Celebrate National 🎄🌳🌲Tree Week with 17 Trees

An Old-School Big Aussie Red from De Bortoli for National Tree Week

De Bortoli is a family-owned Australian winery established almost a century ago; in 1924, Vittorio De Bortoli journeyed from Castelcucco in the Venetian hinterland to New South Wales where, after working hard and living under a rain water tank for some time, he is joined by his fiancée, Giuseppina in 1926.

In 1928, he purchased a 55 acre mixed fruit farm; that year there is a glut of shiraz grapes and many farmers see it cheaper to let them rot. So, Vittorio takes them for free and crushes 15 tonnes of shiraz grapes which local Italians and other European workers in the area offer to buy off him.

De Bortoli Wines is born.

Roll forward to the 21st century, and De Bortoli’s early sustainability project sees them planting 17 trees for each company vehicle to offset the carbon effects of the fleet.

Today 17 Trees is a brand that has a purpose; it is a collaboration with the company's suppliers, distributors, customers and consumers to plant trees for a sustainable future

The 17 Trees range now plants a tree for every six bottles sold and has hit the milestone of planting 50,000 globally since launch in 2020.

The 17 Trees website includes three fun facts about trees:

HOW MANY TREES ARE THERE IN THE WORLD?

Globally, there are estimated to be 3.04 trillion trees. Trees help clean the air we breathe, filter the water we drink, and provide habitat to over 80% of the world's terrestrial biodiversity. That's why with every 6 bottles of 17 TREES wine purchased, we pledge to plant 1 tree for a sustainable future.

Source: https://go.nature.com/3j21PvA

HOW MANY TREES ARE REQUIRED TO OFFSET THE AVERAGE PERSON’S CARBON FOOTPRINT?

Australia has an average per capita footprint of 17 tonnes per year. To work out your carbon footprint, multiply 17 tonnes with your age to get the ‘carbon dioxide equivalent’ value of tonnes CO2 (assuming also that your carbon footprint as a child was equal to that of an adult).

Source: https://bit.ly/3C4rXgN 

HOW MUCH CARBON DIOXIDE DOES A TREE ABSORB?

A mature tree can absorb more than 22kg of carbon dioxide each year, removing and storing the carbon while releasing the oxygen back into the air. Purchase 6 bottles of 17 TREES = 1 tree = Removing 22kg of carbon dioxide per year.

Source: https://bit.ly/3nCVgkG

17 TREES Shiraz (£9.99, Waitrose, Amazon)

Made from fruit grown sustainably in Heathcote, just north of Melbourne; sees some new oak and weighs in at almost 15% alcohol.

dark-fruited, tarry and spicy with a slightly grilled edge, scrubby herbs and violets; baked, pruney, blackberry and black cherry fruit with and black olives, oaky spice and dark chocolate. Warming and lifted  with rubbed sage and porty eucalyptus. Long, concentrated and inky with rounded, grippy and slightly drying tannins.

Thoroughly enjoyable.

A big wine, this will match with char-grilled red meats, barbecue foods or possibly even a red-meat curry such as rogan josh.

Postscript

I left this in the fridge overnight; pouring a glass and unable to wait until the chill had properly dissipated, I found it tasted of ripe, spicy, minty blackcurrant sorbet. In a very delicious way.