With carbon-neutral alcohol having come and gone, breweries, distilleries and vineyards are now shooting for carbon-negative offerings.
Fighting climate change is a personal issue for wineries. Grapes are fussy and must be harvested at just the right point for the wine to get the right acidity. However, the unpredictable temperatures, while opening up regions once unfavourable for grapes, have shifted harvest seasons drastically.
Peter Yealands established Yeelands Wines in New Zealand in 2008 and is dedicated to innovative, land-focused viticulture. He is aiming to reduce the group’s emissions by 80 per cent come 2045.
A large solar panel installation, three wind turbines and two burners for vine prunings supply a quarter of Yealands’ energy needs. Water comes from the Awatere River and is stored in dams. The winemaker also has Babydoll and Merino sheep to help trim the vines, reducing mowing and spraying. Free-range chickens deal with pests, inter-row crops and flowers attract pollinators, and some 200,000 native shrubs and flaxes are planted around the property. These improve soil quality while promoting biodiversity by attracting local fauna.
SYNERGY IN SPIRITS
CHALKING OUT SUSTAINABILITY
ECOLOGICAL MASTER-PEAS
Sustainability is about far more than just committing to a couple of solar panels, recycling and certifications. And director John Stirling of Arbikie distillery is leading the charge.
The field-to-bottle distillery recently unveiled Nadar (“nature” in Gaelic) gin, a brew developed by master distiller Kirsty Black with a carbon footprint of -1.54 kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) per bottle. Nadar is flavoured with classic botanicals like juniper, lemongrass and lime leaves – all grown on the estate off the Scottish east coast. What’s more, its main ingredient – the pea – draws nitrogen from the air, restoring soil nitrogen levels and reducing Arbikie’s reliance on synthetic nitrogen fertiliser. And the protein-rich by-product of this distillation, known as pot ale, is great animal feed.
The Stirling family has championed other green ventures like Tattie Bogle Vodka, Scotland’s first potato vodka that John Stirling affectionately calls “wonky veg” or potatoes deemed too ugly for the supermarket shelf. It has also reintroduced some 5,000 native trees and bushes on its land to support local wildlife. Some of the trees will see eventual use in oak casks.
TEXT ALVIN LIM
