Many wineries have solar panels to offset some of their energy needs – but are still reliant on the grid. But how realistic is it for wineries to be completely off-grid, running their operations entirely on self-generated green energy?

It depends on many factors, including scale of production, but certainly helps if one of the business partners spent 20 years working in the renewable energy sector.

Gearóid Lane is a founding partner of Gredos producer Bodega El Reventón, alongside Catena Zapata’s Adrianna Catena and Argentinian winemaker Alejandro Vigil.

Lane is a mechanical engineer by training, and the former managing director of the British Gas sustainable energy division. In 2021, the three equal partners bought La Reina, a 6.2ha vineyard at 820m-860m in the Sierra de Gredos mountains in central Spain.

When they came to convert a derelict barn on the land into a working winery, they faced a problem. ‘The nearest three-phase grid was so far away, it would have cost us a lot to get a grid connection,’ says Lane – around €500,000, in fact. So they didn’t. Instead, Lane sat down with his spreadsheets.

Lane had been at the heart of the UK’s green energy transition while at British Gas. He left to set up his own business facilitating the roll-out of government-mandated home energy efficiency programs in low-income households, including community solar projects.

A lifelong wine lover, when he came to sell this business he decided to put his energy into the wine world. A chance meeting with Adrianna on a WSET course was the project’s spark.

He’s no sideline investor, though; Lane is fully immersed in the project, learning winemaking directly from Vigil and the Catena Zapata team, and doing harvests in both Mendoza and Gredos.

He slowly built up an understanding of the Gredos winery’s energy needs throughout the year. The most energy-intensive period is harvest: the destemmer, pneumatic press, pumps and pressure washers all need power.

Temperature management is also key: cooling tanks at the start of harvest to help with smooth fermentations, and gently warming them at the end of harvest as nights turn cold and fermentations risk getting stuck.

It turned out that twenty-four 550-watt solar panels mounted on the south-facing barn roof could supply what they needed, plus three battery units for energy storage. And it would cost €40,000, instead of half a million.

The sustainable choice and the financially rational choice were the same – for once.

They found that they could also be self-sufficient in water. Two wells, replenished by winter rainfall, supply their needs for cleaning and production (not irrigation – the vines are dry famed).

It didn’t all go smoothly. The power surge needed to start the heating and cooling system couldn’t be met by the solar supply. A fix was found – another €3,000.

One issue remains: the pressure washer still occasionally overtaxes the supply, and a small petrol generator had to be used during the last harvest. But 10 additional solar panels, planned for the roof of a building conversion currently awaiting permission, should solve it.

This is all happening in a region that barely existed on the wine map just 20 years ago.

Dani Landi and Fernando Garcia of Comando G built a movement here. They created a community, and are now nurturing and inspiring a new generation of growers to show the world what Gredos tastes like.

And now it has attracted interest and investment from far beyond Spain: it was Landi who sold the El Reventón vineyard to the trio, which they bought after La Reina, and which gave the project its name.

Gredos was built on the belief that this land, which was gradually being abandoned, was worth fighting for. Arguably, the El Reventón project, and its focus on self-sufficiency, is a vote of confidence, and reflects the values that made the region worth coming to in the first place.

Sip to make a difference

From a 1ha vineyard planted in the 1940s on slate and quartz soils at 950m, Bodega El Reventón’s El Reventón 2023 (91pts, £69.95 Uncorked) is generous and giving, with gorgeous aromatics of dried cranberry and black cherry.

Soft and delicate in texture, with deep-set acidity, very ripe fruit and spice. A little way to go before reaching the heights of Gredos finesse, but it’ll get there.

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Since I started this monthly column, I’ve had a number of people ask me when I’m going to cover alcohol-free wine. For a long time, I rejected the idea that the NoLo category, especially de-alcoholised wine, was even relevant to this column slot.

Is there an assumption that abstaining from alcohol is inherently ethical? Does it stem from the noise around the (contested) World Health Organisation guidelines that state that ‘no level of alcohol consumption is safe’? Is avoiding wine – and alcohol in general – more sustainable? I suppose that these questions are worth interrogating.

I haven’t picked up my pen to write about the best NoLo wines to try (in my opinion, there aren’t any; and anyway, Andrew Jefford poked at NoLo wine in his January 2026 column), or even to comment on the concept of drinking in moderation – my colleague Ines Salpico unpicked this eloquently in the June 2025 issue in her ‘Wine, moderation & pleasure’ article.

Instead, I want to discuss something that I think a lot of discourse around the NoLo category misses, which is real scrutiny of the products themselves.

Is the bottle unnecessarily heavy? Where has the liquid itself come from? If it’s originally made from grapes, or even if it’s made from other plants, how were they farmed? Who picked them? How far has it travelled? How much energy does de-alcoholisation consume? What is the terroir?

I recently spoke with Camille Vidal, founder of mindful drinking consultancy La Maison Wellness. Her work centres on training the trade to offer more and better choices to people who, for whatever reason, want to drink less – or no – alcohol.

She came to this, she tells me, ‘through being an industry professional seeing consumer behaviour changing and a desire to drink differently, within an industry that wasn’t providing this’.

The industry was lagging behind its own customers – is it still?

Camille is clear-eyed about the category’s shortcomings. There are plenty of NoLo products on the market, she says, ‘that are just cutting corners – badly made in a lab, full of artificial flavourings and preservatives’.

But she also makes the point that NoLo products are legally required to declare every ingredient on the label; wine isn’t.

What she wants – and what we should also be demanding – is ‘more’: ‘I want more storytelling. More origin and terroir. More amazing ingredients and fermentation techniques.’ In other words, the same things we demand of a serious bottle of wine.

Enter Gut Oggau. This renowned Austrian biodynamic estate has launched Gut Feeling, a 0% alcohol botanical drink that’s everything most NoLo products aren’t.

Revered around the world for transmitting the very essence of their Burgenland landscape into the glass, Eduard and Stephanie Tscheppe have built a cult following not just for their commitment to biodiversity and nurturing the vineyard ecosystem, but for their ability to inspire others through it.

Gut Feeling follows the same logic, made from herbs and other plants, including nettle, camomile, yarrow, dandelion and wormwood, that grow around their vineyards. Terroir and authenticity. This is exactly what this category needs.

A handful of other NoLo options that come close to this idea are Botivo, Everleaf, Mother Root, Muri, Osco and Saicho.

The most successful NoLo stories will be those where producers are building their product from the ground up – taking the best ingredients and creating a liquid that doesn’t yet exist in alcohol form, and tastes amazing.

The questions we ask of wine, about provenance, environmental credentials, terroir and social responsibility, are the same questions we should be asking of every NoLo product we pick up.

Right now, too few of them have satisfying answers. As wine lovers and conscious consumers, it’s on us to keep demanding that they do.

Sip to make a difference

A delicious, organic non-alcoholic drink that cuts no corners on flavour and complexity! Vertu (£17.50 Clapton Craft, Gnarly Vines) is from biodynamic Bordeaux estate Château Peybonhomme-les-Tours. Crucially, it’s not dealcoholised wine. It’s a blend of 65% herbal tea, 30% Merlot grape juice and a splash of verjus, carbonated for a light sparkle.

It smells reassuringly herbal, with notes of ginger, menthol, fig and grape. It’s sweet, but that deep, warm herbal character is balancing and soothing. Love it.

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Earlier this year at the Millésime Bio organic wine fair in Montpellier, I tasted with Pierre Caizergues of Pierre & Antonin, a micro-négociant based in Malepère on Languedoc’s western frontier.

I’ll admit it was the wine labels that first caught my eye – frolicking foxes and unapologetically bright colours (I have a soft spot for foxes, especially the urban ones that have adopted my small London garden), but other aspects soon piqued my interest beyond the aesthetic charm: lightweight bottles, organic viticulture, minimal sulphur, indigenous yeasts – and, most strikingly, disease-resistant grape varieties.

Embracing hybrid grapes

Although they’re both from Languedoc, Pierre and his business partner Antonin Bonnet met in New York in 2010 while working in sales. After a decade of fermenting ideas, they returned to France and launched Pierre & Antonin in 2020.

Initially, they worked with a mix of classic varieties and hybrids. Gradually, though, they’ve shifted almost entirely to disease-resistant grapes such as Souvignier Gris, Cabernet Cortis, Artaban and Floréal, making red, white, rosé, orange and pét-nat wines.

They persuaded a small collective of growers to plant small plots, guaranteeing to buy the fruit.

Now their aim is to explore the potential of these hybrid grapes – showing that the wines can be made with minimal intervention, but can also be delicious and, crucially, affordable.

Vibrant, well-priced wines to be opened and shared

How can these factors be achieved? Due to the hybrids’ resistance to downy and powdery mildew, the cost of treatment products and labour are much lower and the lightweight bottles (only 370g) not only reduce carbon emissions during transport, but are also cheaper.

In a region where margins are tight and climate pressure is intensifying, these savings are no small consideration. And the elimination of fungicides means that fermentations start easily, so it’s easy to rely on indigenous yeasts.

The result is wines that are vibrant, unfussy, fruity, low in alcohol and well priced – bottles designed to be opened and shared rather than cellared.

This is arguably the ideal region to plough this furrow – the stakes aren’t as high as they would be in Beaune or Châteauneuf-du-Pape, say, and land is cheaper.

Later, I kept thinking back to how Pierre had referred to the hybrid grapes as ‘resistants’. In my mind this rang out as ‘resistance’.

There’s an undeniable semantic link – resistants/resistance – and the implications are strong. The word ‘resistance’ carries a lot of weight, but what does it mean in this context?

The wine world is at an uneasy juncture, so this is about resistance not only against vine disease, but against shifting tastes, climate chaos and economic volatility.

