How The International Wineries For Climate Action Are Working To Decarbonize The Global Wine Industry

A recent 60 Minutes episode, entitled “Weather and Wine,” portrayed the vast devastation that global warming wrought on vineyards in Europe during the 2021 vintage. With extreme heat, flooding, and killer frosts, an estimated $2 billion dollars in wine sales were lost due to damaged wine grapes. In California, massive wildfires in August 2020 prevented many wineries from harvesting the highly valuable cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir grapes of Napa and Sonoma, because they were tainted with smoke. While one answer is to try to adapt to global warming by planting more heat resilient grape varieties, or moving vineyards further north, there is another group of wineries that are trying to fight global warming by decarbonizing the wine industry. Launched in 2019, the International Wineries for Climate Action (IWCA), include some of the world’s most powerful wine corporations, and have developed a very clear process of how they plan to have zero carbon emissions by 2050.

IWCA was founded by wine giants, Jackson Family Wines (owner of 40 wine brands, including Kendall-Jackson, La Crema, and Verite) and Familia Torres (Spain’s largest high quality ‘DO’ wine producer, exporting to 140 countries). Both family-owned wineries, they had started progressive sustainability programs years ago, but realized that there needed collective action from wineries around the world in order to reduce the growing devastation.

“The wine industry is like the canary in the coal mine,” says Dr. Greg Jones, renown climatologist with a specialty in viticulture, “because as an agriculture crop, wine grapes are very susceptible to climate changes.” In other words, loss of wine grapes is an early warning system of the devastation that could come if action is not taken to combat rising temperatures and extreme weather patterns. Other agriculture crops could also be negatively impacted by global warming, and some already are.

How IWCA Members Plan to Decarbonize Wine

In just a short time, IWCA has developed a membership roster of 25 member wineries from 7 countries. Interestingly, a good number of these wineries are also certified B Corps. As part of their communications platform, Jackson Family Wines has sponsored a 5-part series of YouTube webinars entitled ‘Rooted for Good,’ to explain best practices that wineries are taking to combat climate change. Moderated by wine writer and educator, Elaine Chukan Brown, the series also includes global experts on climate change.

One such expert is Dr. Kimberly Nicholas, Professor of Sustainability Science at Lund University in Sweden, who actually completed her dissertation on the Effect of Climate Change on the California Wine Industry. “We need to cut carbon pollution in half by 2030,” states Nicholas, in a recent webinar. “Just one more Celsius degree of warming will have devastating effects. The most important action is going fossil free.”  

She describes the four actions that global wineries need to take in order to make this happen:

• In Vineyards, optimize inputs to the soil and reduce nitrogen fertilizers
• In Wineries, become more energy efficient and switch to renewable energy
• With Packaging, switch to lighter wine bottles and alternative packaging, saving glass for when it is only necessary
• With Transportation, switch from shipping wine by truck and air to trains and ships, and make all transportation fossil free.

As a best practice example of reduced carbon for transportation, Julien Gervreau, VP of Sustainability at Jackson Family Wines, says, “We found that shipping cased wine by rail is about 80% less carbon intensive than shipping by truck.”

As a packaging best practice example, Brian Kristofic, Director of Sustainability with Ardagh Glass Packaging, described the ‘Glass Furnace of the Future. “In Europe, we are working on a furnace that will use renewable energy sources instead of fossil fuels, which will reduce 60% of direct emissions. We are still using power to melt the glass, but it will be renewable.”

Nicholas applauds these efforts. “The elephant in the room is glass bottles,” states Nicholas. “It is the largest carbon footprint issue for wine.” This is why she recommends using glass only for wine that is intended to age. Wine that is purchased and consumed within one year can easily be packaged in other materials, such as plastic, boxes, aluminum or other options.

The Three Step Process to Achieve The Zero Carbon Emissions by 2050 Goal

In order to achieve the zero carbon emissions by 2050 goal, the IWCA has created a three step process, utilizing the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol:

1)    Complete a third-party verified GHG emissions inventory to determine your current level of GHG emissions. Commit to becoming net zero by 2050.

2)    Begin implementing business processes to reduce GHG emissions in Scope 1 (direct emissions from owned or controlled vineyards and winery operations) and Scope 2 (indirect emissions from generation of purchased energy, e.g. electricity, heating, cooling, etc.)

3)    Begin implementing best supply chain practices (Scope 3) to address packaging, transportation and business travel issues.

Once wineries complete the above three process steps, they can move to Silver Level in the IWCA. To achieve Gold Level, they need to have winemaking operations powered by at least 20% onsite renewable energy and demonstrate a consistent reduction of emissions. To date, there are 7 wineries which have achieved Silver Level: Cullen Wines – Australia, Emina Wines – Spain, Silver Oak/TwoMey – California, Spottswoode – California, Symington – Portugal, VSPT Wine Group – Chile, and Yealands – New Zealand. Only Torres and Jackson Family have reached Gold Level so far.

Does Climate Change Make Wine Taste Better? – Not Really

According to the 60 Minutes episode, there are some regions of the world, such as Bordeaux where climate change can improve the taste of the wine – if the vineyards are not wracked by frost, heat-shriveled grapes, and disease pressure from torrential rains and flooding. This is true to some extent, in colder regions, because the grapes will ripen faster and have a higher alcohol level. But not all consumers like higher-alcohol wines with riper fruit flavors; some prefer to taste the “terroir” of the wine, which can be eclipsed by high-alcohol levels.

Toyna Pitts, Sommelier and Wine Director at San Francisco’s One Market restaurant, reports that she has had many conversations with wine consumers about the impact of global warming on wine. “On the floor people ask me all the time about the impact of climate change on the wine in their glass,” said Pitts in a Rooted for Good webinar. “They are concerned about higher alcohol levels.”

Other issues have to do with lack of balance in the wines and less ability to age. A recent Forbes article by John Mariani, describes this issue: “Wines above 14.5% may, though not always, taste rich, fruity and bold in the current vintage but fail to come into balance and taste flat after a while.” Senior Contributor, Alex Ledsom, adds in another Forbes article on the subject, “Flavors are harder to attain – it’s harder to get the acid-sugar ratio, pH balance, color and flavor just right – meaning that the taste of the Cabernet Sauvignon is under threat.”

All of these issues are of growing concern to wine consumers, reports Pitts. “Since restaurants opened up again in mid 2020, I’ve never heard so many consumers asking about global warming and its impact on wine.” This suggests that not only are wineries concerned about the future of their industry, but consumers are also taking an interest in saving wine grapes and the great wine regions of the world from global warming.