Areni Live Analysis: Solving Wine’s Recruitment Problems

Of all the problems facing the global wine trade, none is more acute than the growing shortage of labour. If there are no vineyard workers, how will the wine trade meet the expectation of wine lovers that their fine wines are made from hand-picked grapes?

Raising wages won’t, by itself, solve the problem. Vineyard and winery work is rural and remote, far from cities full of career, financial and social opportunities, where the Wi-Fi is guaranteed to work.

What can the wine trade do to attract and retain talent, from winemakers to viticulturists, to wine tourism staff, to manual workers?

This July, Areni Live in Stellenbosch convened a round table of winemakers, sommeliers and journalists to hash out the problem. What follows is a summary of their thoughts.

As always, Areni Global discussions are held under Chatham House rules, where comments are not attributed.

ARENI Live is our annual think tank, held once each year in a different part of the globe. It gathers top minds to collectively think about the future of fine wine.