And then there’s resistance in the form of resilience and adaptation – not accepting that sustainability inevitably makes wine more expensive and less accessible. Opening a wine made from disease-resistant varieties is in itself an act of resistance.

Antonin believes that hybrids will be part of the future of wine – that they’ll be, at least in part, tomorrow’s answer to climate change.

‘There are masters of Syrah,’ he says. ‘There are many masters of Pinot Noir all over the world.’ But who will be the masters of Souvignier Gris, Cabernet Cortis and Floréal? Perhaps we’re about to find out.

Sip to make a difference

Souvignier Gris was Pierre and Antonin’s gateway grape. Alongside the still white Pierre & Antonin, Petit Sauvage Blanc, Languedoc, France 2025 (91pts, £17 Vindependents), they also make a pét-nat and a skin-maceration wine with it.

‘We love Souvignier Gris so much that we made it three ways,’ says Pierre. It’s bright and zesty, with fresh acidity, tropical fruit, some spice and a cool minty note, bringing great refreshment to sun-filled days.

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I recently took the train from London to the rolling countryside of southwest England.

I was on my way to River Cottage, near Axminster in Devon, to hear more about a new wine range developed through a collaboration between Domaine Gayda in Languedoc and much-loved UK celebrity chef, broadcaster and campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

If you live in the UK, you’ll likely know of Hugh; for years, he’s been challenging the way that the nation thinks about food, through TV series, documentaries and the written word.

An ethical-food advocate, he’s known for confronting inadequate food systems, exposing animal welfare issues, campaigning against single-use plastic, lobbying the government for a more urgent response to climate change, and more.

River Cottage is his certified-organic restaurant and cookery school. As well-spoken as he is, Hugh is down to earth and worldly, with an ability to connect to a wide audience.

When I heard about the new River Cottage wines, it raised an interesting question beyond whether they would be any good: can wine be part of the same ethical framework as food?

Wine is, after all, a luxury product, while food is a necessity. But wine, like a lot of our food, is also an agricultural product. And yet, it has, until very recently, avoided the same scrutiny as food in terms of soil health, climate impact, seasonality, waste and labour standards.

For Hugh, it’s clear-cut: ‘It’s an extension of the way I think about food. It’s important to see it as a product of agriculture that we consume.’

This is what makes this wine launch so interesting. It signals that sustainable farming practices, welfare and environmental impact aren’t just niche concerns.

When someone well known and so closely associated with making ethical and sustainable food accessible to a wider audience turns their attention to wine, it presents wine through that lens, too, and brings it into the mainstream conversation.

There are clearly several synergies between Domaine Gayda and River Cottage. The wine estate, which was set up from scratch from 2003-2004 by British horticulturalist Tim Ford and South African entrepreneur Anthony Record MBE, is certified organic.

It’s known for being something of a rebel and a pioneer, making wine from ‘outside’ grape varieties, such as Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc, and labelling as Vin de France or IGP.

Some biodynamic preparations are used in the vineyards, and hedgerows are being restored to encourage and support biodiversity. Hugh says that this all really chimed with River Cottage. In fact, Hugh and Tim bonded over a shared love of birds; each of the four wines’ labels show a bird species that’s thriving in Domaine Gayda’s vineyards.

As someone who’s recently discovered birdwatching herself (don’t worry I won’t bore you with further details), I really loved that the QR code on the back label takes you to the sound of the bird’s call on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website.

Hugh helped create the wine blends with winemaker Vincent Chansault; crucially, he wanted wines with moderate alcohol levels. In a warm, increasingly sun-baked region, this isn’t an easy feat.

‘In Languedoc, it’s really difficult to have good ripeness at low alcohol levels,’ says Vincent, and Hugh says he was nervous about them being ‘great big bottles of sunshine’.

With some early-harvest Mourvèdre, though, Vincent was able to achieve a red at 13%. It seems the exercise was mutually beneficial: ‘Having these discussions and making the wine with Hugh really challenged me,’ says Vincent, ‘[since trying to keep alcohol low] made me question the grapes that we plant, or try to buy.’

The collaboration makes sense, and the wines are really drinkable and characterful.

If River Cottage helped us to think more about how our food gets onto our plate, maybe its wines will encourage more of us to think through the story of how our wine gets into the glass.

Sip to make a difference

River Cottage, The Finch, Pays d’Oc 2024

A southern French blend of Grenache Blanc, Macabeu and Chenin Blanc, sourced from organic vineyards and made by Domaine Gayda, River Cottage’s The Finch, Pays d’Oc 2024 (90pts, £16.95-£18.50 JN Wine, River Cottage) is a super-zesty white. Lemon pith and white-fleshed peach, and a tingly, mineral finish. Check out the QR code [on the bottle label] to hear the call of the serin finch!

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Our relationship with water: The missing link

Two rivers in California, the Klamath and the Colorado, which act as vineyard lifelines, have been legally recognised as living beings, with the same legal rights as people under local indigenous law, in 2019 and 2025 respectively.

This recognition reflects the growing global spread of the indigenous worldview, another example being the growing number of Māori-owned wineries in Aotearoa (New Zealand), such as te Pā, Tiki and Kuru Kuru.

The bestowal of ‘personhood’ encapsulates the core of indigenous knowledge, an ancestral respect for the Earth and its ecologies.

One guiding principle is that you take only what you need. This is the missing link in our modern relationship with water. We no longer worship it; we commodify it.

'Freshwater irrigation of a luxury crop isn't viable'

Water now dominates the global wine conversation. I’ve been writing about this for a decade, including in a 2019 UN-commissioned paper on why freshwater irrigation of a luxury crop isn’t viable.

Distracted by the glare of solar panels and the hum of electric tractors, this truth is glossed over.

As I wrote in my paper, in the New World, 83% of the area under vine is irrigated, as opposed to 10% in the Old World. For wineries that practice irrigation, it accounts for most of the winery’s water footprint.

Is dry farming the answer?

The most ancient indigenous water-conservation tradition is dry farming.

When it comes to grape growing, this isn’t just about not irrigating, but a holistic system of practices to create deep-rooted vines, water-retentive soils, balanced canopies and more. Implemented effectively, dry farming can lead to drought-resilient vineyards, healthy yields and terroir-driven wines.

As Lauren Pesch of Leeds & Pesch Vineyard Consulting in Napa Valley, who advises vineyard owners on dry farming conversion, explains: ‘Dry farming is an ancient technique that is gaining renewed attention as we seek to adapt to changing climates and resource challenges. It’s about cultivating a deeper, more resilient plant that can consistently produce exceptional fruit.’

Adrian Bridge, managing director and chairman of Taylor’s Port, says that dry farming has been used in Portugal’s Douro region for more than 300 years.

He suggests that its concentrated wines and Ports would be ‘diluted’ by irrigation and that the practice would be ‘counterproductive to the quality that we produce’.

John Paul, founder of Oregon’s Deep Roots Coalition and winemaker at Cameron Winery in the Dundee Hills, says that ‘irrigating grapevines is a decision based solely on increasing returns on investments, not on increasing quality’.

Lauren Pesch’s father Frank Leeds, a longtime proponent of dry farming at Napa’s Frog’s Leap, concurs: ‘We dry farm because of wine quality, vine health and the tradition of it.’

Where the tension lies

There is, however, the unavoidable truth that you simply can’t grow vines in some places without irrigating the vineyards.

This is where the tension lies. As California winemaker Randall Grahm, founder of Bonny Doon Vineyard, asks: ‘In a world of limited resources, who is to decide which plantations are worthy of preservation?’

History offers a clue. In 1930s France, the creation of the wine appellation system led to severe restrictions on irrigation to control yields and protect quality (the practice was banned for AOC vines in 1964).

Similarly, many of Europe’s prestigious appellations treat irrigation as either forbidden or culturally taboo. Born from an economic and moral crisis, this became a terroir doctrine and today, inadvertently, serves as the perfect blueprint for climate resilience.

With irrigation restrictions now easing across many of Europe’s wine regions, in order to mitigate the effects of climate change, we have to ask: do we adapt our farming to the land, or drain the land to suit our farming?

Sip to make a difference

The Cameron, Dundee Hills Chardonnay, Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA 2023 (94pts, £49.95 AG Wines), made with fruit from drygrown, organically farmed old vines, is clean, crisp and beautifully structured. Discreet oak with fleshy apricots and peaches on the palate, and a mineral finish.

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Château d'Anglès: Embracing regenerative viticulture

Château d’Anglès sits on the northeastern flank of the Massif de la Clape, a rugged, sparsely populated limestone outcrop that rises above the glistening cobalt waters of the Mediterranean on Languedoc’s western coast.

The estate was bought in 2002 by Eric Fabre, ex-technical director of Château Lafite Rothschild, on the hunt for suitable Mourvèdre terroir. With Bandol (on Provence’s Côte d’Azur) too expensive, he found La Clape and its Mediterranean soul, and made the voyage from Médoc to Languedoc.

His son Vianney took over in 2017, converting to organics then biodynamics and now regenerative viticulture.

When I visited back in 2023, I was struck not only by the wines’ clarity and saline imprint – not to mention their affordability – but also Vianney’s excitement and acute observations around soil health.

What interests him isn’t dogma but results. ‘I don’t think the vine cares very much about the moon and the stars,’ he says. Instead, it’s visible soil regeneration and the impact on the wines themselves that push him forward.

‘Grapes reach maturity, both alcoholic and phenolic, earlier, at a lower degree of alcohol,’ he says. ‘We’ve seen that at 13.5%, Syrah is ripe, while before it was at 14.5% or maybe more.’

Recognition and support

I was delighted to hear that Château d’Anglès was one of the winners of The Wine Society’s inaugural 2024 Climate and Nature Programme.

