Fair Trade - Wine

I was given a bottle of Fair Trade wine for Christmas. Very good it was too. Here’s a couple of pictures of the bottle.

One of the front

Front of Fair Trade Wine bottle

And one of the back

back of fair trade wine bottle

I’m assuming that because it is Fair Trade, there should be some excellent documentation available concerning it’s production, and supply chain. Hopefully some of this is available to me as a consumer. Let’s see.

I started searching for the wine which was labelled as follows “LOS ROBLES FAIRTRADE CARMENERE”… and found on the Fair Trade website a document which confirms this as a Fair Trade Product. (see http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/documents/retail_wine.pdf).

Here’s the message I sent:

From: Simon Warrick [mailto:simon@trulyresponsible.org]
Sent: 02 January 2006 13:19
To: Mail - Fairtrade Foundation
Subject: LOS ROBLES Carmenere 2004 Fair Trade Wine.

Hello,

I was given a bottle of Fair Trade Wine for Christmas. And very good it was too. This was the first time I had come across Fair Trade Wine. I am very pleased to have supported the concept by consuming this product.

Please can you tell me more about the origins of the product, how it was produced and eventually made it’s way to the UK from Chile?

I regularly ask such questions of the companies who produce the products I consume, and whilst I recognise you didn’t directly produce this product I assume that in order for it to be labelled Fair Trade it must have some associated documentation that proves it in some way, and that you must know much more about it than I do.

I publish these questions and any answers I receive at http://trulyresponsible.org.

Thanks in advance for you help.

Best regards

Simon Warrick

A rapid response from the Fair Trade folks. Thanks very much Dave.

From: dave goodyear [mailto:dave.goodyear@fairtrade.org.uk] On Behalf Of Mail - Fairtrade Foundation
Sent: 04 January 2006 15:56
To: simon@trulyresponsible.org
Subject: RE: LOS ROBLES Carmenere 2004 Fair Trade Wine.

Dear Simon,

Thanks for your message, glad to hear you enjoyed this Fairtrade wine. It’s produced by Vinos Los Robles, a co-operative located in the Curico valley, 200 km south of Santiago in Chile. The co-op has 68 members with vineyards totalling 976 hectares and also buys in grapes from farmers who are members of small local co-operatives.

The attached document explains how the Fairtrade system works; it can also be downloaded at http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/downloads/pdf/five_guarantees.pdf. Briefly, our partner Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) is responsible for setting and maintaining the standards that apply to producers and trading relationships. Through its certification company (FLO-Cert) it inspects and certifies producers against the standards and audits the flow of goods between producers and importers in the markets where Fairtrade labels operate. Product standards and further details about FLO are available at www.fairtrade.net.

The Fairtrade Foundation, as the UK member of FLO, is responsible for licensing the FAIRTRADE Mark for use on products that meet FLO’s standards, for monitoring the final stages of the supply chain, and for promoting the Mark to businesses and consumers in the UK.

This particular wine is bottled and exported by Los Robles and imported to the UK by Ehrmanns Ltd. We don’t have details of the methods used in the production of the wine or of the various shipping, transport and distribution channels but I’m sure Ehrmanns would be pleased to provide further information. They can be contacted at wine@ehrmanns.co.uk, web site www.ehrmanns.com.

Please get in touch if you have any further questions.

With best wishes,

Dave Goodyear

Information Officer
Fairtrade Foundation
Suite 204, 16 Baldwin’s Gardens
London EC1N 7RJ
Direct Line: 020 7440 7682
Phone: 020 7405 5942 Fax: 020 405 5943
web site www.fairtrade.org.uk
Company Registered in England and Wales number 2733136
Registered Charity number 1043886
VAT number 672 5453 23

And my response.

From: Simon Warrick [mailto:simon@trulyresponsible.org]
Sent: 04 January 2006 16:05
To: Mail - Fairtrade Foundation
Subject: RE: LOS ROBLES Carmenere 2004 Fair Trade Wine.

Hello Dave,

Thanks ever so much for this response. Just what I had hoped for. I’ll read all the links and get in touch with Ehrmanns to see if I can find out some more.

Best regards

Simon

And this is what I asked Ehrmanns.

From: Simon Warrick [mailto:simon@trulyresponsible.org]
Sent: 04 January 2006 16:12
To: Mail - Fairtrade Foundation
Subject: FW: LOS ROBLES Carmenere 2004 Fair Trade Wine.

Hello

Please find attached below a message I received from the Fair Trade Organisation in response to some questions I asked them.

Please can you help me with the items they were unable to answer.

Thanks in advance

Simon Warrick

I included my original email and the response from Dave at Fair Trade.

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