A Deep Dive into the Organic Wine Sector
OIV releases updated GHG guide, a fight over compostable plastics in CA
For The Drinks Business Lucy Shaw takes a deep dive into organic wine, highlighting strong retail growth, with UK retailers like Majestic and Laithwaites, though others like Waitrose are scaling back. Producers globally are expanding organic offerings, driven by rising consumer demand for fresher styles, but challenges remain with price drops and certification setbacks due to disease pressure. A fight over compostable plastics is brewing in California. OIV releases updated Methodological Recommendations for Accounting GHG to support sustainable actions in the vine & wine sector. Could recycling be turbo-boosted with a lottery?
Marketing
Global: The Drinks Business’ Lucy Shaw takes a deep dive into the organic wine sector from producer, retailer and consumer perspectives.
Retail sales:
Majestic’s organic wines sales doubled in 2024, and its range now sits at more than 200 wines.
Laithwaites reports sales of its organic wines increasing by 297% over the last five years, and organic wines now accounting for just over 5% of their range at 92 SKUs.
Retailers with a more tempered outlook: organic wine specialist Vintage Roots, which offers ~500 certified organic wines, hopes for a 5% increase this year, while Waitrose has reduced their UK offerings - from 88 listings to 56 in the last three years.
Market Share: Germany continues to lead the charge as the world’s biggest drinker of organic wines, followed by France, the UK and the US, with Italy leapfrogging Sweden into fifth.
Producer perspective:
In Chile, whites are proving popular. “Our white organic wines are especially growing this year, which seems to reflect the wine category’s shift towards whites and fresher styles, driven by demand from Europe,” says Cono Sur brand manager Sebastián Aguilar, who adds that the label is the top organic wine brand in Canada. “Japan is also a very important market for us, where consumers place high value on organic attributes.”
In Provence, Stephen Cronk reports that organic wine sales at his Mirabeau estate have grown by 400% during the last three years. “It’s encouraging to see growth despite the cost-of-living crisis,” he says, singling out Whole Foods as a champion of eco-friendly wines.
Innovation within the organic wine category in Spain is high, with Jumilla-based Gil Family Estates seeking to expand its offering beyond 19 wines.
Consumer Pull:
At Waitrose, top-performing organic wines include Yalumba Viognier and Codorníu 1872 Brut Cava, with year-on-year sales up by 21% and 25% respectively.
Edward Vellacott, commercial director of Languedoc brand Bijou. “In the early days, having an organic label offered a clear point of difference, which was reflected in a more premium price. However, as more producers converted to organics, supply began to outpace demand and prices dropped. This, combined with declining consumption, has led to a lack of stability in the organic wine segment, with many growers finding it unsustainable to continue with falling prices.”
Stats: There is also a handy list of recent stats at the end of the article including:
In 2024, organic wine made up 4% of global still wine consumption (IWSR).
From 2019-24 the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) by volume for organic still wine was 3% (IWSR)
The organic wine market is due to nearly triple in value from 2021-30, growing from US$9.84 billion to US$25bn (InsightAce Analytic)
Penedes, Spain: Miquel Hudin looks at the coming harvest, the first for DO Penedès where absolutely all the grapes that come in will need to be organically certified. Hudin
While organic production in the dry viticultural zones of the Mediterranean is less challenging than say Galicia or Bordeaux, it’s not without its challenges.
This was readily shown with the largescale mildew attack that hit in 2020. That vintage saw a number of producers who were working towards organic certification in DO Cava use chemical treatments in order to bring in the vintage and thus lose their certification unfortunately.
It remains to be seen how this will affect producers who have uncertified hectares but there is the ability to use DO Catalunya which overlaps DO Penedès for still wines. There is also DO Cava which, despite their recent promotional efforts to state that their ‘Cava de Guarda Superior’ classification is, like DO Penedès, only for organically-grown grapes from 2025 onwards, this but a mere 13% of the total production.
Recycling
Massachusetts: A team of scientists from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and the University of Portsmouth in England has unveiled a game-changing enzymatic recycling process of breaking down PET, the world’s most widely used plastic. Interesting Engineering
For the first time, breaking down used PET into its building blocks is not only cleaner than making new plastic from oil, it’s also cheaper and has a lower carbon footprint.
