The water footprint (WF) of a product is an indicator of the consumptive use of water resources along its life cycle. Water scarcity is recognized to be a major global challenge. As such, the evaluation of the WF of agro-industrial products is key, as they are widely known as having a significant footprint on water resources.
According to the Water Footprint Network The global average water footprint of grapes is 610 liter/kg. One kilogram of grapes results in 0.7 liter of wine, so the water footprint of wine is APPROXIMATELY 870 liters of water per liter of wine. This means that one glass of wine (125 ml) costs 110 liters (a). Even knowing that the vine has a capacity for survival and resilience to austere climates, as we speak, the increased production of grapes and wine, combined with droughts and climate change, sore than ever, water needs to be used efficiently. Therefore, there is a need to understand where and how we can improve water management in the wine life cycle, reduce it, or even eliminate it.
THE DISCUSSION
This Climate Talk addresses this issue and tries to identify the major challenges to the use of water throughout grape and wine production in this warming climate. In this conversation, we will analyze the importance of efficient use of water and explore the best technologies and practices available both in the field and on the wineries. To do so, we will count on different guests from around the world.
GUESTS
Michele Manelli (Salcheto, Italy)
Andrej Razumovsky (Alpamanta, Argentina)
Aaron Schreiber-Stainthorp (Jackson Family Wines, USA)
HOST
João Barroso (WASP - Wines of Alentejo Sustainability Programme, Portugal)
Our first one-to-one Climate Talk will be a discussion between Greg Jones (Climatologist and CEO at Abacela) and Etienne Neethling (Head of the international master program in vine, wine, and terroir management at the Ecole Supérieure de L’Agriculture and an OIV expert within the ENVIRO group).
They will be exploring what wine regions are similar in its various dimensions, from soil to grape varieties.
DISCUSSION TOPICS
What is a climate analogue?
Which bioclimatic indices are specific to grape and wine production and how do we calculate them?
Which wine regions have similar climates?
Is climate change a major environmental challenge for the wine sector?
Can European wine regions draw on viticultural lessons from warmer and drier wine regions in countries like South Africa or Australia?
What are the opportunities and challenges for emerging cool wine production regions or regions?
Click HERE for the presentation
https://youtu.be/FsgmBONlkEU
Our partners at The Regenerative Viticulture Foundation challenged us to open our climate talks space for their trustee, Caine Thompson (O'Neill Vintners & Distillers). Caine will share in detail O’Neill’s transition toward regenerative organic practices and the findings from their three-year comparison studies. This is an unmissable presentation and discussion! GUESTS: Caine Thompson (Head of Sustainability, O’Neill Vintners & Distillers | Managing Director, Robert Hall Winery) Emmanuel Bourgignon (Porto Protocol Living Vineyards’ Leading Teams) Charlie Dubbe – Agrology HOST Anne Jones (Regenerative Viticulture Foundation)
We are thrilled to invite you to the official launch of the long-awaited Unpacking Wine Guide: A Practical Journey Through the Environmental Landscape of Packaging! The Unpacking Wine Guide is a game-changing resource designed to empower wine producers and professionals to make informed packaging decisions while minimizing environmental impact. To access the Guide: https://www.portoprotocol.com/product/unpacking-wine-guide/ What to expect: ✨ Keynote remarks from Jancis Robinson and Adrian Bridge – An exclusive presentation of the guide – Inspiring guest speakers sharing their packaging journeys and how this guide can drive change in the industry, namelly: GUEST: Valentina Lira (Concha Y Toro) Geraldine Dubois (La Tetue) Ana Bousquet (Domain Bousquet) Simon Mason (The Wine Society) Arthur Erdem (IPEF GmbH) Anne Bousquet (Domaine Bousquet) Moderation: Marta Mendonça (The Porto Protocol) Rita Gama Rocha (OMDesign) This event is not just a launch—it’s a celebration of innovation, collaboration, and the shared commitment to reimagining wine packaging with purpose. Be part of this moment!
