Does Environmental Sustainability Matter in Wine? Just Ask Viña Apaltagua

The answer is a resounding yes.

It goes without saying that better, healthier grapes make better wine. Grapes are at their best when the environment that sustains them — that would be the vineyard — gives them everything they need to thrive and holds back anything that might hurt them. This is why farming sustainably is so critically important.

Chile’s Viña Apaltagua knows this better than most. Of course all premium wineries take the health of their vineyards very seriously, but Apaltagua has taken this conviction a step further.

Apaltagua has created a Strategic Sustainability Plan that outlines how its practices both in the vineyard and in the winery ensure that it will continue to make world-class wines for generations to come with minimal impact on the environment. Here are some of their commitments:

• Use compost in place of artificial fertilizers.
• Collect valuable rainwater, and deploy special pumps to ensure that water is not wasted.
• Manage vineyard pests without the use of chemical agents.
• Weed the vineyard mechanically, without chemical agents.
• Use lighter ECO bottles for its Varietal and Reserva wines. These bottles use between 20-30% less glass, meaning a reduced energy use in their production and lower CO2 emissions on the part of the manufacturer.
• Use cardboard packaging made of 75% recycled materials.

Farming sustainably doesn’t mean farming organically or biodynamically, although it can include many of those practices. Rather, sustainability is a way of doing business, one that goes out of its way to keep its employees and vineyards as healthy and productive as possible.

Does it all work? The proof is in the bottle.