360: Rooted in Change: The Stories Behind Sustainable Wine with Andy Neather and Jane Masters

How can the wine world help tackle climate change, and why is choosing sustainable and biodynamic wines not enough? What happens when vineyards embrace biodiversity with cover crops, insects, and wildlife? How are wine producers in South Africa rebuilding natural ecosystems around their vineyards?

In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Andrew Neather & Jane Masters.

You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks.

 

Giveaway

Two of you are going to win a copy of Andrew Neather & Jane Masters' terrific new book, Rooted in Change: The Stories Behind Sustainable Wine. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at [e-mail] and let me know that you’ve posted a review of the podcast. I’ll choose two people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!

 

Highlights

How have Jane and Andrew’s wine careers led to many interesting experiences around the world?

What will you read about in Jane and Andrew’s new book, Rooted in Change?

How did Andrew and Jane become interested in sustainability in the wine world?

How did Jane and Andy come to collaborate on writing their book and how do their skills and style complement each other?

Was it challenging not to sound alarmist while effectively presenting the urgency of climate change and sustainability?

How can consumers help reduce their environmental impact when choosing wines?

What changes are happening in the wine industry to change packaging standards to reduce carbon emissions?

What can we learn from the innovations in biodiversity-focused viticulture taking place in South Africa?

Can regenerative viticulture and its principles be adopted on a large scale by major producers as well as boutique wineries?

 

Key Takeaways

There's no doubt that climate change is happening and there aren't easy solutions. We're very often led to believe that with consumer capitalism, you can buy a certain product or avoid a certain type of packaging, say, and that everything will be okay. And it's really just much more complicated than that, because you're talking about the complexity of global supply chains, all sorts of industrial processes associated with packaging and other things. It doesn't mean to say you can't make sensible choices as a consumer.

The great thing about vines is that, like fruit trees, orchards, they live for a long time. The roots go very far down into the ground. By creating this biodiversity, it also builds the insects and all the life in the soil. It becomes a natural, organic circular economy. And that helps protect vines against disease. Some of these insects keep the predators from the vines at bay. So it just becomes a much more resilient system that also captures and retains more carbon within it.

In South Africa, in the Western Cape, the natural vegetation before it was cultivated is called fynbos. Johan Reyneke, a biodynamic producer in Stellenbosch, is rewilding bits of his land to join together these islands into corridors. The animals came back quickly and it's restoring the natural balance of the land.

 

About Jane Masters and Andrew Neather

Jane Masters became a Master of Wine in 1997 and was elected as Chairman of the Institute of Masters of Wine in September 2016. She is an independent wine consultant with over 30 years of experience and clients around the world as well as working with the Majestic Wine Grp in UK. She has also filmed several wine shows and written sections for Jancis Robinson’s Oxford Companion to Wine and Wine Opus.

Andrew Neather is a freelance British journalist. A former academic historian, environmental campaigner, political speechwriter and newspaper journalist, he was the London Evening Standard’s wine critic, 2005-15. He now blogs weekly on wine and food at A View from my Table, writes a regular column for Tim Atkin MW’s website, and has contributed to publications including The Independent, Harpers and Club Oenologique.

 

 

 

To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/360.