The UK member-owned merchant launched the scheme to award financial support directly to its producers each year, ‘insetting’ funding directly into its supply chain rather than offsetting equivalent funds in external carbon removal schemes. In the first year, £64,000 was distributed between 11 producers worldwide.

Curious to see how meaningful that investment could be on the ground, I checked in with Vianney and Dom de Ville, the Society’s director of sustainability and social impact, to understand how the funding had been used.

Investment such as this makes particular sense in La Clape, a highly protected area that’s classified as a natural heritage site, a regional natural park and a European Union Natura 2000 site.

Vineyard plots are stitched into hollows and vales, wedged into crevices beneath rocky cliff faces, skirting dense pine forests and patches of scrubby garrigue.

It’s an improbably wild enclave, considering its close proximity to the city of Narbonne to the west, and wide sandy beaches and well-trodden tourist trails to the east.

'This thoughtful, practical work, backed by the right support, feeds directly into the glass'

One of the cornerstones of regenerative agriculture is avoiding ‘opening’ the soil through tilling, which disrupts soil structure and delicate underground networks of microorganisms.

The cost of equipment can be a significant barrier to the adoption of regenerative practices, so most of the funding that Château d’Anglès received was put towards a no-till direct seeder – a machine that’s used to sow multi-seed cover crops without opening the soil.

Vianney reports that this has been a great success across the domaine’s 43ha.

He also says that one of the best parts of this process has been working with a community workshop called L’Atelier Paysan to build a homemade roller to flatten the cover crops during early summer, which helps to protect soils against the increasingly high temperatures, retain soil moisture and reduce erosion.

The funding has also allowed the estate to plant more than 500 trees and shrubs (towards a target of 950 over three years), and install 80 beehives in spring, and for Vianney to attend an extensive agroecology course.

This thoughtful, practical work, backed by the right kind of support, feeds directly into the glass, making for better, fresher, more compelling wines.

It’s a brilliant example of how retailers can use their influence intelligently, showing how small projects can make a big impact.

Sip to make a difference

With its wafts of sea spray and citrus, Château d’Anglès, Classique Blanc 2024 (94pts, £11.50 The Wine Society) has the hallmarks of an excellent organic La Clape white made with a hefty dollop of Bourboulenc, a grape thought to originate in Vaucluse, Provence. It’s as crystalline and clear as the salty waters lapping at its feet, balancing the crunch of an underripe pêche de vigne with a briny tang and lots of texture. There’s a hint of honeysuckle and lemon-pith amaro on the finish. Amazing pleasure to value ratio.

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As I sit down to write the first column of 2026, I’ve realised that I never really addressed its title: ‘The ethical drinker’. What does ‘ethical drinking’ actually mean? Does it relate more to the act of drinking alcohol, or to the product itself?

There isn’t really a straight answer to this, as it’s probably a bit of both: an awareness of the way we consume, a curiosity about the wines we choose, their provenance and their wider impact, and acting on this curiosity and awareness in our buying behaviours.

As I reflected on the topics covered over the last year – from labour standards, bees and biochar to the importance of community, the health of the oceans and packaging – I found myself revisiting the wines and people that made me stop and think; wines that challenged assumptions about flavour, or of farming standards; people who prompted me to widen the lens beyond my enjoyment of what’s in the glass.

That is what this column is all about. So here I’m highlighting three bottles – and the experiences that went with them – that made me think, question or act.

Maxime Magnon, La Bégou Corbières Blanc, Languedoc, France 2019 | 98pts

£44.40-£45.25 (2022) Parched, Roberson

France’s largest wildfire in more than 70 years rampaged through the Corbières region in early August 2025, burning more than 17,000ha of land a few weeks before harvest. Residents lost homes, one person lost their life, and many growers suffered catastrophic vineyard losses.

I opened this bottle of Maxime Magnon’s white Corbières in solidarity with those affected. Despite the sombre motivation, the wine was beautiful: fragrant with beeswax and almond oil, linden flowers and honeysuckle, its texture like fine lace, carried by a keen saline bolt through the finish. Drink: 2025-2030. Alcohol: 12.5%

Charlie Herring Wines, Promised Land Riesling, Hampshire, England 2022 | 95pts

£40 The Solent Cellar

I finally managed to visit Tim Phillips at his tiny garage winery in Lymington in southern England, on the one day of the year that he opens his doors. A deeply thoughtful and curious man, Tim treats each vintage – indeed each week – as a precious opportunity to learn, grow and tweak.

Just 4km from the coast, amid orchards, woodland and vegetable gardens, he tends a tiny walled vineyard of Riesling, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. This wine was a real revelation, one that feels like a beautiful tribute to its balanced ecosystem, carrying aromas of lime zest, rye bread, quince paste and crushed rock, and a long, textured finish. It’s quietly compelling and will take many years to unfurl. Drink: 2025-2035. Alc: 11%

Domaine Lissner, Gewurztraminer Grand Cru Altenberg de Wolxheim, Alsace, France 2023 | 95pts

See: lissner.fr

Spending a day with Bruno Schloegel of Domaine Lissner in Wolxheim, Alsace, was eye-opening. His approach (a Masanobu Fukuoka-inspired, ‘do-nothing’ style of farming) is unlike anything I’ve encountered. One way to describe it is simply ‘wild’. But that does a disservice to the intricate interplay of animal, vine, earth, mycorrhizae and, of course, human intention.

It was March, and the vines’ spindly cordons were still unpruned. Some trunks were so covered in ivy that the bark was no longer visible; some vines were trained up fruit trees. Countless plant species thrive under the vines and between the rows, hinting at the vast biodiversity below ground. Bruno readily admits that yields are low – reduced by competition among the plants and losses to disease in some years – but eliminating chemical inputs and a reduced need for labour makes it economically viable.

We picked wild leeks from between the rows, which Bruno later used on the tarte flambée he cooked us for lunch. This Gewurztraminer was electric. Spicy, immediate and precise, with orange blossom, mango and grapefruit-tinged acidity. Drink: 2025-2035. Alc: 13.5%.

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The Loire Valley has always been a quietly confident wine region. Stretching 300km along the river and its tributaries, it encompasses more than 65 official designations, from Muscadet on the Atlantic coast to Sancerre in the east. The area now enjoys UNESCO recognition for its cultural landscape, too.

Ahead of the curve

Given its size, two bodies represent the Loire’s producers and strategy: InterLoire, which represents about three-quarters of the entire Loire wine region from Muscadet through to Touraine, and the BIVC, which covers the eight specific appellations that make up the geographically distinct Centre-Loire region, which includes Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé.

Though they’re administratively distinct, the combined result is impressive: the region has arguably the most forward-looking and complete sustainability roadmap in French wine.

How has this come about? In short, the Loire is a region of small, multigenerational domaines, so families live and breathe the vineyards, experiencing change first-hand and often more acutely.

Ahead of its time, the BIVC’s technical arm SICAVAC has been supporting Centre-Loire producers since 1994.

Founded and funded by growers for growers, it is unique in France, conducting research, vineyard monitoring, laboratory analysis, R&D, training and newsletters that flag forecasted issues and how to mitigate them.

By the late 1990s, while many other regions were preoccupied with marketing, the Loire was setting ambitious environmental targets, and nudging growers towards more sustainable farming.

A resilience ‘toolbox’

In 2000, it began precision terroir mapping across the whole wine-growing region – an area of about 66,000ha.

Thirteen years later, the results were made available online via the E-terroir platform, which now provides detailed maps of both soils and water.

Then, in 2018, InterLoire launched a program, led by the French Vine and Wine Institute, around heritage and new grape varieties.

‘This work is about building a library of genetic diversity so growers can match plant material to shifting soils and climates,’ says Etienne Goulet, InterLoire’s technical director.

This was followed, the next year, by the launch of Le Plan Filière Loire 2030, a strategic roadmap for the region’s wine industry. The first of its kind in France, it included targets for environmental certifications, such as organic and Terra Vitis (sustainable wine-growing).

Foundations were also laid for a shared ‘toolbox’, that would be accessible to everyone from educators to growers.

Among the tools in that toolbox are the Agroclimatic Atlas, which provides data on climatic evolution and its potential long-term impact on terroir and varietal suitability, and Loire Météo, which delivers hyper-local weather forecasts and disease alerts to guide vineyard decisions.

While resilience tools are impressive, reducing wine’s carbon footprint must also stay front of mind. Intent from the top is clear, and the WinePilot platform, rolled out by InterLoire from late 2024, enables growers and wine companies to measure their carbon footprints and identify reduction pathways.

There’s also new funding for a major bottle-reuse campaign and for helping growers invest in energy-efficient equipment.

Mitigations & frustrations

With such ambitious plans however, it’s worth asking how much is actually filtering down to producers.

The big-picture results are encouraging. The plan aims for organic or HVE (High Environmental Value) certification for 100% of the region’s vineyard area by 2030.

According to InterLoire, 85% was already there by 2023.

The BIVC has also recorded a five-fold increase in certification in just five years.

‘We know change is hard, so we’re focused on finding practical solutions to the technical challenges raised by this environmental commitment,’ says François Dal, technical expert at the SICAVAC.

Goulet says: ‘Tool usage among producers is strong and steadily increasing, but we’re working to expand adoption further by raising awareness and demonstrating relevance.’

On the ground, however, I found many winemakers were keen to emphasise the upsides of warmer vintages and riper wines. Others seemed so accustomed to environmental directives that they no longer viewed them as remarkable.

Yet when pushed, several acknowledged growing threats, such as vine disease flavescence dorée.

Most also admitted that each new vintage now brings weather extremes of some sort, testing resilience every year.

