A Zero-waste Restaurant, Spotlighting Accessibility in Hospitality
a carbon modeling project in CA looks for science-based, affordable solutions
As COP27 closes this week, an announcement came this morning that a landmark deal has been reached to compensate developing nations for climate harm. The deal calls for a committee with representatives from 24 countries to work over the next year on the details. In the wine world, a great piece from Jim Clarke looks at the science behind UV light - an increasing factor when planting in some areas at higher elevations, and applications for sustainable treatment of mildew. A carbon-modeling pilot project run by the nonprofit California Land Stewardship Institute, is releasing findings (as noted in the chart above) that conservation tillage (planting cover crops every other row) yields as much as 83% carbon sequestration as no till; research is ongoing. Yannick Benjamin, an influential member of NYC’s wine scene shines a spotlight on accessibility for the disabled community in hospitality - both for customers and workers. Douglas McMaster, a London-based chef who became one of the world’s leading authorities on closed-loop, zero-waste kitchens - gives details and insights into his work.
Viticulture
Global: An excellent article from Jim Clarke in SevenFifityDaily looks at UV light, the science behind how it impact vines; which will become more important as growers move to higher elevations to counteract climate change’s impacts.
The Catena Institute in Argentina and other researchers like Lincoln University in New Zealand discovered a certain band of ultraviolet light called UV-B punches above its weight in terms of its impact on the grapes and resulting wines.
At higher latitudes, UV light enters the atmosphere at an angle, and therefore passes through more of the atmosphere before it strikes the earth. That means there’s more opportunity for the atmosphere to filter it out. At high-altitude sites like Adrianna Vineyard (at Catena Institute) there is less atmosphere between space and the vine, so it forgoes some portion of that protection, and the vine is forced to respond. It can concentrate flavors and aromatics, creates complexity, and deepens the color of red wines.
UV light is also being explored for a chemical free treatment to downey and powdery mildew; but only when applied in the isolation to other parts of the spectrum.
“Blue light can repair the DNA damage that is caused by the UV,” says Kerik Cox, an associate professor of plant pathology at Cornell University. This means exposing the mildew to an artificial source of UV light when there’s no other light source around; like at night.
“You build an array such that it has all these reflective surfaces,” says Cox. “It effectively makes a cloud of bouncing UV light particles. That way it gets under the leaves, and above them.”
California: A carbon-modeling pilot project run by the nonprofit California Land Stewardship Institute is working with 20 Sonoma growers trying to figure out carbon accounting, and the easiest improvements. Good Fruit
The Napa-based nonprofit has been developing a climate adaptation certificate, in partnership with North Coast wine grape growers, that is vineyard-specific and focused on outcomes: sequestering carbon and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and doing so affordably.
The 2021 pilot, with the Sonoma County Winegrowers, includes findings such as:
the vigor-management practice of alternating cover-cropped rows with tillage turns out to offer almost as much carbon sequestration as going entirely no-till (83% carbon sequestered compared to no till).
Natural areas, especially trees, contribute a lot of carbon sequestration — but in the same area, the riverwash soil, with the clay long washed out, doesn’t hold carbon well at all.
Soils vary hugely in their ability to sequester carbon; adding carbon to the soil, with any method, is “a long, slow process,” because you’re constantly working against the microbes that chew it up, Laurel Marcus, executive director of the California Land Stewardship Institute said.
The current model doesn’t account for how much energy goes into making the compost, or how much fuel it takes to deliver or distribute it, noted study participant Silver Oak Vineyard manager Brad Petersen. “There’s still a lot of work to be done there on the calculations, to be able to determine what the actual carbon footprint is and where the benefits are,” he said.
Compost is expensive, whether you make it or buy it. However, food waste is now required to be composted in California. “In some period of time, we should have a lot more compost — which means it should be cheaper,” Marcus said.
Diversity & Equity
New York City: Well-known NYC sommelier, restauranteur and wine educator Yannick Benjamin opens Beaupierre, a wine store designed to be accessible to shoppers with disabilities. W42ndSt & Wine Spectator
Benjamin and his business partner, fellow sommelier and wife Heidi Turzyn, opened the store in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, in the same building he grew up in.
In addition to sidewalk-to-store power-assist wheelchair access, the shop features shelves at eye level for wheelchair patrons and has plans to install Braille signage and launch a website with additional user accommodations.
He and his partners have achieved great success with restaurant Contento in East Harlem, also designed to be accessible to all, which includes wheelchair accessible bars and Braille menus.
Wine Spectator interviewed him just after he was awarded the $1 million Craig H. Neilsen Visionary Prize, an award for those pushing boundaries while living with spinal cord injuries.
