It’s 2025: Sustainable grape growing is widely practised. But some wineries soar beyond the baseline to do all kinds of things to support Mother Earth. Here’s a list of six bottles from trail-blazing producers to help you shop, live and consume consciously — on Earth Day and beyond. Fun fact: Every wine on this list could sell for more.
2023 Gérard Bertrand Orange Gold Organic Wine, France
Gérard Bertrand puts the planet first by practising and championing organic and biodynamic winemaking. This bottle from his portfolio pays homage to the original orange wines made 4,500 years ago in Georgia. Like those ancient wines, Orange Gold is a blend of white grapes fermented in whole clusters with the skins and stalks intact. The result is brilliant: visually appealing, texturally satisfying and immediately engaging with aromas and flavours of grapefruit, olive brine and white pepper as well as cashew, orange pith, fresh bread and lemon oil. (13% alc., 4 g/L sugar)
2022 Descendientes de J. Palacios Pétalos, DO Bierzo, Spain
(Vintages 446484, $29.95)
Biodynamic grape growing reaches beyond organic practices to take a holistic and regenerative approach to viticulture. It embraces the interconnectedness of soil, plants, animals, humans and celestial elements such as the moon, sun and stars. Taste that approach in this biodynamic red based on the Spanish Mencía grape. It’s just so quietly alluring. You immediately know it’s something special as it alludes to berries and blood orange, spice and violet on the nose and palate. This wine is poised, elegant, energetic and earthy. It’s a dance for the senses. (13.5% alc., 3 g/L sugar)
2024 Tread Softly Pinot Grigio, Australia
Even the name of this wine is a nod to mindfulness: Tread Softly. It’s a new seasonal listing at the LCBO that’s certified sustainable, and the brand plants a tree for every six bottles sold. Since 2019, more than two million trees have been planted. Importantly, this sub-$15 offers good value. Each sip is a sunlit slip of bright-fruited vinosity. Fresh lemon-lime and floral scents lead to a taut, quenching, vibrant flood of flavour that hints at lime and sliced pear. Light, lively and easy to enjoy. (10.5% alc., 5 g/L sugar)
2023 Flat Rock Cellars Foundation Series Pinot Noir, VQA Niagara Peninsula
(Vintages Essential 1545, $24.94)
Flat Rock Cellars is Sustainable Winegrowing Ontario Certified — a rigorous certification that verifies the winery is a conscientious caretaker of the land. So when you drink this Pinot Noir, you support good things. Each swirl of the glass releases fragrant red and black berry aromas laced with chiselled slate and black olive. The texture is smooth but plush with a juicy centre and shifting allusions of underbrush and earth. This sophisticated yet approachable expression of Pinot Noir from Ontario is showing beautifully right now. (13% alc., 3 g/L sugar)
2024 Château des Charmes Sauvignon Blanc VQA Niagara-on-the-Lake
If you enjoy that burst of bright-fruited character found in New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, here’s something similar from a local winery that’s Sustainable Winegrowing Ontario Certified. This sassy Sauvignon Blanc opens with vivid scents of sliced Granny Smith apple and freshly cut grass before flooding in with a palate-drenching wash of juicy-pure fruit that flits from crunchy apple and kiwi fruit to damp herbs, salt and stone. Great buy from Ontario you can feel good about enjoying, especially during warmer months when you crave crisp whites. (12.5% alc., 2 g/L sugar)
2019 Quadrus Vinho Tinto Doura DOC, Portugal
(Vintages 440305, $25.95)
Quadrus is farmed organically and made by Torontonian Tony Amaro who also owns and runs Opus Restaurant in Toronto’s Yorkville. Quadrus is his passion project and this latest release on shelf is a knockout. Made from 55 per cent Touriga Nacional 30 per cent Tinta Roriz and 15 per cent Sousao, the wine draws you in with fragrant violet, poached plum, dried currant and fresh meat aromas. The entry is fresh-and-fleshy, a fistful of bold black fruit with cherry lift, blackberry depth, a cocoa powder and fruit cake finish. (14% alc., 2 g/L sugar)
