Niche-Marketing Organic Wines: Ethical Dilemmas and the Importance of Stewardship as the Foundation of Sustainable Business

Wright Robertson of Glencoe is a vineyard, winery, cellar door and contract winemaking business located 18km south of Glen Innes on the New England Highway. It was established by Scott Wright in 1999 as a family business producing and marketing niche wines based primarily on their classification as certified organic products. It has provided Scott with interesting opportunities and challenges. In November 2010 he made the decision to desist with the businesses’ organic-producer classification, informing his wholesale customers of this decision in an email sent 12 November 2010. As he stated in that correspondence: ‘This is a decision that I have not come to lightly and I guess is really several years in the making’. In this paper he discusses his experience as an organic producer and niche marketer. While he will continue to use farming practices which are organically derived, rather than being organically certifiable, he nevertheless presents a justification for stewardship as the basis of the business into the future. Thought of as incorporating both financial and environmental sustainability, stewardship is now the core value of the business after his experience as a certified organic producer