Elite Traveler Summer 2021

INSPIRE 20TH ANNIVERSARY GUIDE TO RESPONSIBLE LUXURY

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Wine

Picture a lush vineyard on a hot day in late summer, with bunches of ripening grapes promising a good harvest. To make great wines, the vines depend on specific conditions: sun, water, healthy soil, warm (but not too hot) temperatures and the right weather mix at the right times. Winemakers have kept track of harvest dates and yields for centuries, so they were among the first to notice the impact of a changing climate on their sensitive vines. To be sustainable in the long term, farming vines organically to save the soil is only one step. Many winemakers recognize they have to nurture the whole environment of their estates, including the animals that live there and the people that work on it. To fight climate change, they cut carbon emissions with solar and geothermal energy, track their carbon footprints and keep experimenting. The eight you see on the following pages are making a huge difference, but there are many, many more.

by Elin McCoy

FELTON ROAD New Zealand’s wine image is clean and green, and Felton Road winery in Central Otago, one of the country’s top pinot noir producers, epitomizes that ideal. To be sustainable, says owner Nigel Greening, he abandoned the idea of constantly seeking growth, which ends up exploiting the environment and puts profits first. Everything Felton Road does is evaluated for its impact, starting with organic and biodynamic vineyards. Rather than spray or burn the wild roses taking over hillsides, it brought in African Boer goats to chew them up. No waste treatment plant is needed because Felton Road reuses everything, in compost, in creating brandy, or in some other way. Labels are printed with water-based inks. But the single greatest carbon input for wineries, Greening explains, is glass and packaging. To minimize its carbon footprint, Felton Road switched to bottles that are 22% lighter and pack them in recycled cardboard boxes, which reduces the amount of energy required for shipping and distribution. feltonroad.com

Felton Road owner Nigel Greening

Photo Central Lakes Photography