Results in the glass

For wine drinkers, this isn’t simply academic. Without vigilance, climatic pressures will mean rising prices, loss of vinous identity and patchy quality. Extra ripeness isn’t always a drawback for Loire wines but already, it’s tipping towards the edge.

The Loire’s proactive stance aims to safeguard its wines’ unique characteristics, meaning Cabernet Franc retains its fragrant poise and Sauvignon remains elegant, for example, while ensuring they always speak of place.

There is obviously still plenty to be done, but the Loire seems better placed than many other regions to face the challenges ahead.

In the meantime, in the spirit of collaboration the plan champions so well, it will also fall to us as wine lovers to help tell their story.

Sip to make a difference: Loire wines to try

Domaine Théo Blet, La Peyanne, Saumur Blanc 2023

100% organic Chenin Blanc, balancing delicate floral aromatics with a textured palate of apricot and white peach.

Lulu l’Alouette, Chinon, 2023

Perfumed and silky, with notes of spiced raspberry and graphite, this is an elegant, easy-drinking Cabernet Franc.

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How far would you go to reduce your carbon footprint? I calculated mine and was rather shocked to discover that, despite being a vegetarian, recycling meticulously, buying locally where I can and not owning a car, my annual footprint is well over the UK target.

My self-righteousness took a blow. The key culprit? Travel – flying, mainly – equating to eight tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. Roughly the weight of 63 giant pandas, apparently.

Author Camilla Gjerde almost certainly has a lower carbon footprint than me. She stopped flying some time ago, as did Alsace winemaker Yannick Meckert, about whom she writes in her book Natural Trailblazers: 13 Ways to Climate- Friendly Wine (£29 Now What Publishing).

While carrying out research for the book, she travelled only by train and bike (save for a few emergency taxis).

Gjerde took inspiration from sustainability researcher Kimberly Nicholas and her book Under the Sky We Make (Penguin, 2021), which focuses on what we as individuals can do to reduce our carbon footprint.

And so, focusing on carbon emissions reduction, Gjerde highlights 13 people who are determined to reduce wine’s climate footprint, bringing their stories to life on the page.

She has split these groundbreakers into three areas: in the vineyard, in the winery and on the move. From the Jura producer using regenerative organic farming in her 3ha vineyard to the Swiss wine-grower capturing carbon with biochar and the importer bringing a portion of its wines into Copenhagen by sailing ship, each story is different and inspiring in its own right.

This well-researched book is much more than simply a collection of winemaker profiles. Gjerde is hyper-perceptive and it’s her astute observations that give so much colour to each story.

In sharing those stories, Gjerde shows that having a stable business while drastically reducing carbon emissions is entirely possible, and wants to inspire others to consider it.

‘It’s just 13 examples of what can be done, without it having to ruin your budget. Often when I’ve read about what wine producers can do, it costs a lot. I needed examples that people could implement, without it costing a lot of money,’ says Gjerde.

But these are vineyards on a tiny scale. I wondered whether she believes that the entire industry can be sustainable, or at least more climate friendly. ‘I do believe in consumer power, and if consumers were all really interested, I think we would be able to change, perhaps not the whole industry, but a lot,’ she says.

‘In Sweden, where I live, bag-in-boxes represent more than 50% of sales. Consumers have shown that they’re really open to alternatives to bottles.

‘In the book, [I describe how] Ida Sundqvist, the importer in Sweden, has managed to get the big firms and lots of conventional wine into kegs. So I think yes, at least the majority of the wine business is possible to change.’

Sip to make a difference

Beck-Hartweg, Riesling Grand Cru Frankstein, Alsace, France 2021 | 93pts

£38.90-£39.40 Cave Bristol, Sip Wines

I was somewhat familiar with this producer – its pét-nat was the juice of the summer a few years ago – so I was delighted to find them in the book. This Riesling has a golden hue – hinting at either skin maceration or a symptom of zero added sulphur, or both – and a nose of warm lemons, oyster shell, ripe mango and paraffin. It’s electric in the mouth. There’s some trapped carbon dioxide, so when first opened it’s a touch spritzy before it dissipates. It has all the structure, tension and heft of a grand cru Riesling with a little wild character, too. Organic. Drink 2025-2035. Alcohol 13%.

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Diana Snowden Seysses is one of wine’s most articulate and driven environmental advocates. I met her on a rooftop in London. It was sunny and bright and we were drinking Provence rosé from Domaine de Triennes – where she’s the consultant winemaker – yet the tone of our conversation was sombre.

Snowden Seysses is an active voice in making wine more sustainable: she’s on the global steering committee of The Porto Protocol, the wine industry’s climate action network, and is widely sought out for her advice on carbon capture, limiting greenhouse gas emissions, bottle reuse and environmental sustainability initiatives. She farms biodynamically at Burgundy’s Domaine Dujac, where she is a family member and oenologist; and organically at California’s Snowden Vineyards where she is also a family member and winemaker.

And yet, the emotional reality of the climate crisis is a heavy burden that even Snowden Seysses struggles with. Global political instability and inaction (‘Trump’s re-election plus many countries missing the UN deadline to set new climate targets’) have left her feeling ‘defeated and helpless’.

It’s something many of us feel. So how do we manage to keep going, despite it all?

‘Community is the answer,’ she says, when I caught up with her a few months after our first meeting. Drawing on the Buddhist notion of no hope, no fear – a philosophy of accepting the way things are – she says ‘we’re going to have to do this together. As The Beatles famously pronounced: we get by with a little help from our friends’.

Economic backdrop

But sustainability is not only a matter of willpower. The barriers are systemic and economic. ‘Our biggest challenge for sustainability is that wine sales are terrible at the moment, and few companies have the extra resources to throw at sustainability,’ she observes.

For a business to survive long enough to change, it must be economically sustainable first. Focusing on things that wineries have direct control over – such as farming, packaging and shipping – and that also make economic sense, is key.

These initiatives might include reducing bottle weight, working towards no-till viticulture to improve soil health and its ability to store carbon, or planting trees and hedges to provide biodiversity and cooler microclimates. The important thing is, not to give up entirely.

Sip to make a difference

Snowden Vineyards, Cousins Merlot, Santa Cruz Mountains, California, USA 2021

Score: 90

£41.95 Shelved Wine (UK importer: Flint Wines)

A vibrant Merlot made from biodynamically farmed grapes sourced from the Zayante vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Notes of plum and black cherry are buoyed by succulent acidity and wild herb. Conceived by the Snowden cousins Diana, Christian, Susanne and Carey – the third generation of this family estate – it has been specifically set up for bottle reuse, with a wash-off label and no foil capsule.

It’s only a small part of the Snowden range, but this wine is much greater than the sum of its parts. What it represents, and the message it puts across, is what counts. Although logistical obstacles to widescale bottle reuse remain, this project demonstrates that meaningful change is within reach. Snowden Seysses wants to ‘make the wine world reuse-ready’, and this wine makes the case for us changing our expectations on what and how we drink. Drink 2025-2027 Alc 14.5%

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The movie-length documentary is visually stunning, but also devastating. The ghastliest part? The dramatic footage and earsplitting sounds of bottom trawling – heavy nets and huge metal chains dragged across vast swathes of the seabed, catching everything in their path and potentially heavily damaging the seafloor. Up to three-quarters of what’s caught may be discarded.

The film’s message is clear: through destructive overfishing, pollution, ocean warming and the associated mass coral bleaching, and acidification, Attenborough says: ‘We are draining the life from our ocean.’ And yet, with his signature glimmer of hope, we’re told that if given time to rest and rebuild, the ocean can recover faster than we ever thought possible.

The health of the ocean might not initially seem like a wine lover’s direct concern, but as Attenborough says, the ocean is our planet’s life-support system, helping to regulate the climate, absorbing carbon dioxide, generating oxygen and storing and transporting heat. ‘Oceans are our greatest ally against climate catastrophe,’ he concludes – and thus a quiet ally to winemakers and wine lovers alike.

Leaving the cinema in a ‘what can I do?!’ funk, I got to thinking about how we as consumers can use our purchasing power to make a difference. Fundamental change will only come from decisions made at the international level – such as at the UN Ocean Conference in June, where nations are being asked to ratify the High Seas Treaty, which aims to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030 – but small conscious choices on our part can still make a difference.

And an increasing number of brands are making that easier for wine lovers by aligning with ocean charities. UK-based producer Sea Change Wines, for example, donates €0.25 from every 75cl bottle sold to groups working to save the oceans. Since it launched in 2018, it has raised more than €600,000 for its partners, including global charity Ocean Generation.

Languedoc producer Gérard Bertrand recently combined the unveiling of the first vintage of his new cuvée La Grande Bleue with the announcement of a partnership with the charity Oceana. Although the company doesn’t say exactly how much is raised from each bottle sold, ‘it makes [financial] donations to support various [Oceana] campaigns for the prevention, preservation and regeneration of marine ecosystems’.

Bordeaux cooperative Tutiac is working with NGO Zero Plastic Ocean and closure maker Vinventions to create corks that are made from almost 70% ocean-bound plastic (defined broadly as ‘abandoned plastic waste’ that’s at risk of ending up in the ocean). To date, some 200,000 bottles of Tutiac wine have been fitted with Help Protect The Ocean corks.

Even supermarket chain Aldi has entered the space. In January, its UK operation launched an own-label wine made by Australian producer the Hidden Sea, which funds large-scale ocean plastic clean-ups by Danish company Resea Project.

