By Betsy Andrews, Penelope Bass, Kate Bernot,Joshua M. Bernstein, Carissa Chesanek,Paul Clarke, Shana Clarke, Amy Bess Cook,Jillian Dara, Max Falkowitz, Jennifer Fiedler,Chala June, Maggie Kimberl, Laurel Miller,Caroline Pardilla, Emily Saladino, Robert Simonson,Christine Sismondo, and Alex Testere
We’re cruising into 2024 with a thirst for adventure, and we’ve gotplenty of ideas for where the year will take us. Following is ourannual list of 75 people and places we think will help shape the drinksworld this year and beyond. There are new cocktail and wine bars tocheck out and cafés and breweries to make a part of your days ahead,along with plenty of talented drinks pros doing impressive work in theirestablishments, and their communities. And this list is just the start—head to imbibemagazine.com to learn more about the 2024 Imbibe 75.
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ANNA BRITTAIN “We’re trying to set the highest bar for sustainability and climate action in the wine industry,” says Anna Brittain. “If not here, where? “The executive director of Napa Green, Brittain has spent more than eight years evolving a sustainability certification for the nation’s most powerful wine region. A Napa native, Brittain worked on environmental policy in Washington, D.C., climate negotiations with a policy group in Geneva, and climate change mitigation in Vietnam. She headed home in 2015 to grow Napa Green, having consulted with the Napa Valley Vintners to develop the wine program years earlier, and ultimately transformed it into an independent non-profit providing consultation, third-party certification, and ongoing support for wineries looking to reduce their impact. With Brittain’s help,90 wineries and 25 vineyards have saved more than $5million in energy costs and 28 million gallons of water in Napa. Her biennial conference, Napa RISE, has gathered more than750 attendees in the valley and beyond, providing “a roadmap of what sustainable winemaking looks like” and eliciting commitments to action: Opus One trialing water-eliminating UV tank sanitation; Dominus Estate launching a no-till farming pilot project. Tod Mostero, Dominus’ director of viticulture and winemaking, says, “Anna has been fearless at taking on the task of moving the wine industry toward proactivity in the rebuilding of our physical and social landscapes, locally and internationally.” Now, she’s taking it further. In her quest for a “soil-to-bottle, whole-systems approach “to sustainability, Britain is developing a calculator to measure emissions in packaging and distribution. And she’s overhauled Napa Green’s vineyard certification to focus on climate action, regenerative farming, and social justice, tracking carbon sequestration in vineyard soils and equity in workforces. In all her work, she never forgets the opportunity that her region’s clout affords. “Napa has an incredibly powerful platform, and we can motivate change,” she says. “We really need to be leaders.”—BA
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Read more in IMBIBE MAGAZIE.
