http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...arbonemissions

--

Eco-friendly French to ship their wine under sail

60,000 bottles on a 19th-century barque from Bordeaux to Dublin is just the start

French vineyard owners are returning to a slower pace of life by starting to
export their wine by sailing boat - a method last used in the 1800s - to reduce
their carbon footprint.

Later this month 60,000 bottles from Languedoc will be shipped to Ireland in a
19th-century barque, saving 18,375lb of carbon. Further voyages to Bristol,
Manchester and even Canada are planned soon afterwards.

The three-mast barque Belem, which was launched in 1896, the last French
merchant sailing vessel to be built, will sail into Dublin following a voyage
from Bordeaux that should last about four days. The wines 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.'
Although the whole process will end up taking up to a week longer than a flight,
it is estimated it will save 4.9oz of carbon per bottle.

Frederic Albert, founder of the shipping company Compagnie de Transport Maritime
à la Voile (CTMV), said: 'My idea was to do something for the planet and
something for the wines of Languedoc. One of my grandfathers was a wine-maker
and one was a sailor.'

With French wine exports booming following a number of difficult years, Albert
said some 250 producers in Languedoc alone were keen to use his ships.

The 170ft Belem, which was first used to transport chocolate from South America
and is named after a Brazilian port, is the first of seven planned to be working
by 2013. Seven private investors have contributed 70 per cent of the business's
start-up costs of £40m. Bank loans have provided the rest.

'There is a lot of interest in green investments in France,' said Albert. Ships
will return to France with an equivalent tonnage of crushed glass for recycling
into wine bottles at factories in Bordeaux and Béziers. Despite the time
involved in transporting it, the wine should also remain relatively cheap, at
between €7 and €20 a bottle.

Albert said he would make sure that only the greenest wines would travel by sea.
'We chose 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. 'We had
someone who studied a century of weather conditions to work them out,' he said.

Albert said his fleet would also be used for advertising in the ports they
sailed to. He said: 'There will be tastings on board. The Belem can hold around
100 guests, so there will be plenty of room for importers to promote their wines.'

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 ferrying
wine by barge from Liverpool to Manchester along the Manchester Ship Canal. The
move took 50 lorries off the road every week and cut carbon emissions by 80 per
cent, Tesco claimed. Tesco's new cargo service involves three journeys a week,
delivering an estimated 600,000 litres of wine on each journey along the 40-mile
stretch of the canal.

The containers of wine from Australia, California, Chile and Argentina are then
transported to a bottling site half a mile away, where they are packed for Tesco
supermarkets across Britain.

On Apr 17, 9:42*pm, cavelamb ""cavelamb\"@ X earthlink.net" wrote:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...arbonemissions

--

Eco-friendly French to ship their wine under sail

60,000 bottles on a 19th-century barque from Bordeaux to Dublin is just the start

French vineyard owners are returning to a slower pace of life by starting to
export their wine by sailing boat - a method last used in the 1800s - to reduce
their carbon footprint.

Later this month 60,000 bottles from Languedoc will be shipped to Ireland in a
19th-century barque, saving 18,375lb of carbon. Further voyages to Bristol,
Manchester and even Canada are planned soon afterwards.

The three-mast barque Belem, which was launched in 1896, the last French
merchant sailing vessel to be built, will sail into Dublin following a voyage
from Bordeaux that should last about four days. The wines 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.'
Although the whole process will end up taking up to a week longer than a flight,
it is estimated it will save 4.9oz of carbon per bottle.

Frederic Albert, founder of the shipping company Compagnie de Transport Maritime
à la Voile (CTMV), said: 'My idea was to do something for the planet and
something for the wines of Languedoc. One of my grandfathers was a wine-maker
and one was a sailor.'

With French wine exports booming following a number of difficult years, Albert
said some 250 producers in Languedoc alone were keen to use his ships.

The 170ft Belem, which was first used to transport chocolate from South America
and is named after a Brazilian port, is the first of seven planned to be working
by 2013. Seven private investors have contributed 70 per cent of the business's
start-up costs of £40m. Bank loans have provided the rest.

'There is a lot of interest in green investments in France,' said Albert. Ships
will return to France with an equivalent tonnage of crushed glass for recycling
into wine bottles at factories in Bordeaux and Béziers. Despite the time
involved in transporting it, the wine should also remain relatively cheap, at
between €7 and €20 a bottle.

Albert said he would make sure that only the greenest wines would travel by sea.
'We chose 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. 'We had
someone who studied a century of weather conditions to work them out,' he said.

Albert said his fleet would also be used for advertising in the ports they
sailed to. He said: 'There will be tastings on board. The Belem can hold around
100 guests, so there will be plenty of room for importers to promote their wines.'

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 ferrying
wine by barge from Liverpool to Manchester along the Manchester Ship Canal. The
move took 50 lorries off the road every week and cut carbon emissions by 80 per
cent, Tesco claimed. Tesco's new cargo service involves three journeys a week,
delivering an estimated 600,000 litres of wine on each journey along the 40-mile
stretch of the canal.

