- The Drop
More drinks to feel good about
Producers across Australia and New Zealand are making a real commitment to creating delicious drinks that are better for the earth and for our wellbeing.
Looking to try something new this spring? After exploring making conscious choices in ‘Drinks to feel good about’, we’ve found more makers and shakers of the wine, beer and spirits worlds who are doing things a little differently. Here are the brands you can feel good about supporting.
Low alcohol wine to try
Never heard of the easy drinking, low alcohol wine, piquette? If you have been exploring no- and low-alcohol beverages, you may have come across this intriguing French style with a slight fizz, which dates back to ancient Greek and Roman times.
Piquette is made from the second press of grape pomace – consisting of skins, stems, seeds and pulp left over after the fruit has been first pressed for wine – and mixed with sugar and water to be re-fermented. This rustic drink was historically consumed by French vineyard workers and farmhands.
It’s an environmentally friendly way to deal with the leftovers from winemaking. Crafted in Marlborough, New Zealand, by re-soaking pressed grapes, The People’s Wine Sauvignon Blanc Piquette is an all-natural lower-alcohol wine that’s overflowing with vibrant fruit flavours.
Caring for the environment is paramount to the team at The People’s Wine, who are also part of CarbonClick. This project offsets emissions for each bottle produced and invests in sustainable products around Oceania, such as The Banks Peninsula Forever Forest, 190 hectares retired from grazing and reverted to native forest.
Sit back and enjoy the guava, fresh lime and pineapple flavours knowing that what you’re drinking is offsetting carbon and planting trees.
Carbon neutral drinks to try
Originally from the Hunter Valley, the Leask brothers are carrying on the family wine legacy at their vineyard in McLaren Vale, South Australia. Their wine brand Hither & Yon stretches further than their own family legacy, as they work with artist Damien Coulthard – an Adnyamathanha man from the Northern Flinders and Gammon Ranges in South Australia – to honour the land they currently look after.
Caretaking for Hither & Yon includes joining the Sustainable Winegrowing Australia programme and committing to making sustainable wine for the land and the community. The winemakers follow a regenerative agriculture approach, working the soil in a way that helps build up its capacity to store carbon. They also ensure a wide range of biodiversity in the plants at the vineyard, and visits from farmyard animals in the off-season means soil receives natural fertiliser.
The Hither & Yon Cabernet Sauvignon is a certified Sustainable and Carbon Neutral wine featuring inky, deep cassis, redcurrant and cherry notes with a hint of smokiness. It’s a perfect match for creamy polenta with roasted vegetables, topped with crumbled fetta, gremolata or shaved aged gouda.
The Rocky Ridge Brewing family in Jindong, Western Australia, are five generations in, and since the dairy farm was founded on land – whose traditional owners are the Wadandi people – a lot has changed. The latest generation is honouring its role as the current custodians with the Greener Pastures program, creating carbon neutral brews that tread lightly on land so that it can be cared for by future generations.
The Rocky Ridge Jindong Juicy is a tropical, hazy pale ale that’s creamy with a tickle of bitterness, while the Rocky Ridge Chocolate Stout is exactly what it says on the label – dark and delicious. Available in selected stores only.
Sustainable spirits to try
Great work can be done with regenerative agriculture on the land, but what about in the ocean? Our Great Barrier reef needs some help and Reeftip Drinks Co. is doing just that.
This distillery, located on the tip of the Great Barrier Reef, is making great things happen. They’ve planted more than 31 species of coral, totalling 13,277 coral across the reef, while producing delicious Australian spiced rum, as well as convenient RTDs flavoured with coconut, mango, pineapple, lime and ginger. Helping the reef never tasted so good!
Reeftip Drinks Co. also recycles 100% of its wastewater, 100% of its packaging is recyclable, and it donates 10% of its profits to the regeneration of the Great Barrier Reef.
In making Reeftip Drinks & Co. Australian Spiced Rum, the producers ensure that none of the distillery waste ever enters landfill. The bottle itself is 34% recycled glass and the colour is inspired by the bi-product of molasses at the base of the spirit. How about recycling some classic cocktails from yesteryear with a Mai Tai or an Old Fashioned Rum?
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