For every wine box sold, Australian company Vineful, plants trees as part of their advocacy to take care of the planet. The subscription wine service creates products in a mindful way by producing organic, preservative free, vegan friendly and biodynamic wines.
Inside FMCG interviewed Amy Miller, co-creator of Vineful. The wine company partnered with Carbon Neutral for their Plant-a-Tree Program. It sells monthly subscription boxes of wines for consumers. She tells Inside FMCG on how they create sustainable liquor.
Inside FMCG: Tell us how Vineful started?
Amy Miller: Our journey started with a group of wine industry mates who share a passion for organic wine, sustainable farming, community and the environment. We wanted to celebrate wines that matched our core beliefs and our desire for a more mindful lifestyle, and so Vineful was born.
We aim to offer a wine experience that reflects our commitment to quality and our core beliefs of being environmentally responsible, collaboration and giving back – while enjoying a delicious glass of wine.
Inside FMCG: What does Mindful Wines exactly mean?
AM: Wines that have been made with the consumer’s lifestyle and the environment in mind, such as organic, preservative-free, vegan and biodynamic wines.
Inside FMCG: Tell us about Vineful’s organic, biodynamic, vegan friendly or preservative free wines.
AM: For the novice, here’s a breakdown of the difference between these mindful wine categories:
Organic: The main difference between organic wine and traditional wine is that organic wines are made from grapes grown without artificial and chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides, with a focus instead on maintaining a healthy ecosystem. Organic farming is mindful of the environment and minimising any impact on the land.
Biodynamic wine: In organic wine the focus is on taking things away, like chemicals and pesticides, whereas biodynamic winemaking is all about enriching the processes – from planting to harvesting. Biodynamic winemaking shares the organic approach of no chemical intervention but adds in practices for enriching the soil, planting, pruning and harvesting based on the moon cycle and astrological signs.
Preservative free wine: These are wines with no added preservatives. Some preservatives in wine are a natural by-product of the winemaking process, which means that if you are sensitive to sulphur dioxide, look for wines that are labelled ‘free of or no added preservatives’ but know that minimal amounts of sulphur dioxide (SO2) may exist due to the fermenting process.
Vegan friendly wine: When a wine is first made it can look cloudy and less appealing, with floating, cloudy bits in it. To remove the cloudiness, winemakers use fining agents, which are like magnets that attract the floaters so they are easier to remove. The most common fining agents used in winemaking are casein (a milk protein) and albumin (egg whites), gelatin (animal protein), chitin (fibre from crustacean shells) and isinglass (fish bladder protein). In other words, exactly the things vegans are trying to avoid! The good news is there are a range of animal-friendly fining agents that can be used to make vegan wine, such as clay (bentonite), limestone and silica gel to name a few.
Inside FMCG: How did you partner with Carbon Neutral for their Plant-a-Tree Program?
AM: We’re passionate about minimising our impact on the environment and supporting the land we live on, and therefore wanted to partner with an organisation with a similar philosophy. Carbon Neutral is doing amazing things and after reaching out to see how we could work together we agreed to plant a tree for every box that we sell. So far, so good! We celebrate each time a box is sold because it means another tree is planted and this means providing habitat for native species as well as helping with climate change.
Inside FMCG: What else are you doing to support sustainability?
AM: We try to be mindful [in] every step of the way; where possible, we use recycled cardboard, and limit the amount of paper (for example, we don’t wrap our bottles and your tasting notes are digital). Our boxes have been engineered to eliminate plastic so you can carry your wines mindfully.
Inside FMCG: What’s your best selling wine?
AM: Our best selling wine is a mixed box of wine, the Organic Discovery Mix – it’s a great way to explore organic and vegan wine as it includes wine from a wide range of varieties and regions.
Inside FMCG: Any new products Vineful will launch in 2020?
AM: We recently launched Organic Gin and it’s been a huge success so we look forward to exploring more mindful categories in 2020 and seeing where the journey takes us.
