Sustainable Wine

In this podcast, Toby Webb speaks with Éloi Jacob, managing director at Château Fourcas Hosten; Marie-Laure Latorre, managing director at Château Jean Faure; and Lisa Saunière, managing director at Château de La Dauphine on how they are working together towards a shared vision of sustainable wine.  They discuss their collaboration, their sustainability journeys, the challenges of going organic in...

Jon Entine, who leads the Genetic Literacy Project, a science communication non-profit, joins Sustainable Wine’s Toby Webb to discuss chemicals and science in agriculture. Their robust discussion covers topics such as glyphosate, copper sulphate, gene editing, and the science and impacts of both synthetic and organic chemicals in food and wine.

Toby Webb has a long conversation with Emma Swain, CEO of St. Supéry Estate Vineyards and Winery. They discuss what sustainable means to Emma and her colleagues, how they have put it into practice, the results so far, and the challenges that remain.

Dr Alistair Nesbitt speaks with Toby Webb about climate change, grape growing and how to adapt to a hotter future.

Toby Webb and Jo Griffiths from standards setter BSI discuss key messages from recent discussions on sustainable packaging for the wine industry.

Toby Webb and Dominique Tourneix discuss the evolution of closures, sustainability, corks and more.

Lauren Holman and Toby Webb discuss their journey, and also the future of canned wine.

The Future of Wine Forum, 26-27 November 2020 The closing plenary session of the conference focuses on the next generation of wine consumers. The concern in the wine industry is that younger generations are drinking less and less wine and switching to spirits and other drinks. So how can sustainability help make wine more relevant again, outside the tiny but growing niches of organic, biodynamic,...

The Future of Wine Forum, 26-27 November 2020 Packaging, distribution, and post consumer recycling (or lack of it) is the biggest part of wine’s carbon footprint. So what does the future look like for bottles, packaging and closures, in light of sustainability concerns, and opportunities? Our panelists discuss. Speakers: Lauren Holman, export sales manager, Château Léoube David Harvey, head of the...

The Future of Wine Forum, 26-27 November 2020 Well, where do we start with this? Aveline and other ‘clean’ and ‘natural’ wines serve to raise the blood pressure of various wine experts like almost no other issues. But natural marketing is an old game, and so shouldn’t the wine industry just live with it, and focus on the best ways to do real, meaningful communications about wine, its provenance an...

The Future of Wine Forum, 26-27 November 2020 This session takes a look at how three different wine producers are tackling protecting and enhancing biodiversity. Our panelists discuss their approaches to encouraging and promoting biodiversity in their vineyards, how to collaborate effectively with partners to make progress happen and how to measure it, the value of certification in encouraging bio...

The Future of Wine Forum, 26-27 November 2020 So what should a circular economy approach in a sustainable winery look like? How do you define circular and what does it look like in practice? Some wineries are capturing Co2 from fermentation and turning it into potassium bicarbonate. This is an important innovation, but what else constitutes circular approaches in the vineyard? Florence Cathiard an...

The Future of Wine Forum, 26-27 November 2020 Bubbles and silos exist everywhere in business. Ask a palm oil expert about cotton, and they most likely won’t know much. Wine is no exception and much can be learned from other industries. Many of these have been heavily exposed to negative campaigning, consumer pressure, and legal and regulatory pressures, often as a result. So which lessons can the...

The Future of Wine Forum, 26-27 November 2020 In this plenary session our panelists discuss what big wine producers can do to have a material impact on climate change beyond the significant task of bottle weight reduction. Is the biggest and most urgent climate issue in the sector helping grape growers cope? Or is it changing how packaging works for retailers and pushing for better recycling and c...

The Future of Wine Forum, 26-27 November 2020 Regenerative agriculture is all the rage across a wide variety of different crops, but what actually is it? With no common definition, many say it simply re-badges sustainable agriculture with a new, trendier name. However, proponents argue its primary focus on soil health focuses efforts on what is below ground, and that has major benefits for both ca...

The Future of Wine Forum, 26-27 November 2020 Sustainablewine.co.uk has interviewed more than a hundred winemakers in the last five years. All of them say climate change has, at the very least, increased weather volatility in vineyards. This is well known to be dangerous for quality of harvests, yields and indeed economic viability for smaller vineyards. Technology can, and is, playing an increasi...

The Future of Wine Forum, 26-27 November 2020 In this breakout session Elena Carretero Gomez, corporate affairs and sustainability director at Vina Santa Rita, discusses how large and small wine businesses can get better at community engagement and youth empowerment, vitally important issues in the communities surrounding wine businesses. Elena shares the initiatives at Vina Santa Rita, how these...

The Future of Wine Forum, 26-27 November 2020 Low carbon innovation can help wine businesses reach and keep loyal, a whole new group of customers. Similarly a technology enabled business that features and promotes sustainable producers at low cost can prove both economically and socially/environmentally viable. In this session two entrepreneurs with disruptive business models discuss the future of...

The Future of Wine Forum, 26-27 November 2020 Are social issues in the vineyard an “Elephant in the room” for the wine industry? Well not so much any more given recent news, from modern slavery in Europe to labour challenges in South Africa and across Italy. In this session our panelists discuss how a wine business can consider supply chain social issues, from grape pickers to other vineyard worke...

The Future of Wine Forum, 26-27 November 2020 In this breakout session our panelists, three very different vineyard managers, discuss different perspectives on sustainable vineyard management. Speakers: Sally Evans, owner and winemaker, Château George 7 Will Davenport, owner and winemaker, Davenport Vineyards Diana Snowden Seysses, owner and winemaker, Snowden Vineyards, winemaker, Domaine Dujac M...

The Future of Wine Forum, 26-27 November 2020 If certification is really about claims being made, assurance is vital to support them. The wine industry, which has a long history of guarding terms and appellations, now has a confusing array of claims all over the market. It should welcome a Gold Standard with rigorous auditing and certification. Our panelists discuss how certification should evolve...

The Future of Wine Forum, 26-27 November 2020. A global process of defining sustainability in wine would have multiple benefits. It would help – not threaten – existing programs, and would be a godsend to vineyard managers, winemakers and wine marketers. Our panelists discuss how to define sustainability in wine, the need for a global standard, or series of them, in the industry, how this could ha...

The Future of Wine Forum, 26-27 November 2020. The virtual conference was kicked off with a discussion on the impacts of Covid-19 in the wine industry, with panelists discussing the opportunities, challenges, long term impacts and more. Speakers: Jancis Robinson MW Sam Linter, managing director and chief winemaker, Bolney Estates Simon Doyle, general manager, Concha y Toro UK Joan Esteve Julià, di...

Hervé Berland talks with Toby Webb about the sustainability journey which Château Montrose has been on for some years, and why and how, capturing CO2 from fermentation is important.

Author of ‘Greener Marketing’ John Grant speaks to Toby Webb about how green marketing and sustainable wine might, or might not, suit each other.