Sustainable Wine

In this short podcast Toby Webb, founder of the SWR, and head of research Dr Peter Stanbury provide a quick update on the Bottle Weight Accord . They reflect on the progress made to date since the launch of the Accord six months ago, and look ahead to future milestones and next steps.  You can read more about the Accord and how to get involved here . This podcast is the first in a series of brief...

Earlier this year at ProWein, the Sustainable Wine Roundtable's Richard Bampfield MW caught up with Fabian Kerbeck, sustainability and quality control lead at the VDP and Johannes Hasselbach from Weingut Gunderloch . Fabian and Johannes share what's happening in the German sustainable wine space, with a particular focus on the role of the VDP in promoting sustainability amongst its 200 members. Th...

In this  Sustainable Wine Roundtable  (SWR) Member Interview podcast Hanna Halmari speaks with Romain Ott, winemaker at the Provençal winery Château Léoube. Romain shares the estate's approach to sustainability, specifically their focus on organic viticulture and biodiversity. Romain underscores the importance of protecting and restoring nature through maintaining and regenerating what already exi...

In this podcast Toby Webb, founder of the Sustainable Wine Roundtable, talks with Etelle Higonnet. They discuss vitiforestry and it's potential and use in vineyards for management of climate risk and nature improvements. For more resources on vitiforestry, including a contact database, see here .    

The SWR Bottle Weight Accord  now has 15 signatories with many more wine businesses, from retailers to producers, currently in the process of joining. The SWR Bottle Weight Accord is a voluntary collaboration in which signatories commit to reducing the average 750ml still wine bottle weight to below an average of 420 grammes by the end of 2026. At SWR we know this is not going to be easy. Our role...

In this short podcast Sustainable Wine Roundtable founder Toby Webb and head of research Dr Peter Stanbury discuss the Bottle Weight Accord . They explain what it is, why wine retailers and producers are signing up, and why you should too.

In this  Sustainable Wine Roundtable  (SWR) Member Interview podcast Hanna Halmari speaks with Amanda Whiteland, CEO of Margaret River Wine Association (MRWA) in Western Australia.  Amanda explains what makes the region so unique for winemaking and shares more about MRWA and its sustainability initiatives. They discuss how climate change is affecting the region, how winemakers are adapting, and wh...

In this podcast Toby Webb, founder and executive director of the Sustainable Wine Roundtable, and marketing consultant Joe Fattorini have a candid conversation about communicating sustainability to consumers. Toby, representing his personal views and not those of the SWR, takes a deliberately provocative stance. He kicks off the conversation by suggesting that communicating sustainability in today...

In this  Sustainable Wine Roundtable  (SWR) Member Interview podcast Hanna Halmari speaks with Luke Landers, senior sustainability manager at online wine retailer Naked Wines UK. Luke explains how Naked Wines effectively cuts out the middleman and facilitates a direct connection between customers and winemakers. They discuss the key sustainability priorities for the retailer, how their unique mode...

The  Sustainable Wine Roundtable  (SWR) is delighted to present an in-depth exploration of labour standards and human rights in the wine industry in our  three-part workshop series . This workshop series aims to shed light on these pressing issues and initiate a collective effort towards their resolution. This final workshop from 21st November provides attendees with actionable insights to address...

The Sustainable Wine Roundtable (SWR) is delighted to present an in-depth exploration of labour standards and human rights in the wine industry in our three-part workshop series . This workshop series aims to shed light on these pressing issues and initiate a collective effort towards their resolution. In this second part of the workshop from 2nd November, we build upon existing expertise in vario...

The Sustainable Wine Roundtable (SWR) is delighted to present an in-depth exploration of labour standards and human rights in the wine industry in our three-part workshop series. This workshop series aims to shed light on these pressing issues and initiate a collective effort towards their resolution.  This inaugural session from 18th October 2023 explores the issues which are covered by the conce...

