Sail-Freight - 'Green' Wine Arrives Dublin

by Henry Samuel, Telegraph/Sail-World on 12 Aug 2008 The first commercial cargo of wine shipped from France by sail since the late 1800s arrived in Ireland recently aboard a British schooner, with almost zero petrol costs and carbon emissions.

Some 30,000 bottles of 'green energy' wine, arrived in Dublin aboard the 108-year old Kathleen and May - the last wooden hull three-masted topsail schooner in existence - after leaving Brest a week ago with a stop at Penzance.

Each bottle carried has saved 4.9 oz of carbon dioxide emissions compared with a regular shipment. The wines come with the label: 'Carried by sailing ship, a better deal for the planet.'

Built in 1900 in Ferguson and Baird's yard at Connah's Quay near Chester, the boat is owned by Briton Steven Clarke, who described its new adventure as 'beyond anyone's dreams'. He saved it from being dismantled in 1966, six years after it ended its working life carrying coal and clay.

'This is an historic moment,' said Frédéric Albert, founder of the shipping company, Compagnie de Transport Maritime a la Voile, CTMV, which chartered the ship.

Three years ago he decided to 'do something for the planet and reduce carbon emissions in sea transport'. Such emissions are responsible for 2.7 per cent of the world's total.

Albert, one of whose grandfathers was a winegrower from the southwestern Languedoc-Roussillon region and the other a sailor, said his own father was sceptical of the project when it started in 2005. But with rocketing fuel prices and concerns over global warming, interest has been 'phenomenal'.

According to the French association of shipowners, wind-powered sea transport is set to corner 0.5 per cent of the world transport market in the coming few years - a figure that could grow if fuel prices continue to soar.

'This is not just about wine and sailboats, we wanted to show the world that it is possible to build an economically viable model that respects the planet,' Mr Albert told the Telegraph.

Already 80 winegrowers from the Languedoc-Roussillon have signed up to the project and their wines - all made in the 'most sustainable way' - will be on sale in Ireland costing €6-20 a bottle.

Next month, a second schooner carrying Languedoc and Bordeaux wine is scheduled to make its maiden week-long journey from Bordeaux to Bristol. In September, a third will sail to London up the Thames. Mr Albert expects shipments to be monthly from then on.

The wines will be delivered to Bordeaux by barge using the Canal du Midi and Canal du Garonne that run across southern France from Sète in the east, via Béziers in the Languedoc, where the wines will be collected.

Another ship will take 60,000 bottles of wine to Quebec in September on a trip taking 30 days.

Mr Albert insists that merchants have even found the wine actually matures faster and better during the sea voyage, due to the ship's pitch and roll.

Currently, crates will be shipped on old chartered vessels, but in September construction will begin on the first of a fleet of seven new schooners.

Starting next year, ships will bring back to France an equivalent tonnage of crushed glass for recycling into wine bottles at two factories, one in Bordeaux and one in Beziers.

'Time accelerated in the 19th century with the advent of the industrial age. People have forgotten that time is needed to make wine and other products like fruit and vegetables.

'If it takes a bit longer, it's not a problem. We need to learn from the past if we are to 'go back to the future' and reduce pollution,' said Mr Albert.