Climate Talks by Porto Protocol

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).

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).

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

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: 

• Hans Reiner Schultz, President at the Geisenheim University / Germany 
• Jeremy Cukierman, MW and Director at Kedge Wine School / France
• Dario Cantù, Professor and Chair at the Department of Viticulture and Enology at UCDAVIS; Executive director of the UC Davis Chile Life Sciences Innovation Center/ USA and Chile 

HOST: 

• Greg Jones / Abacela winery / USA (Climatologist and former-Professor at Lindfield College)

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/

This Climate Talk is moving past the “low-hanging fruit” and reaching for the stars – showcasing wine bottle reuse. The bottle accounts for 50% of a wineries’ CO2 emissions, due to the amount of heat required to melt glass along with transportation. Recycling decreases total emissions however, the CO2 budget of a bottle made from recycled glass is still very high, and much of the world’s recycling infrastructure is dysfunctional, leaving a huge proportion of wine bottles buried in landfills. For the wine industry to reach zero emissions and continue to use the very best, inert recipient for bottle aging, the only solution is bottle reuse.  Four companies, from different countries, join us to share their experience with bottle reuse so that we can revive this once widely practiced tradition.  HOST - Diana Snowden Seysses – Winemaker at Domaine Dujac, Winemaker and Proprietor at Snowden Vineyards and member of The Porto Protocol’s Global Steering Committee 

GUESTS 

- Melissa Saunders MW - Wine Director at The Goods Good - USA 

- Muriel Chatel - Managing Director of Borough Wines & Sustainable Wine Solution – UK 

- Bertrand Grafé - Owner of Grafé Lecocq - Belgium 

- Lise Rolland - Marketing and communications director for Oé - France

In this Climate Talk, organized in cooperation with The Regenerative Viticulture Foundation, we will explore the importance of soil health in vineyards, and the new challenges which arise when managing that soil health using regenerative practices.
What is the importance of soil health in a vineyard? What are the essentials of soil management? What changes are observed with a more regenerative approach?

As usual, we are joined by producers and consultants from different parts of the world that are already leading the way in regenerative viticulture to share what they are doing and what outcomes they have witnessed.

HOST

STEPHEN CRONK - CO-FOUNDER OF MAISON MIRABEAU AND FOUNDER TRUSTEE AT REGENERATIVE VITICULTURE FOUNDATION - FRANCE 

GUESTS

In this Climate Talk we debate the why and the how of internalizing climate change in your wine business: Where to start? What are the fundamental changes this decision will bring into the modus operandi of the business? What barriers may you 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?   

GUESTS 

 Caroline Thompson-Hill - Accolade Wines  - UK (https://www.accoladefinewines.com/) 

 Michele Manelli – Salcheto – ITALY (https://salcheto.it/)

 NICOLE SIERRA-ROLET - Chêne Bleu – FRANCE (https://www.chenebleu.com/)  

HOST: 

 Marta Mendonça – Manager at The Porto Protocol Foundation (Portugal) - https://www.portoprotocol.com/about-us/

This Climate Talk addresses the state of art of circular innovation in wine, by bringing together different players from the wine value chain, but also from other industries with in-depth knowledge and approaches to circular practices. They explore how the wine industry can connect the dots of its value chain in a circular way, bringing examples tested with by-products of the wine production, as well as the applicability and suitability, from big to small practices, across different regions and realities.  

GUESTS Rosa Prati (Caviro Winery) - ITALY 

Valentina Lira (Concha Y Toro) - CHILE 

Zach Lawless (Good Goods) - USA  

HOST  Miguel Cachão (AVIPE) - PORTUGAL

This Climate Talk is an initiative of Dr. Richard Smart, renowned International Wine Grower and Consultant. 

Dr. Smart challenged Porto Protocol to organize a webinar about mitigation (vs adaptation), on reducing the carbon footprint of the grape and wine sector. In his own words, mitigation is more of an ethical decision than an economic one, and the focus is on avoiding the causes of the climate crisis so that it does not happen. According to him “it is a decision that an industry can take to help ensure its future, in the same spirit in which this decision is being taken by countries and states, communities and families”.  

This session was the first “Research Edition” of our Climate Talks by Porto Protocol, a slightly different format from what our community is used to: we will have a series of presentations, each focused on different research themes, either from a scientific or market approach, on different components underlying the decision to mitigate:  

- Kieran Hirlam (AWRI) will present Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and carbon footprint to demonstrate that the 750ml glass bottle is an important component of the industry's carbon footprint. 

- Heena Panchasara (Central Queensland University) will describe how pyrolysis enables the industry to convert waste streams from vineyards and wineries into energy.   

- Richard Halstead (Wine Intelligence) will discuss how the glass bottle can be replaced by alternative packaging and how wine consumers can react.   

