Wineries Adapt to Changing Climate While Stewarding Their Lands for Long-Term Sustainability and Health

While the climate crisis will impact businesses around the world in different ways and at different times, those in the agricultural industry are on the front lines and dealing with the effects every day. As they witness changes in the weather and land, farmers and growers are adapting their practices and innovating for sustainability.

Wineries are among those most touched by climate change, as they operate on marginal lands. Struggling vines, in fact, bring out better quality grapes and vintages. This positions them as “canaries in the coal mine” of climate change, in a way, where they have an opportunity to develop new methods and share them with others. 

One example is Rathfinny Wine Estate, which is one of England’s newest and largest vineyards in a valley between the Alfriston village and the East Sussex coast. Marking its 10-year anniversary this year, Rathfinny produces fine vintage sparkling wine and operates with a focus on sustainability. Recently I had the opportunity to visit Rathfinny and talk with its founders, Mark and Sarah Driver, and the company’s vineyard manager, Cameron Roucher. 

Since planting their very first vines across 50 acres of their land, and bottling their first 11,000 bottles of sparkling wine, the Drivers have grown the Rathfinny estate into more than just a farm. Located in a part of the world that is now hailed as an up-and-coming region for world-class wines, Rathfinny has taught the Drivers one important business lesson: It’s easier to start a company with the goal to be sustainable rather than retroactively fix the company’s core policies.

Roucher shared with me why struggling vines actually produce better-quality wines, and why Rathfinny uses a blend of organic principles and chemicals to help protect plants from moisture and pests while also rebuilding the soil for longer-term production and health. Operating as a Certified B Corporation, Rathfinny has experimented with sustainable farming practices such as inter-row mowing and different mixes of cover crops. Farmers have also cut down on their tractor usage and are cultivating under-vine rather than spraying herbicide. 

Another winery doing its part to incorporate more regenerative practices is Tablas Creek Vineyard in Paso Robles, California, which was selected to be a pilot winery for a certification program overseen by the Regenerative Organic Alliance. Tablas Creek’s general manager and partner Jason Haas told me the winery’s thinking and practices evolved to incorporate some aspects of biodynamics — a holistic, ecological, and ethical approach to farming — and eventually to piloting the Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) program through the Regenerative Organic Alliance.

“There are ROC protocols that conform to that baseline of soil health, animal welfare, social welfare, but the specifics for what you have to do in a vineyard is going to be different than what you’re going to be doing if you’re growing rice or if you’re growing cotton,” he says. “Being a part of the pilot program was this cool opportunity for us to help craft those standards for the wine community. If there’s the opportunity to share practices that we think are going to be good for the community at large, we’re all in.”

Regenerative agriculture involves a closed-loop philosophy that limits the use of external products, Lonborg says, which means Tablas Creek generates its fertilizer on-site. “That’s basically what regenerative farming is,” he says. “It’s nothing new, but it’s a way people have been farming for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, although like with other certifications, it forces you to look at your property a bit differently.”

Earth-minded practices also are a focus at Brooks Winery in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, which is home to more than 700 wineries. Oregon has a unique climate that creates a nourishing environment for winegrowing, thanks to cool nights and abundant sunlight, as well as biodynamic and regenerative agriculture, which ensures the revitalization of the land and works to mitigate climate change. This focus on land stewardship is a natural fit for Brooks and several other B Corp wineries that call Oregon home.

To the south, Fetzer Vineyards in California has been a steward of the environment since its founding in 1968 by Barney Fetzer. A solar array tops Fetzer Vineyards’ corporate headquarters as part of the B Corp winery’s commitment to using 100% green power and reducing its carbon footprint. Fetzer Vineyards was the first winery in the world to be carbon-neutral certified, and the winery continues to be an industry leader on collaborative climate action.