Cono Sur wines and the environment

I got sent a couple of Cono Sur wines by their PR agency recently. Seeing the labels took me back some years when I worked part time for Oddbins. It was the graphic of the bicycle on the pinot noir label that always stood out on the shelves. I can even remember the name of the winemaker (Adolfo Hurtado) who it was said used the bike to cycle around the vineyards forsaking anything mechanical as it did not fit in with Cono Sur’s environmental credentials. Whether this was just clever marketing or not, the name and the idea stuck in my mind.

Roll forward 5 years or so and of course much more is being made of the environment and man’s effect on it and every wine business is expected to have a “green” policy with several wineries pronouncing themselves as “carbon neutral”. It's interesting then to think that all these years ago Cono Sur saw it as something they could use to make themselves stand out from the crowd. Others are now catching up it seems.

Their web site says the following:

"Since 1998, our commitment to the environment has been growing and assuming new challenges. Sustainable agriculture, integrated vineyard management and several carbon footprint reduction projects have taken us to the forefront of environmentally friendly winemaking around the world."



In fact as early as July 2007 Cono Sur became the first winery in the world to obtain CarbonNeutral® delivery status and now in 2011 the magazine The Drinks Business has named Cono Sur "Green Company of the Year"

So does all this make a difference to how the wine tastes? That's a tough one to assess or even measure but  but I enjoyed them as much as I used to enjoy their wines in Oddbins' days. They are consistent, fruit forward and well made with examples such as the 20 barrels pinot noir showing the complexity and elegance you would expect from a more expensive wine. My tasting notes for the samples I was sent are available on Adegga.

Do all these environmental claims make a difference as to whether consumers buy or not? Well, a recent article in Harpers confirms that as more wine companies jump on the environmentally friendly bandwagon, achieving full organic or biodynamic certification gives producers greater credibility with the consumer.

This must work in Cono Sur's favour given its long history on the matter.