A Beginners Guide to Ethical Wine

Today let’s raise a glass to this ethical wine guide – from the issues to be aware of to the best buys when it comes to sustainable and organic wine.

Whether you’re a connoisseur or a casual consumer on the weekend, we all have our reasons for choosing our favourite brand of wine.

If we’re honest, most of the time it revolves around taste. We choose a grape variety that we like and stick to it. Or we study the tasting notes and awards labels to find a new recommendation.

Yet how often do we think about the hidden ingredients? From the efforts of the workers to the added chemicals and the environmental impact of the vineyard?

Tim Hunt from Ethical Consumer investigates what it takes to create a more ethical wine. Tim also reveals the brands and retailers who are pioneering this work.

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Here in the UK, wine is the most popular alcoholic drink of choice. 60% of us choose wine over other beverages. And 30 million of us regularly partake in a glass of this popular tipple. Around 600-800 grapes are squeezed into every 75cl bottle of wine. And, for the farmers and growers, the UK is an important market.

Sadly, these grapes don’t contribute to our five a day, but there is no reason why our consumption and purchasing decisions can’t be used for good.

The issues behind wine production

Recent investigations into large vineyards in South Africa by International Labour Organisation (ILO), in 2015, and three Scandinavian public service broadcasters, in 2016, once again highlighted the poor conditions and lack of rights for many vineyard labourers.

Workers were found to be living in cramped conditions in cardboard houses, surviving on less than $4 a day. In some areas, some workers were being paid with alcohol instead of cash. Workers were also provided with inadequate protection against the pesticides being used. Many of which are banned in the West.

This practice is not limited to South Africa. As such, it paints a dark reality behind the expensive bottles and clever branding.

Would you like some pesticides with that?

The harmful effects of pesticides aren’t limited to countries outside the EU. Using 60,000 tonnes of pesticides a year, France is Europe’s biggest user. Here 80% of its fungicides are used in vineyards.

What’s more, a documentary from the French TV channel France 2, in 2016 had some worrying findings. Pesticide traces were found in hair samples from children schooled near vineyards. These pesticides have a reported link to rising levels of autism and attention deficit disorder.

The pesticide problem may feel far removed from the UK. However, the EXCELL laboratory in Bordeaux has shown that in a study of 300 French wines, 90% showed traces of chemicals used during production. Although these were present in trace amounts, the accumulation effect hasn’t been fully investigated.

Organic and Fairtrade wines?

There’s a simple way to challenge the problems within the wine industry. That is to drive change through our wallets. To use our purchasing power to shift our consumption to organic and Fairtrade ethical wine brands.

Switching to organic wines is the ultimate way to protect workers, the environment, and yourself from the harmful effects of pesticides.

Organic vineyards must support biodiversity and enhance soil health, whilst minimising the use of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and chemical fertilisers. They use cover crops to attract natural predators of the pest species. And they build better soils with composts and manure. Producers are also restricted on sulphur dioxide levels. This is great news if you have an allergy to this chemical. And, of course, the wine must include no genetically modified crops.

Fairtrade or Locally Supported Wines?

As well as buying organic brands, you can further ensure that workers are protected by switching to Fairtrade wines. Already, 27 million litres of Fairtrade wine are sold every year, and half of that is to the UK. 28 of the 49 Fairtrade certified producers are in South Africa, actively tackling the very real problems mentioned above.

When you buy Fairtrade wine you are ensuring that farmers get a fair price for their crops and that worker rights are protected. Each organisation must also set up a Fairtrade Premium to help develop their local communities.

As well as supporting developing nations, you can also consider shopping closer to home to cut down on the carbon footprint of your wine. British winemakers are doing pretty well on the awards front at the moment. The good news is, if you are a fan of the bubbles, that they are doing particularly well when it comes to sparkling wines.

Our pick of the best ethical wines

Fancy trying something new? Meet two of the best ethical wine producers:

Emiliana

Chilean producer Emiliana has vineyards throughout Chile and produces 100% organic and Fairtrade wines. Emiliana farms use chickens as natural predators for insects. They also connect their farms to open spaces to encourage pests to move away.

Emiliana has strong green credentials too, working to actively increase the carbon content in their soil. They are also shifting to renewable energy generation on-site. What’s more, the Fairtrade Premium is given to a committee made entirely of workers to decide how best to spend the money to benefit their community.

We recommend the Adobe Reserva and Novas Gran Reserva wines as our best-buy brands.

Stellar

The Stellar winery has a large array of brands from Dig This! to Running Duck, Moonlight, and their original Stellar wines. As South Africa’s largest producer of fine organic wines, they source their grapes from a number of independent, Fairtrade-certified farms along the Atlantic coastline. 26% of the company is owned by the workers. And, a not-for-profit organisation funds development projects on the farms and in local communities.

We highly recommend the Stellar and Moonlight brands.

If you fancy experimenting with a range of different organic and Fairtrade wines, we recommend online retailers Vintage Roots and Vinceremos. Both stock 100% organic wines. What’s more, they also stock a range of organic beers, ciders, and spirits too.

Check out our full wine report for more information on the wine industry, including vegan brands. Also check out the Moral Fibres tips on what to do with leftover wine, to help reduce your wine wastage, and the guide to recycled wine glasses and tumblers.