It's nearly Earth Day and today’s episode is all about sustainability and wine. I'm speaking with Mickael Alborghetti, the CEO and founder of Ethic Drinks. Mickael is the grandson of Burgundy winegrowers, the son of an environmentalist, and is himself an experienced wine negociant. He recently launched a venture that blends the wisdom of his upbringing with his passion for the environment to create a company offering quality wines that are vegan and planet-friendly. With supply chain innovation all the way from the vineyard through packaging to transit, they are the first carbon-neutral wine company in France. We’ll chat all about his company, then taste a few of their wines from our collection.
This week is the 51st annual celebration of Earth Day, so we are going to be talking about wine and sustainability. Our guest is Mickael Alborghetti, the CEO and founder of Ethic Drinks. Mickael is the grandson of Burgundy winegrowers, the son of an environmentalist, and is himself an experienced wine negociant. He recently launched a venture that blends the wisdom of his upbringing with his passion for the environment to create a company offering quality wines that are vegan and planet-friendly.
But what does this mean? In one of the world’s top wine-producing countries, EthicDrinks top of class when it comes to sustainability. With supply chain innovation all the way from the vineyard through packaging to transit, they are the first carbon-neutral wine company in France. Mickael offers winemakers who share his passion a method for planet-friendly distribution and customers delicious wines that part of the solution, not the problem.
Wines Tasted:
From France
From Southern France comes 2019 Merveille de Vignes Chardonnay, a fresh, vegan white wine that's as good in the glass as it is good for the Earth. Discover a beautiful balance of crisp apple and creamy peach notes, joined by hints of citrus, white flowers, and tropical fruits. The finish is dry, smooth, and wonderfully refreshing.
Fresh and fruity, 2019 Merveille de Vignes Grenache Rosé is a dry French Rosé that is vegan. Made from red Grenache grapes, this easy-drinking Rosé offers voluptuous aromas of red fruits with hints of raspberry and strawberry. An elegant choice for any occasion, it is wonderfully refreshing.
Juicy fruit notes mingle with silky tannins in 2019 Merveille de Vignes Merlot, a vegan Merlot. Fine aromas of plum, black fruits, and spices make a delicious first impression. On the palate, notes of blackberry, vanilla, and licorice lead to a balanced finish with silky tannins. This elegant, medium-bodied red will get along splendidly with roast chicken, pork ribs, skirt steak, and various cheeses.
“Merveille de Vignes” translates to “the Beauty of the Vines” and symbolizes the vine's ability to adapt to the environment and people.
At Wine Insiders, we love French wine and have a special fondness for Bordeaux and the south of France. France is renowned worldwide for its esteemed regions offering world-class taste and southern France is ripe with regions offering excellent wine at affordable prices. We especially love Ethic Drinks wines because without compromising on taste they can blend, bottle, and ship wine to us sustainably. We know you'll enjoy hearing what this involves from Mickael and sipping alongside as he talks about his planet-friendly wines.
Sniff Sip Repeat is brought to you by Wine Insiders, leaders in online wine. Wine Insiders makes buying great wine easy. Founded in 1982 as a club for California wine enthusiasts, Wine Insiders now offers high-quality wines from around the world for the best value and conveniently shipped to your door in just days. The collection is curated by a host of food and wine industry and lifestyle experts, such as Martha Stewart, Chef Geoffrey Zakarian, and Chef Ludo Lefebvre. Learn more about the wines or shop now to taste alongside our podcast guests.
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Kristin:
From wine insiders. This is sniff sip, repeat a monthly podcast for lively discussions, all about wine. In each episode, we'll be speaking with industry experts from vineyards and tasting rooms, to restaurant and retail. To give you a little inspiration for what to pour next. I'm your host, Kristen. And I've worked in the wine industry for many years now, and I'm excited to bring conversations with my peers directly to you. Are you ready? Let's take a sip.
This week is the 51st annual celebration of earth day. So we're going to be talking all about wine and sustainability. Our guest is Mickael Alborghetti, the CEO and founder of Ethic Drinks. Mickael is the grandson of burgundy wine growers, the son of an environmentalist and himself and experienced wine to go see on. He recently launched a venture that blends the wisdom of his upbringing with his passion, for the environment, to create a company that offers quality wines that are planet friendly.
