Bar Conscious
‘We believe that the first step to changing the world is to have the right spirit.” - Tessa Gerlach, Co-founder, Elephant Gin
When it comes to inebriants, I am aware that can be ironic to deem any form of drinking “conscious”. But kindred fairtrade and ethical spirits do exist. A good drink, or two, has been known to help seal deals, and the downing of spirits has gone ice-in-hand with idea creation for generations. So why not imbibe for a good cause?
While your choice of alcohol has always mattered, it’s never mattered the way it has now: more alcohol companies and producers are aligning themselves with sustainable causes and practices, making the choice of the tipple the focus instead of the accelerant.
Ocean Organic Vodka farm and distillery | Credit: Brian Lauer
Vodka
If your preferred ally is vodka, you’re in good company.
Vodka brands have been getting on the conservation bandwagon. From supporting snow leopards to the saving of the oceans, Snow Leopard Vodka (UK) and Ocean Organic Vodka (US), respectively, have been clear to tout their social causes.
Snow Leopard Vodka puts 15 per cent of profits from the sale of each bottle to the Snow Leopard Trust. The Trust helps keep alive the global population of less than 3,500 cats. Since Snow Leopard Vodka was founded in 2006, the smooth, made-in-Poland, six-times-distilled spelt grain spirit’s sales has contributed to over SGD360,000 to snow leopard conservation projects in Mongolia, China, India and Kyrgyzstan.
Ocean Organic Vodka gives back through their practices, and more: support for the environment is done through safe and sustainable production methods. On their plantation in Hawaii, organic sugar cane is harvested from ripe canes, leaving the young canes for the next harvest. This simple practice eliminates the need for burning the sugar cane to clear the strip land – a practice Singapore has come to detest intimately – therefore helping land and soil conservation, and the air breathable and clear. Ocean Organic Vodka’s bottles are also made with recycled glass, and facilities employ natural lighting and use natural cleaning. In addition, this gluten-free brand support organizations like Save the Seas, Oceana – Protecting the World’s Oceans, and Reef Check.
‘We’ve decreased our use of herbicides by over 70 per cent since the late 1970s through the grassing over of plots and using alternatives to insecticides, such as insect sexual confusion techniques.” - Julien Duval-Leroy, sixth generation owner of Duval-Leroy Champagne
Gin
This is not to say other spirits have poorer intentions: Elephant Gin (Germany) does for African elephants what Snow Leopard Vodka does for the mountain cats, by also putting 15 per cent from the sale of every bottle to two foundations they support. The cause gives the drinking of this distillation of fourteen botanicals – including African Baobab, Buchu, Devil's Claw and African Wormwood – more meaning.
“Integrity and passion is at the heart of Elephant Gin’s philosophy,” said co-founder Robin Gerlach. “From carefully sourcing ingredients and using the best techniques to create a premium product, we’ve created a sustainable, ethical business that supports Africa’s unique wildlife.” Co-founder and wife of Robin, Tessa Gerlach, added: “We hope to raise wider awareness about wildlife conservation and involve more people directly. We believe that the first step to changing the world is to have the right spirit.”
Closer to home, Australia’s Noble Spirits launched the “world’s first ethical and sustainable gin” in April 2015. FAIR Juniper Gin joins their existing line of four: FAIR Quinoa Vodka, FAIR Rum, FAIR Café liqueur and FAIR Goji liqueur. Noble Spirits has teamed up with co-operatives of farmers in Central Asia and France to engage in fairtrade practices with them, essentially paying farmers the fair price to enable them to cover their production costs and educate their children, among other needs.
Whisky
None of these spirits are quite as united on the environmental front as the whisky industry: in 2009, the Scotch Whisky Association launched an Industry Environmental Strategy for its member distilleries, which altogether produce for more than 90 per cent of the industry. The target was to obtain 20 per cent of energy from renewable sources – anaerobic bacteria is fed water waste, to be exact, and the process produces methane gas, which is converted into energy for the factory – by 2020, and 80 per cent by 2050.
In an industry whose giant stills are traditionally heated by burning fossil fuels, this is a huge commitment. Fortunately, these distilleries – which produced the 1939 Gordon & MacPhail Generations Mortlach 75 Years Old Single Malt, Glenfiddich 50-Year-Old Single Malt Scotch, and Highland Park 50-Year-Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky – seem to be ahead of their 2020 goal, having reached 16 per cent in 2012.
In comparison, wines require much more water to produce than beer: it takes 7.5 litres of water to produce 30ml of beer, and a whooping 13.2 litres for the same measurement of wine.
Wine & Beer
Likewise, the fuel-intensive processes of beer-brewing and wine-making are hardly environmentally friendly. This is why Mountain Goat Brewery incorporated nine solar panels and an 11,000-litre rainwater tank into their headquarters in Victoria, Australia. The tank helps Australia’s first organic beer maker save approximately 250,000 litres of water annually. The vegan-friendly, preservative-, animal by-product- and additive-free craft beer brewery also believes strongly in staff welfare: each staff member is given a bonus every Christmas for “the number of times they rode their push bike, walked or caught public transport to work in the year,” said Mountain Goat Brewery on their website. Let’s hope being bought by Asahi won’t change these fundamentals.
In comparison, wines require much more water to produce than beer: it takes 7.5 litres of water to produce 30ml of beer, and a whooping 13.2 litres for the same measurement of wine.
Fortunately for wineries, vineyards have plenty of surface area, and the recognition that natural elements can be helpful has caught on – in California alone, over 110 wineries are now solar-powered. Dana Estates, a Korean-owned organic vineyard in Napa Valley known for its Lotus Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon (the 2007 and 2010 vintages had scores of 100 from wine critic, Robert Parker), installed 800 solar modules to produce renewable energy enough to power over 81 homes daily. This prevents nearly 117 tonnes of harmful greenhouse gases from being released annually.
Champagne
Across the pond, in France, the world’s first vegan champagne, Champagne Duval-Leroy, has adapted the maintenance of its vineyards to nature: “We’ve taken a resource-conservation approach to prevent runoff and groundwater pollution, optimized machinery, and decreased our use of herbicides by over 70 per cent since the late 1970s through the grassing over of plots and using alternatives to insecticides, such as insect sexual confusion techniques,” said Julien Duval-Leroy, sixth generation owner of Duval-Leroy. In an environment and industry that depends heavily on pesticides, the Duval-Leroys’ commitment (it took them 20 years to finally convert their champagne vegan in 2015) is astounding. These steps not only prolong the life of the vineyards, they also improve the taste of the champagne as the process allows the sparkling wine to become more developed.
Cider
The argument has been made, however, that among all the spirits, the cider may have the lowest environmental impact. It boils down to how it is made: apples are pressed, then fermented at a much lower temperature than at beer- and wine-making, before being bottled. This means less consumption of fuel, and – this applies for all spirits – if you’re consuming it where it is brewed, your carbon footprint is minimized.
Whichever your choice, the drift in spirits is clear: with more production methods going the sustainable route, and spirit consumption benefitting more environmental and conservation issues, the bar will become a more conscious meeting place. The way these ideas have gone, it might even turn into a social enterprise.
This article was first published by SC Luxury in February 2016.
