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A&Cs Carbon Offset Project
Travel, whether it be by plane, coach, train or boat is a major contributor to carbon emissions. Although personal contributions are dwarfed by say, industrialisation in the third world, that is of course not a reason to also pollute. We came to this argument as sceptics but the evidence is now pretty conclusive that carbon emissions are a major cause of climate instability. The idea of carbon offsetting is that the amount of carbon produced by ones actions is assessed in weight and that a price can be put on each extra kilo or ton to offset this, by for instance, planting trees which soak up carbon. There are many carbon offset schemes, and as there is no regulation of these, it is hard to tell exactly how much money is going directly to the projects, also the quoted cost of offsetting varies wildly. TICOS So, we approached TICOS, the Tourism Industry Carbon Offset Service which was set up by friends of ours who we trust totally, and asked them to ½nd a project for us. TICOS is a low cost business-to-business partnership which aims to stimulate collective action by tour operators. The revenue raised funds projects where there are real, measurable carbon savings and where there are wider bene½ts to the environment, wildlife, community and education. Visit www.ticos.co.uk The Project One of the rules of TICOS is that the project would not come into being without this new support - and we are delighted that they have found us exactly what we are looking for - a new forestry project in the cork oak forests of the Doñana National Park, in Andalucia, southern Spain. The Doñana is on the Guadalquivir River, opposite Sanlucar de Barrameda and the vineyards of the Sherry triangle. It is one of the most important natural sites in Europe and its wide variety of habitats of pine and cork-oak forests, scrubland, coastal lagoons, dunes, river bank, marshes and reed beds, support a huge variety of rare wildlife including the Iberian Lynx and the Spanish Imperial Eagle. The cork forest has declined and agriculture such as ½elds of cereals is encroaching. A potential objective of the project will be to help restoration and recovery of the habitat of the Lynx here. The scheme is in its infancy at present, but as it develops we will update the website with further details.
Cork and Cork taint Some clients may be surprised that we that we have involved ourselves in a project supporting cork, given the problems of cork taint. It might help to explain more: Cork contains traces of a compound 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, TCA, for short. This is normally not detectable. At low levels only some can smell it, but others may notice a dumbing with a whiff of volatile acidity. With time it develops into a vile, mouldy, cardboard smell that completely squeezes out the wines character. What is the rate of cork failure? Industry sources suggest that it is around 2.8%. Our tour experience suggests rather less than this for quality wine, perhaps only 1%. On our Champagne weekends about 90 bottles are opened and corked wines are rarely seen. 10 years ago we would have expected maybe 4 or 5. Figures for that period actually suggest a whopping 10% failure rate! The cork industry has started to tackle the problem and has begun come up with ways to clean cork of TCA. Interestingly though, the rate of infection fell from 10% to 2.8% BEFORE these measures were introduced, suggesting that cork was not the major culprit. TCA-like compounds can be produced by chlorine based cleaning products that were used by wineries, coopers and others involved in the process. Tanks, bottling lines, barrels, even the physical structure of the winery (or bodega) could become infected. Was this the source of the TCA plague? Alternatives to Cork There are several alternatives to cork, which have been around for some time and were given a boost by the TCA problem. The plastic cork has fallen from favour for wine designed to stay in the bottle for more than a few weeks.
More important is Stelvin screwcap which gives a perfect seal resulting in wines that taste crisper and perhaps show clearer fruit. This is sometimes very desirable, however wines under cork seem rounder and richer and, as they age, they slowly oxidise, mellow and develop. Stelvin ageing is less oxidative, but this does not necessarily mean that it is just slower; there is the danger of the opposite of oxidisation - reduction. Compounds produced by reduction can give very odd smells to wine, a sort of synthetic character is sometimes noticeable or rubbery or sulphur smells. It is suggested that this affects about 2.2% of wines bottled under Stelvin. This is not to say that winemakers wont become better at preparing wine for Stelvin, or that Stelvin wont become stronger or be improved, but, in the meantime cork manufacturers will hopefully perfect the clean cork too. Offsetting No matter where you sit on the debate about cork versus synthetic stoppers - the importance of the cork oak forests to the local economies and ecology is undeniable and we would like to ask you to support the project. Carbon Offsets Ltd has assessed the travel elements for their carbon footprint, and we are offering you the opportunity to offset the CO2 emitted by the travel element. All offset money will be held in a secure client account until the project is ready to receive funding. If you would like to contribute the relevant amount, please add the amount onto the booking form or inform us when you con½rm your holiday. The cost of offsetting ranges from £1 for the Loire by train and £1.25 for a Champagne Weekend to £30 for the New Zealand Tour. The ½gures for each tour, (which are estimates), are given on page 79. However you can give more if you wish!
Carbon Offset
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Cork Oak (Fagaceae Quercus suber)
Help save the Lynx, Europes largest wild cat
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