1788 "Clos du Griffier" was sold to a Frenchman for 25,000 Euros

The Munich-based company Climate Partner, which was founded in 2006, is a real expert in this field. The company has subsidiaries in Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and the United States and currently has about 300 customers in numerous countries that work "climate-neutrally". Wine is a rather young section in this business. The sense of ecologic viticulture, however, has been on the rise in the past years - also and above all in Austria.

It is a logic step to pursue the protection of our climate as well as nature. Some people even take this step first. For instance, the oldest winery in Austria, the diocese Klosterneuburg (founded in 1114), which is among the most significant producers of wine with its 108 hectares of vineyards. It can now officially call itself "Austria's first climate-neutral winery" - after the "first climate-neutral wine" that was presented by the Purbach vintager Birgit Braunstein with her red Cuvée Oxhoft (Blaufränkisch, Zweigelt, Cabernet Sauvignon) in spring 2009. (we reported - the article)

In both cases, a thorough analysis was carried out by Climate Partner. All work steps were taken into consideration, from the picking of the grapes to the later wine transport to the customer. This showed that biodynamic or ecologic viticulture is not necessarily only advantageous, since there is no use of synthetic sprays, which means that you have to drive to the vineyard back and forth, ultimately causing additional emissions.

At the diocese winery a number of measures, including climate-certifications, took place and brought forth a proud result. "We've taken about 1.75 c CO2 from our bottles", says manager Wolfgang Hamm. "That is one cubic meter of gas." Not only did energy efficiency count in production but also the change of the energy supply to sustainable sources and the reduction of airplane trips to export markets. There is also a feature of the location there, with the deep, cool cellars of the winery, where there is no need for air conditioning.

There are first contacts with vintagers in Germany. The Franconian eco-pioneer Gerhard Roth almost wanted to become a Partner, when he found out about the positive conditions (1200 euro at 100 000 liters of wine), however, he declined, since the Franconian viticulture's association intends to start a joint project, where there will even be financial support from the government.

Not only Franconians and Austrians did their part in climate protection. In the whole world, measurements are taken, for example the determination of a CO2-footprint. This is the number of greenhouse gases that are released during the production of a wine until it is sold. This system is designed to find flaws. The senior technical college of Bingen already provided a research project on this topic. (aw.yoopress)