Climate action grants are already benefiting seven vineyards in and around the South Downs and, as English Wine Week approaches (21-29 June), extra funding is being made available to help others get involved in climate action.
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California doesn’t do things by halves. Having recently leapfrogged Japan to become the fourth-largest economy in the world, this Pacific state is indisputably at the cutting edge of technology and innovation. On a recent trip to the Central Coast vineyards, which took in rides in the autonomous Waymos that ply the street of LA and San Francisco, and witnessed the earth-rumbling launch of a SpaceX rocket Starlink satellite launch – which completely upstaged a winemaker in his vineyards in the Santa Barbara Hills – this was pressed home time and again.
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González Byass UK is the latest signatory to the Harpers Sustainability Charter, which is building a network of sustainably minded businesses and is a reference for companies looking to work with sustainable partners.
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Harpers most recent sustainability-themed webinar, Bordeaux – A Case Study for Sustainable Winemaking, is now live and free to watch on our YouTube channel.
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Wine GB has launched a Sustainability Packaging Toolkit as part of World Environment Day on 5 June, to support sustainable action in vineyards and wineries.
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We’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out how we talk about these methodologies – organic, biodynamic, regenerative and sustainable. There’s a desire for people to rank them in an order, create some sort of a hierarchy.
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Harpers Wine & Spirit is delving into the secrets of sustainability success in one of France’s best-known wine regions with an unmissable webinar on Friday 23 May from 10.30-11.30.
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The spring weather finally bounced into view at the end of last month, coinciding with a less-than-sunny outlook for UK businesses via Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Spring Statement. In the lead up to Reeves’ address, there was hope that businesses would be given a reprieve from the tax hikes announced in the last Autumn Budget. In the end, the 26 March statement was labelled a missed opportunity for failing to reduce, or even scrap, the increases announced in October 2024.
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Ever been greenwashed? It’s not always as obvious as you might think. Some companies’ use of “greenwashing” – hyping their record to make it sound greener than it is – is blatant. In 2022 the Advertising Standards Authority ruled against fruit drinks company Innocent over an ad that strongly linked its products to protecting the environment. The message ran: “Innocent. Little drinks with big dreams for a healthier planet.” Complainants pointed out that the company’s products come in single-use plastic bottles and that it’s owned by Coca-Cola (which generated an estimated 3.22 million tonnes of plastic waste in 2021).
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Surrey-based Denbies Wine Estate has been awarded a King’s Award for Enterprise in the Sustainable Development category. The award reflects the producer’s commitment to the environment which has seen it gain a number of green accreditations in recent years.
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France has become one of the leaders in sustainability protocols in the 21st century, with its myriad regions now producing a network of best-practice roadmaps which can be used in the wine world’s global fight against climate change.
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When Véronique Cochran first converted Château Falfas to biodynamic agriculture in 1989, it looked unconventional. Fast-forward to today and many of the methods she uses at her vineyard in Bordeaux’s Côtes de Bourg – not using chemical pesticides, growing cover crops between vines – seem mainstream. Such is the march of organics and biodynamics in Europe in recent decades. But today those shifts are part of a wider sea change towards more sustainable production.
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To describe the current macroeconomic environment as challenging would be a distillery-sized understatement. Yet the growing ethos on buying local, a natural corollary of the gradual shift towards sustainably produced wines and spirits, has given stakeholders cause for (tentative) optimism in 2025. The question is: can a movement transform into a stampede?
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Climate-friendly packaging company Packamama has appointed I Heart wine brand founder and Friexenet Copestick MD Robin Copestick as a non-executive director to its board.
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Argentinian estate Domaine Bousquet has released its 2025 sustainability report, highlighting encouraging progress made at the organic wine producer during 2024. The Mendoza winery, a long-time advocate of organic and biodynamic viticulture, has redoubled its sustainability efforts in recent years.
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Mendoza-based Andrés Valero, sustainability and CSR leader at Grupo Avinea/Argento, explains the benefits of rooting sustainability in both vineyard and community, while Andrew Catchpole listens in.
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Wiltshire spirits producer Witchmark has become part of the B Corp community, joining a growing list of British distillers which have earned the certification.
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Rosie Davenport, founder of specialist sustainability and communications agency Impact Focus, stresses that wine brands should find a competitive advantage in sustainability – if it’s well communicated.
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World wine consumption and production have plummeted to their lowest levels in over 60 years as the wine industry grapples with the intersection of climate-related challenges and generational changes in drinking habits.
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Bicester-based importer North South Wines has announced the appointment of two new team members. Holly Ninnes (pictured, left) joins in the newly created role of commercial buyer, with Mark Juggins (right) stepping in as the company’s latest head of off-trade. The new additions are part of a wider five-year growth strategy which seeks to expand the business’s commercial footprint.
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