Another Reason To Legalize Hemp: Make A Wine Cellar With It

(Forbes) - Chateau Maris’ 9,000 square foot wine cellar in southern France maintains a stable temperature year-round without the use of air conditioning or heating; it’s sustainable, organic, all-natural, odorless, and acts as a carbon sink–able to absorb carbon dioxide for up to 25 years (according to a French study). The cellar isn’t made of brick, or stone, or some magical new ingredient, but rather it’s a simple combination of hemp, lime and wood. Three things, that’s it.

Owner of Chateau Maris, Kevin Parker, believes that their hemp cellar is the only one of its kind in the world. Certainly they were the first winery to ever gamble on a cannabis structure as a winemaking space. In pursuit of a completely carbon negative winery, Parker and his business partner, Robert Eden, researched several options for cellaring. “We had a beauty contest between various sustainable structures, weighing the pros and cons of each approach and decided to go with hemp and lime.”

The net result is a completely biodegradable cellar space that is also energy self-sufficient. Constructed with hemp bricks, the cellar is a double-walled structure with a space in between (for aeration) and supported by a wood frame. Surprisingly, mold isn’t an issue for the plant-based building—the lime retards mold growth and the dry windy climate of southern France does her part to keep bacteria away as well.