These presentations were followed by a debate moderated by Tiago Alves de Sousa (Alves de Sousa), Producer and Professor (UTAD), who will bridge the gap between the conclusions resulting from the investigation of each guest and their adaptation to the day-to-day life of the vineyard and wine sector.  For those in the grape and wine industry who see a response to the climate crisis beyond adaptation, we hope this digital conversation will serve as an incentive to contemplate mitigation.

In this Climate Talk we will discuss the various issues around the glass bottle, the element that contributes the most to the carbon footprint of wine.   As we bring to the table various stakeholders from the wine value chain, we will try to understand how producers, trade and consumers are perceiving and addressing this elephant in the room.  

HOST

• Martin R. Reyes MW, Owner of Reyes Wine Group 

GUESTS 

• Jancis Robinson MW - Wine Critic, Journalist, Writer and Founder of Jancisrobinson.com 

• Charles Bieler - Owner at Bieler Wines and Co-Founder of the Gotham Project 

• Laura Varpasuo - Sustainability Manager at Alko (Finland’s Alcohol Monopoly)

In this Climate Talk we will explore the tools, the challenges, barriers, benefits and insights in general from various players of the wine value chain that have experienced this process of addressing the Carbon footprint in the wine value chain.

We will bring to the table the importance of small steps with big environmental and financial impact, that can be adopted by anyone, even before measuring their emissions.

We will listen to different players and producers from various geographies on how they addressed their carbon emission reduction and the process they went through.

In this Climate Talk we will approach this topic from a solutions perspective, rather than a controversial one. As the title suggests, it is not about glyphosate, but about building on possibilites of a wine world beyond it.

We will explore how wine producers are and can phase out the use of chemical pesticides in different regions, as well as the benefits and the challenges encountered. We will explore different solutions and approaches, starting with nature-based ones and forward.

In this Climate Talk we will debate the why and the how of internalizing climate change in your wine business: 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 you 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.

GUESTS  Beth Novak Milliken - President and CEO at Spottswoode Winery (Napa Valley, US) - https://spottswoode.com/visit-us/ João Roquette – CEO at Esporão (Alentejo, Portugal) - https://www.esporao.com/en/ Mathilde Boulachin – CEO and Owner of Pierre Chavin (Béziers, France) https://www.pierre-chavin.com/en/about-us/HOST: Marta Mendonça – Manager at The Porto Protocol Foundation (Portugal) - https://www.portoprotocol.com/about-us/

In this Climate Talk we will explore the impacts of climate trends in vines and wines across the world, and which are the long-term solutions producers such consider adapting their vineyards. For this talk we count with producers from different parts of the world that are already leading the way regarding the research on the behavior of grapevines clones and studying the role of rootstocks as an adaptation measure to deal with climate impacts. We will explore the solutions that are being tested and their results and reveal some of the directions pointed by latest researches.

Soils are filled with life. In fact, 80% of life on earth is in the soil Its organic matter forms the basis of soil health and fertility, and therefore food production. Furthermore, soils are a natural carbon sink.

So ultimately, changes in land use and soil can either accelerate or slow down climate change, promote or degrade its biodiversity. The answer might lie in preserving and restoring key ecosystems and letting nature capture carbon from the atmosphere.

And though Viticulture is a small part of the agricultural chain, soil is key to the establishment of a vineyard and wine brands speak directly to its consumer.

Regenerative Agriculture is the word of the moment as the solution to soil management and climate change. By definition, it is “a system of farming principles and practices that increases biodiversity, enriches soils, improves watersheds, and enhances ecosystem services. It aims to capture carbon in soil and aboveground biomass, reversing current global trends of atmospheric accumulation.”

In this Climate Talk we will explore the role of soils in fighting climate change for vines and wines across the world, and the importance of enhancing its health trough regenerative practices.
We will try to understand what these exact practices are, what measured results have they shown? How different are they from other types of viticulture such as biodynamic. What are its pros and cons? As usual, we count with producers from different parts of the world that are already leading the way to share what they are doing and what is the outcome.

A changing climate leads to changes in the frequency, intensity, spatial extent, duration and timing of extreme weather and climate events (EWE). These are the words of the IPCC. Per se, these EWE do not prove the existence of global warming, but it is a given fact that climate change exaggerates them.

Reality, as we speak, is a reflection of this and of the current climate crisis: a few years ago, South Africa faced a period of severe water shortage in the Western Cape region. In 2017, the exact place where the Douro River is born, Picos de Urbíon, dried up. This year, in Germany, ice wine harvest failed for the first time due to a warm winter. A year ago, Australia was on fire, with an unrepairable and unprecedented loss for its ecosystems, let alone lives and businesses. As we speak, California, Oregon and Washington are being devastated by wildfires that preceded record heatwaves, followed by storms that ignited the fires. In Maryland, tornados were followed by hurricanes and then frost. Again, countless producers are still unsure about whether they will be able to save their harvest from smoke taint, and many have lost their vintage altogether.

