Sustainability Articles - Wine Industry Digest

Chablis Winegrowers Race to Save Vineyards as Severe Frost Strikes Early Budding Vines

🇪🇺Europe Vinetur Mar 30, 2026 Sustainability

Chablis vineyards are facing an urgent crisis as early spring frost threatens newly budded vines across the prestigious French region. Winegrowers are racing to implement frost protection measures to save their crops, highlighting the increasing vulnerability of wine production to unpredictable weather patterns. This could have significant implications for Chablis wine availability and pricing in the coming season.

WineGB Accelerates Sustainability Drive with Relaunch of National Certification for UK Wine

🇬🇧UK WineGB Mar 30, 2026 Sustainability

WineGB has relaunched its Sustainable Wines of Great Britain certification scheme, now covering 43% of UK planted vineyards. The refreshed programme includes a brand new focus on social sustainability, recognising the importance of workforce wellbeing, skills development, and responsible employment practices alongside environmental commitments. With 79 members already signed up, the scheme demonstrates how the UK wine industry is embedding sustainability at its core and working to attract and retain talent in the sector.

Bordeaux estate turns to space tech to monitor vines in real time

🇪🇺Europe The Drinks Business Mar 24, 2026 Sustainability

A Bordeaux organic estate is now using satellite technology to monitor its vineyards in real time, marking a shift towards high-tech viticulture. The system, developed by Finnish firm Kuva Space, uses hyperspectral imaging to detect subtle changes in vine health before they're visible to the naked eye, helping identify early signs of stress from disease, pests, or nutrient issues. It's an innovative approach that's becoming more practical and affordable thanks to newer satellite constellations, and it fits perfectly with organic farming principles and the need to adapt to increasingly unpredictable growing conditions.

Management systems provide frost-related vineyard crop protection

🇬🇧UK WineGB Mar 5, 2026 Sustainability

UK vineyards are getting a technological boost to tackle one of their biggest challenges: spring frost. The 'Vineyard Frost' project, funded by Innovate UK and Defra, is developing smart forecasting systems that give vineyard managers early warning of frost events and help them protect their crops more efficiently. By creating site-specific predictions, the project aims to reduce the expensive, labour-intensive methods currently used whilst adapting to climate change's impact on earlier budburst. It's a practical innovation that could transform how UK vineyards manage this perennial threat.

Focus - Winemakers of France's Bordeaux region forced to adapt to survive (video)

🇪🇺Europe France 24 Feb 25, 2026 Sustainability

Winemakers in France's renowned Bordeaux region are facing significant pressures that demand a shift in how they operate. The article explores the adaptation strategies these producers are employing to keep their businesses viable. It's a reminder that even the world's most celebrated wine regions aren't immune to the challenges reshaping the modern wine industry.

The ethical drinker: 'Wines and people that made me stop and think'

🌍Other Decanter UK Feb 19, 2026 Sustainability

Decanter's sustainability editor is reflecting on what 'ethical drinking' really means, beyond just enjoying what's in the glass. She's exploring wines and producers from France that challenged her thinking on everything from farming standards to labour practices and environmental impact, examining how our wine choices can make a difference. It's a thoughtful look at how consumers and the industry are rethinking responsibility in wine production.

Can Wine Appellation Systems Withstand Climate Change?

🌍Other SevenFifty Daily Feb 16, 2026 Sustainability

As climate change reshapes growing conditions across Europe, wine producers are facing tough questions about whether traditional appellation systems can survive. The article explores how protected designations, which have long defined quality and authenticity in wine regions, might need to evolve to keep pace with warming temperatures and shifting growing seasons. It's a critical conversation for both established European wine areas and newer UK producers navigating their own place in a changing climate.

English wine’s golden age faces a tiny villain

🇬🇧UK The Drinks Business Feb 16, 2026 Sustainability

Just as English and Welsh vineyards are celebrating their best harvest on record after the driest summer in decades, a tiny pest called spotted wing drosophila is emerging as a growing headache for growers. Unlike other fruit flies, SWD can actually pierce grape skin to lay its eggs, creating entry points for rot rather than just exploiting existing damage. The insect has quietly established itself across vineyards in the region and industry leaders are now starting to develop strategies to manage what could become a significant threat to future vintages.

Agrivoltaics? Yes in my vineyard

🌍Other PV Magazine Feb 12, 2026 Sustainability

Vineyard owners are exploring agrivoltaics, a clever farming approach that combines solar panel installations with grape growing on the same land. This dual-use strategy allows wine producers to generate renewable energy whilst maintaining productive vineyards, offering a practical solution to rising energy costs and environmental concerns. It's an innovative way the wine industry is adapting to climate challenges whilst diversifying revenue streams.

Read more From Digest #12

Tim Etherington-Judge launches sustainability operating system for drinks brands

🇬🇧UK Drinks International Feb 12, 2026 Sustainability

Tim Etherington-Judge, the founder behind Healthy Hospo and Avallen Spirits, has launched Alkatera, a new digital sustainability tool designed to help drinks brands manage their environmental impact. The platform acts as a sustainability operating system for the drinks industry, offering a way for producers to track and improve their practices. It's a significant move for the sector, as sustainability credentials become increasingly important to consumers and retailers alike.

