Comments on: Fair Trade Wine’s Long Journey

By: Debra Danburg

Debra Danburg — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 02:46:59 +0000

We just enjoyed a bottle of Fairhills Malbec at Mother’s in Austin. Both the wine and the restaurant are recommended, and I’m a snob. – Debra Danburg

By: Kathy

Kathy — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 08:18:43 +0000

Another good story on the wine market trail.
As is often the case, what first catches on in the UK becomes a niche and perhaps then a real market in the US for wine.
Because the domestic wine market is so large in the US (vs UK…), fair trade wine has been much slower in catching on – as have South African wines, despite conversational support from political/social good post-apartheid perspectives.
With SA, certainly in the UK, another factor is focus on unique vineyard/vinelands biodiversity. This may create a strength in the US that is separate from fair trade given that the California wine/vine sustainability movement is growing fast within the wine trade.
Still, sustainability/biodiversity (which I think is different from organic or Demeter Biodynamic as a marketing concept) is still in infancy and tends to take a beating in the wine media as voluntary programs like California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance start to establish benchmarks and scores etc.. (Actually, I see rigorous self-assessment programs within the realm of international standards such as with TRIPS, ISO and OIV.)
Anyway, nice work, Mike.

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 14:40:45 +0000

I think the trouble probably still stems from the poor – or at least uneven – quality of organic wine when it first hit the market. Few people will make a consumer purchase simply on the basis of social good. Quality has to be there too. Although organic/biodynamically farmed wine has largely overcome its early quality issues, the poor impression still lingers and probably attaches itself to Fair Trade wine as well. Since Fair Trade coffee was always high-quality, it didn’t have to make that leap. Getting wide distribution on college campuses – one of the few places where people will make purchases based on social good – probably didn’t hurt either.