Sustainability involves every action in the wine growing process and how each action affects economic viability, the environment, and how direct and indirect human resources are affected (Ohmart, 2011). In the wine industry, sustainability is delivering excellent wine to consumers that enables the natural environment, business and communities involved to thrive (New Zealand Winegrowers, 2016). 

Recently, sustainability has been identified by wine companies as an asset to wine marketing (Pomarici & Vecchio, 2019). The sustainability of a product is becoming valuable in consumer eyes, especially for younger people (Schaufele & Hamm, 2017), and cannot be ignored long term by wine companies. Sustainability can be interpreted as a continuum; a path of continuous improvement to an undisclosed end point (Ohmart, 2011; Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand [SWNZ], 2020).

What do we mean by ‘real’ sustainable wine growing?

The words ‘real’ and ‘achievable’ are slightly misleading. It may be more helpful to consider what sustainability tries to achieve.  The goal of sustainable development is long-term economic and environmental stability; best achieved by acknowledging and integrating economic, environmental, and social concerns into the business decision-making process and the various components of the relevant supply chain.  

That all sounds great.  What’s wrong with that? Well, first of all we must acknowledge that we live and work in a global society where everything is connected to everything else directly or indirectly.  My business may be certified sustainable, and carbon-neutral, and exemplary in terms of social responsibility; but depends on international shipping to get my products to market… is this actually an example of real sustainability?

The UN did a great job outlining global goals on sustainability (United Nations, 2015), however, many of these targets are open-ended and vague. There is nothing wrong with high ideals, but a goal should have a measurable end-point, to work towards, achieve, and then follow with a further goal encouraging further progress.  A continuous process without end is not something that can be achieved, even with good intentions.

Is it achievable?

Sustainable winegrowing may be feasible, but not universally.  If sustainability is going to be achieved without significant investment of time and capital at transition (Pomarici & Vecchio, 2019) then it should be a key concern at vineyard establishment and throughout its lifetime. There are various contributory factors to achievable sustainability; for instance recently developed hybrid varieties (e.g. Fungus resistant grape varieties) have the potential to make a significant contribution to the sustainability of wine growing due to their inherent disease resistance (Pomarici & Vecchio, 2019), leading to a reduction in spray programs.

Small to medium scale operations have the potential to achieve sustainability more easily than large scale winegrowers, but this depends on numerous factors.  Small scale biodynamic viticulture has the lowest environmental impact of all forms of viticulture (Mariani & Vastola, 2015), while operations with local workforces and consumer bases are more sustainable on a social and economic level. These sustainable inputs generally come with higher costs (Szolnoki et al. 2011), leading to a more expensive premium finished bottle of wine, though the higher cost is generally thought by many winegrowers to be of benefit (Pomarici et al, 2015). 

Barriers to real sustainability 

Location of vineyard/winery, customer market, appellation, vineyard age, and financial ability of the company to make significant changes, among other factors should be considered when debating if sustainable winegrowing is achievable.

Large scale operations tend to face more challenges when attempting to achieve sustainability. Human and mechanical impacts such as spraying, tractor work, input costs and robotic innovations in viticulture have the potential to make holistic sustainability unachievable. These inputs will make economic sustainability achievable, however other components less achievable (Szolnoki et al, 2011). This is not to say small to medium scale producers can achieve sustainability, stepping towards sustainable winegrowing requires economic inputs that may not always be achievable (Mariani & Vastola, 2015).

Sustainable wine growing requires greater investment of time and capital as well as extensive communication, both internally and with the grower. These constitute significant barriers to widespread adoption (Szolnoki et al, 2011).

The definition of sustainability differs between countries and organisations, which makes reaching sustainability easier in some countries. Klohr et al (2013) comments that New Zealand and Australia focus on environmental aspects however fail to involve social or economic, resulting in less credible sustainability certification. 

Conclusion

Each aspect of sustainability (environmental, economic, social) may be possible to be achieved, however they may not be able to be achieved simultaneously; real sustainability in one or multiple aspects may need to be sacrificed in order to achieve complete sustainability in another. There seems to be a vagueness surrounding sustainability and how it is achieved; a lot of the time, it is considered immeasurable. Real sustainability is comparable to getting on a train with no set destination and no end in sight, as complete, holistic sustainability is not possible (Ohmart, 2011).

References

Klohr B, Fleuchaus R, Theuvsen L. Sustainability: Implementation programs and communication in the leading wine producing countries. Presented at the 7th International Conference of the Academy of Wine Business Research, Ontario, Canada, June 12–15, 2013

Mariani, A.; Vastola, A. Sustainable winegrowing: Current perspectives. International  Journal of Wine Research. 2015, 7, 37–48.

New Zealand Winegrowers. (2016). Sustainability Report 2016. Retrieved from: http://https://www.nzwine.com/media/4188/nzw-sustainability-report-2016.pdf

Ohmart, C. P. (2011). View from the vineyard: A practical guide to sustainable winegrape growing. The Wine Appreciation Guild.

Pomarici, E.; Vecchio, R.; Mariani, A. Wineries’ Perception of Sustainability Costs and Benefits: An Exploratory Study in California. Sustainability 2015, 7, 16164–16174.

Pomarici, E., & Vecchio, R. (2019). Will sustainability shape the future wine market? Wine Economics and Policy, 8(1), 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wep.2019.05.001

Schaufele, I., & Hamm, U. (2017). Consumers’ perceptions, preferences and willingness-to-pay for wine with sustainability characteristics: A review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 147, 379-394. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.01.118

Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand [SWNZ]. (2020). Sustainable Winegrowing NZ. New Zealand Wine. https://www.nzwine.com/en/sustainability/swnz

Szolnoki, G., Bosman, J., Samara, O., Iselborn, M., Ferrigato, A., Tari, K., & Egea, N.G. (2011, June 9-10). A cross-cultural comparison of sustainability in the wine industry. [Paper presentation]. 6th AWBR International Conference. Bordeaux, France: Bordeaux Management School.
United Nations. (2015, September). Sustainable development goals. Retrieved from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300