The containers of wine from Australia, California, Chile and Argentina are then
transported to a bottling site half a mile away, where they are packed for Tesco
supermarkets across Britain.

They delivered the wine in 2008 on a huge antique barque that most
likely needed a crew of 30 and cost a fortune to rent. They also had
on the drawing table a 6 million dollar euro looking cargo sailboat. I
suspect they broke even or lost money since I have not heard a peep
about them since then. People like the sailing aspect but they like
paying less first for the same quality. So you need to cut the cost to
market, not raise it.

I thought about importing rum, but the ATF rules and paper work
nightmare made me decide to pass. Coffee, spice, tea all make great
cargos as they are compact and easy to deal with. Coffee is the second
most traded item on earth after oil so I figured it's an area where
you can grow if you work hard and provide a good product.

Joe

Joe wrote:

They delivered the wine in 2008 on a huge antique barque that most
likely needed a crew of 30 and cost a fortune to rent. They also had
on the drawing table a 6 million dollar euro looking cargo sailboat. I
suspect they broke even or lost money since I have not heard a peep
about them since then. People like the sailing aspect but they like
paying less first for the same quality. So you need to cut the cost to
market, not raise it.

I thought about importing rum, but the ATF rules and paper work
nightmare made me decide to pass. Coffee, spice, tea all make great
cargos as they are compact and easy to deal with. Coffee is the second
most traded item on earth after oil so I figured it's an area where
you can grow if you work hard and provide a good product.

Joe


So how are you doing on getting another shipment ready?

Are you looking for an existing vessel, or going the build it route?

--

Richard Lamb
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~cavelamb/

On 20/04/2010 3:28 p.m., Joe wrote:
Coffee is the second
most traded item on earth after oil so I figured it's an area where
you can grow if you work hard and provide a good product.
Actually, it appears to be the seventh most traded agricultural product,
and I expect well down after other non-agricultural commodities are
included in a list.

On Apr 20, 1:38*am, Me wrote:
On 20/04/2010 3:28 p.m., Joe wrote:Coffee is the second
most traded item on earth after oil so I figured it's an area where
you can grow if you work hard and provide a good product.

Actually, it appears to be the seventh most traded agricultural product,
and I expect well down after other non-agricultural commodities are
included in a list.

http://www.globalexchange.org/campai...fee/faq.html#1

Joe

On Apr 19, 10:45*pm, cavelamb wrote:
Joe wrote:

They delivered the wine in 2008 on a huge antique barque that most
likely needed a crew of 30 and cost a fortune to rent. They also had
on the drawing table a 6 million dollar euro looking cargo sailboat. I
suspect they broke even or lost money since I have not heard a peep
about them since then. People like the sailing aspect but they like
paying less first for the same quality. So you need to cut the cost to
market, not raise it.

*I thought about importing rum, but the ATF rules and paper work
nightmare made me decide to pass. Coffee, spice, tea all make great
cargos as they are compact and easy to deal with. Coffee is the second
most traded item on earth after oil so I figured it's an area where
you can grow if you work hard and provide a good product.

Joe

So how are you doing on getting another shipment ready?

Are you looking for an existing vessel, or going the build it route?

--

Richard Lambhttp://www.home.earthlink.net/~cavelamb/- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Greetings Richard,
Looking to do a new build, most likely will build it on Galvestons
Port industrial drive, there are 5-6 yards that can do the job.

Doing a huge spread sheet on everything from the steel down to the
paint brushes.

We just opened another retail location on Galvestons Historic Strand
just yards away from the tall ship Elissa.

http://www.galvestonhistory.org/Texa...ort_Museum.asp
http://www.galveston.com/downtowntour/

Look for the press releases soon.

Joe

Joe wrote:
On Apr 19, 10:45 pm, cavelamb wrote:
Joe wrote:

They delivered the wine in 2008 on a huge antique barque that most
likely needed a crew of 30 and cost a fortune to rent. They also had
on the drawing table a 6 million dollar euro looking cargo sailboat. I
suspect they broke even or lost money since I have not heard a peep
about them since then. People like the sailing aspect but they like
paying less first for the same quality. So you need to cut the cost to
market, not raise it.
I thought about importing rum, but the ATF rules and paper work
nightmare made me decide to pass. Coffee, spice, tea all make great
cargos as they are compact and easy to deal with. Coffee is the second
most traded item on earth after oil so I figured it's an area where
you can grow if you work hard and provide a good product.
Joe
So how are you doing on getting another shipment ready?

Are you looking for an existing vessel, or going the build it route?

--

Richard Lambhttp://www.home.earthlink.net/~cavelamb/- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Greetings Richard,
Looking to do a new build, most likely will build it on Galvestons
Port industrial drive, there are 5-6 yards that can do the job.

Doing a huge spread sheet on everything from the steel down to the
paint brushes.

