Eco Wine

I like to focus on green aspects of events. It’s the little things that add up. I searched for an affordable California wine, in ecoglass, with synthetic cork. It is seems silly, but the 12 cases of wine for one event here and another event there has a considerable footprint. By choosing a California wine I reduced transportation costs and ecological footprint.

Ecoglass reduces production cost and uses less materials. Synthetic cork seems cheap, but it’s what more and more European wines are doing now. Cork is harvested from the cork oak, Quercus suber, found mostly in Portugal and the Mediterranean. These trees live for about 150 years of life in them and can only be harvested every 9-12 years. Therefore it is hard for the trees to meet the demand of the growing wine industry. While natural cork is compostable, synthetic cork is recyclable!

Science Content Warning: Cambium cells, the inner portion of the bark, forms multiple layers. When the layer facing inward die it becomes woody. The layer of cambium facing out make new cells that fill with suberin. Suberin is an an oily compound that makes the cork waterproof, but also keeps the cork flexible.

Find out more about cork: http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr/cwes/forestree/treevia/facts2.htm

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/02/wip_organic_cor_1.php