Domaine Mirabeau, a regeneratively farmed B Corp wine estate in Provence, has become France’s first vineyard to achieve Regenerative Organic Certified® (ROC™) status. The domaine is owned by Stephen and Jeany Cronk of Maison Mirabeau and the certification makes Domaine Mirabeau La Réserve Rosé one of the world’s first officially certified regenerative wines.
ROC™ is one of the most stringent agricultural certifications, going above and beyond USDA and Ecocert Certified Organic standards by building regenerative principles over a mandatory organic baseline. The framework is overseen by the nonprofit Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROA) and assesses the full farm ecosystem across three pillars: animal welfare, social fairness and soil health. The Cronks pursued the certification to promote transparency in the regenerative space and build a foundation for their long-term plans to certify Maison Mirabeau’s partner growers.
Stephen Cronk, owner of Domaine Mirabeau and co-founder of the Regenerative Viticulture Foundation (RVF), a UK-based global charity that supports wine producers wishing to farm regeneratively, said: “In the wine industry, the importance we place on terroir must always be reflected in the way we treat our vineyards. When we bought Domaine Mirabeau in 2019, we found soils decimated by intensive farming and this served as an enormous wake up call for us. We realised we needed to find a path to rebuild a broken system, reclaim lost habitat and restore our soils, which is when our regenerative journey began.
“The overwhelmingly positive impact of our efforts, including increasing biological soil activity by a staggering 10 times since 2021, motivated us to think bigger. Certifying with ROC™ supports our aims to promote global awareness of regenerative principles, bring those principles into our wider supply chain and communicate their benefits to consumers in a transparent, ‘official’ manner. It is a key step in a longer journey that will take our regenerative ambitions far beyond Domaine Mirabeau.”
While regenerative certifications are a relatively recent phenomenon, with ROC™ established in 2017, they are expected to become increasingly sought after as regenerative agriculture (RA) continues to make significant breakthroughs in the public consciousness.
“The emerging science behind soil health has revolutionised our understanding of farming’s capacity to mitigate climate change and enhance biodiversity while increasing the quality of our crops,” said Elizabeth Whitlow, Founding Executive Director of the Regenerative Organic Alliance. “While the definition of ‘regenerative’ is still open to interpretation, the Regenerative Organic Certified® programme offers the gold standard for wine grapes, starting with a baseline of best practices from EU Organic, Fair Trade and Animal Welfare standards. Maison Mirabeau leads the pack as the first-ever ROC™ vineyard in France.”
The regenerative movement took an important step into the mainstream when it featured in the latest series of Clarkson’s Farm, aired in May this year, through an appearance by Andy Cato and George Lamb of Wildfarmed. The California Department of Food & Agriculture (CDFA) is in the process of legally defining the term ‘regenerative’ for the first time and RA is finding significant allies within the FMCG category, where it is the foundation of recently launched campaigns from Waitrose, Nestlé, Diageo, Unilever, Yeo Valley and Whole Foods.
Pierpaolo Petrassi, Head of Beer, Wine and Spirits at Waitrose, said: “Congratulations to Domaine Mirabeau on becoming France’s first vineyard to achieve Regenerative Organic Certified® (ROC™) status. In May, we highlighted our commitment at Waitrose to supporting more farmers to move to nature-friendly farming practices, helping to boost financial resilience of farms in the long-term and combat the effects of climate change. We look forward to continuing to work with Domaine Mirabeau on this exciting journey. “
Wine producers rallying to the regenerative cause include regenerative viticulture (RV) pioneers Tablas Creek, Neal Family Vineyards, Robert Hall Winery, Bonterra and Domaine Bousquet as well as some of the larger wine groups including the Perrin Family, Jackson Family Wines and Moët Hennessy. These producers are now joined by hundreds of other wineries at varying stages of their RV journeys. During its beta testing stage alone, the RVF’s online RV Guide was accessed by 173 individuals who registered 110 vineyards in the map.
Stephen Cronk concluded: “I believe there is an increasing number of ‘conscious consumers’ who will demand products that do their part to heal the planet. As the term ‘regenerative’ becomes more commonplace over the next few years, consumers will want to trust a product’s claim that it has been farmed regeneratively, hence us certifying our vineyard. The regenerative movement provides farmers an opportunity to do something positive to address some of the challenges around the environment and climate change, and we believe that the regenerative movement is on a roll now. One day, I hope all vineyards will be farmed this way.”
Pictured: Stephen Cronk
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