Show Notes
This episode features Adam Rack, the Co-founder of Revino, the company that is taking the lead in wine glass bottle re-use in the US. Based in Oregon, Revino has recently received funding to open a bottle re-use facility in California, and is helping to build re-use infrastructure and in both states… and thinking globally about the glass bottle ecosystem for wine producers and consumers. Revino has signature, elegant, embossed bottles already in use by quite a few Oregon wine producers, and I’ve had some delicious wine poured from several of their bottles. Bringing awareness and support to wine bottle re-use has been important for me for years, and this isn’t the first episode I’ve done on the topic. That’s because the use of new glass bottles is the single largest source of carbon emissions for the wine industry. Yet we know glass is a vital part of wine. If we want to avoid plastic and the limitations of cans, glass is pretty much inescapable. It has amazing qualities of non-reactivity and durability and beauty. That’s why re-use has to be the way forward for a sustainable wine culture built on ecological principles. We take some time to get to specifics about what Revino does, and I began to realize this is because, as Adam helps us see clearly, to get to the actual part where we, you know, re-use glass bottles, many systems must first be established. Bottle drop-off and collection sites, washing facilities, transportation systems, laws must at times be changed or established, and then there are the bottles themselves: standardization must be adopted, label adhesives must be made washable. And everyone needs to be educated about these processes as well as the enormous benefits that make these changes not only worthwhile, but urgent. First, and maybe most importantly, we need to begin a mindset shift away from seeing wine bottles as single-use disposables, to cherishing them for their unique qualities… not the least of which is their incredible ability to be re-used many many times. We will need to shift away from valuing pretty, shiny, new bottles to taking pride in a scuffed and worn bottle with what Adam calls an “environmental halo” of wear from being part of a re-use ecosystem. These are changes we can start at our wineries today, and Adam gives practical steps to begin to prepare for bottle re-use at your winery, even if the infrastructure wont be available for a few years where you are. And compromises are necessary. We can’t have everything we want if we want important change to happen. But we can change what we want. These changes take time, and they remind us that we are building the infrastructure for the wine culture that future generations will see as normal. We are transforming outdated values to the values that will be the cultural foundation for new wine lovers in years to come. This conversation gave me not only practical ideas and resources, but hope that my individual actions are important to a better future. Resource Links: Porto Protocol Bottle Reuse Guide Glass Recycling Foundation (US recycling map)
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com/subscribe
More from Beyond Organic Wine
Here’s a quick mention of a few upcoming things that I’ll say more about in the future: First, the book release party for my book Wine Liberated will be held in Ithaca, NY at Autumn Leaves Bookstore on November 14th. Wine will be served. It’s an anarchist book store. I’ll be there, trying to inspire a new odyssey for the next century of wine exploration. Second, the Embracing Hybrid Grapes conference is happening February 21-22 at UC Davis and in Berkeley at the Donkey & Goat winery. Tickets will go on sale in a month-ish, and we are looking for sponsors and hybrid wine producers who want to showcase their herbicide free wine to a thirsty west coast. Third, I’m going to MC Undercurrent 2027, which is THE organic and biodynamic wine conference in New Zealand, maybe the entire southern hemisphere. It’s June 1-3 in Queenstown, and the amazing Alica Anderson of Amvive will be the keynote speaker. Finally, please subscribe at beyondorganicwine.substack.com to support this podcast and all the work of Beyond Organic Wine. Thank you! At this point in history, Halloween 2026, talking about the very scary crisis in agriculture, especially in the US, may be like being on the Titanic and brining attention to the fact that the boilers are flooded. It’s true, and it’s a seriously serious issue… but it’s merely a symptom of much bigger issues. So I start this episode with a quote from my guest as a reminder of where our focus needs to be. I started a boycott of glyphosate and all herbicides in wine because it is an important statement that we don’t need to tolerate discussion about this anymore. The known knowns of glyphosate are utterly damning, and even though there are certainly many unknowns, they give zero reason to excuse its use. And yet this boycott doesn’t solve the larger issues. And Dr. Michelle Perro reminds us of the power and responsibility we have as agents of change, as instigators and initiators. But we need to speak up, stand up, and own our capacity to re-engage with our communities in not letting our lives be dictated by corporations who seek short-term material gain and the power to protect and increase their profit-making ability despite its devastating effects on humans and all of the lives with whom we share this world. Wine invites us to think about the future. We make decisions today in wine that we know we won’t taste, in some cases, for years. Wine asks us to think long-term. To think perennially. To think about systems that exceed our own brief lifetimes. I find it ironic that we think we can’t live and make wine without these novel chemicals that were only invented a few decades ago, that are harmful for us in multiple, intergenerational ways, when our wine cultures were developed over thousands of years without fossil fuels, let alone chemistry, I know it isn’t easy to farm ecologically, but easy is only a short term solution, and short term thinking seems to have created some long term problems. We find ourselves deeply invested in an approach to winegrowing that is only possible with chemicals. But that doesn’t make those chemicals good or wise, and examples to the contrary, the hundreds of folks I’ve interviewed for this podcast, prove that these chemicals are not the only way to grow grapes commercially. I know that there can be pretty extreme consequences to weaning off some of these things when there aren’t other easy alternatives, and it would suck to be the people who bear the burden of those consequences in our lifetime. But I think those consequences can be felt voluntarily by us now or they can be felt by our children involuntarily, because agricultural approaches that are only possible with chemicals are not sustainable in the long term. If you haven’t read my post, How To Grow Wine Without Herbicides, please do. My guest is Dr. Michelle Perro. Dr. Perro is a veteran pediatrician with over four decades of experience in acute and integrative medicine, co-founder and CEO of GMOScience, a 501(c)(3) no
Beyond Organic Wine podcast is listener supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
For those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, Happy Harvest, Merry Samhain, and a Celebratory Equinox to you all wherever you are. This episode is about Magic, the cunning arts that have been practiced for millennia in most cultures.
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com