insect attack or hail damage) when fungus may enter and create rot.

6). To reduce the possible spread of fungus spores in the following harvest we collect and burn all the vine cuttings after pruning.

7). We use pheromone traps that cause sexual confusion to control the polilla de la uva (grape moth) or lobesia botrana. In the case of an attack we treat with bacillus thuringiensis (which is a biological treatment)

8). Harvest : manual collection of grapes to avoid damaged bunches and premature oxidation.

This is also perhaps the time to mention that our Albariño is suitable for vegetarians as we do not use any meat derived products during handling or vinification.

In addition to these vineyard practices there are also routines that we follow in the wine cellar, relating to other environmental issues that I will write about in future posts.