As a modern consumer, like many other earth-conscious choices in your life, you are probably also looking for ways to purchase smarter, more eco-friendly wines, whether as a gift or for yourself.
There are four main types of eco-friendly wine: organic, natural, sustainable, and biodynamic.
Organic wine means the ingredients used to produce it are certified free of pesticides, additives, herbicides, GMOs, and chemical fertilizers, while natural wine means it is naturally processed using organic or biodynamic grapes.
Meanwhile, sustainable wine is made using eco-friendly farming and employing health and safety practices and sustainable water consumption, energy usage, and waste management methods.
And biodynamic wines are made using biodynamically grown grapes, and they are also free of yeast and acidity adjustments; however, they typically have fewer restrictions for their wine-making process.
Tips for Choosing the Perfect Eco-Friendly Wine Gift Sets
Look for Wines Marked Sustainable, Natural, Organic, or Biodynamic
As we just saw, wines labeled organic, sustainable, biodynamic, or natural means they are made with responsible agricultural practices, which are safer for the environment because it helps reduce annual greenhouse gasses.
These types of wines also have strict regulations about what can and can’t be used during the growing process, such as chemicals and pesticides, which can rob the land of its natural nutrients and leak into water supplies and more.
Hence, buying wines specifically marked as organic, natural, sustainable, or biodynamic means you are contributing to responsible agriculture, so you can feel good about buying it.
Buy Wines Produced Locally
Delicious wine can be found anywhere, which offers the unique opportunity to buy locally.
When you purchase locally produced wines, it eliminates the need for shipping, which requires various environment-harming activities to distribute it, thus increasing the carbon footprint. It can also be more expensive.
Therefore, when looking for eco-friendly wines, don’t neglect to buy local, which also benefits the environment.
Tour Eco-Friendly Wineries
An eco-friendly winery also means it practices responsible agricultural processes and is also held to strict standards.
So if you are visiting a wine country, be sure also to book a tour of eco-friendly wineries, which will help educate you more on organic farming practices to help give you a greater appreciation of it.
It also provides the exciting opportunity to taste the various wines and then make your gift purchases with confidence.
Some establishments also offer their own unique wine gift sets, which can be purchased in person or online to help save you the trouble of creating your own.
In the end, no matter which wines you choose to purchase as part of your gift set, if possible, it always helps to try them yourself first to be sure they are delicious because, even though they are eco-friendly, they are not made using the same processes, which will affect their taste. This way, you can pass on the unique flavors of eco-friendly wine via your gift set, which may even help the receiver with their wine choices in the future.