Read more From Digest #12

IWCA releases first cross industry benchmark for vineyard soil carbon

🌍Other The Drinks Business Feb 11, 2026 Sustainability

The International Wine Carbon Accountability organisation has released the first industry-wide benchmark for measuring soil carbon in vineyards. This development could be significant for UK and European winemakers looking to quantify and improve their environmental footprint, as it provides a standardised way to measure and compare vineyard soil carbon levels across the industry.

Read more From Digest #12

Essential oils and the fight against mildew: What producers around the world can learn from an estate in Costières de Nîmes

🌍Other Decanter UK Feb 10, 2026 Sustainability

A winemaking family in southern France has developed a natural alternative to copper fungicides using essential oils to fight downy mildew, one of the biggest threats to organic vineyards. With French authorities recently restricting copper use, Château l'Ermite d'Auzan's breakthrough could offer a game-changing solution for growers across Europe battling increasingly unpredictable weather. The estate is sharing their findings freely, suggesting this innovation could transform how producers tackle fungal diseases without relying on potentially harmful chemicals.

Read more From Digest #12

IWCA unveils analysis of global soil carbon sequestration progress

🌍Other Harpers Wine & Spirit Feb 4, 2026 Sustainability

The International Wineries for Climate Action has released its first comprehensive analysis of soil organic carbon sequestration projects across the wine industry. This compilation compares various vineyard soil carbon initiatives, providing the sector with valuable insights into how different regions and producers are tackling climate change and building soil health. It's a significant step in standardising and measuring the wine industry's environmental progress on a global scale.

Sustainable Wine Roundtable adds five new signatories to Bottle Weight Accord

🌍Other The Drinks Business Jan 28, 2026 Sustainability

The Sustainable Wine Roundtable has welcomed five new signatories to its Bottle Weight Accord, an initiative aimed at reducing the environmental impact of wine packaging. The growing commitment from industry players shows that European winemakers are taking tangible steps to cut their carbon footprint through lighter bottle design and more sustainable packaging practices.

Meet the scientist determined to save the wine industry from mildew

🌍Other Euronews Jan 26, 2026 Sustainability

A European scientist is working on solutions to protect vineyards from mildew, one of the wine industry's most persistent problems. Mildew damages vines and has traditionally required heavy use of fungicides, so innovative approaches to tackling it could benefit both winemakers and the environment. It's a reminder of how European research is helping the wine industry adapt to its biggest challenges.

Packamama plumps for PEF over PET in industry first

🇬🇧UK The Drinks Business Jan 19, 2026 Sustainability

Packamama, the packaging firm behind the distinctive flat plastic bottles stocked by retailers like The Wine Society, is switching to a new eco-friendly material called polyethylene furanoate (PEF). The company claims this newly patented material outperforms traditional recycled PET plastic, marking an industry first for wine packaging.

Lightweight bottles embraced by the wine industry

🇬🇧UK The Drinks Business Jan 16, 2026 Sustainability

The wine industry is increasingly turning to lightweight bottles as producers seek to reduce their environmental footprint and operational costs. These bottles use less glass and energy to produce while maintaining quality, making them an attractive option for wineries looking to improve sustainability credentials. It's a practical example of how the industry is adapting to meet both consumer expectations and commercial pressures.

Why sustainability is about empowerment and finding meaning

🇬🇧UK The Drinks Business Jan 14, 2026 Sustainability

The Drinks Business explores how empowering workers to drive sustainability initiatives is actually getting results across the wine sector. They chat with folks like Champagne Canard-Duchêne and Lanchester Group about how genuine, sincere environmental programmes resonate better with staff and how one UK bottling warehouse hit 92% recycling rates when their team felt they had real ownership of the goals.

The forgotten cost of sustainability

🇬🇧UK The Drinks Business Jan 13, 2026 Sustainability

Tom Bruce-Gardyne's piece in The Drinks Business highlights something that's getting lost in all the sustainability talk: growers actually need to make money. It's a fair point - English wine producers and estates across Europe are investing heavily in organic certification and better farming practices, but the market hasn't caught up, so the premiums have basically disappeared. The piece features voices from Greyfriars in Surrey and the Sustainable Wine Roundtable, all pointing out that environmental and social sustainability mean zilch if producers can't stay afloat financially.

Historic Santorini vineyards struggle against climate change and tourism

🇪🇺Europe Decanter UK Dec 12, 2025 Sustainability

Santorini's wine industry is facing what Decanter's calling an extinction-level crisis – vineyard acreage has collapsed from 3,000-4,000 hectares to just 1,000 over recent decades, with climate change and tourism development now squeezing what's left. The island's famous Assyrtiko is being pushed out by drought, heat, and developers converting vineyards into hotels and villas, forcing harvests earlier each year and production to record lows. It's a cautionary tale about what happens when a historic wine region gets caught between climate stress and tourism pressure.