There have been some historic incidences of sharing: Tim Berners-Lee deciding to distribute the internet freely instead of monetising it – indeed his memoir is titled This is for Everyone; The Wine Society founders establishing a mutual organisation to share the benefits among all members, not just a wealthy board or small group of investors; any time my nine-year-old twins manage to divide a sweet treat without maiming each other in the process. We notice great examples of a shared spirit because, sadly, it’s not as common as we might like.
While there are many pockets of open, friendly collaboration in wine, it’s also a trade (at least historically) with a tendency toward the clandestine. As anyone who is less confident deciphering wine labels will tell you, wine producers are rarely the best at transparent communication, and several of the most famous wine regions in the world still traditionally refrain from even naming the grapes used on the label.
A sea-change in the winemaking world
But in the world of regenerative and sustainable winemaking at least, it seems as though sharing is all the rage – and long may this last. In the last couple of years we’ve seen a wealth of events, panel discussions and even festivals like Groundswell (an annual regenerative agriculture festival held in Hertfordshire) serving as genuine opportunities to grow and learn rather than a chance to boost egos or publicise big-name sponsors.
The Wine Society has further strengthened these efforts with its series of climate-adaptation webinars. This is the third year that they have run online panels with an array of industry experts, viticulturalists and wine producers from all over the world to share knowledge and help each other combat the effects of climate change, make wine more sustainably, and learn more about regenerative farming.
The Wine Society is uniquely positioned to be a knowledge-broker
More than 600 of The Society’s wine producers from around the globe are invited to these webinars, with around 100 attending live and many more watching the recordings. ‘This forms part of our ongoing commitment to supporting our wine producers to adapt to the ever-growing challenges of the changing climate.’ says Dom de Ville, director of sustainability and social impact in this year’s Sustainability Report, ‘The Society is in a unique position to act as a knowledge broker, bringing some of the finest minds from academia and farming together in a virtual room to share knowledge, expertise and experiences’.
When competition was king knowledge-sharing seemed to slow
I was curious as to whether this spirit of sharing was leading progress in other areas of sustainable and regenerative farming. I spoke to Roisin Taylor, Co-Director at UK Youth for Nature, a regenerative flower farmer and a Nuffield Farming Trustee interested in the skills, knowledge and climate adaptation implementation that her industry is currently using. ‘In the spaces where regenerative agriculture is based on principles of biodiversity restoration, there is a huge amount of emphasis placed on knowledge sharing; it feels like one of the central tenets to true regenerative agriculture.’ says Roisin. But she admits that, much like in wine, it wasn’t always like this: ‘My sense is that as things intensified in the ‘80s and ‘90s and competition became king, knowledge sharing seemed to slow. It feels like there has been a clamouring for community and sharing solutions that work.'
Learnings from the past as important as innovation
Innovation isn’t the only thing that we should be sharing – historic experience can be just as useful, particularly in the face of regional and global shifts in weather and climate. Casa Agricola is found in Alicante in southern Spain, already a very hot and dry part of the world. Winemaker Pepe Mendoza took part in the webinar on how to combat increasing temperatures and shared his lifetime’s experience of making quality wine in a hot region. At Casa Agricola they have, over many years, adapted their practices and even the grape varieties that they grow to best match the local conditions. He keeps his vine density low to minimise water usage as much as possible, planting around 1,500 per hectare and trying to reduce even further to 900. Even in warmer climates, typical vine density would be 2-3,000 per hectare – this is not a cheap decision for Pepe as he is able to make less wine from his land. He recognises that hotter areas can be a vital source of advice to rapidly warming regions as they have years of previous experience of higher temperatures and lower rainfall.
Roisin has spent time working with regenerative winemakers and came across another example of this in New Zealand: ‘On the North Island, winegrowers were seeing pests and diseases that weren’t previously found on the South Island, but more recently they're starting to see them on both islands, in large part due to the increase in erratic weather conditions. Now more than ever, learnings from growers on the North Island are critical to help vineyards adapt to changes that will likely become more and more frequent. I heard someone describe the North Island wine industry as the canary in the coal mine!’
Wine Society webinars help forge global connections
The webinars are an important collaborative space both in what they represent, but also in offering immediate opportunities for winemakers to learn and adapt, putting them in contact with producers from other regions and countries that they might not otherwise meet. One example I saw in real time was Craig Harris from Klein Constantia in South Africa and Daniel Fabbro from San Polino chatting all things copper during the session on pests and disease, swapping practical ideas on how best to distribute treatments effectively in their vineyards.
Through the participants’ contributions, it also becomes possible to identify trends in behaviour – ideas and practices that are clearly gathering momentum, quite simply because they work. As a relative layperson myself, this was particularly useful. When even I can see that cover cropping, increasing organic matter in the soil and encouraging biodiversity are vital ingredients of a sustainable, resilient vineyard, the same will be clear to any winemakers early on in their sustainability journey and wondering where to start.
The only way to find solutions to climate change, supply chains breaking down, and major biodiversity loss is through collaboration.
What is also clear is that this attitude is no longer a ‘nice to have’ – climate change is a vast unknown which we have no choice but to face. However, whether we do it alone or together is up to us. Roisin agrees: ‘The only way to find solutions to climate change, supply chains breaking down, and major biodiversity loss is through collaboration.’ She follows this with a call to action which chimes exactly with The Wine Society’s ethos: ‘We need to see ourselves as nature. We need to see ourselves as an ecosystem in community with others. We need to see our knowledge exchange as the very backbone to the work we do.'
It’s up to everyone – winemakers, scientists, sustainability professionals and wine drinkers like us – to keep sharing as much as we can. The future of wine depends on it.
