A perfect red wine breathes in a glass and awaits a sumptuous feast or perhaps a white wine, chilled just so meets summer fare from a scenic deck. A usual question might be about what wine to pair with your food, but do you serve red or white is not the only color question in today’s growing “green” or earth-friendly world. How are wines going green 
Presented By Wine.com Purveyors of fine green Wines these days is a question that some are asking as we struggle to care for our world and keep it viable for generations to come.
To begin to understand the “green” wine choices available, four terms are important to know a bit about. While each is a somewhat different approach to the earth-friendly movement, they all share a common goal of helping to produce wines that are not only excellent, but have an eye toward the good health of our planet for the future. The first term is sustainable. A sustainable winery is one that practices environmental stewardship, pursues economic profitability and has social and economic equity. What that essentially means is that the winery would be working with both future and immediate strategies to produce wines that are healthy and productive; they would intentionally use minimal synthetic materials and would be concerned with contributing to the community and environment while continuing to build a profitable business. Making a living while making a difference can be a way of describing it. The next term is organic. This term is used in many contexts regarding food, but for wines it means that there is a commitment from the winery to not use synthetic materials, to utilize natural ways to control pests instead of insecticides and strategies such as using compost, crop rotation and covering the crops instead of fungicides to keep the vines healthy. A biodynamic winery uses herbs, minerals and manure rather than sprays and compost to control pests and other threats to healthy vines. They also harvest according to the astronomical calendar. Finally, the newest practice of the green movement is termed: natural. These vines are grown organically, the wine is minimally filtered and as few sulfites as possible are added. A natural vineyard truly adopts a “less is more” philosophy.
Once you have some information about the “colorful” wines that are available to you, choosing one can become more complicated, but for those who are concerned with the health of our earth, it may be that the wine you choose will be from a winery that gives back and is as concerned about the environment as you are. Wine can complete your meal, add a dash of fun to a gathering or can be a thoughtful gift. Whether you are choosing the one that complements your dinner, or says thank you to your business partner, now you can not only make a fine wine choice, but also a fine environmental choice, as well.
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