But what does this mean in one of the world's top wine producing countries? Ethic drinks is top of class. When it comes to sustainability with supply chain innovation all the way from the vineyard through packaging to transit, they've become the first carbon neutral wine company in France. Mickael offers wine makers who share his passion, a method for planet friendly distribution, and he offers customers delicious wines that are part of the solution, not the problem. So we'll chat all about his company and then taste a few wines from their collection. So welcome to the podcast, Mickael, thanks for joining me today.
Mickael:
Good to see you. Good to hear you.
Kristin:
Good to see you and hear you. So thank you so much for joining me today. I'm really excited to talk. We have already talked in the past a little bit about sustainability. I love what you're doing with Ethic Drinks, and I wanted to share a lot of it with our listeners, especially because tomorrow is earth day. But before we get into a lot of that, I'd like to begin the show by sharing a lot about our guests background. So can you tell me a little bit about how you got started in the wine industry?
Mickael:
So I always grew up in the wine, you know, environment with my grandparents having vineyards and wine was always involved in my life. I didn't know I was moving into wine until the eighties when I was old enough in France to taste wine. Since then I've been involved in wine every minute. Wine is part off of my history and is part of my present now.
Kristin:
At what point did you decide then to have this goal that's very different, a different type of entrepreneurship? Is this something that was early on or was it inspired by something within your career?
Mickael:
I always wanted to launch my company and to do something that really fit what I feel is right. Uh, and very the click happened to me in 2019, when I was traveling Indonesia, and when I saw all the plastic in the ocean and I was like, I need to do something else for the planet. And it's where it, it really started to emerge and I quit my job and launched Ethic Drinks in 2019 September.
Kristin:
Plastic is it is actually a huge problem. It's one of the first things that we studied in class. I'm taking some classes on sustainability and it's amazing the amount of plastic that is, that is created every day. And when you start thinking about every single person flying on every single flight on an airplane every day, and they don't do it as much anymore, but they used to hand out a plastic cup with a, with a can of soda or a drink.
Mickael:
We eat about, the statistics we have in France is like, we, everyone in France, eat on one credit card, five gram of plastic per week. Can you imagine that? That's crazy.
Kristin:
That is crazy. I want to get a little academic for a moment because many people have heard the phrase sustainability, and a lot of people know about the problems with plastic and straws. And, but really those are just broad strokes. And so I thought maybe it would be helpful to give a definition for the few listeners who might not know much about what sustainability is, you know, the way I think about it. And the way we talk about it in class is really, it can be applied to many things, whether it's the environment or even the profitability of business, sustainability is really just the ability to operate where your current actions don't really endanger your future needs or potential. And so when you talk about the planet as a resource, obviously it means not creating the waste that we just talked about with regards to plastic. It means renewable energy, so that you're not using all your resources with ethics. One of the things you do focus on is the recycled material, no plastics in your packaging. And I know that you have met the criteria for certified B corporation. So can you tell me a little bit about just you personally, what sustainability means to you as a person, as a business owner, and then a little bit about the people you work with and how it's integrated in the lives of the farmers and the viticulturists?
Mickael:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're right. Sustainability means a lot of things. And it's not very, I mean, there is a lot of definition. Um, what do we have, uh, the, the path we are taking for Ethic Drinks in term of sustainability is that first we want, if any of our, uh, materials or product and up in wildlife, we don't want them to, uh, to impact the wildlife. So this is why we have banned the plastic from our company, uh, because plastic can be recycled most of the time you are gonna’ see that on most of the packaging, but in fact, it's not very recycled. It's crazy. So zero plastic is, are number one engagement. And then the, I can say second but it’s like number one as equal is zero carbon, because carbon, uh, is the biggest impact of the wine is the carbon and, or on, on, uh, on that in our industry we are a carbon neutral certified company, which that means we obviously have some emission because, you know, even breathing for me some CO2, but we are minimizing every part of the chain. By working with biofuel, by using lighter glass bottle, uh, we are building a sailboat with a partner to ship wine to the U S, by, in 2022. So 90% of carbon-free, uh, and then we tear up some emission, uh, which are the minimum in the industry. And we have a project, in partnership with a local producer. We are going to plant four acres of forest in St. Emillion to compensate for our emission. So we didn't locally because yeah, you know, you can buy some carbon credits, but I don't believe in that. So we do very locally, very involved. That brings for Ethic Drinks to zero carbon. And we do from the carbon calculations from the cycle of the vines to the port in the U.S. where you get the wine. We calculate everything, even the shipping to you and soon the sailboat.
