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| Photograph: Telegraph UK |
Built in around 1900 the three-mast sail ship is the first such sailboat used to ferry wine over 110 years after this mode of transportation being discontinued.
Each bottle carried saved about 140 gms. of carbon emission.
Next month, a second sail ship 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. Another sail ship will take 60,000 bottles of wine to Quebec in September on a trip taking 30 days. Albert expects shipments to be monthly from then on.
Currently, the pallets will be shipped on old chartered vessels, but in September construction will begin on the first of a fleet of seven new schooners.
The wine will be delivered to Bordeaux by barge using the Canal du Midi and Canal du Garonne, which run across southern France from Sète in the east, via Béziers in Languedoc. Each bottle will be labelled: 'Carried by sailing ship, a better deal for the planet.'
At the present time the barge returns empty but starting next year, ships will bring back to France an equivalent tonnage of crushed glass for recycling into wine bottles at two factories in Bordeaux and Beziers.
"This is an historic moment," said Frédéric Albert, founder of the shipping company, Compagnie de Transport Maritime a la Voile in 2005. Albert, one of whose grandfathers was a winegrower from the Languedoc-Roussillon region and the other a sailor, said that with sky rocketing fuel prices and concerns over global warming mounting, interest in his carbon emission free project has been phenomenal.
Already about 250 wine producers have shown interest in the project and 80 winegrowers from the Languedoc-Roussillon have already signed up for the project.
Albert said he would make sure that only the greenest wines would travel by sea. 'We choose the best wine in the area, but it must also be made in a sustainable way, using as many natural products as possible,' he said, adding that delivery times to Ireland and Britain had been calculated using historic charts.' In addition, the effort would be to transport wine which can be sold at reasonable price, between €7-20.
According to the French association of ship owners, wind-powered sea transport is expected to corner 0.5 per cent of the world transport market in the coming years; the figure could grow if fuel prices continue to soar.
While the French are pioneering the export of wine by sailing ship, the British have already started moving it via canal. Last October Tesco started carrying wine by barge from Liverpool to Manchester along the Manchester Ship Canal. The move took 50 trucks off the road every week and cut carbon emissions by 80 per cent according to Tesco. Their new cargo service involves three journeys a week, delivering an estimated 600,000 litres of wine on each journey along the 65 kms stretch of the canal.
We raise a toast to Frederic Albert, for taking up the challenge of greening the planet. We also urge our readers to do what you can to green the planet with any eco-friendly techniques you may come across. Pass it along to the kids, they are the future and its their world we all need to work towards protecting-editor |