Moderated by Jihany Brecci, founder of Stella Pietro Vineyards, this special research edition of the Climate Talks features Dr. Kees van Leeuwen, Professor and Researcher at Bordeaux University’s Institute of Sciences de la Vigne et du Vin (ISVV), Dr. Hervé Quénol, Geographer-Climatologist of France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Helena Ferreira Manuel, Head of Agriculture Management and Sustainability at Herdade dos Lagos. This was an extremely insightful talk, bridging research with wine producers. For Additional resources from this talk and on the topic: https://www.portoprotocol.com/solution/water-in-vineyards-research-edition/
As vineyards face climate challenges and biodiversity loss, agroforestry offers a promising way forward—blending trees, shrubs, and diverse flora to enhance soil health, biodiversity, and resilience. Yet, there are no one-size-fits-all solutions, and much remains uncertain.
This second edition, in partnership with the Regenerative Viticulture Foundation, deepens the conversation, sharing insights, case studies, and ongoing learning in the journey toward climate-conscious, sustainable wine growing.
January 16Th
🕔 5pm London | 🕕 6pm Paris | 🕘 9am California
Panelists:
🍇 Anne Jones (Regenerative Viticulture Foundation)
🌿 Emmanuel Bourguignon (LAMS-21/France)
🌿 Katia Nussbaum (San polino/Italy)
🌿Olga Barbosa (Universidad Austral de Chile)
This was the first of a series of talks in partnership with The Regenerative Viticulture Foundation! It focused on the topic of Agroforestry in Vineyards. In a nutshell: how to combine trees and vineyards to benefit soil health, ecosystems, and wine quality. As always, we’ve gathered a fantastic panel that bridges the Old World and New World of wine. Caro Feely will serve as our host and moderator, bringing her experience in fostering biodiversity at Chateau Feely, to guide the discussion and explore with our panelists how agroforestry can (or can’t) be applied in a vineyard context. Panelists: 🍇 Caro Feely (CHATEAU FEELY/France) – Host 🌿 Ted Lemon (Littorai Wines/USA) 🌿 Juliette Combe (Château Cheval Blanc /France) 🌿Alain Canet (BHBZ Agroforestry Strategy/France)
In this Climate Talk we will be decoding and exploring the concept of managing ecosystems, with vineyards at its core.
This also represented the launch of our project “Living Vineyards”
Cristina Crava (The Porto Protocol) will talk to Emmanuel Bourguignon (LAMS21), Nuno Gaspar de Oliveira (Natural Business Intelligence) and Tom Croghan (The Vineyards at Dodon, USA).
Within the New York Climate Week, Porto Protocol, in partnership with the New York Wine & Grape Foundation (Boldly NY), bring you various players and countries to discuss the topic: Saving Every Drop: Water Management and Conservation Strategies in Wine Production.
During this Climate Talk we will identify the major challenges in the use of water throughout the production cycle of grapes and wine in our warming climate. During this conversation, we will analyze the importance of efficient use of water and explore the best technologies and practices available in the vineyard and the winery.
Kenn Pogash (The Porto Protocol) will host the talk with Caro Feely (Chateau Feely), Sebastian Trámon (Emiliana Organic Vineyards), Robin Ross (Arrowhead Spring Vineyards).
Within the New York Climate Week , Porto Protocol, in partnership with the New York Wine & Grape Foundation (Boldly NY), bring you various stakeholders of the value chain to discuss the topic: Seeding the Future: Building Paths to Sustain Wine Legacy and Production for Future Generations.
In this Climate Talk we will debate the why and the how of internalizing climate change in wine businesses: Where do you start? How does this materialize into a balance sheet? What are the fundamental changes this decision will bring into the modus operandi of the business? What barriers may one encounter? What opportunities arise from it? What are the risks? How does it affect your relationship with your stakeholders, from employees to providers? How do you address it and communicate it? How do you pass it on to your consumers? We will seek to present practical approaches to these questions by players from the industry worldwide that have decided to address climate emergency in a proactive fashion, committed to build a path to sustain their wine legacy for generations to come.
Justin Jackson (Boldly NY) will host the talk with Adrian Bridge (The Fladgate Partnership), Cecilia Pasqua (Pasqua Wines), Shannon Brock (Silver Thread).
This discussion will explore regenerative viticulture’s impact on water conservation in this engaging webinar. Learn from experts as they share strategies for saving water in vineyards. Discover innovative approaches that promote sustainable water management while maintaining wine quality. This webinar inspires vineyard owners, winemakers, and enthusiasts to embrace regenerative viticulture for a sustainable future, preserving water resources and ensuring the wine industry’s longevity.
