Will the Real Green Wine Come Forward!

We hear so much these days about green wines and carbon foot prints but have we forgotten that there is only one wine that is truly 'the' green wine?
I am speaking of course about the Vinho Verde from the Minho Valley in Portugal.
It doesn't refer to the colour of the wine but rather that it is a wine produced under minimal growing conditions and one that should be drunk young. You do not age a Vinho Verde wine. I thought about this after reading the article in the Irish Times and the arrival of the the French schooner, the Etoile de France landing in the port of Dublin delivering 15,000 bottles of 'green' wine in time for St.Patrick's Day. Very admirable concept. The article even mentions that "each shipment is fitted with radio frequency identification to record and monitor the temperature of the alcohol during the voyage". OK, then what? So if this ship travels during the hot summer months are cooling systems in place to keep the wine from getting cooked? If yes, then what about the carbon foot print of all that energy used to do the cooling? And oh yes, that North Sea can get pretty turbulent during winter storms. Is this just a little bit of hyped up marketing going on? Really now, are we going to see French and Italian wines shipped all the way to the North American market on fancy frigates?


But hey, you know what? Tomorrow is St. Patricks day and what better 'green' way to celebrate then to enjoy a bottle of Vinho Verde, especially one with the cool green cat on the label.








I take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very happy and fun filled St.Patricks day and may the following Irish prayer come true for you all.

Notice the part about "may the sun shine warm upon your face" and "the rains fall soft upon your fields". Sounds very much like an Irish prophecy and ideal growing conditions for a vineyard. Who knows with a little bit of global warming, the Emerald Isle may become the next best place to grow grapes. Then you can anchor your schooner and expend no carbon foot prints at all. God bless the Irish and one and all!!

I Saw Three Sailing Ships....Delivering My Wine!

Yes, coming to a port near you, will be your next shipment of wine. Talk about history repeating itself. In the late 17th century a flourishing trade relationship developed between Britain and Portugal with the shipment of Port wine. To help the wine survive its voyage it was found that the addition of brandy made the wine more stable and thus the forerunner of todays Port wine came into existence. This time around it is France and Ireland. Going green does give rise to new investment opportunities, does it not? But there is a thin line here between sincerely believing you are contributing to the reduction of that carbon footprint and just using this as a means of adding more greenbacks to your bottom line. You have to wonder when "the Canadians have already ordered 20,000 bottles" whether or not this is just a marketing opportunity being exploited. Of course they could ship the wine in plastic bottles to reduce weight and perhaps carry a bigger load. But then you do not want to be consuming those BPA's, do you? Or perhaps now that we know wine just does not taste as good when bottled in plastic, we will be demanding "green" containers. You cannot get anything more natural and socially responsible than glass. If you thought that the cork versus screw caps debate was controversial, the glass and plastic bottle should keep us all busy for a while. I know this is a traditional Christmas carol but follow the link below to a musical version of it and close your eyes, glass of wine in hand and picture your next wines being delivered by three sailing ships.
Three Ships