Jason Kottke points us to this blog post about the carbon costs of wine. (Isn’t it interesting how quickly “carbon footprint” entered the mainstream language? Perhaps there’s hope for us — and the planet — yet.)
There’s a “green line” that runs down the middle of Ohio. For points to the West of that line, it is more carbon efficient to consume wine trucked from California. To the East of that line, it’s more efficient to consume the same sized bottle of wine from Bordeaux, which has had benefited from the efficiencies of container shipping, followed by a shorter truck trip. In the event that a carbon tax were ever imposed, it would thus have a decidedly un-nationalistic impact.
I have not yet gotten on the “grown locally” bandwagon except for produce, which I tend to buy at the farmer’s market a mile from my house on the weekend. But I am smug and actually a bit amused to realize that the most local thing that I buy is wine. I almost exclusively get my wine from J. Lohr, and their winery is a walkable 1 mile from my house. When the weather is nice, I walk down to buy a few bottles. (I mean, I’m not gonna carry a case for a mile, but two is okay.) Their vineyards are relatively local, mostly south of here towards Monterey, so while I’m getting my groceries trucked in from around the world, I get my wine from right here at home.
