10,000 bottles of wine will cross the Atlantic from Tuesday, April 12 on board the Grain de Sail, a 24-meter sailboat, also known for transporting cocoa and coffee. Departing from Saint-Malo, the sailboat sails to Port-Elisabeth, in the state of New Jersey, in the United States, as detailed the Parisian† This transatlantic route saves time, but also has a lower carbon footprint compared to more traditional freight transport.
The Breton schooner will carry bottles of Château Maris, an estate in the Aude. Robert Eden, the owner, explains that if the container ships go “faster out to sea” than a sailboat, the time is saved when loading and arriving in the United States.
“We transport on Grain de Sail, a small boat that allows us to unload in a small port, Port Elisabeth, which is not affiliated with any union. And it happens casually as it should always happen. It’s ‘SHello Hendrik. Oh Charles, how are you? † And the cases of wine go into the vans during the day, where it sometimes takes two weeks to pick them up in a large port. It is of course more expensive, but the consumer is willing to cooperate in reducing CO2. The bottle of the vintage naive increases from 19 to 24 dollars. Usually they are pre-sold before they arrive,” the winemaker delights.
Robert Eden, owner of the Château-Maris estate in Parisian
Currently, the small schooner can carry a maximum payload of 50 tons. But this year a larger sailboat of 52 meters will be launched. “We can embark 350 tons”accurate to Parisian Stéfan Gallard, marketing director of the Grain de Sail company, based in Morlaix, in Finistère.
Something to delight many across the Atlantic, eager to sample some of the best bottles in the country.