Wine buyers form Regenerative Accelerator Group to support vineyard transition

Leading wine buyers from the UK, EU and US announced at the Sustainability in Drinks conference that they were joining forces to help more growers move toward regenerative farming. The initiative is called the Regenerative Accelerator Group.¹

The group includes founding signatories such as Berry Bros. & Rudd, The Wine Society, Waitrose, Levy UK & Ireland, Systembolaget, Total Wine & More, Erewhon and Haggen. The organizations represent wine and spirits retail, a consumer cooperative, supermarkets, catering and grocery businesses in Europe and the US.¹

Building demand for regenerative wine

The Regenerative Viticulture Foundation launched the group to give growers greater confidence that wines produced after a transition to regenerative practices will find buyers. The initiative also supports the foundation’s objective of having 10% of the world’s vineyards farmed regeneratively by 2035.¹

RVF co-founder and trustee Steven Cronk said producers already face substantial information and cost demands. He described the initiative as a way for them to communicate their work without creating further complexity and said the foundation believes more consumers are paying attention to how food and wine are farmed.¹

Cronk said early-moving buyers could gain a competitive advantage while helping growers begin or continue their transition. Cooperation among buyers, he added, turns that ambition into a shared objective that the participants can now work to implement.¹

Targets, data and shared criteria

Each participating buyer will work with the foundation to set a target suited to its business, share data and report its progress. Founding signatories have also committed to developing demand for wines from regeneratively managed vineyards, contributing their expertise to the programme and helping provide resources for the RVF’s implementation work.¹

From November, the foundation plans to work with buyers, growers and experts to define what qualifies as a regenerative wine, establish each business’s starting position and create a consistent method for measuring progress against individual commitments.¹

Implementation is scheduled to start in 2027, when resources will be produced and shared. After the founding signatories support the programme’s development, the Regenerative Accelerator Group intends to invite interest from additional buyers.¹