Wine tasting without waste

The cost of "free" wine.

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I haven’t seen one in a while, but I’m sure the “Save water, drink wine” t-shirts are still lurking out there, ready to spread their pithy and exceedingly-inaccurate message to those who have not seen it as of yet.

I say “exceedingly inaccurate” as the truth is, wine uses a great deal of water to make it. The totals are all over the map with as little as a six to one ratio (water to wine) all the way up to 872 to one. The massive spread is due to how you count the water that goes in either starting out in the vineyard or just what’s used in the cellar. Suffice to say, wine is a heavy user of water and as we all know, despite what other t-shirts might say, it is sadly not a necessary substance for humans to exist.

When one is working in the journalism or criticism of wine, it becomes readily apparent just how much waste is happening due to this wonderful substance as you see the numbers on all fronts from viticulture to production to shipping and drinking. Also, if you’re someone who is rating several thousand wines each year, you quickly see how you’re much more part of the problem than the solution in terms of wine waste. This is something I’m become far too familiar with and have taken as many steps as possible to mitigate.