Jessica Villat will host the talk with Elizabeth Whitlow (Regenerative Organic Alliance), Mimi Casteel (Regenerative Viticulture Foundation) and Francisco Font (Associación de Viticultura Regenerativa).
This Climate Talk is a Business Edition, in which we explore how sustainability and profitability can go hand in hand, through the voices and best practices of different representatives of the wine trade, such as importers, distributors, retailers and traders.
Steven Campbell (from Campbell Kind Wines), Melissa Monti Saunders, Master of Wine (from Communal Brands) and Dom de Ville (from The Wine Society) talk about embracing Sustainability, social impact, packaging, and the benefits in the long term.
More information here
Also available on YouTube
Dans le contexte du changement climatique, les cépages jouent un rôle important dans les solutions adaptation. Sachant que selon l’OIV, il existe 6000 cépages et que 13 d’entre eux couvrent le tiers des vignobles, est-il nécessaire de considérer les hybrides? Alors que certains ont la certitude que les hybrides vont jouer un rôle positif dans le futur, d’autres prônent l’exploration des cépages existants et de leurs clones ainsi que des recherches plus avancées sur les porte-greffe. INVITÉE Michelle Boufard - Tasting Climate Change - Canada Lilian Bérillon - Pepiniere Berillon - France Yiannis Paraskevopoulos - Gaia Wines - Greece Michael Marler - Vignobles Pervenches - Canada
This Climate Talk was hosted by Mimi Casteel from Hope Well Wine with Claudia Kammann from Hochschule Geisenheim University, Hans-Peter Schmidt from Ithaka Institute and Antoine Lespès from Domaine LAFAGE as guest speakers.
In the ever-expanding ocean of sustainability technologies, you have undoubtedly heard the term biochar. Once relegated to fringe-conversations, biochar has now gained a strong foothold in mainstream academic and applied research, and its use is being studied for everything from climate change mitigation to restoration of soil carbon stores, recovery of soil structure, nutrient cycles and function, soil remediation and detoxification applications, bioenergy production, and more.
Biochar is a specific form of charcoal produced through pyrolysis, which is the conversion of organic materials (biomass) under very high temperatures (greater than 500*C) to black carbon in the absence of oxygen. This form of Carbon is incredibly durable and resistant to decomposition that it can be a long-term storage form of Carbon in soils. The production techniques used in making biochar are commensurate with its potential benefits, and anyone considering biochar should become fluent in the best practices for its production. However, given the almost unfathomable sources of feedstocks, from animal manures to thinning of forest biomes for fire mitigation, to crop residues, biochar is a very exciting topic and its potential benefits in the climate crisis are myriad.
For farmers and land managers, biochar is exciting for a number of reasons, which we will get into deeply today. Its alkalinity can naturally lower acidic soil pH, can help hold soluble positively charged cations like Calcium and Potassium, it can decrease soil bulk density in compacted soils, increase aggregation, aeration, reduce leaching, bind and sequester toxins, and perhaps most importantly (at least to me), biochar has an unparalleled potential in the campaign to rehydrate soils most at risk for desertification. I’ve seen this benefit myself, and I am really looking forward to exploring all of these topics with our panel of experts.
Wine is first and foremost an agricultural product, extremely vulnerable to climate change. Its impact is being experienced by vintners in a variety of ways, as extreme weather events, from droughts to heat waves, from out of season hail to floods, are impacting yields, phenology, wine quality and taste and vines health. Harvests have been lost and new regions have arisen because of it.
But just as wine production is affected by a changing climate it also contributes to enhance it in a variety of ways, may it be through the choice of packaging, viticulture practices or transportation.
In this Climate Talk we’ll seek to understand how key education institutions around the world are changing their curriculums to prepare a new breath of future vintners, viticulturists, and wine business managers to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to address the new reality they will encounter and ultimately protect the wine industry.
GUESTS:
HOST:
In this podcast episode, you will listen to Anna Brittain (MD at Napa Green), Marja Aho (Sustainability Manager at Alko Oy) and Polly Hammond (MD and Founder 5Forests) representing 3 different stakeholders with tremendous experience in sustainability in wine to share their expertise and experience with the audience.