Why? What are the causes? What are the impacts? How can we prepare our vineyards, our operation, ourselves, reduce the impacts and minimize the losses?

This Climate Talk will address these questions by gathering producers and scientists from different parts of the world that have experienced these EWE’s. They will share their knowledge, experience, different realities, and above all the ideas and practices implemented to tackle this reality. In a conversation starting with a scientific data approach, we will try to understand how can science help producers to predict, adapt and decide which are the best options available to deal with ewe, and how can they do this in a very practical manner.

Host:

João Santos . Professor at the Physics Department of UTAD (University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro) . Portugal

Guests:

Thos Climate talk will address the perspectives on certifying standards for sustainability in the wine industry, by bringing together experts from different regions around the world. They will share the developing process of the tool used as well as the key topics and structure of each. We will explore the advantages for the wine industry to embrace this path towards (certified) sustainability, the benefits of joining a recognized sustainable standard, as well as the differences in their scope across different regions and realities.

Host:

Guests:

Francisco Mateus . Chairman at the Alentejo Regional Winegrowing Commission (CVRA) . Portugal

Allison Jordan . Vice President, Environmental Affairs for Wine Institute and Executive Director of the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance.  USA

Patricio Parra . Managing Director of the R & D Consortium Vinos de Chile . Chile

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.

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 (according to the Water Footprint Network). 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, mean that now, more than ever, water needs to be used efficiently. Therefore, there is the need to understand where and how can we improve water management in the wine life cycle, reduce it or even eliminate it.

This Climate Talk will address this issue and will try to identify the major challenges on the use of water throughout the 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 on the field and on the wineries. To do so, we will count with different guests from around the world. They will approach all three components of the WF: green, blue and grey, from dry farming to use of rainwater and reuse of treated wastewater.

Host:

LINDA JOHNSON-BELL . UK

Guests:

Carbon dioxide is a heat trapping gas produced both in nature and human activities. It plays a significant role in global warning. Reality as we speak requires a real and urgent need to begin a long, unprecedented and sustained effort to “de-carbonize” the atmosphere, so becoming carbon neutral is not enough anymore. To do this, carbon-negative actions, systems, and industries are required. Carbon sequestration can have an important role in preventing carbon dioxide from entering the earth’s atmosphere, and reducing the human “carbon footprint.” We can categorize 3 types of Carbon Sequestration: Biological (storage of carbon dioxide in vegetation, in soils and ocean), Geological (storing carbon dioxide in underground geologic formations, or rocks) and technological (remove and store carbon from the atmosphere using innovative technologies). So how can wine production contribute to carbon sequestration? To explore this answer, it is fundamental to considerer, when evaluating the carbon cycle, all sources of emissions and all of the sequestration potential.

In this Climate Talk we will look at the carbon cycle in wine production, and the challenges of carbon sequestration across all stages and processes. We will bring different perspectives and practices of carbon sequestration: how the soil works as a natural carbon sink, passing into the technology available for the capture and storage of the carbon released in the fermentation, to the role the cork stopper can take in offsetting carbon footprint of the wine packaging. Would these solutions represent an opportunity for farmers to explore the carbon market? All these topics, among others, will be addressed in this conversation that brings together players from different geographies, expertise and profiles.

Host

Nuno Gaspar de Oliveira . Portugal . Partner NBI – Natural Business Intelligence

Guests

CARLOS DE JESUS . Portugal . Marketing and Communication Director at AMORIM CORK

This Climate Talk will bring together wine makers across various wine regions in the world, that will share how they are using technology and nature to adapt and mitigate climate change across the various stages of the wine value chain.

Host

JAMIE GOODE – Wine Journalist . UK 

Guests:

SIMON GRIER – Villiera Wines . South Africa

COREY BECK – Coppola Winery .  USA

FERNANDO BUSCEMA – Catena Zapata . Argentina

This Climate Talk will bring together wine makers across various wine regions in the world, that will share how they are using technology and nature to adapt and mitigate climate change across the various stages of the wine value chain.

Host:

David Guimaraens . The Fladgate Partnership . Portugal
Diana Snowden Seysses . Domain Dujac | Snowden Vineyards . France
Stan Zervas . Silverado Farming Company . USA
Fred Loimer . Loimer . Austria

This Climate Talk will touch on the element that contributes the most to the carbon footprint of wine and yet one of the less discussed and/or intervened by companies: Packaging. We’ll have a roundtable with various players on the matter discussing what is happening in the industry to address the weight of this elephant in the room.