Kristin:
The sailboat is going to be fun! I want to hear about the sailboat. Oh gosh. I've just pictured Greta Thuneberg coming over here on her visit on a boat. I love that you're going to have a boat. That's fantastic.
Mickael:
Yeah. Yeah. My trial was it one day now we can actually do the, it's a huge sell, but it's not, it's like a cargo sailboat. You're looking at 200 a yard and book two. It's pretty big. It's like a football field size.
Kristin:
Wow. That's amazing. Well, when I was a kid, we had a sailboat, so I know a lot of sailors knots. I'm not a very good sailor, but I volunteer to like, go on the boat and take some photos for you.
Mickael:
So you can do the return.
Kristin:
I can do the return. Yeah, absolutely. I've come with customer feedback. How does that sound? I feel like all of our listeners can tell me, and then I will ride right back over there. That's fantastic. Uh, that's, that's huge. That's really exciting. In 2022. Okay.
Mickael:
Yeah. It's next year. It seems. Yeah. That's going to be fun. Yeah.
Kristin:
Do you get to name the boat? What are you going to name the boat?
Mickael:
Uh, [inaudible] uh, what's the, we have four boats coming, so we'll see. What is the name we're going to be okay. I'm sure we will be supplying the champagne that's for sure.
Kristin:
That's awesome. Oh, I'm so excited. That's fantastic. Uh, you know, cause some of the things that you work on in sustainability are not as romantic as a sailboat. I have to say like I'm studying myself in waste management, recycling, you know, it's like, it's very interesting if you're into that, which I am, but some of it is a little less glamorous but the sailboat is cool.
Mickael:
It doesn’t all smell good. That's the good way to put it.
Kristin:
One of the things I do think about with sustainability also is people do have to adapt. And a lot of times in both business and technology, innovation comes from people who are striving to be more sustainable. It's like where the great ideas come from. And I know I've, um, we've had another guest on the podcast, Alex Dale, and he he's talked a little bit about innovations in his vineyard. He used to—I'll give you two examples from that podcast—he, in order to not have to shoot the deer that were coming to the vineyard, they put dog hair and little bags around to like scare the animals off. So they didn't have to kill the animals. And he talked a lot about, instead of putting poison in the vineyard, they just put a perching post. So the birds would come and then the birds took care of the rodents. And he had a lot of ideas that I think are aligned with your vision of less impact, less impact on the environment. Are there innovations you can, that you're happy to share about what you've done that you're proud of?
Mickael:
Yeah, of course. I mean, we've done innovation at every step of the, or, um, real cure is to select good wine, blend them and boil them, uh, in a sustainable way. So we, we have important of vineyards, but we are with organic farmers already that are already doing another things. Uh, what we have done is reverie Sinead, the, um, the job of the, the, the blending and the balding and the shipping, um, that's master. So we, we use, for example, we have introduced a biofuel truck for the bill coin, so we transport it to boredom. Uh, then we're the first in France. We moved the capsule of the wall, uh, in USA. You have seen this out for a while, but in France we have a tax on a capsule. So it's very sense that we can actually remove it. Um, then we have developed a potato, uh, glue for the label, uh, and we're also the first one to use FSC and recycled paper for the, for the label.
