Regenerative agriculture is changing how we make wine — and combating climate change

It was not until 1980s that regenerative agriculture was coined as a term. Today, regenerative viticulture — the cultivation of grapes — is rapidly gaining momentum as a nature-positive growing strategy.

While related to sustainability and building on organic and biodynamic practices, there is no single definition of regenerative viticulture. In fact, a 2020 review of 229 articles and practitioner websites demonstrated that the main way to define regenerative agriculture is not rules-based focusing on what is allowed or not, and instead outcome-based: namely, the outcome of improving soil health including soil organic matter.

With this outcome-based approach, the key aims of regenerative viticulture are drivers of soil health restoration, undoing the damage of the industrialization of past decades and adapting to and attempting to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Decades ago, synthetic fertilizers revolutionized agriculture by enabling nitrogen fixing at scale with the Hagen-Bosch process. However, these fertilizers degraded soils and contributed further to greenhouse gas emissions via nitrogen leaching into waterways, destroying soil structure and its microbiomes, leading to erosion, as well as contributing to 1-2% of all energy used globally with associated greenhouse emissions. A study conducted in 2014 showed that there are only 60 years of soil remaining given the current degradation trends, as it takes 1000 years to generate 3 cm of soil.

Moreover, industrialized viticulture has also led to a steep loss of biodiversity and crop monoculture, and many wineries are now planting trees and hedgerows to recreate the diversity of flora and fauna their vineyards had decades ago.

Last but not least: climate change poses an existential risk to 90% of wine regions in coastal and lowland regions of Spain, Italy, Greece and California due to droughts and extreme heat waves.

Soil is home to complex ecosystems that include the interactions between the vine and its roots and the microbes in the ground. The roots act as ambassadors between what happens below ground to the vine above and enable many vital activities, from exchanging of nutrients, toxin signalling and immune defences to carbon fixing.

Further, there are tiny threads throughout the soil of great fungal organisms that are known as mycorrhizal networks, which connect individual plants together to transfer water, nitrogen, carbon and other minerals.

Soil quality also has an effect on nutrient cycling and storing organic matter, and all the factors above also have an effect on erosion that can further deplete nutrients and make the vines more susceptible to damage in heavy rains, landslides and other adverse weather events.

The ability to retain water is essential for healthy soil. The two key enablers of this capacity are clay soils and soil organic matter — just a 1% increase in organic soil matter can allow the soil to hold around 68,000 extra litres of water per acre. This will become ever more vital as climate change leads to hotter temperatures, increased water scarcity and more frequent and persistent droughts.

Increasing biodiversity — from planting cover crops and trees to introducing beneficial insects and animals — creates what are called “ecosystem services”. These benefit the vine and its surroundings by helping fix nitrogen in lieu of fertilizer, helping retain water, preventing soil erosion and attracting insects and birds that can help suppress soil pathogens and combat vine pests.

While the role of previously mentioned mycorrhizal networks is not yet comprehensively researched, it is believed that 75% of terrestrial carbon is stored below ground. While the estimates vary and may have a degree of error, a study approximated that 13.12 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide is fixed by terrestrial plants, equating to approximately 36% of current annual carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. Moreover, between 10% and 40% of plant’s photosynthetically fixed carbon is released by the roots.

Another study analyzed 345 soil carbon sequestration measures across seven regenerative practices: agroforestry, cover cropping, legume cover cropping, animal integration, non-chemical fertilizer, non-chemical pest management and no tillage. All of the seven increased carbon sequestration and the most effective and easiest to adopt were cover crops, no tillage and non-chemical pest management. Combining them may even compound the sequestration numbers.

As regenerative practices gain momentum, the key to their success is showing a material difference in a scalable way while remaining economically feasible.

On the financial front, the initial observations are promising — growers admit that while farming may be more costly, especially with upfront investment into regenerative practices, the yields can be higher and grapes are of higher quality.

Furthermore, in addition to confronting the challenges of soil degradation and climate change, the wine industry is navigating the headwinds of lower consumption from younger generations and a surplus of grape cultivation. This is where regenerative viticulture can serve as a reset, as these same younger consumers now choose more premium wine over bulk, and spend more money on products and brands that align with their values of authenticity and sustainability.

Several organizations have also formed to enable winegrowers to learn from collective wisdom. The Regenerative Viticulture Foundation is a coalition and a growing depository of research and resources. Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROA) is a body that certifies agricultural companies globally, and Tablas Creek became the first certified winery in 2020. From then, the growth has gained momentum: in 2022 ROA certified 500,000 acres of vineyards and by 2023 that number grew to 6 million.

One of the key features of regenerative approach to viticulture is that it offers flexibility of approach, not a set prescription. The goal is to meet winegrowers where they are, adapt to local geographies and make incremental progress in service of an ambitious, long-term vision.

The global wine industry is worth roughly $300 billion and is a fraction of global agriculture. However, it is unique in that it brings consumers together, can start new conversations and raise awareness. Regenerative viticulture has the potential to not just change the wine industry, but serve as an example to agriculture more broadly and (borrowing ROA’s motto), encourage all growers to “farm like the world depends on it”.