The research introduces a subtle but pivotal chemical switch by replacing sodium hydroxide with ammonium hydroxide. That single tweak has unlocked a self-sustaining recycling loop that slashes chemical use by 99%, reduces energy consumption by 65%, and cuts operating costs by nearly three-quarters.
The closed-loop process brings the cost of recycled PET down to $1.51 per kilo, cheaper than virgin plastic, which currently sells for $1.87.
Each study involved about 300 people; one took place at a series of food courts in Vancouver, British Columbia, and the other at a community food festival in Alberta, Canada. Participants in both studies preferred the chance at winning $1,000, the researchers report in the journal Waste Management.
This option was chosen by 26% of people in Vancouver and 39% of people in Alberta.
The finding is “not at all” surprising, says study team member Jiaying Zhao, an environmental psychologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. “The insight came from the Nobel-prize winning work in the 70s from Danny Kahneman and Amos Tversky that people prefer a small chance to win a large prize over the small guaranteed prize. So we applied this insight to the current recycling refund system, and it worked beautifully!”
Norway currently has the world’s only bottle-recycling lottery system, which was implemented in 1997. The country boasts impressive beverage container recycling rates of nearly 97%, but until now there have not been any causal studies to work out to what degree this is due to the lottery.
Regulations
California: At the urging of the plastics industry, the USDA is considering allowing materials such as bioplastic cups, coffee pods and compostable plastic bags into the organic compost waste stream. Los Angeles Times
At issue is a 2021 California law, known as Assembly Bill 1201, which requires that products labeled “compostable” must actually break down into compost, not contaminate soil or crops with toxic chemicals, and be readily identifiable to both consumers and solid waste facilities.
The law also stipulates that products carrying a “compostable” label must meet the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program requirements, which only allow for plant and animal material in compost feedstock, and bar all synthetic substances and materials — plastics, bioplastics and most packaging materials — except for newspaper or other recycled paper without glossy or colored ink.
The USDA is reviewing those requirements at the request of a compostable plastics and packaging industry trade group. Its ruling, expected this fall, could open the door for materials such as bioplastic cups, coffee pods and compostable plastic bags to be admitted into the organic compost waste stream.
Plastics, microplastics and toxic chemicals can hurt and kill the microorganisms that make compost healthy and valued. Research also shows these materials, chemicals and products can threaten the health of crops grown in them.
For manufacturers of next-generation, “compostable” food packaging products — such as bioplastic bags, cups and takeout containers made from corn, kelp or sugarcane fibers — those federal requirements present an existential threat to their industry. That’s because California is moving toward a new waste management regime which, by 2032, will require all single-use plastic packaging products sold in the state to be either recyclable or compostable.
If the products these companies have designed and manufactured for the sole purpose of being incorporated in the compost waste stream are excluded, they will be shut out of the huge California market.
Climate Change
According to InfoDocket, in a letter filed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the USDA stated it would "restore the climate-change-related web content that was removed post-inauguration" and commit to complying with federal laws regarding future posting decisions.
The removed content included information on climate-smart farming and interactive tools like the Climate Risk Viewer, which contained over 140 data layers of climate-related geospatial data.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Global: OIV releases updated Methodological Recommendations for Accounting GHG to support sustainable actions in the vine & wine sector.
Based on the first 2017 edition, this volume’s update seeks to guide those in the wine sector interested in estimating the greenhouse gas balance for their organization and complete the recommendations already adopted by the OIV.
Download here.
Agriculture
Ukraine: A recent study published in Scientific Horizons by Nataliia Markova, Nataliia Nikonchuk, Svitlana Prystash, and Alla Bondar set out to evaluate the effectiveness of combining green manure with organo-mineral stabilizers, specifically zeolite and biochar, to reduce heavy metal bioavailability and soil phytotoxicity. Biochar Today
The research, conducted on cadmium-contaminated southern chernozems in Ukraine, tested various stabilization methods.
Zeolite emerged as a highly effective standalone solution, reducing available cadmium by a notable 58% and its total content by 22% compared to untreated control soils. This is attributed to zeolite’s high cation exchange capacity, allowing it to bind and immobilize cadmium ions.