Mickael:
Uh, we have a recycle, um, wrap for the pallet as well. Um, every bottle for what we do, uh, we try to innovate and find the keenest and the greener solution for the planet. It's more expensive. You know, you are blessed profit, but it's more longterm, everything you do. Uh, you have a longterm, like let's say you're doing for your kids. Uh, one of my clients told me like, I love your projects. I'm not doing that for me. Uh, once he the reservoir, but I'm using for my, for my daughter. So I was a very poor form. Uh, and back for me,
Kristin:
I think about the same things. I have a 13 year old daughter and we talk a lot about that. And actually when I was younger, one of my first jobs outside of college, I worked at a nonprofit, uh, w the friends of the earth. So I'm actually also interested in your connection with the world wildlife fund. Could you speak to that a little bit?
Mickael:
Yeah. So where do I fall once? You know, it was a kid's dream. I always grew up with the Panda, you know, in my mind, uh, when I launched a company, the first thing. So I was like, oh, can I help them? Um, you know, do what they, you know, one day is one thing. Um, but they do so many things and they're very expert and it's actually, you can trust them. Um, so what we, we contacted them and we find out they have that, uh, that club for cooperate. Uh, but it's not only do you give them money. That was, I think short, thank you. Thinking is actually have a club where the age makes you, you actually respect their engagement for the planet, like using recycled paper, not using plastic, uh, not involved in the meat or fishing, you know, not just in a more fishing business.
Mickael:
So they do all of those kind of check on your company. And then you have to pitch in front of 15, uh, uh, the board of the worldwide fund in France. And they say, yes, you're, you're a clean company in your field. And it's what we got. So now we are a member of the worldwide phone, uh, corporate com, which is, uh, we can use their logo. We, we get email from them, we get to meeting and we get the expertise, uh, and ultra product and communicate the, the good money or to preserve the biodiversity and, uh, and the planet.
Kristin:
That's fantastic. So I think what you're really offering is people who care about all of those things, either in their personal life or people like you that are trying to make a difference. You're offering them a way to drink and consume wine where there's, there's less impact essentially
Mickael:
Exactly. That we, we don't want to, uh, to push the consumption, like increase the consumption of the wine, but, uh, we want to replace, uh, the consumption of wines. That's not going toward the frigerator and helping the planet. Uh, we really give a customer a good wine that is align, uh, with the future of our four key than the planet. I mean, uh, I mean, when I started, I had a lot of fighter with old negotiation in Bordeaux and I kind of feel like, yeah, climate change is always append in the world, like, yeah. But I mean, and we're just leaving that right now. We are the huge frost last week, um, in our, in the people, our memory never happened at heart, so, okay. Climate change has been a thing. We, uh, you know, we used to, I sort of, uh, Europe, uh, but never happened that fast. So, and being carbon zero company, uh, we, you know, we are the only negotiate on fighting against climate change on the business. So I'm pretty proud of that.
Kristin:
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You should be proud of that. You, you mentioned the frost last week. I read about that. And, um, I know that I read about Burgundy. Was it also in Bordeaux?
Mickael:
Was it all over it's everywhere? Uh, the estimate is like 70% of fringe vineyard, and I've been here and region that never seen any forest, like Provence, uh, longer dock, uh, which is no money. You know, we went and we got minus six degrees over there. So, uh, yeah, in Friday night and I think it's, uh, 20 something like that. Yeah.
Kristin:
I saw Emmanuel Macron, uh, posted about it on Instagram and I saw the photos. So can we talk about that for a moment? So obviously climate change people, it's funny, people use to refer to it as global warming. And I think they understand that it's not just the warming, it's the cold, it's the unpredictable weather. And so now it's referred to as climate change. And one of the things that you have to do in the vineyards when there's a late frost is you have to warm them. So you put fire and warm the grapes. Is that right?
Mickael:
Yeah. You put like lead a candle. I feel kind of like the size of a computer and a high and, and, and then, and yeah, you put them every five meters and then you warm up the vineyards, uh, to avoid the frost. Uh, or you can put smoke. You, you, you fire some, uh, you put some fire in the vineyards and you, you create some smoke. Uh, but this worked for minus two minus three degrees, but we had minus six or minus seven, and at this temperature, nothing works. Uh it's. So that's
Kristin:
Why it's so devastating. I did an, I did read that most people lost almost everything.
Mickael:
So it wasn't a one night he was like five nights. Oh
Kristin:
My gosh. That I did not know. Okay.