Benjamin, who uses a wheelchair, has become an influential advocate for disability accessibility in the restaurant industry, not just for guests but workers as well.
He discussed the challenges of opening Contento during the pandemic, while also shining a light on the disabled community, where less than 20% of people are financially secure, and there are hundreds of people that want to work.
Sonoma, California: Gay Wine Weekend is set to return to Sonoma County July 14-16 2023. The Press Democrat
The annual outing is a weekend of wine and celebration, with three days of LGBTQ+ events highlighted by the popular Twilight T-Dance, wine and culinary delights, a drag queen brunch and a wine auction.
Massachusetts: Angela Mack started the New England Noir wine festival after a positive experience at a local winery. GBH
Mack said she had a vision of giving all people, especially Black women, a positive winery experience.
A recent study of Black Wine Entrepreneurs found that Black-owned wineries account for less than 1% of all U.S. wineries, while Black people typically make up more than 10% of American wine consumers.
The first festival, held last fall, drew about 350 people. The crowd grew this year to nearly 600 people, who came to sip and soak up the vibes in Southampton in early October.
Sustainability
Los Angeles: An insightful interview with Douglas McMaster, a London-based chef who became one of the world’s leading authorities on closed-loop, zero-waste kitchens. Los Angeles Times
McMaster, was visiting Los Angeles as the keynote speaker of L.A.'s first MAD Monday — an edition of the public talks regularly hosted in Copenhagen by Noma chef Rene Redzepi’s MAD Foundation.
He sees the food system as “indirect,” with many steps and delivery stops between the maker and the consumer: packaging, processing, handling, storage.
The chef and his team pinpointed steps and items they view as superfluous — food dyes, excess packaging that takes decades to break down, if it does at all — and try to eliminate them. They source directly from farmers, most located within an hour of the restaurant. Produce is brought to the restaurant in reusable storage vessels; those same carrying vessels are returned to the farmers, with the next batch held in another reusable crate or, in the case of milk and cream, reusable pail.
95% of his restaurant’s waste mitigation is through composting, the remaining 5%, items that can’t be digested by guests — clothes, Sharpies, computers, cooking equipment, tools, cleaning supplies — pose the larger problem. He is currently collecting those materials in bins and plans to create sculptures with them.
Sourcing products locally, crafting items in-house instead of purchasing such making yogurt from milk, are all things that can have large results; although the latter will require increased labor costs.
Cling film, ubiquitous in kitchens is an easy one to solve, they use containers with lids.
Global: Wine Enthusiast’s podcast episode #127 is titled ‘What Does Sustainability in Wine Actually Mean?’
Writer at large and wine reviewer Christina Pickard sits down with winemaker and sustainability advocate Dr. Irina Santiago-Brown. Brown was the first in the world to complete a PhD in Sustainability in Viticulture in 2014.
She also developed the Sustainable Australia Winegrowing (SAW) system for McLaren Vale which has been adapted into the national sustainability system for Australia.
Cheltenham, England: Deya Brewing Company has invested in 65 hectares (0.25 sq mile) of Welsh peatland in a bid to become more sustainable. The Drinks Business
Restoring the land, which contains carbon, was part of a wider plan to offset its emissions and ultimately reduce its carbon footprint. It will take 35 years for the peatland it has bought to offset around three years of the brewery’s emissions.
Despite this, after having a carbon audit, it has pledged to look into making the brewery as sustainable as possible, 70-80% of the company’s emissions come from suppliers and transport, but the brewer has stated it is determined to make changes.
Deya Brewing Co sustainability lead Ben Woodliffe explained: “There’s a whole heap of emissions associated with fertilizers that are used to grow malt and hops.”
Packaging
The trade group, which focuses on promoting wine in alternative formats (other than glass), wrote an open letter to the UK government calling for the introduction of consumer tax incentives for carbon-friendly alternative packaging.
With 13 members, the group is focused squarely on the UK at the moment, and is open to anyone producing wine in a sustainable alternative format – one that significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions over traditional bottles. You must also be willing to chip in and collaborate; and your wine has to fit quality criteria.
On alternative packaging options, she notes “All the formats represented by WTAF come with savings to GHG emissions and other benefits and I don’t believe that there is a ‘right’ format.”
On BIB’s future she points to technology that exists for ageing wine (although it would require years of study) as well as expanding infrastructure for smaller bagging runs.
In a related piece in The Buyer, Kate Hawkins goes through the run-down of alternative packaging options, incorporating supply chain issues and higher costs of glass caused both by the pandemic and the Ukraine war.
