Cornell: Consumers Will Pay More for Climate-Adapted Wines
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- Cornell University researchers identified three climate-adaptation strategies for winegrape producers: installing shade cloth, growing new grape varieties, or relocating to cooler climates—and found consumers will pay more for wines made using any of them.
- Alex Susskind, co-author and professor of food and beverage management at Cornell's school of hotel administration, said a producer can make all the changes "but if they don't resonate well with consumers, then it's moot."
- Relocation showed the "least desirability" among the three options in the survey, though respondents still indicated willingness to pay extra for wines from relocated producers—even if a Napa Valley Cabernet becomes a Lake County Cabernet.
- Jimena Balic, a winemaking researcher based in Chile, called the economics of climate adaptation in wine "badly under-documented" and predicted adaptation would be implemented piecemeal rather than wholesale.
- Greg Jones, a wine climatologist and Oregon winery CEO, said the bigger challenge is consumer education around viticulture and climate impacts, adding: "We have a system where the consumer is hard to read."
- The study had notable limitations: only 300 surveyed participants, mostly college-educated respondents under 40 who reported caring about environmental issues and reading food labels—and it examined adaptation strategies only, not mitigation.
Why it matters: For winegrowers facing existential climate pressures—drought in Chile, wildfire smoke in California, frost in Champagne—the Cornell study puts real numbers behind the business case for adapting, showing consumer willingness to pay a premium even when regional branding changes. But with only 300 surveyed, mostly young label-readers, growers shouldn't treat this as a blank check—broader consumer education remains the open question.