Mickael:
Um, but to give you an example in France, in March, we are the warmest day ever recorded in March. And in April, we added the coldest day ever. We recorded
Kristin:
One of the things that climate change has impacted. I know from other winemakers I've talked to is for example, they have to harvest a lot earlier in some places when the weather is, as you said, kind of warm and things are ripening. So in addition to, for us, you also have like a, just a change in, and the nature of how everything is going to be harvested. Is that right?
Mickael:
The biggest issue is like a variety of Arvest. Uh, we used to last, we say in a wine in France, we used to last one Arvest every 10 years. And it seems no it's every four years, it's changing the game for the growers. Uh, I was talking this morning, one growers going to stop working. Uh, it's going to be a challenge it's challenging, but you can change the blend, the grapes, the, the way we prune, the way we, you know, the type of grapes we grow. Um, we w we will adapt as we have always done.
Kristin:
Okay. We've talked a lot about sustainability and your mission as a company, which is great. And I could talk about that all day, but I do think it would be important to talk a bit about the wines. I know that we have at least seven in our collection, but how many of you currently produce, I know there's more that we're looking at.
Mickael:
Um, uh, yeah, we're free wines around, you know? Yeah. Uh, and we had the seven wines in bottling this week. Uh, no, we are growing, um, we are growing people and a lot of growers are contacting us that they like, Hey, I work, I do my best all year long to, to raise the cleanest wine. Uh, but then I don't have control on the, on the, all the logistics, the shipping, the blending. So can you help me on that? Uh, so that's, you know, it's very good that you can help the grower to, to pursue their mission, to protect the planet and their terroir. Uh, and yeah, we are hoping to have much more wine by next year. We have wine from Spain, all over France, um, and, uh, all the wines got gold medal so far. So we're pretty, pretty happy with that as well.
Kristin:
Yeah, that's fantastic. I think there is definitely a misconception that somehow making efforts towards sustainability can equate to diminish quality and profit. And it's the opposite, I think is true a lot of times. So, um, I'm really glad to hear that. That's great. You touched on a little bit about how people are reaching out to you with regards to the process. And it's not a question so much as a comment is one of the things that I think is hardest for people to understand is how long the supply chain is that you can, you can do the organic farming, but then if you put it in a bottle and you ship it, and it has a huge carbon footprint, you're not making much of a, you're not making much of a positive impact. So I just want to call out and say, it's amazing that you've put all of your efforts into the end to end, because there's just so much that happens to get from a grape to a glass at someone's house. And so it's really impressive. So I picked a few wines for us to taste today from our collection. I don't know if I'm going to pronounce these correctly, is it [inaudible]?
Kristin:
No,
Mickael:
We're perfect. Yeah. See, your French is coming back to vignette, which the beauty of the vine,
Kristin:
The beauty of the vine. Okay. Merivale the vignette Chardonnay is the first one I chose. So this one I know is from Southern France. I know it's crest, apple and peach notes. There's a lot of floral and tropical notes in there as well. And I think you mentioned all the wines are award winners. Can you talk to us a little bit about this wine and what it, you know, what it means to have it in the collection?
Mickael:
Yeah, the, the, the Charlotte we were doing, it's a, it's near Carcassonne, which is a beautiful city in south of France. Um, this one is, you said, as varied as the, what I love about this one, he has the fruitiness of one of sofa, friends, like peach lemon, um, a little bit of flame as well, and another floor like Acacia and, um, and, uh, white floor, like, uh, only circle or touch on it. And on the palette, it's very generous, but with CRISPR sitting, which magnets one, uh, drinkable for by itself, which is a good point and with a food, I love this one with cheese. Uh, if you have a good cheese without wine, uh, it's going to be a perfect bearing. And it's a beautiful expression is what software France can offer is generosity of fruit, um, with a nice crisp Venus and a drink community, all our wines. We want to make them with drinkability. Uh, I want to be able to drink them on a pasture by themself. And even if, you know, we can drink some high-end wine, sometimes a French people, or should do as a, you know, um, but we, I love this wine and this is my to go when I, when I am always there, when I have cheese are just in the summer time. It's perfect.
