Our Favorite Sustainable Wine Brands
Welcome to rosé season! Also orange wine season or chilled red season, depending on your taste in wine. Like avocado toast and kale salads, natural wines came up in social circles as a huge trend over the last few years (and along with it, urban myths like: “no matter how much natural wine you drink, you won’t get a hangover.” That would be nice). But like plenty of other food trends, it’s older than you might think.
The concept of “natural” wine—as in wine that is made from grapes grown without pesticides and herbicides, picked by hand and fermented without additives—has been around for ages. Some say it is the OG winemaking method. Others might disagree, but today, you can also find a handful of wine companies doing more in the way of sustainability, from biodynamic and organic products to focuses on water conservation and clean energy sources. In winemaking, sustainability can be expensive and complicated, so props to those who are doing what they can. With that, and to celebrate the fact that it’s warm enough to drink outside now, here are our favorite sustainable wine brands you should be drinking too.
This American wine company works with 1% For The Planet to give one percent of all their sales back to the environment—across all their wines and brands. Since 2018, they’ve given over $60,000 to three environmentally focused non-profit organizations.
Dedicated to paying respect “to the great wines of California’s past,” Les Lunes focuses first and foremost on the work they do in their vineyards and mindful processes that minimize the use of pesticides and preserve the grapes and soils for wine that is healthier, more delicious, and more complex.
With a passion for their homestate of Oregon, Vinous Obscura is dedicated to growing grapes locally and naturally, while—with Climate Change top of mind—experimenting for sustainable future processes and wines.
California-based Ridge Vineyards has a number of sustainable approaches to their winemaking processes and in their overall business, which you can read about here.
Santa Cruz’s Florez Wines uses old-world, organic practices and dry farming management, and they source any supplementary fruit from sustainably managed farms.
With a mission to make wine accessible, Underwood is rethinking how wines are manufactured to find ways to reduce their water consumption and overall energy footprint. They've also recently partnered with the Nature Conservancy to support their mission to protect the lands and waters on which all life depends. Dirty Labs subscribers can get 30% off online orders with code WINEANDLAUNDRY30. Age and shipping restrictions may apply.
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