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Time for wine lovers to get
in touch with your inner tree hugger or vine hugger as we discussed ethical
wines on the Moncreiff show on Friday 15/2/07. Adele King (aka Twink) stood in
for Sean.
Fairtrade
fortnight begins on February 28th and Marks and Spencer have recently
introduced a couple of wines certified as Fairtrade. The theory is that being a
member of Fairtrade ensures that growers are paid a guaranteed price for their
grapes, benefit from a programme committed to social improvement and that the
workers have decent wages and employment conditions. Sadly growers in France,
Italy, Spain and Australia and other developed countries don’t qualify. I say
sadly as plenty of them are suffering because of the mismatch between supply and
demand in the world of wine. Estimates I read suggest from 60-300,000tons of
grapes went unpicked in Australian in the 2006 vintage and prices dropped for
those that were picked as some companies refused to honour contracts. No fair
price for your produce there then.
Fairtrade
is certainly relevant to the coffee and cocoa industries but maybe a little less
so with grapes. Marks and Spencer have an Argentine Pinot Grigio 2006 at €8.99
from the La Riojana co-operative in Famatina Valley and a pleasant fruity drink,
if a little bitter on the finish It is at least more characterter than most
Italians of that variety. There’s also a gutsy fruity Fair
Trade Chilean Shiraz, also at €8.99. We tasted it on the show and I
felt it had a bit of a reduced rubbery smell.
I
also tied a couple of organic wines from Tesco this week. The
Terra Vida Bianco del Chieti is a creamy, nutty soft white at only
€7.99, that we tried on the show has much more character than say the average
Soave. There’s also a Cotes du Rhone Villages 2005 on offer at €9.99 called
Ch. Bellane which at first impressions was less impressive, if not unpleasant. It
just lacked a little stuffing.
Carbon
footprints are all the rage and there is news this week of one Irish importer
that has declared itself to be ‘carbon neutral’. Straffan
wines claim that ‘all of
our operations within Ireland (logistics, office electricity) and our business
travel (flights, sales rep mileage) are offset by helping to fund projects in
renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation.’ This appears to have
been done by paying a fee to climatecare.org who invest in the relevant
projects, like reforestation or more efficient stoves for schools in India, oh
and I guess they bought some energy efficient light bulbs too. Thankfully they
have several wines which are worthy of your interest including in particular
Ribero del Duero producers Arocal and Conde and the Australian producer Wirra
Wirra from Mclaren Vale. On the show we tried Wirra
Wirra Church Block 2004 at €18 at good independents retailers like
Donnybrook Fair. It’s a humdinger of a blend of cabernet, shirax and merlot.
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