Sip to make a difference

Gérard Bertrand, La Grande Bleue, Méditerranée, Languedoc, France 2024

Score: 90

Drink 2025-2027 Alc 13%

Sea Change, Organic Picpoul de Pinet, Languedoc, France 2023

Score: 88

£14.35 Abel & Cole, TB Watson

Drink 2025-2026 Alc 13%

Two wines this month that just happen to be from Languedoc’s Mediterranean coast: Gérard Bertrand’s new cuvée, which is bright as a button, bringing together Rolle, Grenache Blanc, Viognier, Chardonnay and Sauvignon with lots of aromatic appeal, waves of flavour and a torrent of salty citrus; and a Picpoul that leans into its fleshy, ripe side, reminding me of sticky pineapple and honeydew melon with a burst of citrus at the end.

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Biochar is charcoal made using pyrolysis, in which biomass (organic matter such as wood, food waste and sewage sludge) is heated to a high temperature in the absence of oxygen.

Interest is growing in the potential benefits of applying biochar to vineyard soils. These include increasing the soil’s water-holding capacity, increasing its carbon-storage potential, and regenerating life in the soil.

But not all biochar is created equal. ‘People think biochar is magical, but you need the source material to be of high quality,’ says Jean-Marc Lafage, owner and winemaker of Domaine Lafage in the drought-prone Roussillon region of southwestern France.

Already typically low in rainfall, Roussillon has experienced two years of extreme drought. So for the last five years, Domaine Lafage has been studying the production and use of biochar and water management. There’ve been good results when biochar is applied to the soils of newly planted vines, improving the vegetative growth; for older vines less so. In combination with other techniques, such as ground cover for improved infiltration and mulching to prevent water loss, biochar is helping the domaine navigate climate extremes.

But biochar is currently tremendously expensive. According to Antoine Lespès, research and development lead at Domaine Lafage, the current market price is around €1,000 per tonne – and at least four tonnes are required per hectare. The domaine has produced biochar from some of its own vine stocks and cuttings, but it’s only 1% of the biochar it would need for all of its vineyards.

Lespès says that the long-term aim is to take advantage of biomass that’s available to them locally, turn it into biochar to use on soils, and reuse byproducts from the pyrolysis process for heat and electricity, thus closing the loop. The ongoing research will focus on this circular system, finding the right biochar for the soils and making it more economically viable.

Because of biochar’s ability to sequester carbon dioxide that otherwise would have entered the atmosphere, it has become an interesting currency for carbon credits. Lespès points out that producing credits is an efficient way to decrease the price of the biochar.

Wine lovers might be asking other questions: how will this affect the wine in my glass; what is the effect on terroir? Although the answers remain unclear and research is still ongoing, biochar could certainly be a useful tool for drought-challenged areas. Other wineries experimenting with biochar in vineyards include Mythopia in Switzerland, Hope Well in Oregon and Famille Fabre in the Languedoc.

Sip to make a difference

Domaine Lafage, Moutou, Côtes Catalanes, Roussillon, France 2023

Score: 94

£21.82-£27.41 (2022) Corking Wines, Great Wines Direct, Strictly Wine, The Fine Wine Co, Vinvm

A wonderfully juicy blend of 90% Grenache and 10% Syrah from an experimental, regeneratively farmed vineyard that incorporates cover cropping, biochar and no ploughing. Intoxicating red berry fruit, like glistening red cherry skins, with the merest hint of smoky dried thyme and herbal lift, a perfume of rosehip and dried cranberry bringing elegance. There’s lots of peppy, energetic acidity and the crack and chew of ripe raspberry pips. It’s a wine that treads softly, fluid and flowing effortlessly, providing great refreshment and leaving you smacking your lips with delight. Drink 2025-2028 Alcohol 13.5%

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Irrational fears aside, bees are an important part of any ecosystem, including vineyards. I spoke to beekeepers and vineyard owners to find out why.

‘There isn’t a direct link between the vine and the bee,’ says Victorine Fraisse of Domaine de Villeneuve in Pic St-Loup, north of Montpellier in Languedoc. Her father has been a beekeeper since 1989 and the estate has about 1,000 bee hives. In fact, Vitis vinifera vines are self pollinating, their flowers bearing both male and female reproductive parts.

The importance of bees, then, lies in their contribution to the biodiversity of the vineyard ecosystem. They pollinate cover crops, such as mustard or radish, which are often planted between vine rows, as well as the flora that surrounds biodiverse vineyards. Cover crops can prevent soil erosion, help with water absorption and drainage, and contribute to what is often called a living soil.

What’s more, ‘bees also attract other pollinators, such as butterflies and bumblebees’, says Jean-Pierre Torrontelle, a beekeeper based in Cruzy, near St-Chinian, west of Béziers, as well as other insects, such as wasps, which will often feed on harmful grapevine pests.

Bee protective

‘Bees are a visual balance of biodiversity,’ says Marlène Angelloz of producer Chêne Bleu in Ventoux, in the southeast of the Rhône valley. ‘If there’s a problem with insufficient flowers or with adverse weather, naturally bees will leave and install themselves elsewhere.’

A changing climate poses problems for bees. Extreme, unpredictable weather patterns affect the growth and flowering cycles of the plants upon which bees rely, and this reduces their food sources at certain times of year, Torrontelle explains. The Asian hornet, which has colonised continental Europe and has arrived in the UK, is a big threat, too, as it eats bees, potentially decimating hives.

A number of certification schemes, such as Bee Friendly, aim to protect endangered bee populations by recognising practices such as avoiding the use of chemical insecticides and pesticides, among others. Bordeaux’s St-Emilion appellation has embraced the label. In fact, in 2023, INAO – the organisation in charge of France’s agricultural sector appellations – approved a request to oblige St-Emilion, St-Emilion Grand Cru and Puisseguin St-Emilion to have at least two environment certifications, for which the Bee Friendly label is accepted.

Look out for…

In addition to those mentioned, look out for wines from the following wineries, which all have a particular focus on bees: Château Maris, Domaine de Cambis in Languedoc; Mas des Infermières in Luberon, Château Galoupet in Provence; Carpineto in Tuscany; and Grgich Hills Estate in Napa Valley, California.

Sip to make a difference

Chêne Bleu, Astralabe Blanc, Ventoux, Rhône, France 2024

Score 92

I love the flare of warm citrus that erupts from this blend of Roussanne, Grenache Blanc, Rolle and Clairette. It’s intensely zesty but also softly floral, with seductive notes of honeysuckle and blossom, while the finish is stony and mineral. Certified organic and bee friendly, too. Drink 2025-2028 Alc 13.5%

Mas des Infermières, Jack, Luberon, Southeast France 2023

Score 90

Acclaimed film director Sir Ridley Scott, owner of Mas des Infirmières, happens to love dogs, and this wine is named after one of his canine friends. A blend of Grenache, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon it’s big on juicy fruit, with a whoosh of pure strawberry and blackberry, succulent acidity and a light grip of tannin. Deliciously gourmand, and also certified bee friendly. Drink 2025-2027 Alc 14%

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After studying viticulture and oenology, he worked in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, in the Rhône valley, at Domaine de Beaurenard, followed by stints in New Zealand, Languedoc and Luberon. The Piwi adventure started in 2021 when he returned home and realised that fungal vine diseases were a big problem in his region. ‘All my friends were already losing 80%-100% of their production,’ he tells me.

Deciding that he wanted to ‘try to do something that will be more relevant, which will have more of a future and also be better for the environment’, he began to research disease-resistant grape varieties.

He met two producers growing Piwis, one local and another in Languedoc. They advised him not to jump in and plant them on the family farm until he knew exactly which ones he’d like to work with, and offered to work with him until then.

Under the name Wine Impact, from these two producers’ grapes he makes two stylistically different ranges – Raisis and Darwin. The Raisis wines (a portmanteau of raisin, ‘grape’ in French, and resistance) are blends ‘made to democratise Piwi grapes’, he says, the aim being that ‘everybody, not only wine lovers, will appreciate them. Not complex, but wines we love to share with friends by the glass – and that’s it.’

Tournier realised that in order for Piwi grapes to become better known, people would need to start to recognise the aromas of each individual variety, so he focused on creating single-varietal wines, which he releases under the Darwin name. These wines are made ‘to put the Piwi grapes in the place they belong, among the good wines. If you give them the chance and make them like you make great wine, they will express like great wine,’ he says. ‘I am one of the few to give them the treatment they deserve.’

The wines are already listed in top restaurants in France, including Michelin one-star Restaurant Nicolas Carro in Brittany and Acte 2 Yannick Delpech in Toulouse. The next step will be to plant his own Piwi varieties and build winemaking facilities at the family domaine.

At just 28, Tournier is a young visionary embedding himself firmly in the winemaking of tomorrow.

What are…? Piwi grape varieties

Piwis (short for Pilzwiderstandsfähige Reben, German for ‘fungus-resistant vines’) are hybrid grape varieties bred specifically to be resistant to certain fungal grapevine diseases – such as powdery and downy mildew – by crossing Vitis vinifera with other vine species, such as American or Asian vines.

As the Piwi varieties are much less likely to contract disease, less fungicide needs to be used and they also possess significant resilience in the face of climate change.

Sip to make a difference

Wine Impact, Raisis Blanc, Southwest France 2024

Score 88

£13.99 (2022) DrinkWell

A Vin de France 50/50 blend of hybrid varieties Muscaris (Solaris x Muscat) and Souvignier Gris (Seyval Blanc x Zähringer) – ‘a famous blend in the Piwi world,’ according to Roman Tournier. Aromatic, with delicate notes of honeysuckle and mango, as well as lime, candied lemon peel and refreshing acidity. This has great appeal in its exotic fruit and cleansing finish – a crowdpleaser. Drink 2025-2028 Alc 12%

Wine Impact, Darwin Vidoc, Languedoc 2021

Score 88

wineimpact.fr

A Vin de France made from hybrid variety Vidoc, which has another hybrid, Regent, as a parent, this is unexpectedly savoury and complex with a wild side. Plump with blackcurrant fruit, a gamey, ferrous character and grippy tannins, so best enjoyed with food. Drink 2025-2028 Alc 12.5%

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Naturally, it’s aimed at wine producers, importers, exporters, retailers and wholesalers. I’m none of those, but I read it anyway, because as a wine drinker, I also have a strong interest in the container that gets this precious liquid cargo safely from the winery into my hands. I care what it looks like, how it’s presented, but I also know that its environmental impact can be significant. So here are my key takeaways from the report, as well as some packaging trends we might see in the near future…

• A shift towards reusable bottles and deposit return systems, with packaging designed with reuse and recycling in mind from the outset. It will take consumer participation and efficient systems to get these off the ground.

