Earth Day Edition: EU, UK, CA Announce Regulatory Changes
Freixenet to lay off 80% of workers due to extreme drought
Lots of sustainability news to mark Earth Day this past week. On the bright side: waxworms yield research that helps naturally break down plastic waste, The EU Parliament adopted new measures to make packaging more sustainable and reduce waste, California announces a plan to harness more than half of the state’s land to decrease carbon emissions. We still have lots of work to do: SevenFiftyDaily recounts the rocky roll out of California’s bottle bill, the UK pulls back its deposit and return scheme to 2027, Freixenet to lay off 80% of workers due to extreme drought in Catalonia.
Packaging
Niagara, Canada: Stratus Vineyards has launched super-premium wine in reused bottles. Packaging Gateway
This initiative is part of a pilot project aimed at assessing the feasibility of collecting and cleaning wine bottles for reuse, as opposed to recycling them for other industries.
Stratus Vineyards collaborated with Circulr, a company from Kitchener, Ontario, specializing in the reuse of glass, particularly in food packaging.
Circulr conducted trials on Stratus wine bottles, focusing on label removal, sterilization, and food safety.
These bottles have been collected from consumers and the winery’s tasting room and repurposed for Field Blend of rare Ontario wine varieties, including Petit Verdot, Malbec, and Tannat.
Global: A hopeful discovery by molecular biologist Federica Bertocchini. In 2017 she found that waxworms can digest plastic, primarily by the use of two enzymes - Ceres and Demeter – named after the Roman and Greek goddesses of agriculture, respectively – which were able to oxidize the polyethylene in the plastic, essentially breaking down that material on contact. BBC
Bertocchini is now chief technology officer at bioresearch startup Plasticentropy France, working with a team to study the viability of scaling up these enzymes for widespread use in degrading plastic.
Check out the BBC’s video explaining the process and potential being explored by this discovery.
EU: The EU Parliament adopted new measures to make packaging more sustainable and reduce packaging waste in the EU. Press release via News European Parliment
The rules, which have been provisionally agreed on with the Council, include packaging reduction targets (5% by 2030, 10% by 2035 and 15% by 2040) and require EU countries to reduce, in particular, the amount of plastic packaging waste.
To reduce unnecessary packaging, a maximum empty space ratio of 50% is set for grouped, transport and e-commerce packaging; manufacturers and importers will also have to ensure that the weight and volume of packaging are minimized.
Certain single use plastic packaging types will be banned from 1 January 2030.
Specific 2030 reuse targets are foreseen for alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages packaging (except e.g. milk, wine, aromatized wine, spirits), transport and sales packaging, as well as grouped packaging.
Member states may grant a five-year derogation from these requirements under certain conditions.
Initially, the Scottish and Welsh administrations advocated for the inclusion of glass alongside plastic and metal within the scheme, which rewards consumers returning bottles with money or vouchers.
Despite both devolved governments outlining their respective plans for integrated deposit return schemes, the UK government diverged on the matter, citing concerns over complexity and cost associated with incorporating glass.
California: For SevenFiftyDaily Betsy Andrews looks at the rocky rollout of the state’s bottle bill.
A lot of the confusion on both the definition of the players (ie: whose a distributor - any entity, in state or out, that sells directly in California), the compliance needed, and even just awareness that this law exists and requires compliance.
As per new rules administered by California’s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), distributors pay a redemption value into the state CRV fund based on products they sell in California: five cents for containers under 24 ounces; 10 cents for containers 24 ounces or larger; and 25 cents for a box, bladder, pouch, or similar container. For the purposes of the CRV, a “distributor” is any entity, in state or out, that sells directly in California. This includes wholesalers and also wineries and distilleries that sell direct to consumer (DTC), or to bars, restaurants, or stores without going through a wholesaler.
Starting January 1, 2024, the first step for wineries, distilleries, and distributors has been getting registered for the program.
By mid-March, the agency had processed 2,550 new registrations, with 2,000 more to come.
CalRecycle offered seminars and a downloadable manual, but by many accounts the communication efforts have not been enough.
Steven Harrison, the CEO of the compliance service Vinoshipper and the direct-to-consumer sales platform CompleteDTC, says it’s “a huge burden” on small producers for what they return. “We ran numbers to determine how much the average small craft producer would be paying, and it was $5 a month.” Vinoshipper made a deal with CalRecycle. “We collect the money when the sales go through our platform and remit it directly to CalRecycle in one account, so our clients do not have to file anything. That was a big lift.”
Conversely, Wente’s IT team worked with the winery’s DTC platform, Commerce7, to implement a tool “where you just check a box, and it makes sure that it’s charging the right amount,” she says. “Then we route it to a specific account that makes it easy to sequester those dollars and pass them along.”
New York: A new US-based group, The Alternative Packaging Alliance (APA) has launched with a mission to reduce wine industry reliance on single-use glass bottles. Press release via Wine Business
The founding members include 7 eco-conscious companies with a commitment to producing high-quality wine in alternative packaging formats: Juliet Wine, Communal Brands, Really Good Boxed Wine, Giovese Family Wines, Nomadica, Ami Ami and Tablas Creek.