Green manure alone also showed positive effects, decreasing cadmium bioavailability by 31%.
The most compelling results were observed when biochar was combined with phytoremediation crops, such as sunflower and white mustard. This integrated approach reduced the availability of both cadmium and zinc by 50% in the soil solution.
Critically, the overall removal of cadmium and zinc from the soil increased by 40% when biochar was used alongside phytoremediation compared to phytoremediation without biochar.
This indicates a powerful synergistic effect, where biochar’s adsorptive capacity and its ability to improve growth conditions for plants lead to enhanced metal uptake.
Reuse
Cognac, France: A new bottle-washing facility in south-west France, Eco in Pack, is paving the way for wine and spirit bottles to be reused instead of recycled. The Connexion
“We estimate that bottles can be used at least 10 times, which if it happens means the carbon footprint of a bottle of wine is greatly reduced,” co-founder Martin Calmettes.
New 750ml bottles in France typically cost winemakers between 30-75 centimes, depending on energy prices at the time. By contrast, the washed bottles coming out of Eco in Pack cost between 20-25 centimes.
They currently produce about 7,000 bottles a week, sourced from winemakers or co-operatives who have waste bottles, from event organizers, and from a network of cafés and restaurants who would otherwise have to pay to dispose of the bottles.
Although wine and spirit makers get carbon credits for reusing bottles, they are often reluctant to tell customers. “There is a wrong idea that reused bottles are battered or not as clean as new ones, which is why its use is kept quiet,” said Mr Calmettes.
Viticulture
Chicago, IL: In Dave McIntyre's WineLine he recounts a media dinner for organically certified (CCOF since 2024) Carneros winery Ram’s Gate.
Owned by the sustainable leader in California, O’Neill Vintners and Distillers, the event focused on their sustainable practices.
Of note, an initiative to plant trees in the vineyard rows, “It’s the most crazy thing you’ll see,” Caine Thompson, the parent company’s head of sustainability, said, with about 50 trees per acre planted among the vine rows.
“This isn’t random trees around the boundary of a vineyard. This is the intentional planting of ancient fruit tree varietals, bringing diversity back to the land in the vineyard row,” he added. “It adds shade, it stops the wind. It opens up crevices in the soil for the grapevine to get down deeper, and provides more diversity. It’s building life within the vineyards that has been removed for hundreds of years. This is what we refer to as building climate-smart vineyards for the future, to battle climate change and be at the forefront of protecting not just the land, but the style of wine.”
New Zealand: MGI Tech has partnered with Lincoln University in Canterbury to apply genomic sequencing to New Zealand viticulture, with the aim of reducing the industry’s dependence on fungicides and promoting more sustainable growing practices. The Drinks Business
Genomic sequencing involves reading and analyzing the DNA of organisms to identify specific traits – in this case, grapevines with natural resistance to disease and environmental stress.
Researchers can now scan tens of thousands of grapevine samples to pinpoint those with beneficial traits.
The goal is to breed more resilient vines and reduce the need for chemical spraying – a concern for New Zealand’s NZ$2.1 billion wine export industry.
The country’s farmers apply around 3,400 tons of pesticides annually, with 60% of fungicides and 72% of plant growth regulators used falling under the US EPA’s classification as potential carcinogens.
Early findings suggest that genomics-informed interventions could cut chemical spraying by up to 80% in some vineyards.
Packaging
He interviews parent company’s Delivering Happiness’ senior management team, including founder Santiago Navarro, former Encirc managing director, Richard Lloyd, Ryan Howsam and recently appointed non-executive board director Robin Copestick, managing director of Freixenet Copestick, to understand exactly what they mean by creating “a packaging facility of the future”.
On the new Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) law in the UK, they plan to embed recyclability and emissions data into the design of the facility, using both the UK government’s Recyclability Assessment Methodology (RAM) and the packaging guidelines of leading retailers.
Legacy infrastructure is a constraint. Most UK facilities are optimized for volume, not flexibility. That’s efficient for standard glass, but it creates real challenges when retailers or brand owners ask for innovation – or when regulation demands change.
The challenge is to build something new: a model that delivers packaging flexibility, format diversity, and environmental performance, all at commercially viable price points.