Is There Something Fishy About Your Wine?

I think it’s safe to say that wine drinkers spend a fair amount of time discerning flavors and trying to come up with the perfect words to describe those flavors. I know not every wine drinker goes that deep—I often just want the wine to taste good. Regardless, most of us would know if there was something fishy about our wine, wouldn’t we? I suspect many would agree that the only place fish has in the realm of wine is alongside it, in some sort of elegant meal, where the preparer actually thought about a pairing.

But, your wine may be fishy in another way:

I admit it, I am guilty of looking at wine predominately from the context of serving and enjoying it—most of the time. If you follow my business practices and philosophy, you will see that I do believe in sustainability and a healthful approach to work. I do the best I can in my own business and also try to support other businesses that foster the same types of philosophies. But I can’t track it all, all the time. That’s the tricky thing about sustainability; you have to have some faith in who you do business with and also know that questions will arise, some of which you never thought to ask. I was reminded of this when I came across an article today, about grape growers and the Russian River Watershed. It appears that there is some debate over how their frost protection practices affect the watershed and the species in it, namely, Salmon and Steelhead (which is a threatened species).

Being an avid fisherman, this particular issue caught my eye. But what struck me most was that I hadn’t ever really thought about this part of the wine making process, and therefore, never really thought about the implications of it on the ecosystem.

I do not, at this point, profess to know enough about this particular issue to form an opinion about who is right, but I know it is something worth following. And it serves as a good reminder: very few things that we consume are one dimensional and each layer that goes into creating a product has its own set of costs associated with it. Some costs, you can apply a monetary value to and some cannot be so simplified. I personally would like to know the true, comprehensive cost (to the extent possible) of what I consume and therefore work for transparency in my own business.

With all the things we cannot control and all the answers we cannot yet find, we still have two powerful tools for consuming responsibly:

1) Our ability to ask questions and;

2) The ability to affect change by how we spend our money.

Do you know, is there something fishy about your wine?

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