When we think about “greening” a restaurant, it’s usually things like serving local and organic food, using energy-efficient equipment, reducing food waste, and offering recycled or compostable takeout containers that first to spring to mind. While these are all important factors, there is one opportunity to decrease a restaurant's environmental impact that is often overlooked: the wine list. It is common for a restaurant to proudly offer local food, yet offer a wine selection predominantly imported from thousands of miles away.
Wine making can involve a significant amount of pesticides, fungicides, insecticides, and herbicides – basically, that’s a whole lot of chemicals. This is not only bad for your health, but it also has extremely negative impacts on our environment, including causing soil and land degradation, and the contamination of natural water sources. Factor in the energy required to transport thousands of cases of wine across the world each year and it’s easy to see how revising your wine menu can go a long way in decreasing your environmental impact (and it could even save you money).
Choosing more sustainably produced wines (those certified as organic or biodynamic) or locally produced wines is a great place to start. More and more wineries are perfecting their craft, expanding their offering and making excellent wines close to home.
The wines you offer your customers say a lot about your restaurant, and you are the expert in what they want. Below is a selection of tips you can adopt to work towards a "greener" wine menu and an environmentally friendly business.
5 tips in creating a more sustainable wine menu
1. Think about what's most important for the atmosphere you're trying to create – will it mean more to your clientele to see a local cabernet on the menu, or a particular organic vintage from Italy?
2. Share your knowledge with your customers – highlight where the wine comes from, how the grapes are grown, and why you're featuring it. Customers will appreciate that you're making a difference, and feel good supporting you!
3. Yes, the lingo can be confusing: "organic", "made with organic grapes", "biodynamic". Wine labelling and certification is complex. Whenever possible, choose local selections first. Once you establish relationships with local wineries, you're in a better place to have discussions about how the wine is made. If your wines must be imported, looking for certified organic and biodynamic labels is a good start. To learn more about what these terms mean, check out this resource of terms.
4. Get to know your local wine makers. If you've got customers with picky palettes, ask local wine makers to help you find suitable alternatives or similar wines to replace, or compete with, the international favourites.
5. You don't have to forgo your fancy wine list altogether – just highlight the local wines. Offer your clients a choice, but offer specials on some of your local favourites to encourage people to try them.
Interested in learning more about sustainable foodservice? Find out more about our certification program here.