Kristin:
Chardonnay is hugely popular worldwide. So it's obviously hugely popular with our audience as well. And I think that it's obviously a very French varietals. I know it's in some regions, it's the, one of the only bar and varietals that's made.
Mickael:
Yeah. Like in burgundy, I mean, this is from burgundy, as you know, as a funny story about Charlie, the near Charlotte is like junior neck, uh, village name in burgundy. And my grandparents live a five kilometer from the village, which was name is Shawnee. So since I'm a kid, I used to go to show that the village. So that was pretty, I always grew up in [inaudible] because it should be your drink of choice. Yeah. Uh,
Kristin:
That's fantastic. I did not know that there was a village named Chardonnay, actually. It's
Mickael:
Tiny, it's like 100 person living there,
Kristin:
99, because now you don't live there anymore.
Mickael:
Uh, no, it's funny. Yeah. At first I made CRO that as my grip president, is that related to the grape, is that because the shutters come from here and obviously, yeah, come from here, you know that, but you know, when you travel 100 curators shoved the next from here, so I find, but, uh,
Kristin:
And that's interesting. Okay, cool. [inaudible] is up next. And this I know is Grenache grapes, obviously, and it's an easy drinking Rosa, but why don't you tell me more about the flavors of this wine?
Mickael:
So this is, um, a Grenache aggression, very whole variety from Southeast of France, uh, growing in Bush vines. Most of it, um, it's, it's beautiful, rosy, which has a nice crispiness with a lot of fruit. You have some white strawberry on the nose. Is that true? Having some raspberry as well? Um, some red Koreans, I know even a bit of spice that goes with, even when you say Granada was there sometimes in the vineyard, it's all vineyard. You have some Sierra sort of CRA is coming to give you some spices. Um, but you know, it's ordinary people don't know exactly what they are, but they know it's more cigarette Ash. So you get that nice minerally deed to the rosy, uh, which may get awesome by itself, but also with food, uh, to Junifer wine with, uh, with two mental sides, uh, as an aperitif, or if you're going to do some cheese and charcuterie predators, um, [inaudible] and, uh, you know, we encourage construction as you know, and also if you want to do some, if you want to have some fish, uh, it's pretty beautiful. We species,
Kristin:
I think Rosa is quintessentially French. I mean,
Mickael:
It is, it is. Yeah. I mean, but America is doing a great job with
Kristin:
Plenty of there's. Plenty of Francophiles here. Myself included.
Mickael:
Yeah, no, no, but I mean, yeah, girlfriend, when it comes to rosacea and girlfriend French, but last weekend I had an American, uh, camera Anissa video, um, red, you see, even in Bordeaux, so you see, we're not on the French drinker.
Kristin:
Ah, that's great. Yeah. Well, Rosa is definitely becoming more popular every year. I feel well, let's also talk, the third one that I picked from the collection is the, Merlow
Mickael:
The king Marilou.
Kristin:
Let's talk about Merlow I love for though there's a famous story about a movie that came out here where the character didn't drink Morello. Oh yeah.
Mickael:
I've seen that one. That's saying, yeah, I'm not going to drink any marijuana. Right.
Kristin:
Which is a personal choice because I think in the story it's that his ex-girlfriend or ex-wife liked though. So unfortunately we're a low, took a hit in the states, but I mean, I love Merlow, it's such a round, uh, fruit forward grape. So let's talk a little bit about your Marla
Mickael:
And yeah. And, uh, talking about the film and the end of the film is drinking Chavon bra, which is mostly narrow the beauty of the film.
