Wine and Sustainability - Forty Hall

I had volunteered to help behind the bar for an event at one of the local schools. Like many schools they have been on a sustainability drive recently, single use plastics are now banned from lunchboxes and the children all have reusable water bottles. The bar at these events is, of course, focused at the parents rather than the children (!) but there was a desire to keep a consistent message, and move away from single use plastics here too.

I spent quite a while umming and arring over a more sustainable alternative to the stemware for the wines - previously disposable plastics had been used, presumably the worst option. However, as much as I'd have liked to just advocate glass (besides anything else it looks and feels better than anything else, and nobody is confused about the fact it's reusable) from a health and safety point of view in a crowded environment with lots of excited school kids that was not an option. I did consider Vegware but apparently it requires a specialised composting service to take them away, and I could see them just ending up in landfill. So, instead, I went with polystyrene based reusable stemware from Plastico, apparently good for up to 100 use cycles, which has the benefit of being made in the UK, which significantly reduces the carbon footprint compared to shipping from, say, China.

I thought we could go further than just the containers for the drinks though. There was a session on sustainability in my vinegrowing course during which I couldn't help thinking that the elephant in the room was the amount of shipping involved in wine. It seems ludicrous that we here in the UK import so much wine from such far flung corners of the world when there is excellent wine on our doorstep.

To take that to its natural conclusion, I chose to order the wines from the closest vineyard to the school - Forty Hall - just 10 miles away! Better still to add to those sustainability and ethical credentials Forty Hall grows their grapes organically, and is a not-for-profit social enterprise which provides ecotherapy to people in the local community with mental health issues.

Of course, price wise, English sparkling wine is not at all competitive with the mass produced Prosecco which would normally have been sold at events like this. Most English sparkling wines are in the £30 - £40 range (Forty Hall's Brut sells at just under £30), whereas the school was previously serving Prosecco bought for around £6 a bottle. Cold hard economics are often the first thing I'm presented with when I tell people about my enthusiasm for ESW: "But it's so expensive!". I think as a society we've become so accustomed to cheap imported products - from electronics to fast fashion to wine - that we've lost sight of the real cost of making many things. Corners are inevitably cut to bring us these products at unrealistically low prices, whether in working conditions / wages or in sustainability. Unsurprisingly the mass production and price pressures of Prosecco are taking their toll on the environment.

The bar proceeds are meant to raise money for the school, and given the pricing expectations based on previous events, and the pressure not to be "elitist" in a state school with families from mixed income backgrounds, it's hard to actually sell an English sparkling wine in the £30 a bottle price range and actually make a profit. So I just donated all of the wines, that way the school got to keep 100% of the takings. There were still a couple of slight grumbles at this being priced at £5 for a 125ml glass  - which would have been just breaking even had the school actually had to pay for the wines - but then I think they were largely from people who didn't realise that it wasn't just the usual cheap Prosecco. I thought that was a bargain for an excellent wine like Forty Hall's Brut.

Qualms about the pricing aside, the reactions were all very positive, ranging from the slightly back handed "I can't believe it's from England" (genuinely meant as a compliment!) to outright and unequivocal cries of "Delicious!". People were amazed when I told them it came from inside the M25, and the eco and ethical credentials all helped to create an air of positivity.

I got to try a bit myself, and think I like the 2016 even more than the 2015 - I think the comparatively short lees aging (just 12 months) was the right choice here, and it really lets the fruit shine - lovely stone fruit and peach aromas, fresh, clean, lively and a joy to drink.