News | Coal Pit Wines

Three days in Marlborough. Dozens of speakers. Hundreds of growers, makers, scientists, and storytellers all gathered to dig deep into what it means to grow with intention.  

The 2025 Organic & Biodynamic Winegrowing Conference invited us to ask harder questions, listen more closely, and stretch our definitions of what it means to grow grapes, yes, but also systems, communities, futures.

We began with a mihi, a gesture of welcome and respect, and moved swiftly into deep waters: the roots of regenerative certification, economic benchmarking, the moral logic of organic branding. Dr André Leu reminded us that integrity begins long before the label. Rajat Parr spoke of growing with purpose, not pressure. Jeremy Hyland shared how mindset, more than machinery, is what transforms a vineyard. Panels pulsed with real-world tension, how to do better, how to afford it, how to persist.

Day Two grounded us even deeper. We followed Peter Espie, Mark Krasnow, and Charles Medfield into the invisible architecture of soil systems and root-to-fruit dynamics. We moved across aquifers and irrigation lines with Mike Joy, Charlotte Tomlinson, Peter Davidson, and Ian Trousdell,  voices that challenged us to consider water not as a resource, but as relationship. Marta Mendonça brought a global lens with the Porto Protocol, reminding us that every drop, and every decision, echoes further than we know.

And then, the shift. We stepped sideways into stories: Katia Nussbaum from Montalcino with her tapestry of vine, philosophy, and eco-literacy. Stephen Wong MW asked us to remember that wine is not a product, but a conversation. Rajat Parr returned, this time not with a résumé, but a reverence for the wild, coastal experiment that is Phelan Farm. We ended the night with the Matariki Organic Feast, seated together with sparkling glasses and stars overhead.

By Day Three we spoke of AI and hybrid vines, but also of packaging futures, native insects, consciousness in the vineyard, and the possibility of awakening not just in the land, but in ourselves.

This conference did not offer easy answers. But it did offer something rarer: a space of brave thinking, considered action, and collective remembering.

That wine, at its best, is not just grown. It is stewarded. It is shared. And it is sacred.