Kiwi wine to display carbon emissions, by the glass

A New Zealand wine will be the first to display its carbon emissions by the individual glass serving.

Each bottle of Mobius Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc will display its carbon emissions, per 125ml glass, on the label.

Bottles shipped in New Zealand, for example, will carry a figure of 140g CO2, whereas bottles sold in Australia will display 190g.

A higher figure is due to be calculated for the UK market.

The timing of the launch comes at a time when low prices, rather than environmental concerns, are driving wine sales.

Craig Fowles, sustainability and compliance coordinator at The New Zealand Wine Company, which produces Mobius, admitted: ‘Price is still the number one factor for consumers. Ethics and the environment are lower priorities. But after the recession, people will be looking for products that give them a warm fuzzy feeling.’

A 750ml bottle of wine at 190g CO2 per glass equates to a 5km car journey or 14km ride on the London underground.

Written by Rebecca Gibb

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).