This panel was part of the hybrid event at the Instituto Politécnico de Viseu on December 13th, where we presented the results of a study in partnership with 5 wine regions that represent in total 38% of Portugal's wine (volume and area), that resulted into an "immersion" into sustainability in these wine regions.
We spoke and got to know dozens of wine and grape producers, their practices (the sustainable and not-so-sustainable ones), their challenges, and their needs to, ultimately, bring together a characterization of the status of sustainability in these regions and routes to prepare a sustainable development path for the future. We also invite you to see the documentary on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPyUNJPJY2Y
This Climate Talk is a Research Edition, dedicated to the work generated by academia.
We counted with different experts and researchers from distinct European Universities, who will share the result of different studies, carried out from different perspectives, around the world of vineyard microbes. We seek to understand how our practices influence the health of our vineyards, the environment, and the wine, exploring the structure, function and management of the vineyard microbiome.
It took place in the form of a hybrid event, with a live audience of students from UTAD (Trás-os-Mosntes University).
HOST
Tom Croghan, The Vineyards ad Dodon / USA
GUESTS
Kees Van Leeuwen, Bordeaux University's Institut des Sciences de la Vigne et du Vin / France
Andreia Figueiredo, Science Faculty of Lisbon University / Portugal
Alex Gobbi, University of Copenhagen / Denmark
In this Climate Talk, the words reduce, reuse and rethink will be on top of the discussion. We’ll explore why and how a circular approach can provide the way for (wine) companies to establish waste management initiatives for inorganic and organic waste that enable them to close the loop. Our guests and host will share practical examples to help us understand how to apply circular economy in our daily practices, reduce waste streams in the wine industry and rethink the way we approach the word “waste”.
HOST:
Marta Juega / Alliance Wine / UK
GUESTS:
Michele Manelli / Salcheto / Tuscany, Italy
Patricia Berardi / Textura Wines / Serra da Estrela, Portugal
Stephanie Barger / Zero Waste / True Certification / California, USA
Global wine consumption has not been steady, but the risks associated to climate change have grown significantly. Consequently, so have the number of discerning drinkers looking for evidence of a sustainable approach from their favorite wines. Retailers are a key stakeholder of the wine value chain. They can impact, even determine, the entire supply chain, from production to bottling choices, from logistics to transportation and, therefore, the climate impact of a wine. But ultimately, the most effective pressure for change is likely to come from consumers, who are being bombarded with Climate Change reality and calls to action way before reaching a supermarket shelf. This puts retailers in a unique position to educate and influence them in their so-called FMOT (First Moment of Truth), that is, in the 3-5 seconds time span in which they take their ultimate purchasing decision. This virtual round table is about understanding how the retail industry is playing its role as part of the solution to mitigate the wine industry’s climate impact, influencing consumers and producers alike.
GUESTS:
Marcus Ihre / Systembolaget (Sweden) - www.systembolaget.se/
Carmel Kilcline MW / Marks & Spencer (UK) - www.marksandspencer.com
Scot Case / National Retail Federation (USA)
HOST:
Marta Mendonça / Porto Protocol - www.portoprotocol.com/
The use of grazing animals in vineyards seems to be of increasing interest and use around the globe. The information available indicates that it is a vineyard management tool that finds compatibility with regenerative, organic, and biodynamic farming practices. This discussion will focus on the many benefits to this technique of vineyard management. You will gain information from vineyard managers about their experiences and the reasons for their choice of animals and the how and why they integrated this tool into their vineyards along with results of their decisions. Finally, we’ll discuss how animals enhance carbon sequestration, soil health and biodiversity and offer reduction in the use of herbicides and chemicals. This is a unique opportunity to learn about and understand this growing trend that has been around for centuries and pose questions to our guests from around the world.
GUESTS:
- Kelly Mulville. USA - Paicines Ranch (California) - https://paicinesranch.com/
- Lígia Santos. Portugal - Caminhos Cruzados (Dão) - https://caminhoscruzados.net/
- Johan Reyneke. ZA – Reyneke wines (Stellenbosch)- reynekewines.co.za
HOST:
- Tom Croghan. USA – The Vineyard at Dodon (Maryland) - https://www.dodonvineyards.com/