She covers – BIB and cans (which the author notes suffer especially from consumer perception issues, despite today’s many examples of higher quality wines in those formats), flat bottles and paper bottles.
UK: British vodka brand Black Cow has collaborated with closed-loop distribution system Ecospirits to launch a branded ‘Ecotote’ glass vessel. The Spirits Business
Ecotote is a fully-reusable, refillable, tamper- and shock-proof 4.5-litre glass casing that replaces the standard six-bottle case of spirits.
Black Cow will be launching its Ecototes in bars and restaurants around the UK to reduce the demand for single use glass in the hospitality industries, by transitioning into circular packaging technology.
Marketing
Global: International Wineries for Climate Action (IWCA) announces Spanish winery, Alma Carraovejas has achieved IWCA Gold Membership. Press release via Wine Business
Since the winery’s first comprehensive, audited GHG emissions inventory in 2019, Alma Carraovejas has achieved a 10% reduction in emissions per liter of wine. 24% of the winery’s energy now comes from renewable energy sources.
Additionally, 9 wineries have achieved Silver Membership after completing a comprehensive baseline, third-party audited GHG emissions inventory across Scopes 1-3. As part of their membership in IWCA, they commit to reducing their emissions to reach Net Zero by 2050 and achieving intermediate reductions in the next decade.
Australia: Recent surveys from Wine Intelligence reported: “From the evidence we have to hand, the impact of either an upcoming recession or a significant slowdown in growth in major economies may reduce desire for sustainable products. The Shout
“Consistent Wine Intelligence consumer evidence suggests that, whatever they might say about how much they love sustainability, consumer purchase decisions are primarily driven by underlying value and personal utility.”
However, younger people (20s and 30s) are strongly motivated to buy in the category (and in many cases are already doing so), and often spend more but drinks less; while older consumers, in their 50s, 60s and beyond, are largely unmoved by sustainability claims, and are more price conscious.
California: A rundown of the sustainability focused sessions at the upcoming North Coast Wine Industry Expo (WIN Expo), taking place December 1 at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. Wine Industry Advisor
Minimizing Your Carbon Footprint: New Approaches to Packaging Driven by Eco-Responsibility – Jason Haas, Tablas Creek on panel
Exploring Water Conserving Practices in the Vineyard - Allison Jordan, Executive Director of the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance, on panel
Vineyard of the Future: Combining Technology and Autonomy to Improve Profitability - Karrissa Kruse, President of the Sonoma County Winegrowers on panel
Tech & Sustainability: The Wine Industry’s New Power Couple - Josh Prigge, Chief Commercial Officer & Sustainability Consultant for Sustridge Sustainability Consulting on panel
Marlborough, New Zealand: Yealands has relaunched a range of wines in the UK that highlight its plan to spent $NZ4 million to developing biodiversity at the company’s Awatere Valley home. The Drinks Business
The ‘Beautifully Biodiverse’ Reserve line has been relaunched in light-weighted bottles, depicting the flora and fauna that can be found in and around the vineyard on its labels.
The company plans to cut emissions by 50% by 2030 and become carbon positive by 2050.
Climate Change
US: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced plans for additional emergency relief and pandemic assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Press release via Wine Business
RP Phase Two will assist eligible agricultural producers who suffered eligible crop losses, measured through decreases in revenue, due to wildfires, hurricanes, floods, derechos, excessive heat, winter storms, freeze (including a polar vortex), smoke exposure, excessive moisture and qualifying droughts occurring in calendar years 2020 and 2021.
PARP will assist eligible producers of agricultural commodities who experienced revenue decreases in calendar year 2020 compared to 2018 or 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. PARP will help address gaps in previous pandemic assistance, which was targeted at price loss or lack of market access, rather than overall revenue losses.
Europe: According to Euronews, France, Italy and Germany have borne the brunt of economic losses because of global warming. The Drinks Business
In 2020, France took a hit of €4.2 billion, Italy €2.5 billion, and Germany €1.7 billion.
Prior to this, between 1980 and 2020, these same three countries accounted for a whopping 61% of the total losses of the EU within this period.
In 2020, France, Italy and Germany were followed by Greece (€969 million loss), Belgium (€377 million loss), Romania (€370 million loss), Turkey (€356 million loss), and Poland (€327 million loss).
Greece that has experienced the greatest economic loss per inhabitant at €91 per person in 2020, compared with the hardest hit countries overall, which suffered losses per inhabitant as follows: France, €62 per person, Italy, €41 per person and Germany, €21 per person.