Best Sustainable Wine to Buy

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Four wine bottles in white, rosé and Champagne-bottle hues

It’s often said that wine is the canary in the coal mine when it comes to climate change. Viticulturists worldwide have seen increasingly erratic weather patterns and warming temperatures over the past few decades, sometimes having catastrophic effects on yields and quality. Whole crops can be wiped out by unseasonal frosts, hail, floods or drought, and it is not uncommon for regions to harvest their grapes at least two months earlier than they did only 50 years ago.

This, together with greater awareness of the importance of soil health and biodiversity, has led to the wine industry tackling sustainability issues from all angles and with a growing sense of urgency.

These include reducing carbon emissions, investing in renewable energy, improving soil health and protecting biodiversity, and some regions are planting new grape varieties that are more suited to the rising temperatures and/or are naturally resistant to pests and disease.

For consumers, it’s hard to make informed choices – labelling can only give so much information and may be misleading. Some organic grapes are sprayed several times a season with permitted fungicides by tractors using fossil fuels, so their carbon emissions may be larger than non-organic grapes that are sprayed less often or not at all. Similarly, some growers work to organic principles but aren’t certified so can’t indicate this on their labels.

The elephant in the room is the use of glass bottles, the manufacture and transport of which account for around 68% of a wine’s carbon footprint. There is a reluctance among producers as well as drinkers to give up glass bottles, but things are slowly changing. Much entry-level wine is now shipped in bulk then bottled in the UK before sale, resulting in much lower CO2 emissions.

Other eco-friendly alternatives include bag-in-box and canned wine, along with exciting new innovations such as lightweight paper and plastic bottles. In the meantime, seek out wines from responsible producers sold by responsible retailers – hats off to The Wine Society, M&S and Waitrose, who have made impressive sustainability commitments, and plenty more are following suit.

Sustainability in wine packaging

Sustainability is a buzz word in the wine world just as in so many others, and producers now gladly proclaim their green credentials in vineyards and wineries. However, wine’s biggest environmental impact comes from the use of glass bottles – they account for around 68% of its carbon footprint.Not only do they take an enormous amount of energy to produce, their weight adds significantly to the carbon emissions of transport.

Glass will always be the best choice for serious wines made for ageing, although they needn’t be in the very heavy bottles wrongly associated with quality. While there is now a welcome move towards lighter bottles, glass will always be carbon-greedy, and as the vast majority of wine we drink is downed soon after bottling, there is no reason it shouldn’t be packed in the lighter, more eco-friendly alternatives that are slowly appearing on the market.

Bag-in-box (BIB) has been around for years – once rather sneered at but, as technology has improved, now increasingly used to package really good wines that will last about a month after opening. Recycled paperboard bottles use the same concept but are made the same size and shape as conventional glass bottles so are more pleasing to use. Launched in 2020, they are a fifth the weight of glass bottles and they’re slowly gaining traction with producers around the world.Aldi has just launched two wines in these, as well as a pair in flat rPET bottles.

These are made from recycled plastic recovered from beaches and river banks around the world. Very light and fully recyclable, Tesco also stocks two from Australia’s Banrock Station, and they have been well received in trials with other retailers so expect to see more on the shelves soon – a hopeful sign that alternatives to glass are finally being taken seriously by responsible producers and switched-on drinkers.

Five sustainable wines to try

When in Rome Pecorino (£10.50, Sainsbury’s)

Hats off to Sainsbury’s for being the first supermarket to stock recycled paperboard bottles from When in Rome, a company committed to sustainable packing for all its wines. This Italian white is a real crowd-pleaser – crisp orchard fruit with a slightly herby finish that would be lovely with the cheesy broccoli pasta bake. Also available in cans from Waitrose and bag-in-box from Amazon and others.

Uain Red 1.5-litre pouch (£35, morewine.co.uk)

More Wine has been heroically championing alternative packing for more than a decade, and focusses on natural wines made with minimal intervention. This lovely sangiovese is made from biodynamically farmed grapes fermented with wild yeasts and with only minimal sulphur added. Fresh and juicy with a nice savoury crunch, try it with our pasta puttanesca.

The Society’s White Burgundy 2022 (£35, thewinesociety.com)

The Wine Society has impressive sustainability credentials and works hard to improve them all the time. After a successful trial last year, it is now expanding its excellent bag-inbox range which includes this fresh, unoaked chardonnay that delivers lots of bang for your buck. A great standby to keep in the fridge for spring and summer drinking.

Box of White Burgundy from the Wine Society

Drappier Premier Cru Champagne, £38.99, Majestic Wine

From Champagne’s only carbon-neutral winery, whose impeccable eco-credentials include ploughing its organic vineyards with horses. Zesty, toasty and totally delicious.

Coral de Peñascal Ethical Rosé 2020, £11.95, Able & Cole

A crowd-pleasing rosé full of peachy, redcurrant fruit with a grapefruit zest. Ultra-lightweight bottle from an organic, carbon-neutral winery that gives a proportion of profits to coral reef conservation.