Cutting down on your wine consumption as a New Year’s resolution has a lot to recommend it.  Chances are that an overindulgent Christmas has taken its toll on the waistline, and that a Festive Season’s-worth of drinks with friends and family has legitimised a devil-may-care attitude to your finances, meaning you could do with tightening your belt in other respects too.

Some of us, who are feeling particularly reflective, may also rather regret having abandoned any notion of reducing our carbon footprint; clocking-up hours of unnecessary driving around the roads of Kent in order to pick up/drop off supplies of food and wine, which to make matters worse, had already been air freighted/shipped/driven from across the globe to our local supermarket. 
You will not be alone then if you wish to reduce your carbon footprint in the New Year. Market research firm Mintel has discovered that 1 in 5 people want to know the provenance of their food before buying, and 41% would like more information on ‘food miles’. UK wine consumers are also becoming increasingly concerned about ‘wine miles’. Bangor University Agriculture Professor, Gareth Edward Jones, caused a storm in a wine glass when he reported recently that shipping wine here from New Zealand by sea has a smaller carbon footprint than transporting it from Languedoc in France by road (sea freight being 25 times more efficient than road freight). More shocking, however, is the claim that driving one mile to a shop to pick up a bottle of wine, on average has a greater carbon footprint than shipping the wine from anywhere in the world.

So, for those of us who would rather not set themselves the unrealistic objective of eschewing wine altogether from January 1st, how can we show willing, save money, get some exercise and make amends for the damage we did to the planet? We can get on our bike (save money/reduce carbon emissions/get fit) to visit a local Kent winery (no wine miles), and buy wine in quantities that we can manage to carry on a bike (reduce overall consumption). But don’t forget that a natural by-product of wine fermentation is CO2, so you will still need to carbon offset after each bottle!

Something sparkly a cycle ride away, to keep your spirits up:

Pinot Reserve, Chapel Down, 2001/2 - £22 - 25
This keenly priced Kentish fizz is called Pinot Reserve because it uses Pinot Noir and - unusually - Pinot Blanc, which ripens better than Chardonnay in the cool English climate, but brings some of its character to the cuvee. Highly praised by Jancis Robinson in her column in the Financial Times, this is one of only four sparkling wines to get on to her ‘Recommended English wines’ list (the other Kentish contender being the Balfour Brut Rose, 2004/5 from Hush Heath Manor, Cranbrook, which at £30 may be a touch too expensive for this time of year and is not available at the cellar door - see above…)

Irene Rizza
FIVE REASONS WINE
www.fivereasonswine.co.uk