Regenerative Viticulture
The wine industry's long overdue make-over
The week before Christmas Wine-Searcher published my story on regenerative viticulture. It is a subject on which I have spent hundreds of hours in the last 4 months, and the more I have trawled through the research, the more convinced I am it is the only way wine will not only survive, but thrive, in a world dominated by global warming.
Let me explain. Whether we like it or not climate change is a reality we all have to adapt to. In fact, the Paris Agreement was centered around the Global Goal of Adaptation (GGA), introducing the idea that it was not only necessary to focus on greenhouse gas emissions, but that equal focus should go to adapting to climate change. In case of viticulture, a 2021 study, published in the Australian Journal of Wine Research, claims: Viticulture is facing emerging challenges not only because of the effect of climate change on yield and composition of grapes, but also of a social demand for environmental-friendly agricultural management. Adaptation to these challenges is essential to guarantee the sustainability of viticulture.”
While we generally hear a lot about the effect of climate change on yields (the 2024 growing season has been prime example of how the weather has (negatively) impacted yields), winegrower associations are often less inclined to give similar attention to the social demand for a more ecological approach. Instead, they have often felt entitled to double down on chemical pesticides (including herbicides) to protect against climatic challenges, which has translated in heavy lobbying to ditch pesticides restrictions. For instance, the EU Regulation on the Sustainable Use of Plant Protection Products (SUR) – which aimed to reduce the use of chemical pesticides by 50% by 2030 - caused a huge stir in European winegrowing communities, especially after an additional impact assessment study concluded that a potential 20 to 30% yield reduction in wine grape production would not impact food security in the EU. Lobbying immediately began and led eventually to a very watered-down proposal which did not make it through parliament. Around the same time glyphosate received a 10-year reauthorization in the EU. Winegrowers were quick to crow victory, but the latest French EcoPhyto plan (released May 6th 2024) maintains the 50% pesticide reduction. ANSES has also (at least so far) not changed its glyphosate regulation, which is generally restricted to a fifth of a vineyard’s surface.
This implies that the French government has understood that its citizens (who for the record remain the biggest consumers of French wine – including champagne) have grown wary of chemicals in their food, drinks and environment.
Political instability – France had 4 governments in 2024 – aside, there is no denying that the French wine industry seems to be losing some of its lobbying influence. This may be why at the beginning of 2024 Vin et Société and the CNIV (Comité National des Interprofessions des Vins à appellation d'origine et à indication géographique) published a Deloitte study highlighting the economic importance of the wine sector in France. The study focusses on the number of direct jobs (440 000) and different financial contributions (in the widest sense) to the French GDP.
However, when one takes into consideration the €200 million the government is shelling out to distill excess wine in 2023 and 2024 and the €120 million attributed as compensation to pull up 30 000 hectares of vines, it is hard to deny a serious oversupply problem. The same Vin & Société study speaks about a 70% reduction of wine consumption in the last 60 year. The 2023 OIV world wine overview rapport shows a fluctuating downward trend, with wine consumption in France down by 2.4% between 2022 and 2023, while a 6.2% decline can be calculated between 2018 and 2023. 2024 figures will not be released before April, but the monthly FranceAgrimer wine overview reports indicate that consumption continued to decline in 2024.
All of this to point out that demand for wine is down, and not only in France – the same OIV rapport posits a 2.6% decline in global wine consumption in 2023 making 2023 the lowest wine consumption year since 1996. And even if the OIV report, along with many other industry reports, is trying to postulate that inflation is solely to blame, this disregards a general reduction in alcohol consumption – especially by millennials and GenZ, but also to a lesser extent by Gen X. It seems only baby boomers are keeping up their consumption. However, this reduced consumption is an opportunity, because people are drinking more expensive – and often more ecologically produced - wines. It is therefore important to include ecological consumer expectations in the viticulture climate change adaptation strategy. For what is the point to produce wine that no-one wants to drink?
This question will become even more prominent when climate change significantly reduces agriculture resources – such as arable land and water. When faced with a choice between food and wine, very few people pick the latter. It is therefore primordial to preserve the current resources by investing in the regeneration of vineyard soils.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization was one of the first to ring the alarm bell on this when it predicted in 2014 that continuing with current conventional farming would deplete the world’s arable topsoil by 2075. Hence, restoring the soil is not just an option but a necessity especially for non-vital (as in needed for human survival) industries such as the fashion and the wine industry.
Some big companies have understood this. LVMH is one of them and this is why I relentlessly chased them for my Wine-Searcher article – in fact I extended the deadline a few times so that I could include them. Anyone who knows me (well), knows that I am not a brand chaser, and my relationship with LVMH has been at best distant. In fact, since Dominique Demarville left Veuve Clicquot in 2019, I have barely spoken to any of the groups Chef de Caves. I vaguely know Benoit Gouez (Moet) and Julie Cavil (Krug), used to be a bit closer to Christophe Bonnefond (Mercier), but he is not allowed to ‘officially’ speak to me anymore (his words), and Frédéric Panaiotis and Didier Mariotti I do not know at all. In fact, when I was gathering data for the Wine-Searcher article, I wanted to speak to Panaiotis about the Ruinart regenerative project, but a common friend told me it would be to no avail.
Still I really wanted to include LVMH in my article, because they have heavily invested in regenerative (all be it not often regenerative organic) farming. In 2022 the company created the World Living Soils Forum (WLSF), “a gathering dedicated to the preservation, health, and regeneration of soils”, according to the WLSF website. The second edition, held last year in Arles, was co-organized by ChangeNOW and welcomed 180 speakers sharing their expertise in 70 different sessions. The core objective of the 2024 forum was to launch a call for collective action “with the aim of mobilizing even more widely around the need to preserve and regenerate soils.”
Their focus on COLLECTIVE action is what makes them important, especially in regions like Champagne (or Cognac). One of the answers I received from Sandrine
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