Kristin:
Yeah. A subtle nod to his closure, I guess. Right? Yeah,
Mickael:
Exactly. Yeah. What's beautiful. Robert merely that it's a grid that can give you the best or the worst. Uh, in mermaid of, in case we have the best, we have a lot of fruit, uh, which is more red fruit. Uh, you have some plant. I mean, they're both very good plan cherry as well. I mean, it was spices like black pepper, um, and a long finish. Um, it's not a tonic finish for you. The mirror is not just tanning, so it's a smooth finish, you know, with a nice drinker within this white to make it beautiful. You can have a sip or two, maybe three and four, if you have the wrong name and you can prepare a memo with love as the SUV of wine, when it comes to what are, you don't know what you're going to eat or what you're going to do, what'd you going to drink? Or where are you growing marijuana? And so where the smart choice, because it can go on anything. And especially in this one, he has a long finish and pleasant finish and refreshing. Even if it's from south of France, it's still refreshing. And you can have that in any occasion, um, you know, barbecue or be awesome. Um, and the, uh, true, nice steak from your phone with you also, um, our chairs, our chairs will be a good choice, uh, and maybe the best choice is be itself to enjoy it.
Kristin:
I think that we have a few holidays coming up in the states it's Memorial day and others where people do a lot of grilling and barbecue. So there's a lot of, uh, steak and roast chicken and other things that I can envision pairing this to. It seems like it would be a good barbecue wine.
Mickael:
It is. Yeah, it's a, it's good for wine with me. Um, especially with worsted chicken, as he done, you know, most the chicken is not very a fat meat. Um, and so you're looking for what a red wine that doesn't have much talent, so they can combine that with the fatness. I mean, even is there is not much fatness on the, on the chicken and give you a longer finish and [inaudible] and the complexity. And it's a beautiful pairing.
Kristin:
I think a lot of people listening might benefit from some everyday tips for earth day. So in honor of earth day, do you have any suggestions for things people consider when they're shopping for wine? Um, and frankly, anything like to kind of lead a more green life?
Mickael:
Yeah, I mean the, the first first day is to select the Greeks wine, but if there is no iTech drinks and you don't have access to internet, you go on one insiders. Um, you should look for organic or sustainable practice wine. Um, always look for a certificate, uh, because you know, it's, uh, they're here for a good reason. And then it was a topic for a week to sit at the light. Uh, weight does well, uh, the weight of the glass ball or used to mean that the wine was good or better, but now 60 years ago is not the case anymore. So focus on light. Uh, if you can choose a bar without a capture is better. And with natural cork, please avoid the plastic cork that you see on some wall. And if you can avoid this cookout cookout, it's not recycle. Uh, that was, that would be a good choice if you can choose a real court. And, um, that's, that's already a very good choice. And we say called the glass when you were finished with it, I'll use it as a wire ball. And, uh, that will be [inaudible] will be, won't be doing that. It will be a better penetrating the wine business
Kristin:
Has this project taken you down a path where you've changed anything in your own lifestyle? I mean, are there changes that you've made recently born out of what you've learned with regards to packaging and transit and all that?
Mickael:
Yeah, what we have done personally is to really remove the plastic bang in arrive. Um, you know, we used to, you know, we, we minimize, as we learned in the past, we recycled it and we thought, oh, okay, that was good when we say grid, but working on a degree from here visited some recycling facilities. And actually we find out that most lemons, there is a lot of that stigma that is not recycled. Even if you put in your being, they corrected for recycling. A lot of plastic is not good for recycling. So it goes to trash or burning. That was a shocking discovery and another discovery. I mean, it was like 30% of the plastic that has been made since the seventies has ended up in wildlife. It's crazy.
Kristin:
It's amazing to me when I start to go down this path of trying to do better myself and I notice things more, I went, I was, I usually make coffee at home. Almost never get coffee out, but I was traveling. And so I was in a Starbucks and I watched the person in front of me order a croissant, and they took it out of a plastic bag and put it in a paper bag to give to them. They basically, it was to two bags for a P a pastry that you could just buy fresh from a pastry shop. And I thought, this is terrible. This is what they do. I mean, not to, not to, um, criticized Starbucks too harshly because they are making their own efforts in other areas. But it it's this thing that I think everyone takes for granted, um, is the packaging. And so I would say that packaging has been an area that I've noticed when I grocery shop. It's the biggest change probably
Mickael:
It's yeah. It's usually anywhere. Yeah. Mean, you find out that you don't have much trash. No, it's great. We, we, we, you know, like five years ago we used to fall back like two or three times a week. Now it's not even one time a week is going to make your, you know, your life easier going away from packaging as well.
