Green Wine Future puts sustainability to the fore

By Andrew Catchpole

Published: 14 April, 2022

With just over a month to go until Green Wine Future 2022, organisers are promising to deliver “the largest and most innovative virtual wine conference ever” from 23-26 May.

Now in its sixth edition, and having fully morphed from physical to online event, GWF22 has grown from a pioneering conference on Climate Change and Wine back in 2006 in Spain to become the pre-eminent environmentally-focused event in the wine world’s calendar.

Counting past speakers such as Barack Obama, Al Gore and Kofi Annan alongside its roll call of sustainably-driven voices from across the global wine trade, this year’s edition promises to deliver “100+ of the most influential wine speakers”, alongside world leaders and celebrities.

A taste of the wine world luminaries confirmed includes Gerard Bertrand, Andrew Caillard MW, Steve Smith MW, Laura Catena, Vanya Cullen, Gaia Gaja, Paul Mabray, Sara Norell, Adrian Bridge, Prateek Srivastava, Mike Ratcliff and Simon Thorpe, along with many others beside.

With a roster of virtual interviews, keynote speakers, panels debates and podcasts all in the mix, GWF22 seeks to address “critical topics” around sustainability, such as climate crisis, biodiversity, wine tourism, regenerative viticulture, energy efficiency and green business opportunities.

Continuing to push its global reach, the event has partnered with several generic wine bodies, including California Wines, Wines of Chile, Wines of Portugal, New Zealand Winegrowers, Wines of South Africa, Wine GB, plus regional groupings such as Barossa, and organisations such as the OIV.

As a media partner, Harpers is playing its part too. Editor Andrew Catchpole is hosting a two-part podcast on Emerging Regions, with Wine GB’s Simon Thorpe featuring as one of the guests, plus a Community Responsibilities conference session, with Journey’s End (South Africa), Montes Wines (Chile) and Kono and Wakatū (New Zealand) in the mix.

Harpers itself is very much immersed in advancing the sustainability conversation with the launch of its own Sustainability Charter and campaign this April, designed to galvanise action in the trade.

GWF22 comes at a particularly critical time for the global wine trade, with sustainability now high on the agenda for this agricultural-based industry which is particularly sensitive to climate and environment.

For more information and/or to register for Green Wine Future 2022, click here.

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