Fermentation: CO2 Gas and Climate Change

Brad Post:

(Copenhagen) Gathered together, for the past two weeks in an empty wing of the Parliament building, an unlikely assembly of climate scientists and members of the Federation of Oenological Leaders (FOLS) met secretively, in advance of The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark to discuss Carbon Dioxide emissions related to wine fermentation activities occurring throughout the world.

According to the United Nations “Over a decade ago, most countries joined an international treaty -- the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) -- to begin to consider what can be done to reduce global warming and to cope with whatever temperature increases are inevitable.” Missing from the Kyoto Protocols, according to FOLS President Juan Antonio Tempranillo, is an “accord that doesn’t necessarily exempt the carbon emissions resulting from alcohol fermentation (a buy-product of winemaking) but provides a sequestration framework similar to other emitters.”

Emissions trading, also known as Cap and Trade, is an administrative process to control pollution through incentivizing reductions in carbon emissions. The International Association of Wine Regions (IAWR) recently proposed an innovative framework, based loosely upon the Cap and Trade system, colloquially regarded as a “Cork and Trade” approach. The Cork and Trade approach sequesters the carbon dioxide (CO2) gas that is produced during fermentation. The “captured” CO2 gas is held at high pressure for later use.

With the glut of still wine available on the market and world-wide demand for sparkling wine increasing exponentially, the IAWR regards the Cork and Trade system as a net-gain model of efficiency. In the words of Dr. Tempranillo, “the Cork and Trade innovations highlight the imagination of international winemakers by creating a new market for greenhouse gasses – injecting CO2 into still wine to create a new class of eco-friendly bubbly!”

The next few days are critical as climate scientists and wine industry leaders lobby hard for the incentive program prior to the Conference.

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Brad Johnson is a contributing writer for Make Mine Wine Magazine, an artisan winemaker, satirist, and proud member of the Eastern Iowa Wine Club. He Tweets as "Iowine".

The Sound of Fermentation

Wine Lab 2
Originally uploaded by iowine

Brad Post:

As I walk into my back porch, a 3-season porch, I am greeted to the sound of 17 gallons of La Crosse (white, hybrid grape) fermenting like mad! I know this because on the top of my primary fermenter (a closed container) is an air locked filled with a sulfur-citric solution that keeps critters out and air from entering the vessel.

The exiting carbon dioxide gas burping from the air lock has a nice rhythm that goes: burp, burp, burp....bubble, burp, bubble. The sound
of fermentation is a comforting sound to me because in its own way it is saying everything is going fine. Then there is the smell, some would say fragrance, of fermentation. I know many a winemaker widow (the wives of friends who make wine) who complain about the nasty stench of fermentation. To which I shake my head in complete lack of understanding.

The scent of fermentation, like the sound, tells me everything is going well. And similar to the smell of bread dough rising on the counter, the smell of fermenting wine is similar. Comforting. Soon, when all the sugar is consumed by my yeast friends, the scents and sounds of fermentation will be no more.

And this winter as I visit my wines, patiently waiting for the heavier particles to fall to the bottom so I can rack and transfer the wine to a new container to wait some more, I'll think back to these short few weeks and reflect.

I love the smell/sound of fermentation in the morning! :)
~Brad