research: Climate Change is Reshaping Wine. Diversification Could Be the Industry's Greatest Opportunity.
Climate change is no longer a future challenge for winegrowers—it is a present-day reality. From changing growing seasons and increasing pest pressures to water shortages and shifting wine styles, viticulture is entering an era where resilience will depend on the ability to adapt.
New research led by Éiceo founder Michelle Barry, in collaboration with Lincoln University, the New Zealand Institute for Bioeconomy Science, and Market Economics, explores an important question: How can diversification help winegrowing systems adapt to climate change?
Published in Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, the study is one of the first to explicitly investigate how winegrowers themselves understand diversification—not simply as a collection of individual practices, but as a long-term strategy for climate adaptation.
Moving Beyond Business as Usual
The research focused on Marlborough, New Zealand, the country's largest wine-producing region and home to internationally renowned Sauvignon Blanc. While this specialisation has driven remarkable commercial success, it also creates vulnerability.
Climate change threatens many of the conditions that have made the region successful, including:
Increasing temperatures
Greater pest and disease pressure
Water scarcity
More frequent extreme weather events
Changes to grape development and wine style
Rising production costs and supply chain challenges
Rather than viewing these challenges solely as risks, participating winegrowers also identified climate change as an opportunity to rethink how vineyards are designed and managed.
One of the strongest themes to emerge from the research was a willingness to "change how we do things."
Diversification Is More Than Planting Different Grapes
Diversification is often reduced to conversations about introducing new grape varieties. This research found a much broader understanding emerging from industry stakeholders.
Winegrowers identified four major areas of diversification:
Agroecological practices
Cover crops
Native plantings
Shelter belts
Biological pest management
Practices that improve soil health and biodiversity
Plant material
Climate-adapted clones
Alternative rootstocks
New grape varieties better suited to future conditions
Alternative vineyard locations
Expanding into areas that may become climatically suitable
Developing new sub-regions and terroirs
Alternative crops
Integrating complementary crops into vineyard systems
Exploring new horticultural opportunities to improve resilience and diversify income
Together, these approaches create multiple pathways for adapting to changing climatic conditions while strengthening the ecological and economic resilience of vineyard systems.
Adaptation Is About More Than Climate
One of the most valuable insights from the study is that climate adaptation cannot be separated from wider business strategy.
Growers recognised that decisions about diversification are influenced not only by climate, but also by market demand, profitability, technology, labour availability and long-term business ambitions.
This suggests that successful adaptation will not come from isolated technical fixes. Instead, it requires integrated thinking that aligns environmental resilience with commercial success.
Collaboration Will Be Critical
The research also highlighted that diversification cannot happen in isolation.
Participants identified technology, research and collaboration as essential enablers of adaptation. They called for:
Better information to support long-term decision-making
Research into the performance of different varieties and vineyard systems under future climates
Greater collaboration across industry, science and government
Sharing knowledge between regions and internationally
Importantly, growers also saw an opportunity to communicate these efforts to consumers, positioning climate adaptation as part of Marlborough's evolving wine story.
From Incremental Change to Transformation
Many adaptation measures already being adopted by winegrowers—such as irrigation changes or canopy management—are valuable, but largely incremental.
The research argues that long-term resilience will require more transformational thinking.
Rather than relying on single adaptation measures, vineyards may need combinations of short-term actions that deliver immediate benefits alongside strategic investments in future vineyard locations, new plant material and redesigned production systems.
Diversification provides a framework for bringing these different approaches together.
Why This Matters
Climate change presents one of the greatest long-term challenges facing global agriculture.
This research demonstrates that growers are not simply waiting for solutions—they are already imagining new ways of farming that are more resilient, diverse and sustainable.
By placing winegrowers at the centre of the research process, the study provides practical insights into how adaptation strategies can better reflect industry needs while supporting future innovation.
Ultimately, diversification is not about abandoning what has made regions like Marlborough successful.
It is about building on that success—creating vineyard systems that are better equipped to thrive in an uncertain future.
Research citation
Barry, M., Wreford, A., Knook, J., Teixeira, E., Monge, J., & Parker, A. (2025). Diversification as a climate change adaptation strategy in viticulture systems: Winegrowers' insights from Marlborough, New Zealand. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 49(4), 494–517.
Photo credit New Zealand Winegrowers Inc, [Fromm Vineyard]