In this  Sustainable Wine Roundtable  (SWR) Member Interview podcast Hanna Halmari is joined by Harriet Kininmonth, wine trading director, and George Kyle, head of ESG, from C&C Group. C&C Group is a multinational drinks manufacturing, marketing and distribution company. As George says, it's "probably the largest alcohol brand and distribution business that people don't know about." George...

On Tuesday, 10th October 2023, the Sustainable Wine Roundtable officially launched the SWR Bottle Weight Accord.   The launch followed a 6-month in-depth study into wine bottle weight reduction, which was co-funded by SWR retailer members Alko (Finland), Lidl GB (UK), Systembolaget (Sweden), The Wine Society (UK) and Whole Foods Market (USA). The SWR ‘Bottle Weight Accord’ is focused on the light...

This is a recording of a panel session from the SWR Global Conference Series 2023 “How to turn climate mitigation and adaptation into business opportunity”  conference from 1st February 2023. Fictional case study: What a carbon positive wine would look like from vine to post-consumption In this short session, we consider how grapes from harvest will be consumed sustainably by 2030, including the a...

In this  Sustainable Wine Roundtable (SWR) Member Interview podcast Hanna Halmari talks to Michael Parks, director of sustainability at Treasury Wine Estates (TWE). TWE is an Australian winemaking and distribution business with global operations. Michael shares how sustainability is embedded throughout the business and the progress they have made on climate action. They also discuss how TWE is hel...

In this Sustainable Wine Roundtable (SWR) webinar from 26th July, 2023 our expert speakers discuss the role of carbon insetting and nature enhancement in the wine industry and what part the SWR can play.  Key discussion points include: What do we mean by insetting?  How are carbon and nature enhancement linked?  What is the landscape approach? How would that work?  What is wine's unique advantage...

In this  Sustainable Wine Roundtable (SWR) Member Interview podcast Hanna Halmari talks to Carlos de Jesus, director of marketing & communications at Amorim Cork, the world's largest producer and supplier of cork stoppers. Cork is often referred to as one of the most sustainable materials in the world. Carlos explains why, sharing how the harvesting of cork contributes to environmental, econom...

This is a recording of a panel session from the SWR Global Conference Series 2023 "How to turn climate mitigation and adaptation into business opportunity"  conference from 1st February 2023. Supply chain data collection, how will unified approaches transform sustainability performance? Big players in wine, such as retailers, want to take a consistent approach to the sustainability data they ask f...

In this  Sustainable Wine Roundtable (SWR) Member Interview podcast Hanna Halmari talks with Fabian Kerbeck, sustainability and quality control lead at the VDP in Germany. The VDP is a German wine group representing many of the country's top producers (around 200) with strict member requirements on quality and sustainability. Hanna and Fabian discuss the VDP's sustainability agenda, milestones, an...

Sustainable Wine’s Toby Webb recently visited  Dourakis Winery in Chania, Crete where he spoke with oenologist Adonis Dourakis. In this podcast Adonis shares more about their wines and how climate change is impacting indigenous grapes in the region. They discuss the current state of grape growing in Greece, how growers are adapting to the changing climate, and the future of regenerative viticultur...

In this podcast Sustainable Wine's Toby Webb is joined by Joe Fattorini, marketing consultant, and Dr Peter Stanbury, head of research, SWR, for an honest conversation on the realities of sustainability. In this first part of a mini-series on debunking myths in wine, they debate trends and facts, and discuss consumer research, myths, hypocrisy, and more.

This is a recording of a panel session from the SWR Global Conference Series 2023  “The sustainable vineyard and winery in 2030” conference from 3rd May 2023. What will a sustainable vineyard and winery look like in 2030? This session offers both a summing up of what we learned during the event, and a look forward into the future. Technology cannot save us, but we know it will help a lot. But cult...

This is a recording of a panel session from the SWR Global Conference Series 2023  “The sustainable vineyard and winery in 2030” conference from 3rd May 2023. In the winery: Sustainable design, and building efficiency It’s clear that applying modern design and thinking to wineries can make them look beautiful. It can also, and usually does, hugely improve energy efficiency. But most wineries don’t...