One of the au courant trends in the wine business is for producers to tout their green credentials, and the wine doesn't even have to be organic.
I have received a couple of dozen press releases over the last six months for various producers, each insisting that I need to write about their wine because it comes in environmentally sensitive packaging or that it has a small carbon footprint.
What most of the releases don't deal with is what the wine tastes like. I pointed this out to one of the companies, a California packager, and the spokeswoman got a little huffy with me. (Which is a nifty trick in an email.)
This is not disparage the green movement or to ignore global warming. I have been recycling newspapers since I was in the fifth grade. Rather, it's another example of marketing's continually tightening grip on the wine business. These companies are looking for an edge to sell jug wine, and they figure green is it.
If the only thing that mattered in wine was how environmentally conscious it was, I'd drink Texas jug wine in a clear bottle and I'd walk to the 7-Eleven around the corner to buy it. Or, to be even more green, I'd give up wine and drink tap water. How many beverages have a lower carbon footprint than that?
But other things matter, like quality and price. So I'll keep recycling, I won't buy bottled water, I'll drive my car as little as possible, and I'll set my thermostat at 80 degrees in the summer and 68 in the winter. Hopefully, that will make up for any white Burgundy I drink.
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