• Recycling infrastructure varies, not just globally or nationally but between towns and cities. In order to achieve their full environmental potential, reusable glass, rPET and aluminium require the right infrastructure to be in place. Just because something is recyclable doesn’t mean it’s recycled. Take corks. I’ve been merrily popping my corks into my recycling bin – natural cork is, after all, fully recyclable. In fact, the UK doesn’t offer efficient recycling options for cork. Unless dropped at, or sent to, official cork collection points, it’s landfill or incineration – but they can be chopped up and added to your compost as they’re biodegradable!

• Expect to see more bag-in-boxes, ‘paper’ bottles, rPET bottles, cans and kegs (wines on tap) on the market. I welcome the increase of high quality wines in these formats, although unless the use of bio-based alternatives to plastic increases and more efficient regional plastic recycling develops, these formats may not be that long-lived. Look out for innovative, low-impact design solutions, too, such as biodegradable and wash-off labels, and inks made from vegetables or algae.

• Packaging regulations will become stricter globally, with measures that focus on recyclability, reuse and reducing waste. Negative-impact packaging – heavy glass bottles and single-use plastics – will incur higher taxes; producers will need to move to recyclable and low-impact materials to avoid higher costs, meaning for us, buying wines in low-impact packaging should become the cheaper option. Win. It needs to be made economically unviable for producers to use heavy bottles and regulation is the fastest way to make that happen. But we can make an impact ourselves, too. Our buying decisions make ripples in the vast pond of wine production.

Producers can use the Porto Protocol guide, with the most up-to-date analysis of packaging and materials at every stage in their life, to find ways to change and improve their packaging to minimise their environmental impact. All it needs is for us wine drinkers to keep an open mind and embrace the innovation that follows.

PET and rPET

PET is a type of plastic – polyethylene terephthalate – typically produced from crude oil and commonly used for food and drink containers; rPET is made from recycled PET products. Wine bottles can be made from both materials, making them very lightweight, meaning lower carbon emissions during transportation. Both are technically 100% recyclable, although not infinitely. What’s more, the raw material is still ultimately fossil fuel-derived, and if not disposed of correctly, can lead to microplastic pollution.

Sip to make a difference

Thirsty Birds, Pinot Gris, Sussex, England 2023

Score: 88

£19-£28/75cl Babylon Eco Centre, Borough Wines, Camber Wines, Palate Bottle Shop, Spy Wines, Tenaya Wine, Thirsty Birds

This is a crisp, zesty, tart and zingy Pinot Gris sourced from a single vineyard in Sussex. It’s available in 1.5L pouches (£36 thirsty-birds.com), kegs and reusable, lightweight, capsuleless bottles, keeping transport emissions as low as possible and packaging waste to an absolute minimum. Drink 2025-2027 Alcohol 12%

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There may be answers, however, in young companies such as EthicDrinks. A Bordeaux-based, new-wave négociant that sources organic wines from across France and further afield, it supplies retailers using a transparent, ethical, sustainable, plastic-free, decarbonised supply chain. Too good to be true? It recently launched a wine with UK retailer Laithwaites packaged in the lightest glass bottle on the market, at just 300g.

I spoke to vehemently anti-plastic co-founder Mickaël Alborghetti, who’s on a mission to drastically cut CO2 emissions from the wine supply chain. ‘By trade I’m an engineer in agronomics and agriculture,’ he told me. ‘My dad was a green party representative. I grew up in that mindset of protecting the planet.

‘The story is that while working for a négociant, I went diving in Bali – in the middle of a sea of plastic. Admittedly, travelling to Bali isn’t very carbon free, but it opened my mind and changed the way I wanted to impact the world. I quit my job and launched EthicDrinks. Two main points were essential to me: being plastic free and being carbon free.

‘I am a négociant, part of the supply chain, so CO2 emissions are my biggest impact. But when you’ve worked at a winery and in production, you notice that there’s plastic involved everywhere, too: in labels, in capsules, in tape, in shrink wrap on pallets.

‘In general, people are terrible at recycling plastic [according to the OECD, only 9% of plastic is recycled globally]. Those flat, plastic wine bottles may have a lower carbon impact, but is the plastic actually recycled, or does it end up in wildlife or landfill? And plastic can usually only be recycled once or twice.

‘We’re not fundamentalists. If you’re a fundamentalist nowadays and you look at the data, it’s better to bury yourself, because the turning point is already behind us. So we have to decide to adapt as much as we can. We’re trying to optimise without compromise, but we pick our battles; you can’t win them all. Sustainability itself is hard. When you pick up a bottle, how do you decide which is worse: carbon or plastic?

‘In creating EthicDrinks, we knew it was going to have an impact on the planet. So our aim is to replace wines on shelves that are not sustainable at all with our ethical, responsible products. But this has to be done at scale to make an impact. Today, we supply millions of bottles, and are cutting huge amounts of carbon compared to those whose spot on the shelf we’re taking.’

EthicDrinks’ organic wines are bottled in lightweight, recycled and recyclable glass with biodegradable labels, plant-based glue and no capsules. The company partners with environmental NGOs to donate 1% of its profits, and is B corp and carbon-neutral certified.

Sip to make a difference

EthicDrinks, Vague de Loire, Chinon, Loire, France 2020

Score: 91

A characterful and expressive organic Cabernet Franc showing smoked meat and classic character. It’s juicy and refreshing, and the acidity is on point. Drink 2025-2028 Alcohol 12.5%

EthicDrinks, Pour la Nature Syrah Sans Sulfites, Pays d’Herault, France 2022

Score: 90

Ripe and fleshy, this Syrah – certified Vin Méthode Nature – shows bright black cherry and floral scents. It’s tasty, tactile tannins make it highly drinkable. Drink 2025-2027 Alc 13.5%

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In the US, Oregon has a significant network of B Corp wineries, including A to Z Wineworks and Et Fille. EPI Group’s three Champagnes – Piper-Heidsieck, Charles Heidsieck and Rare – were the first in the region to be certified. The UK’s Ridgeview was an early adopter and, more recently, Domaines Barons de Rothschild Lafite has joined the fray.

Created by the non-profit organisation B Lab, which was founded in 2006, B Corp assesses and continually monitors a company’s social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability. After answering hundreds of questions around governance, workers, the environment, community and customers, a company is awarded a score: above 80 points, and subject to an audit, the company can be certified. It must commit to the score being publicly available on its B Corp profile, and must re-certify every three years. The cost is relative to the size of the business, but is generally considered to be high.

Achieving B Corp certification often requires an element of structural change within a business, forcing it to take a long, hard look at its supply chain, employees and overall impact. It may also have to change its corporate structure to make it accountable to all of its stakeholders, not just its shareholders. The implication is that a B Corp business cares as much about its environmental and social impact as it does its profits – certainly a model that an ethical consumer would commend.

On the one hand, large companies with more financial resources and bigger environmental and social impacts have the means and the motivation to start down the B Corp path, so perhaps we should demand that certification is the bare minimum in their broader sustainability strategy. On the other hand, like many certification systems related to sustainability, B Corp can engender some scepticism – questions may be raised when the B Corp logo pops up in association with huge multinationals or financial investment companies with links to potentially questionable working practices, for example.

That being said, as the wine industry is likely to come under increasing scrutiny, this is still a certification that it would do well to subscribe to, particularly when it comes to issues relating to labour and human rights.

Greenhushing?

When companies stay silent about their sustainability progress, whether to avoid criticism for not doing enough or to avoid being accused of greenwashing.

Sip to make a difference

Château Maris, Brama, Vin de France 2021

Score: 94

POA £ Armit

Refined, radiant and refreshing, this 100% Grenache Gris from Languedoc plays delicate notes of meadowsweet, white blossom and lemon sherbet off richer tones of wild flower honey and cooked apples. Sophisticated and finespun in texture. The first European winery to be B Corp certified. Drink 2024-2030 Alcohol 14%

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The UN has recognised regenerative agriculture as ‘one of the most effective ways to make food systems more sustainable’ (‘Rethinking food systems’, June 2021). And it’s gaining traction in wine production, too.

In 2021, Cheval Blanc published a manifesto committing to a radical shift to agroecology – the principles of which marry with those of regenerative agriculture.

Whether wheat or wine, ‘regen’ is farming that also restores and regenerates soils and wildlife and creates biodiverse ecosystems, removing reliance on chemical inputs.

The main tenets in achieving this are: no tilling of soil (thought to destroy the underground networks of mycorrhizae); animals for grazing (reducing machinery, providing natural fertilisers); cover crops (decreasing erosion, boosting biodiversity); and agroforestry (growing trees in and around crops, thought to increase carbon sequestration).

Sounds fairly familiar doesn’t it? Because regen isn’t a new thing. Many of its processes are already practised widely. But it’s their adaptation to specific sites, climates and vintages, and the deepening understanding of their contribution to rehabilitating soils that is attracting producers to explore the approach.

The Regenerative Viticulture Foundation (RVF) provides resources to producers looking to increase their soil health while being a sustainable business. Its recently launched online RV Guide allows producers to assess their existing practices and connect with like-minded growers around the world – farmers ultimately learn best from another farmer down the road. I can relate to that – an amateur gardener, I’ve learned far more from my neighbour over the fence than through Google.

