Can Wine Save the Planet, an Introduction

Can Wine Save the Planet?

Got your attention, didn’t I?

But seriously, we are in the throws of climate change, with 100 year floods happening every other year, warm places getting cooler (like my own Las Vegas, that didn’t hit triple digits until nearly July!) and cool places getting warmer (they are growing wine grapes in Sweden!)

Grapevines are hardy, and they adapt, but they can only do so much. Growers around the globe are seeing the impact.

In our travels into wine regions over the past decade, we hear it from almost every vintner we speak to.

Now winemakers, first and foremost, want to make a delicious product. They want to make a good wine this vintage, so you will like it and come back to buy more from the next vintage. They also want to make sure they have a next vintage.

Syncline Vineyard Columbia Gorge Washington

Farming is tough work, and irregularities in weather and climate can make or break a vintage. Heat can shut down a vine, late frost can take out a vintage. Rain and humidity cause disease pressure. Fires can cause smoke taint.

Smart vintners are trying to adjust their practices, to help their vineyards handle these new pressures. Even smarter vintners are looking at the bigger picture and adjusting to mitigate climate change. I mean, if they can do that, it’s better for their vineyard and everyone else’s also!

So we are diving in to tell their stories, of how they stopped using pesticides and chemical fertilizers, so the microbes in the ground could get back to doing their work to keep the soil healthy. Stories of how they are integrating new water management methods, to keep down erosion and cut water waste, while still giving the vines what they need. About new packaging methods, to cut down the carbon footprint of transporting their wines from them to us! Of integrating animals into the vineyard and farms, working the land as our ancestors did in a much more natural cycle. Stories of integrating the people, treating their staff and workers with respect and giving them a voice.

We have seen stories like these and more. People setting an example for ways we can work with the planet to combat climate change. These vintners are using methods like biodynamic farming and regenerative organic farming to make these changes and we have been lucky enough to speak with two of the organizations, the Biodynamic Demeter Alliance and the Regenerative Organic Alliance. These groups, one almost 100 years old and the other just a few years old, are working methods of farming that are good for the planet, and quite honestly, good for wine.

So, that’s the focus! Can wine save the Planet? We think that if more vineyards and wineries adapt these methods, that it can push us in the right direction!

So how are we going to tell these stories?

That’s the next post.

Robin Bell Renken I have always loved people’s stories. I spent a career in Theatre helping to tell stories, as a Stage Manager. Daily enabling artists to freely and safely tell stories through their art. Then I fell in love with wine. There are so many details, so many nuances, not just in the glass, but in the vineyard, the region and the people. As I met winemakers and vineyard owners and even the people in the tasting room excited to pour me a glass and tell me the story of this wine, I knew these were stories I wanted to share. I completed my study and became a Certified Specialist of Wine and continue learning daily as I meet and interview people in this industry.

Robin Renken is a wine writer and Certified Specialist of Wine and WSET 3 Certified. She and her husband Michael travel to wine regions interviewing vineyard owners and winemakers and learning the stories behind the glass.

When not traveling they indulge in cooking and pairing wines with food at home in Las Vegas.