Cono Sur keeps it green at Chile tasting

Cono Sur will be highlighting its status as one of the world’s greenest wineries at the London Wines of Chile tasting by providing  pedicab transport and a service to offset visitors’ carbon footprints.

The move follows the official announcement of its attainment of the ISO 14 064 certification.

It is the first wine producer in South America and only the third in the world to gain this standard – the most reliable measure of efficiency and accountability in the minimisation of greenhouse gas emissions – after becoming the world’s first carbon neutral winery back in 2007.

In keeping with Cono Sur’s philosophy to "do things the natural way", the pedicab service will be ferrying passengers from Victoria station to the trade tasting at Lawrence Hall on 8 September, where visitors can taste through the range with award-winning winemaker Adolfo Hurtado.

The pedicab can be booked in advance via conosur@phippspr.com or picked up on the day at the junction of Victoria Street and Wilton Street.

The winery has also made a further green commitment – to work with The Carbon Neutral Company to offset the carbon of not only its own travel, but also that of any visitors to the Wines of Chile trade tasting as visitors provide their postcode and mode of transport to the Cono Sur team on the day to take advantage of this service.

Cono Sur has started working with food and drink specialist agency Phipps on a PR drive to communicate the steps that it takes to produce the perfect wines with the minimum environmental impact – including keeping geese in the vineyards to eat bugs rather than using pesticides, travelling around the estate by bicycle rather than tractor and using solar and wind power for winemaking processes.

The consumer marketing programme will kick off in the autumn with an online competition to reward cooks who produce food that not only matches Cono Sur wines in terms of taste, but also its sustainability ethos.

Alan Lodge, 01.09.2010