In 2020, California’s Tablas Creek was the first winery in the world to gain Regenerative Organic Certified status. This year, Provence’s Domaine Mirabeau is the first in France to achieve the same.

Wildfarmed flour is now sought out by the best restaurants, bakeries and pizzerias in the UK, and Wildfarmed bread can even be found on supermarket shelves. Regen is going mainstream – its widespread adoption could help increase the health of soils around the world.

‘To practise regenerative viticulture you have to be organic’

While restoring soil health does mean reducing and hopefully eliminating chemical inputs, regen puts emphasis on tailoring practices to specific sites. Producers can start conventionally and build in regen approaches, improving their soil even before becoming organic. At the same time, not all organic producers farm regeneratively, because they use tilling as a form of weed control.

Sip to make a difference

Beckham Estate, Amphora Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA 2022

Score: 95

£39.25 Les Caves de Pyrene

Andrew and Annedria Beckham farm regeneratively in Oregon’s Chehalem mountains, with animal grazing, land left to wildlife, no tilling, compost fertilisers and biodynamic treatments. Andrew also makes the terracotta amphorae in which the wines are made. This Trousseau, Pinot Noir and Gamay blend absolutely sings, the purity of bright cranberries and rose petals shining through. Drink 2024-2030 Alc 10.5%

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For some reason, these aren’t questions that many of us ask ourselves when it comes to wine, but that needs to change. There are just as many opportunities for human exploitation in wine production as there are in the production of, say, bananas and coffee – products that we’re now used to seeing accompanied by a Fairtrade label.

With one harvest per year, and the necessity for grapes to be picked at the optimal moment, many wineries employ seasonal workers (about 120,000 arrive in Champagne every harvest), and the unjust ways in which they are sometimes treated – whether through poor pay, long hours or poor sanitary conditions in which to work, sleep and eat – has rarely been probed.

A 2021 Oxfam report on the Italian wine supply chain found that 80% of workers in Puglia couldn’t meet their basic needs with the low pay they received. It also found that the illegal use of what’s known in Italy as caporalato – where a third-party contractor coerces vulnerable migrants to work for a very low wage – was widespread.

So how can we know, once the wine is on the shelf, that everyone involved in its production has been fairly treated and hasn’t had their human rights violated? At the moment, it isn’t easy. Some certifications, such as Equalitas and B Corp, cover social equity, but many don’t.

Sauternes’ Château Doisy Daëne and a number of other estates have joined forces to create their own labour subcontractor, meaning that they can have more control over the working conditions for their seasonal workforce.

Ultimately, wine should give pleasure, be fun and joyful, and yet, as the CEO of UK retailer The Wine Society told me, ‘wine can’t be joyful when you know in your head that someone might be suffering’. As consumers, the more we start to ask questions, the more retailers, importers and producers will need to start providing answers.

…fungicides?

Vines are particularly susceptible to fungal diseases, which cause the grapes, leaves or trunk to rot. The most common are powdery mildew, downy mildew and grey rot. To combat these diseases, vines can be sprayed with chemicals, called fungicides, that contain copper and sulphur, which are allowed under organic certification. The trouble is, not only can they potentially harm the health of vineyard workers, they also end up in the soil and kill the good fungi that form vital underground networks.

Sip to make a difference

Benjamin Bridge, Brut, Nova Scotia, Canada NV

Score: 90

£25 The Sourcing Table

I mentioned B Corp-certified Benjamin Bridge in my August feature on sustainability because its focus on people stands out as genuine and meaningful. Try its snazzy traditional-method sparkling, made from Chardonnay and the hybrid L’Acadie – it’s citrussy, smoky and complex, and really overdelivers for the price. Drink 2024-2027 Alcohol 12%

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Like I did in the fruit and veg aisle, it’s easy to feel hopeless in the face of climate change. But as conservationist Jake Fiennes says in his book Land Healer (BBC Books, June 2022): ‘We don’t need to throw up our hands in horror and resign ourselves to disaster.’

With a little effort and small changes, we can steer ourselves towards being more sustainably minded.

In recent years, the wine industry has seen tangible growth in knowledge sharing and collective action around the topic of sustainability. Demonstrated through organisations such as International Wineries for Climate Action (IWCA), The Porto Protocol and Sustainable Wine Roundtable, this includes the sharing of resources, experiences, problems, solutions, research and practical tools through talks, workshops and online platforms.

Wineries can benefit hugely from being members of these groups, as the pooling of resources and expertise accelerates progress. Wineries can be guided through certifications and sustainability strategies by fellow members, or by consultancies such as The Vine Strategy Group (TSVG).

A small change we can make as wine drinkers is to seek out wines made by producers that engage in these collective efforts. Many IWCA wineries will be familiar already: look out for Felton Road from New Zealand, Okanagan Crush Pad from Canada, Rioja’s CVNE, Greece’s Kir-Yianni and Lanson in Champagne.

The path to a sustainable wine industry is not solitary but communal. ‘This is not an area where wineries need to be competing with each other,’ says Rob Symington, director at Symington Family Estates, a founding member of both IWCA and The Porto Protocol. ‘It’s in our mutual interest to share.’

‘Organic always means sustainable’

Unfortunately not always the case. Although organic farming bans the use of most chemicals, it also means tractors might be used more frequently – especially in regions with high humidity – which means more carbon emissions. That being said, organic is still a solid certification to look out for, and as Anne Jones of sustainability consultancy Limestone & Jones says: ‘We have a lot to thank the organic movement for. It has created a consistent global agricultural standard across multiple categories, based on the principles of health, ecology, fairness and care.’ So I continue to use it as a frame of reference when buying wine.

Sip to make a difference

Domaine Lafage, Centenaire, Côtes Catalanes, Roussillon, France 2022

Score: 91

£13.30-£13.99 The Fine Wine Co, Vinvm

A densely packed bundle of ripe stone fruit, pineapple and honeysuckle, this old-vine white cuvée is deep and comforting, with a dusting of spice and a fresh mineral finish. It’s like that bubbly friend that greets you with open arms and wraps you in an enveloping hug, giving your hair a cheeky tousle. Domaine Lafage became a silver member of IWCA in 2022. Drink 2024-2028 Alcohol 13.5%

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While the colossal changes still required to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions must come from a governmental level, as individuals we’re not powerless to make a difference ourselves. Which wine we choose to drink may seem somewhat trivial in terms of the global challenges we face, but all of the industry’s stakeholders – including wine producers and consumers – have a role to play in tackling the climate crisis.

With this in mind, in next month’s issue of Decanter we’ll be introducing a new column, ‘The ethical drinker’ – a guide to making informed, sustainability-led decisions when buying and drinking wine, and why this matters. Each month, I’ll be talking to leading figures in wine sustainability and offering hints and tips on which wines have genuine green credentials, along with handy explainers of confusing terms around the topic, myth-busters, updates and details of new projects.

We’re starting off with this introductory overview feature, which attempts to unpick the intricacies of sustainability.

More than a buzzword

Although it’s now often used as a catch-all term for doing good for the planet, sustainability was defined in 1987 by the United Nations Brundtland Commission as ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ – the preservation of resources, be they environmental, social or economic, for the future.

Conversations around sustainability in wine have started relatively recently in comparison to many other sectors, but as climate change has brought increasing challenges to wine-growers – including high temperatures, wildfires, severe drought, more frequent and extreme frost and hail, biodiversity loss and soil degradation – research and innovation into how the wine industry can adapt is charging forward. No one is doing everything perfectly, but many are doing at least some things right. Plenty of producers are taking steps to minimise their negative impact on the environment, create safe and valid employment, and adapt to climatic changes in order to ensure economic viability and their livelihoods for the future.

We’ve broken down sustainability in wine into the key issues and highlighted some positive nuggets of progress and change. There are still many questions to be answered and solutions to be found, and often there’s not one right way of doing things. There’s still a lot of grey among the green. Our ‘Sustainability hero’ boxes show people and companies at the forefront of developments.

Sustainability hero

EthicDrinks

This new-wave French négociant has an impressive reel of genuine sustainability credentials that have an impact on every aspect of its supply chain. A few key points are: bottling its entire range without capsules; using very lightweight bottles made from recycled glass; labelling with paper from sustainably logged forests and natural glue; avoiding all use of plastic; carbon-neutral certification. Look out for an interview with founder Mickaël Alborghetti in an upcoming column.

The environmental footprint of wine production

Viticulture is heavily reliant on natural resources, making it susceptible to both climate change and environmental degradation. Winemakers know this all too well. I’ve lost count of the number of producers who’ve told me that climate change is their biggest and most concerning challenge.

In February 2024, Spain’s Catalonia region was put under a drought emergency, which ended in June with devastating hailstorms that destroyed hundreds of hectares of vines. Wildfire season in California has reached catastrophic levels of destruction; over the last six years, tens of thousands of hectares have burned, and this year the fires have started much earlier than usual.

Sustainability hero

Familia Torres

Prominent Spanish producer Familia Torres has long been a key player in the sustainability narrative. It’s a founding member of International Wineries for Climate Action (alongside Jackson Family Estates in the US), a group of wineries committed to using knowledge sharing and a collaborative approach to reduce the wine industry’s carbon emissions.

Biodiversity

Diverse plant and animal populations are key for the overall health of vineyards and many producers, large and small, are actively working to increase biodiversity. Hedges, wildlife corridors, areas of uncultivated land, plant cover and polyculture crops all provide habitats for populations of insects, spiders, birds and small mammals. The greater the diversity, the more difficult it is for one pest to dominate, making biodiverse vineyards more resilient. In Burgundy, in 2022, the Climats du Vignoble de Bourgogne announced the creation of a biodiversity fund to finance and support collective projects aimed at maintaining and developing vineyard biodiversity across the region.

