French wines sailing on 19th-century boat to cut carbon footprint

French wines sailing on 19th-century boat to cut carbon footprint

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French shipping company Compagnie de Transport Maritime ' la Voile (CTMV) will later this month ship 60,000 bottles of wine from Bordeaux to Dublin on a 19th-century barque, and is planning future voyages to the United Kingdom and even Canada.

Compagnie de Transport Maritime ' la Voile's 19th-century barque, Belem, will later this month ship 60,000 bottles of wine from Bordeaux to Dublin.

   The three-mast barque Belem, the last French merchant sailing vessel launched in 1896, will take about four days to travel between the French and Irish ports. The wines from Languedoc will be loaded on to the historic vessel after arriving in Bordeaux via barge. Ships will return to France with an equivalent tonnage of crushed glass for recycling into wine bottles at factories in Bordeaux and B'ziers.
   It is estimated that the whole process will save 4.9 ounces of carbon per bottle compared to air travel. Each bottle will carry the label: “Carried by sailing ship, a better deal for the planet” and despite the extra transport time will be modestly priced at 7 euros to 20 euros.
   Frederic Albert, founder of CTMV told British newspaper The Observer that the 170-foot Belem, which was first used to transport chocolate from South America and is named after the Brazilian port, is the first of seven planned to be working by 2013. Seven private investors have contributed 70 percent of the business’s start-up costs of '40 million with the rest coming from bank loans.
   “My idea was to do something for the planet and something for the wines of Languedoc. One of my grandfathers was a winemaker and one was a sailor,” Albert said.
   He added that some 250 wine producers in Languedoc alone have shown interest in using his company’s ships.