TRAILBLAZER
find it had immediate backing . “ It ' s not just a nice certificate ,” says Symington . “ It ’ s a commitment to change how you see yourselves as an organisation . I was really pleasantly surprised that following a B Corp presentation to our group of 45 Senior Managers , our CEO Rupert Symington , agreed that B Corp was exactly the type of framework we should commit to , that we ’ ve been looking for .”
“ We ' re completely dependent on a stable climate and a healthy environment for our products ,” he says . “ The gods of wind , rain , sunshine , and temperature totally determine what we ' re able to do in our region . We are one of the drier wine producing regions and we have some particular challenges from our topography .”
The Douro Valley is home to over half of the world ’ s mountain vineyards and no company farms more mountain vineyard than Symington Family Estates . This leave them open to the risks from heatwaves and drought .
As part of efforts to stay on top of climate risks , the company has an R & D director monitoring two control vineyards planted at each end of the valley , which includes 53 different grape varieties and forms part of a multi-year study .
“ The idea is that we have an incredible indigenous bank of genetic material ,” says Symington . “ We believe some of these varietals [ these relate to a single type of grape ] have a much greater potential to withstand climatic changes .”
Survival is not the only criteria : “ Since 2013 we ’ ve been doing a microvinifications of each varietal every year : It ’ s obviously not just about resilience . If they produce bad wines , there ' s no point in banking on them .
“ We ' re looking for the sweet spot between resilience and quality . Some of these varietals have fallen out of favour because farmers will plant the crops that give them high yields , but that ' s no good in a future completely compromised and transformed by climate change .”
The company ’ s first formal paper on this work will come out shortly .
Symington hopes his work will spur more change in the wine industry : “ The wine trade as a whole is conservative . You do still have a bit of a dinosaur mindset where people see sustainability as a PR exercise . We ' re part of international
20 March 2022