Soil health

Soils hold carbon, in the form of humus and the organic matter derived from plants, animals and other organisms in the soil, and maintaining healthy soils is vital for the long-term productivity of vineyards. Healthy soils remove carbon from the atmosphere, help with water management, reduce the need for fertilisers and pesticides, and assist vines in adapting to extreme weather. According to the Soil Association, the Earth’s soils contain more than three times the amount of carbon dioxide as is in the atmosphere, and degraded soils actually emit carbon dioxide, as well as methane in some instances.

One third of the world’s arable soils are said to be degraded and the equivalent of 30 football pitches of soil every minute are lost to degradation. Cover cropping, composting and reduced ploughing help maintain soil structure, leading to better resilience to floods and drought, and better carbon sequestration (capture and storage of carbon compounds from the environment). In the UK, an ongoing DEFRA-funded project is currently investigating the impact of cover cropping and mechanical weeding strategies on soil health.

With respect to vineyard management, there are a number of different approaches that help to maintain soil health. Organic grape-growing forbids the use of most chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers, which helps to maintain both the health of soils and biodiversity in and around the vineyard. According to the European Commission, vineyards represent one of Europe’s most pesticide-dependent crops. This has to change if we want to continue cultivating these soils into the future. Organic farms store, on average, nearly 3.5 tonnes more soil carbon per hectare, and release less nitrous oxides, than conventional farms.

Biodynamic farming has stricter rules on chemical usage and sees the vineyard as part of a wider ecosystem, working with natural cycles and using natural preparations to promote plant and soil health. Regenerative viticulture is an even more holistic approach to vineyard management that extends many of the principles of organic and biodynamic agriculture, directly targeting the repair and regeneration of soil and associated ecosystems. Restoring the land, increasing the soil’s capacity to sequester carbon, increasing organic matter and boosting biodiversity all help to create a resilient vineyard ecosystem.

Sustainability hero

Mas Cal Demoura

Winemaker-owner Vincent Goumard truly understands what a vineyard as an ecosystem means. He contends that the only way to fully grasp this idea is to see it in action, to physically be in the vineyard all the time and observe the minute interactions. He says that practising biodynamic viticulture has been enormously beneficial in times of extreme weather. The complex soil structure that has been enhanced by cover cropping allows torrential rainfall to be absorbed more effectively, while neighbouring parcels with bare soils are flooded and subject to erosion.

Water

Water is clearly a critical resource in viticulture, so wine-growers the world over are adopting more sustainable water management practices, including the use of more efficient irrigation techniques where authorised, rainwater capture and grey water re-use (recycling run-off from winery activities). Better soil management, the use of appropriate trellising and training systems, better canopy management and the development and planting of drought-resistant grape varieties are also having a significant impact.

Estimates suggest that in California, producing a glass of wine can consume as much as 60 litres of water. Frey Vineyards in Redwood Valley, the first certified-organic US winery, uses a system that contains billions of earthworms to filter its winery run-off for reuse in the vineyards.

Sustainability hero

Symington

Portugal-based Symington Family Estates is an industry leader when it comes to sustainability. Aside from its long list of green initiatives, what sets this producer apart is its commitment to transparency. ‘We’re on a journey,’ says Rob Symington, a director at the estate who oversees communications, sustainability, people and culture, and one of the most knowledgeable and engaged people I’ve spoken to about sustainability in wine. ‘We’re definitely not without fault, and any company that says that it is, is greenwashing.’ I’ll be exploring Symington in more depth in a future column.

Emissions reduction

At the current rate and under current policies, forecasts predict that the planet will reach 3°C of warming by the end of the century – twice the amount of the 2015 Paris Agreement’s most ambitious target; greenhouse gas emissions must be cut by 42% by 2030 to limit global warming to that target of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Many wine producers cite reducing carbon emissions as the key focus in their sustainability strategy. Be wary of unsubstantiated claims of carbon neutrality, though; carbon neutrality can only really be confirmed through lengthy and complicated audits carried out by organisations such as EcoAct, which certified Champagne Drappier in 2016.

Packaging is one of the wine industry’s biggest sources of emissions, in particular the production of glass bottles and their transport around the globe. Reducing bottle weight is a surefire way to cut emissions and should be part of every producer’s sustainability agenda. The heavy glass bottles once intended to signify a better-quality wine have now become a luxury the world can’t afford. In 2023, the Sustainable Wine Roundtable (SWR) launched the Bottle Weight Accord, whereby nine major retailers around the world committed to reducing their average bottle weight to less than 420g by the end of 2026 (an average bottle weighs 550g). Sparkling wine is a little more difficult as the glass must be thick enough to withstand the pressure inside, but last year Champagne Telmont reduced the weight of its bottle from Champagne’s standard 835g to 800g.

Capsules – which nowadays are above all an aesthetic choice – are often difficult or impossible to recycle. Retailer Naked Wines is making a growing number of its wines capsule-less, and UK supermarket Waitrose has removed all capsules from its Loved & Found range. Widespread removal of capsules would be a big win for the industry in terms of reducing waste.

Sustainability hero

Candour Wine

Aluminium cans are lightweight and can effectively be recycled infinitely. And their use is increasing, with high-quality wines now widely available in can format. Candour Wine has several great examples – I particularly like the rosé, which is made by biodynamic producer Can Sumoi in Spain’s Penedès region.

Energy use

Reducing energy consumption and transitioning to renewable energy sources such as solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles is crucial for cutting carbon emissions. Winery roofs are increasingly being covered in solar panels and reflective paint in order to reduce cooling costs; energy-efficient lighting is being installed and electric vehicles are being used to carry out tasks in the winery. In Australia, since launching its environmental management program in 2009, Tyrrell’s Wines in the Hunter Valley, has reduced its total greenhouse gas emissions from fuel and electricity usage by 65%.

Sustainability hero

Benjamin Bridge

When it comes to social sustainability, B Corp-certified Canadian winery Benjamin Bridge, located on the north coast of Nova Scotia, has some of the most impressive and genuinely meaningful initiatives I’ve seen so far. Among the many projects it has implemented are a four day working week and employee volunteer-work opportunities. And since 2021, it has been a formal ally of Glooscap First Nation, an indigenous community on whose territory the vines are farmed and stewarded.

Social programs

How does the social factor come into play? Ethical employment practices, quality of life, food security and fair working conditions: basic expectations for any wine company, surely. Shockingly, it’s not always the case. As recently as 2023, human trafficking claims were investigated in the Champagne region as 52 undocumented grape pickers were discovered lodging in squalid, unsanitary conditions.

B Corp certification measures a company’s environmental and social impact, as well as its transparency and accountability, against strict criteria. Domaine Bousquet in Argentina is B Corp-certified and has committed to a number of employment objectives, including providing wages above the minimum level and investing skills development and education. In Spain, Cava producer Vallformosa, also B Corp-certified, has collaborated with a number of inclusion projects, notably for people with disabilities and those with mental health conditions.

Gaining B Corp certification is an expensive process, so it’s typically restricted to bigger companies. It also requires a huge amount of work, reflection and change for the better. In 2016, biodynamic-certified Château Maris in Languedoc became Europe’s first B Corp-certified winery, and while it scored well in the environmental assessment, it did less well when it came to employment and community. ‘We just didn’t think about it at that time,’ says Hannah Egea, corporate social responsibility manager at the domaine. ‘B Corp really makes you look at the company in a different way.’

Listen to this

Sustainable Wine Roundtable’s podcast

If you absorb info through audio and would like to really get to grips with sustainability in wine, then check out the Sustainable Wine podcast.

Certification schemes

There is much debate over the perception of sustainability certifications. With so many wine sustainability standards now in circulation (about 70 have been identified by SWR), many of which are country- or region-specific and have varying criteria and strictness, it has become difficult to gauge whether they have any real meaning, which feeds into consumer scepticism and suspicions of greenwashing (see below) – many are seen as failing to provide sufficient scope or proper criteria to be considered fully credible or beneficial.

In France, for example, the Haute Valeur Environnementale (HVE) certification is widely adopted, yet there is discussion over the scheme’s eco legitimacy, notably due to its continued authorisation of chemical pesticides.

Ultimately, though, certification schemes serve to bring sustainability issues – both social and environmental – into the mainstream. SWR has created a global reference framework for sustainability in wine, aiming to benchmark all of the various wine sustainability certifications against each other.

Greenwashing

According to the European Commission, 53% of green claims (on all types of products within the EU) give vague, misleading or unfounded information. In order to protect consumers, the EU is working on a proposal for a new regulatory framework to ensure that such information on labels is ‘reliable, comparable and verifiable’. This will require companies to use the latest scientific evidence to substantiate their claims.

Transparency is key here: if companies are open about the steps they’re taking to improve, and where there might be gaps in their efforts, it gives credibility to their claims and can only increase consumer confidence.

Collective effort

Franciacorta

Italy’s Franciacorta consorzio has been something of a pioneer in its dedication to driving sustainability to the forefront of its producer members’ minds. From developing a tool for wineries that measures carbon emissions across the wine production chain to leading studies into vineyard biodiversity, the body has overseen many projects that give its producers the tools they need to farm and produce wine as sustainably as possible; as it stands, two-thirds of Franciacorta’s vineyard area is certified organic.

Sipping to save the planet

Given that millions of bottles of wine are bought and consumed around the world every year, even small changes made by producers, coupled with more informed choices made by consumers, can have significant beneficial impacts on both the health of the planet and the long-term sustainability of the global wine industry.

This is very much in our interest, as both wine lovers and human beings.

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