The alliance aims to redefine the narrative around alternative packaging as the cornerstone of comprehensive sustainability efforts in wine.
Labor
The measure is expected to become effective in May, and the company did not specify how long the layoffs would last.
This makes Freixenet one of the first companies in Catalonia to respond to the region's worst drought on record with a layoff plan.
Under Spain's ERTE law, companies that are facing exceptional circumstances can temporarily lay off employees or reduce their working hours.
US: The Biden-Harris administration announced a final rule that expands overtime protections for millions of lower-paid salaried workers by increasing the salary thresholds required to exempt a salaried bona fide executive, administrative or professional employee from federal overtime pay requirements. Press Release via US Department of Labor
Effective July 1, 2024, the salary threshold will increase to the equivalent of an annual salary of $43,888 and increase to $58,656 on Jan. 1, 2025.
The July 1 increase updates the present annual salary threshold of $35,568 based on the methodology used by the prior administration in the 2019 overtime rule update.
On Jan. 1, 2025, the rule’s new methodology takes effect, resulting in the additional increase.
Starting July 1, 2027, salary thresholds will update every three years, by applying up-to-date wage data to determine new salary levels.
Sustainability
Moulin-à-Vent, Beaujolais, France: While this was published over a week ago, we wanted to include Alder Yarrow’s excellent piece on the cru Beaujolais appellation Moulin-à-Vent. Vinography
The appellation, long considered one of the longest lived wines from the region is celebrating 100 years with a formal request to establish 14 Premier Cru vineyards within its boundaries.
While the historical context is interesting, what we wanted to spotlight was the pragmatic argument arounds its continued use of herbicides, particularly in old vine heavy vineyards which cannot be easily mechanized.
The higher costs associated with the increased labor of going herbicide free can make or break a small farmer; on the bright side the appellation’s newly proposed rules also include an herbicide ban.
Wachau, Austria: A regional organization called Vinea Wachau, with more than 200 producers who have committed to upholding certain quality standards within their region and have relinquished the right to buy in grapes or cultivate vineyards outside of Wachau. Jancisrobinson.com
In addition to specific alcohol levels for dry wines with designations from Federspiel® to Samaragd ®, all member producers must be certified under the Sustainable Austria certification.
All wines, as of the release of the 2023 vintage, will be certified under Sustainable Austria.
Global: Jancisrobinson.com pays tribute to Earth Day’s founding history – started in the US in 1970 and led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency as well as, over following years, the National Environmental Education Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act.
Tamlyn Curin also includes a new initiative from the Regenerative Viticulture Foundation: the RV Guide, a comprehensive guide to regenerative farming practices for vine-growers, including a map of grape-growers who are interested in these practices.
Currently in beta version they’ve asked producers to contribute here.
Paso Robles, California: Hope Family Wines announced that more than 99.9% of its fruit supply now comes from sustainably grown vineyard blocks. Press release via Wine Business
The winery’s over 50 growing partners sustainably certified by SIP (Sustainability in Practice) or Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing.
To achieve this goal, sustainability certification was rolled out as a mandate in the winery's grape contracts.
In some cases, Hope Family Wines made extra financial investments in its grower partners to help them absorb the costs associated with achieving certification.
Champagne, France: Champagne Telmont has released an organic bottling called Réserve de la Terre. The Drinks Business
Telmont is converting its 24.5ha estate to organics and has also incentivized its growers – who supply the majority of its grapes – to make the transition by giving them help and advice, as well as paying them 20-25% more for their produce.
Telmont stopped using herbicides in 2000, aims to be 100% certified organic by 2025 across its own estate, and entirely organic by 2031.
When asked by Richard Bampfield MW at the release event about the foil capsules on bottles of Telmont – and whether Telmont could stop using them – Du Plessis said that it was part of the rules in Champagne to cover the top of the bottle, and that if he didn’t apply this piece of extraneous packaging, he would no long be able to call his sparkling wine, ‘Champagne’.
California: California released a first-of-its-kind plan to harness more than half of the state’s land to decrease carbon emissions. The Hill
Over the next two decades, the state will work to accomplish 81 nature-based goals that serve to help achieve California’s target of achieving carbon neutrality by 2045.
Chief among the specific goals announced is the management of 33.5 million acres to reduce wildfire risk, mostly through beneficial fire, such as prescribed or cultural burnings.
Another 11.9 million acres of forest has been designated for biodiversity protection, carbon storage and water supply protection, while another 7.6 million acres will be conserved with other protections.
Diversity & Equity
Oregon: A great profile by Eric Asimov of Channing Frye, the retired NBA player, on his wine brand Chosen Family Wines that is a trailblazer for welcoming varied audiences into wine. The New York Times
Mr. Frye, speaks plainly, free of the pedantic wine jargon so easily associated with snobbery and pretension.
He finds ways to relate wine to the cultures of his audience rather than to the pastoral images derived from European countrysides.
Mr. Frye says Chosen Family has offered opportunities pitched to Black audiences, like joining with “Wining While Black,” a group that organizes Black-oriented networking opportunities. “Then we have a follow-up tasting seminar,” he said. “We build positive associations with wine. Don’t tell people they are wrong.
