Kent supporting UK regenerative viticulture industry

Leading researchers in the field of regenerative viticulture met with viticulturists and wine makers for a research and development day at the University’s Canterbury campus.

The day brought together scientists from the School of Biosciences with a variety of stakeholders from the UK wine industry and focussed on the journey to regenerative growing and more sustainable production.

Speakers came from the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Greenwich, Canterbury Christ Church University, the Royal Agricultural University and the University of Kent, as well as industry including Re-Generation Earth, Trinity Agtech, and The Regenerative Viticulture Foundation.

The day was organised by Biosciences’s Dr Lori Fisher, Industry Research Fellow in Agri-Biotechnology. She spoke about the importance of the UK’s wine industry to the economy, saying: ‘The overall revenue of the UK wine market following the pandemic is showing signs of recovery and is predicted to return to 2018 levels (£19.49 billion) by 2025 but to do this the sector requires support to strengthen its unique selling points.

‘With the recent change in the age demographic drinking wine, and a stronger emphasis on wines making using regenerative or sustainable packaging, the University of Kent is working with peers at Canterbury Christ Church University, the University of Greenwich’s Natural Resources Institute, and the Royal Agricultural University to develop research projects and programmes designed to support British wine as a renowned leader in sustainable wine production.’

Providing a forum for discussion and sharing best practice, the event aimed to help professionals looking to evidence their success and share management practises to improve circular resource efficiency and boost the bioeconomy.

Sessions focussed on regenerative viticulture, soil health and enhancing biodiversity, biorefining, sustainable packaging, and lifecycle analysis.

Dr Fisher added: ‘Our recent regenerative viticulture and sustainable wine production day allowed us to share the research we have been involved in, but it also gave us an opportunity to hear from UK wine stakeholders.

‘We were thrilled by how much feedback we received, and it has given us an opportunity to tailor projects around their needs. For example, alternative packaging formats such as canned wine and light weight glass have made big leaps forward, with the potential to hugely reduce the sector’s carbon footprint, but there are still gaps in the research as to how different materials effect different types of wine, we look forward to working with individual wine producers to investigate the impact on their specific product.’

To find out more about working with our researchers in this field email growingbiotech@kent.ac.uk.