Younger consumers aren’t engaging with it like their older peers, and are drinking less in general, but sustainably produced wine could change that. According to a 2019 Wine Intelligence consumer survey, sustainable wine had the highest future purchase consideration. And nine in 10 millennials said they’d be willing to pay more for it.
“Over the last decade, consumers have become more concerned with the provenance of their products, how they’re grown and what inputs are going into the ground to support their harvest,” said Sam Filler, executive director of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation (NYWGF).
To respond to this shift, Cornell experts are helping New York state wineries navigate new research, farming techniques, technologies and business trends to become leaders in sustainability.
Nearly 480 winemakers, grape growers, distributors, marketers, educators and others attended the seventh annual B.E.V. NY conference and symposium, Feb. 26-28 in Henrietta, New York. The event was organized by the Cornell University Enology Extension Laboratory, Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Finger Lakes Grape Program and the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management.
For Justine Vanden Heuvel, associate professor of viticulture at Cornell AgriTech, vineyard sustainability starts in the ground. She presented preliminary research and field studies on using fungal spores as biofertilizers, reporting that mycorrhizae – which are naturally symbiotic with grapevine roots – improve water and nutrient uptake and help prevent soil erosion. They are also known to increase plant resistance to disease and pests.
Other Cornell research is using light to create a more sustainable future. David Gadoury, senior research associate, leads an interdisciplinary research team that has successfully used ultraviolet light to control powdery mildew in grapes. This chemical-free method also seems to reduce the severity of sour rot in vignoles grapes, suppress mites and increase resistance to downy mildew.