Kristin:
Yeah. And I've noticed that a lot of people, at least here, anecdotally, and with my friends, I've noticed people don't know how to recycle. They throw things away and they don't clean it first. And so a lot of times things that are candidates for recycling get thrown out because they're dirty when you put them in the recycle bin. And I've had to explain to people I'm like, all you have to do is rinse it, put it in and clean it so that it actually gets recycled. And some to your point, a lot of it's still does not get recycled, but I think doing the best you can do. And there's a podcast I listened to called the energy gang that I love. And, you know, they make jokes about, it's really hard to get the peanut butter out of the jar. And I actually washed peanut butter jars before the dishwasher, before the recycle fan, because it's, you know, the best way to recycle is to actually have everything be clean. We love
Mickael:
You. We, uh, we can go in front of the house. I mean, in Bordeaux and we have a peanut butter milk, we can buy it in bulk. You go with your own box and you'll feel it. And you can come back and feel always been a bitter again.
Kristin:
Oh, that's I have not done peanut butter in bulk. I do a lot of bulk food at Erewhon and whole foods, which are my two local stores. And I have actually switched to a lot of things in bulk. And I mean, even things that I it's just like chocolate chips, like if I'm going to make chocolate chip cookies with my daughter, carob chips, like I, for years, there's just buy them in plastic and everything is, most things are available in bulk. So I have switched over to that and I've also switched to, I don't, I don't drink milk anymore. I drink, uh, oat milk and almond milk, but you know, in the years where I've moved to a more, uh, plant-based diet, I slowly but surely I also changed packaging. It's crazy. It's all I think about now. It's all I can see. It's once your eyes are open to it, it's just crazy.
Mickael:
It is, but we have much more option now. So it's increasing so less degree.
Kristin:
Thank you so much for taking time to talk to me today. I'm really excited to share a lot about your wines for earth day, because it is just very impressive what you've accomplished, and we're just so happy to have your wines in the collection at wine insiders. So I'm going to have everybody drinking, ethics, drinks, wine this earth day and thereafter. Um,
Mickael:
Sounds like a plan. Yeah.
Kristin:
Good plan for the planet. So I hope you'll keep us posted on your new innovations and your new wines, and hopefully we can talk again and, um, see what you're up to. And I'm going to request formally a reservation for the sailboat when you've got, when you've got it. I can visit because I want to try to make my travel a little more
Mickael:
And we'll do some, uh, quality control of the Rosé, the cruise, right. Sounds like
Kristin:
A perfect plan. Quality control of the rows, a and a zero.
Mickael:
Yeah. And that was our baseline, uh, for half day, cheers to the planet. It's it drinks baselines. It's a good baseline for her of the
Kristin:
Planet. Well, thank you so much.
Mickael:
Cheers to you, Christine and cheers to where everyone's at once a better planet for their kids or for themselves. And to be honest, we, if everyone in the wine business was doing where we are, we are doing the planet will be much better on the carbon footprint and it's not hard. It's just, you have to think about it, that's it.
Kristin:
It's not hard. And it's on every level. I think that even the smallest changes can add up. And I think it's amazing. I mean, to your referencing of the corks, if we just, if there were no plastic corks and it was screw caps, that's a huge, huge impact that a positive impact that could be made because there's so much wine that is drank every day, every day,
Mickael:
Just a continent or I take drinks, you're serving, uh, 500 pounds of plastic and it's a six round trip, New York to Paris, the carbon impact. Can you imagine that? Just had to just switching. So it's, it's crazy. Yeah. We have, uh, what people start, you know, we, we see the suddenly we're seeing the impact of the climate change and the COVID once the COVID of tip toters is like, we're not invisible as a spices anymore. So yeah, we need to take care of our planet or are we going to disappear from it? Life is going to be harder.
Kristin:
This, this, uh, this past year has probably shown to many people how connected we are all are. And I think that's a good foundation for making change. So hopefully a lot of good change will come out of the next few years. I'm really excited that we had a chance to chat today. So thank you so much
Today on the podcast we tasted three wines EthicDrinks French wines:
You can find more of their wines including Sauvignon Blanc and red blends at on our web site
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