Sustainability focus: Naked Wines

As we are all aware, sustainability is one issue that will simply not go away. The first things that come to mind when you think sustainable range from reusing pots, recycling plastic and cutting down on car journeys, but the wine world actually plays quite a role itself. Not just in leading the way in logistics and distribution sustainability, but also farming techniques helping reduce harmful chemicals, wastewater and even using drones. Check out my article on sustainability in Bordeaux for how work in the vineyard and winery looks to reduce these impacts.

But what about Naked Wines? How do the big wine companies contribute to looking after our planet? The answer - in a number of ways. From supporting their winemakers to give them the means to shift their practices to organic to making sure their logistics cut down on wasted resources and emissions. Find out more below.

Winemaking

Naked Wines have a number of winemakers who are passionate about sustainable winemaking, with some going above and beyond to achieve the difficult status of organic. Organic wines encompasse a number of changes in the winery which centres on the replacement of synthetic treatments for natural ones such as sulphur and copper, as in the ‘Bordeaux mixture’, and natural pesticides. It can also include the cultivation of plants that attract insects beneficial to the health of the vines.

Sustainable wines are not subject to the same rigorous requirements as organic and tend to focus on protecting and minimising impact on the environment. This can involve encouraging wildflowers to grow nearby or even amongst the vines, which in turn means that natural predators appear for vine pests and can eliminate the need to spray crops.

Packaging and Delivery

The key here is about getting rid of unnecessary weight and extra material that is simply not needed. Getting your wine to you in the most sustainable way is rightly high on their agenda. Naked work with experts in the field to help them make material improvements that will benefit the planet.

Through targeted actions such as utilising recycled and recyclable materials, offering alternative formats and reducing bottle weights, Naked are managing to reduce their impact.

Bottling

Glass is heavy, which adds to transport emissions, and it is rather energy intensive to create. It is also simply quite expensive and a format that the wine industry has been struggling to get out of. Naked have made some good steps in this direction with bag-in-box wines available, but there is still more to do. In fairness, some of this is thanks to we, the consumers, who are proving slow to take to bag-in-box and cardboard bottles or wine cans. But, one day this will have to be accelerated and soon.

Distribution

Bulk shipping is important for reducing CO2 emissions, particularly when the wine is in a large tank rather than bottles. This means you can transport more wine and without the added weight of bottles. Sometimes more means less. Currently Naked ship 25% of their wine in bulk.

The verdict

Naked are taking genuinely positive steps towards creating a more sustainable wine future. I feel that, as with every company, there is still a way to go but Naked have the unique advantage of pouring around 4 million a month into their winemakers to allow them to continue making great wine in an environmental way. This has certainly focused on helping many of these winemakers get over the prohibitively expensive certifications and set up steps they need for sustainable and organic farming.

As consumers, we are somewhat at fault here too. I’ve seen a number of bag-in-box/cardboard packaged wines come onto shop floors only to never come back again due to their poor rate of sale. The industry is probably begging us to change our minds as glass costs keep going up and put strain on the margins for the winemakers. Still, this cost mostly gets passed onto us so if anything it’s a loss for us and the planet.

In the case of wines designed for ageing, there is no real way around using glass yet however, but the huge majority of wine drunk in the World is had on the day it is bought on or within a short enough period of time where the more permeable packaging will not have affected the quality of the wine. So, fellow consumers, it is time to change and encourage these companies that these things will start to sell.

So, if you fancy supporting sustainable winemaking for the future, join the ranks of Naked shoppers (no pun intended) with our £75 Naked Wines Voucher and you’ll start to help make this sorely needed difference.