Water Use
The state will start measuring water usage and collecting fines later this year, but it has never attempted any such enforcement action before, and there is no way to know yet whether farmers will comply with the fees.
The Central Valley pumps around 7 million acre-feet of groundwater per year, enough to supply more than 15 million average American households, and almost all of it is used for agriculture.
It will charge these users a fee of $20 for every acre-foot of water they use, with exceptions for individual households, impoverished communities, and public institutions like schools.
That fee is lower than the fees that water officials in other basins have voluntarily imposed on large users.
Marketing
Global: The Hidden Sea, claims to have removed 26 million plastic bottles from the ocean to date, working towards their goal of removing one billion plastic bottles by 2030. Press release via Wine Business
The brand has committed that for every one bottle sold of The Hidden Sea wine, ten plastic bottles are removed and recycled from the ocean.
No detail is given on how they claim to have done this, they partner with The ReSea Project, and have launched a collaboration called 'The Billion Bottle Clean-Up' with Zero Co from Australia.
Napa, California: Cooperages 1912 announces its achievement of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Chain of Custody certification for all TW Boswell American oak barrels. Press release via Wine Business
The Sustainable Forestry Initiative standards for Chain of Custody is a system that follows the purchase of American white oak logs from sustainably certified forests through the production process.
US: Miquel Hudin publishes a succinct review of the Slow Wine Guide USA 2024. Hudin
Published by Slow Wine USA, the guide showcases 400 wineries who are producing “good, clean and fair” wines.
What does that mean?
A required base to the farming and production practices (no chemically synthesized herbicides for example) that is not independently verified.
SO2 levels need to be set in accordance with the maximums as per the European Union, although they’re not auditing this forensically and are more concerned with their ‘manifesto’ of wines being made cleanly.
Viticulture
Sonoma County: Comparing Sonoma’s sustainable vineyards, mostly certified through California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance which allows the use of RoundUp, to Napa Green’s recent move to ban the maligned herbicide. The Press Democrat
“There are no federal regulations for the term ‘sustainable,’ explained Nellie Praetzel, director of biodiversity at Enterprise Vineyards in Sonoma. “The Sonoma County Winegrowers boast that 99% of Sonoma County vineyards are certified sustainable, but most are still spraying glyphosate and glufosinate ammonium. I think that’s very misleading to consumers.”
According to the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, Sonoma County applied 56,847 pounds of glyphosate in 2022 overall, with 40,691 pounds used exclusively in the region’s 60,000 acres of wine grape vineyards.
That’s 47% less than 2014, when 77,754 pounds of glyphosate were applied to wine grapes in Sonoma County.
In Napa County’s 43,000 vineyard acres, 22,561 pounds of glyphosate were applied in 2022.
With Napa Green’s phase out of Roundup, at least 7,000 additional vineyard acres are anticipated to be glyphosate-free by 2026.
Napa Valley, California: Another glowing profile of Marco Simonit, the pruning expert who had built a cult-like following based on his gentler and less invasive philosophy. The San Francisco Chronicle
“Respect the vine” is his mantra, and the driving principle is to make smaller, fewer and more intentional cuts.
It’s a long game, one focused on sustainability versus the immediate desire for yields.
The result, he says, is healthier, stronger vines that can resist disease and better withstand increasingly common extreme weather events — like frost, drought and fire.
California: Vineyard Team’s podcast 225 is dives into California’s ban on autonomous tractors.
Michael Miiller, Director of Government Relations at the California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG) explains that workplace safety standards developed in the 1970s based on 1940s equipment state that self-driven tractors must have an operator onboard.
To update this law, CAWG is working closely with manufacturers and countries that allow autonomous equipment to aggregate data on safety.
North Bay, California: A recap of California's North Coast Cooperative Extension viticulture forum on climate trends and challenges for the region along with opportunities and resources. Wine Business
Based on historical and recent temperature data and trends for Napa Valley locations, UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) Napa County Viticulture Advisor Monica Cooper observed, "Although there is a lot of variability, we don't see a strong upward trend in daily maximum temperatures, however, we're seeing an upward trend in daily minimum temperatures in both summer and winter. This has resulted in an increased prevalence in summer of 'tropical' nights with minimum temperatures above 68 degrees F."
This has reduced the diurnal temperature range shift, a factor that is important in grape development, ripening and quality characteristics.
Growers have responded with "relaxed VSP" that provides more shading in the fruit zone; changes from shallow-rooted rootstocks to deeper rooted rootstocks; changes in vineyard floor management from tilling to no-till with cover crops, or mulching; optimizing row direction when planting and replanting vineyards; and for high heat events the use of shade netting along vine rows or overhead misters.
Lodi, California: In celebration of Earth Day Pam Strayer looks at the growth of organic vineyards in Lodi. Organic Wines Uncorked
Vino Farms, the powerhouse company that oversees 17,000 acres of vines, is stepping into the organic world with more than 320 acres certified organic and biodynamic.
And 400 more are on the way, the piece includes detailed maps charting their progress.