We just opened another retail location on Galvestons Historic Strand
just yards away from the tall ship Elissa.

http://www.galvestonhistory.org/Texa...ort_Museum.asp
http://www.galveston.com/downtowntour/

Look for the press releases soon.

Joe

Well, Joe, I don't mean to be pushy, but I do wish we could get on with it.
I want to go sail the damned thing!
Get her done, Joe!
I'm still willing to sign on as able seaman.
I can't imagine a more interesting adventure.


Of course, Wee Willie will have to lip off.
But who cares what he says.

This would be something to brag about all the way to the old sailors' home.


--

Richard Lamb
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~cavelamb/

On 21/04/2010 1:19 a.m., Joe wrote:
On Apr 20, 1:38 am, wrote:
On 20/04/2010 3:28 p.m., Joe wrote:Coffee is the second
most traded item on earth after oil so I figured it's an area where
you can grow if you work hard and provide a good product.

Actually, it appears to be the seventh most traded agricultural product,
and I expect well down after other non-agricultural commodities are
included in a list.

http://www.globalexchange.org/campai...fee/faq.html#1

"Coffee is the US's largest food import and second most valuable
commodity only after oil."

Perhaps they got that off Wikipedia - no?

2005 stats for US imports
Coffee ~ US$3 billion.
Vegetables and fruit ~ $10 billion
Meat ~ $6 billion
Petroleum products incl gas ~ $231 billion
Alcoholic beverages ~ $11 billion
Gold ~ $4.4 billion
Copper ~ $7 billion
Aluminium ~ $12 billion
Footwear ~ $18 billion
Fish ~ 4.5 billion
etc

Lesson - don't trust industry organisations when they might be
pontificating...

Coffee is... well almost peanuts. It seems to be about (less than) 1/3
of 1% of US total imports, about where Toyota will be in a couple of
years at present rate of decline.

Reference:
http://www.indexmundi.com/ (original data from http://www.intracen.org/ )

On Apr 21, 4:23*am, Me wrote:
On 21/04/2010 1:19 a.m., Joe wrote: On Apr 20, 1:38 am, *wrote:
On 20/04/2010 3:28 p.m., Joe wrote:Coffee is the second
most traded item on earth after oil so I figured it's an area where
you can grow if you work hard and provide a good product.

Actually, it appears to be the seventh most traded agricultural product,
and I expect well down after other non-agricultural commodities are
included in a list.

http://www.globalexchange.org/campai...fee/faq.html#1

"Coffee is the US's largest food import and second most valuable
commodity only after oil."

Perhaps they got that off Wikipedia - no?

2005 stats for US imports
Coffee ~ US$3 billion.
Vegetables and fruit *~ $10 billion
Meat ~ $6 billion
Petroleum products incl gas ~ $231 billion
Alcoholic beverages ~ $11 billion
Gold ~ $4.4 billion
Copper ~ $7 billion
Aluminium ~ $12 billion
Footwear ~ $18 billion
Fish ~ 4.5 billion
etc

Lesson - don't trust industry organisations when they might be
pontificating...

Coffee is... well almost peanuts. *It seems to be about (less than) 1/3
of 1% of US total imports, about where Toyota will be in a couple of
years at present rate of decline.

Reference:http://www.indexmundi.com/(original data fromhttp://www.intracen.org/)



http://www.investorguide.com/igu-art...mmodities.html

Joe

On Apr 20, 11:54*pm, cavelamb wrote:
Joe wrote:
On Apr 19, 10:45 pm, cavelamb wrote:
Joe wrote:

They delivered the wine in 2008 on a huge antique barque that most
likely needed a crew of 30 and cost a fortune to rent. They also had
on the drawing table a 6 million dollar euro looking cargo sailboat. I
suspect they broke even or lost money since I have not heard a peep
about them since then. People like the sailing aspect but they like
paying less first for the same quality. So you need to cut the cost to
market, not raise it.
*I thought about importing rum, but the ATF rules and paper work
nightmare made me decide to pass. Coffee, spice, tea all make great
cargos as they are compact and easy to deal with. Coffee is the second
most traded item on earth after oil so I figured it's an area where
you can grow if you work hard and provide a good product.
Joe
So how are you doing on getting another shipment ready?

Are you looking for an existing vessel, or going the build it route?

--

Richard Lambhttp://www.home.earthlink.net/~cavelamb/-Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Greetings Richard,
Looking to do a new build, most likely will build it on Galvestons
Port industrial drive, there are 5-6 yards that can do the job.

Doing a huge spread sheet on everything from the steel down to the
paint brushes.

* We just opened another retail location on Galvestons Historic Strand
just yards away from the tall ship Elissa.

http://www.galvestonhistory.org/Texa...ort_Museum.asp
http://www.galveston.com/downtowntour/

*Look for the press releases soon.

Joe

Well, Joe, I don't mean to be pushy, but I do wish we could get on with it.