The Chilean wine industry should have a sustainability certification system up-and-running by the end of 2010.

A sustainability protocol developed by the University of Talca and winery Caliterra has been unveiled this week and it is hoped wineries meeting the criteria will use a seal of approval logo on their bottles from the 2011 vintage.

Sergio Cuadra, winemaker at Caliterra, told decanter.com, ‘The only problem with sustainability is that it isn’t certifiable so we have worked on creating a system. It is still being developed and needs to be fine tuned but should be ready by the end of 2010.’

The scheme will work on a points system, awarding high marks to the most environmentally-friendly vineyards and wineries. It also assesses a company’s social policies, including its impact on local communities.

Sustainability has been criticised for being a vague concept. Cuadra defined it as ‘having profitable companies who take care of the environment and are socially responsible. It can include organics but organics only relates to production of grapes and that doesn’t take into consideration things like soil erosion or energy use. Sustainability is a much wider programme.’

Written by Rebecca Gibb

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Rebecca Gibb MW
Rebecca Gibb MW
Decanter Magazine & DWWA Judge

Rebecca Gibb MW is a wine journalist and editor who has also founded Bamboozled games, ‘the world’s first wine and spirit puzzle makers’. Having spent six years living in New Zealand, she has recently returned to her native north-east England. While in New Zealand, she became a Master of Wine, graduating top of her class and winning the Madame Bollinger medal for excellence in tasting. A former winner of both the UK’s young wine writer of the year and the Louis Roederer Emerging Wine Writer, her first book The Wines of New Zealand was published in 2018. She also runs wine events and has her own consultancy business The Drinks Project. She was a judge at the 2019 Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA).