New Zealand at the World Conference on Climate Change and Wine   11 May 2011

Bernard Budel

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Family of 12. Photo: Bernard Budel

Bernard Budel. Photo supplied.

Kiwi wine ambassador and Euro traveller Bernard Budel is back witha a great article on NZ sustainability.

It’s hard for a day to go past where you don’t hear at least one mention of sustainability or climate change. In many parts of Europe it has definitely become a part of everyday conversation and in places like Finland and Sweden it's very much a part of a huge percentage of purchasing decisions.

New Zealand has a fantastic environmental record. Mother Earth seems to have always been on our minds with so many Marine Reserves, National parks and pristine untouched wilderness. As a country, we seem to have taken on the ‘green’ mantle naturally, and as the right thing to do to pass on a legacy to the next generation. Now that sustainability has become such a commercial proposition, we now need to learn how to tell the world how responsible we have been for decades. Not as easy as it sounds when you must fight through the Kiwi modesty that is built into most of us.

When an email came through from one of New Zealand’s sustainability champions, Nigel Greening, to see if I would like to join him for a conference on climate change and wine, I thought “well here is chance to broadcast some of what we do in NZ” and so I immediately jumped at the chance. Hearing that Kofi Annan was going to be speaking just sweetened the deal as I knew we would hopefully get a good number of high quality media contacts that we could tell our story to. (The fact that it was in Marbella and I could spare a few days on leave at the same time was an added bonus.)

Our format was simple, set up a stand of wines (12 family owned wineries from New Zealand each with two wines each), representatives from Villa Maria and Felton Road stand behind it, then pour and talk for two days. You may think, how do you get 12 wineries to cooperate to get something like this to happen? Well, that is where the Family of Twelve came in. It is a simple group of quality minded, family owned New Zealand wineries that pool together resources. So even though we are small individually, together we can make a mark on the world stage - http://www.familyoftwelve.co.nz/

It was very much a stop-start day. Whenever a presentation or lecture was going on, the stand was relatively quiet. It gave us a chance to taste some wine and discuss sustainability with other exhibitors from Spain, Italy, and California. One thing that came through very strongly was that many other countries' wine industries have made a conscious decision to change what they do and ‘go green’ and while organisations like New Zealand Winegrowers (NZWG) have implemented a policy of only allowing certified sustainable wines to be entered in the Air NZ Wine Awards (NZ’s most prestigious show) or be exhibited at any NZWG event; the sheer scale of change that has happened in the vineyards in these other countries (as opposed to the small changes some vineyards needed to do in NZ) has meant they have so much to talk about!

A patron approached me to ask about ‘Fair Trade’ wines from New Zealand, having just been indoctrinated at another stand. After explaining that all New Zealand wine is fair trade as we do not have third world conditions or wages, this particular person was more confused than ever. From what I can gather they had heard that one particular brand has taken steps towards improving how they treat workers and suppliers and we have not.

Another similar story was a guest who asked if we had stopped adding acid to cover faults and instead leaving our wines more natural. We responded by saying that we never have, that New Zealand growing conditions naturally lend themselves to a wonderful acidity. I was greeted with a sceptical look and a nod to the quality of what was in the glass (Villa Maria Reserve Clifford Bay Sauvignon Blanc.) A mixed message that I took to be ‘you make wonderful wine but when you contradict what I have been told, you sound like a white shoed salesman’.

It was not all scepticism and mixed messages though. We did manage to get the message out to many, Nigel performed countless interviews with mostly Spanish press, and the quality of all the (NZ) wines on show was typically head and shoulders above the rest. I just know as a nation we could do better.

As a nation we have already taken so many steps in sustainability that we now take it for granted, and so it is harder to talk about. it is  not front of mind but in the subconscious. My personal take-away was to make a note at home of all the things Villa Maria was doing so that next time I am in the field I can be proactive in pushing sustainability instead of being a laid back Kiwi and assuming that every other wine producer has been just as responsible.

My message is to anyone else who sells NZ products or works for a NZ business. Do not be afraid to promote our green credentials. In this increasingly sustainability focused economic environment, our historical and contemporary environmental responsibility is our biggest asset. Use it.

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