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Recipients revealed for The Wine Society’s inaugural Climate & Nature Fund

Earlier this year, the member-owned cooperative and retailer revealed it would be ‘insetting’ within its own supply chain instead of investing the equivalent funds in a carbon removal programme. (Insetting is an emerging mechanism for companies to reduce carbon emissions and store carbon by investing in their own value chain, as opposed to ‘offsetting’ outside it).

Following a lengthy judging process, 11 winners have been included in the initial round of funding. Four of the growers hail from France, two from Italy, two from South Africa, while a producer each are represented from Australia, the US and Greece.

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Suppliers have the choice of applying for a one-off sum, or investment in projects over two or three years. For the project’s first year, almost £64k will be invested between the winners: Brocha Vineyards, Château d’Anglès, Château de la Grave, Château Monconseil-Gazin, GD Vajra, Lyrarakis, Reyneke, Scacciadiavoli, Scheid Family Wines, Vignerons mais Autrement and Whistler.

Dom de Ville (pictured), The Wine Society’s director of sustainability & social impact, said: “The Climate & Nature Programme is our ambitious new supplier investment project and was launched this year to coincide with our 150th anniversary. It is something the entire business is incredibly proud to be able to offer to our suppliers.

“We respect that agriculture – including viticulture – is one of the key drivers of climate change and biodiversity loss globally, but also offers one of the greatest opportunities to reverse and help slow climate change. We want to help our producers survive and thrive in the face of climate change, and we believe by investing in them to invest in nature, we can support them in the drive to turn things about.”

The funding initiative began back in March, when the Society reached out to its supplier database to encourage them to apply for funding.

A total of 37 applications followed from all over the world. These featured requests to help with a variety of projects, from tree and hedgerow planting, rewilding and installing wildlife corridors to adopting more regenerative viticulture practices, introducing natural predators such as bats to reduce the need for pesticides and supporting the restoration of indigenous plants after a freak weather event. There was even an initiative to introduce dwarf pigs to a vineyard to fertilise the soil.

All entrants were scored based on a series of criteria developed by experts at The Regenerative Viticulture Foundation. The judging panel included de Ville, director of wine Pierre Mansour, buyer Victoria Mason MW and head of wine sustainability & due diligence Simon Mason. Guest judges included writer Tamlin Currin and Cornelius van Leeuwen, professor of viticulture at Agro-Bordeaux.

Amongst other things, the funds will be used to help plant over 3km of hedgerows and around 950 trees. It will also be used to test and implement new cover cropping and mulching methods such as hydroseeding.

Each producer is accountable for its commitment to the initiative. Projects were required to be measurable, trackable and to provide takeaways for the Society to share with the wider supplier community and its members.

“When The Wine Society approached me to ask if I’d support them to select the projects for funding, I was at first intrigued, and then really excited,” Currin said.

“It was one of the most meaningful, practical, high-impact sustainability initiatives I had ever seen a wine merchant propose. The Climate & Nature programme speaks to everything sustainability is about: community, connection, creativity, relationship, systems thinking and action. This was not greenwashing – something we see all too often coming from big organisations. This was using power and agency to empower change.”

• climate
• Sustainability
• The Wine Society
• insetting
• Climate & Nature Programme