Professor Maggie Delmas refers to most of us as “convenient environmentalists” – that is, our self-interest is still the number one priority when making environmentally positive consumption decisions.

In other words we buy wine because it tastes good to us primarily, and it’s a great bonus if it was also grown and distributed in a way that benefits the environment.

Professor Delmas’s book is called The Green Bundle, Pairing the Market With The Planet, and it’s a must read for anyone trying to sell any environmentally friendly products, including wine. It’s as much a book about human psychology, as it is a deep study of marketing, branding, and consumer motivation in relation to green products.

But that’s not all. Professor Delmas has just written a paper on multiple studies she conducted comparing the scores – by the most prominent critics in France and California – of over 200,000 wines over a 20 year period.

The results? Certified Biodynamic and Organic Wine tastes better. 

That’s right – Biodynamic and Organically grown wines have received statistically significantly higher scores than conventionally grown wine across the last two decades. And this is the most comprehensive and conclusive study of its kind that I’m aware of.

I hope you enjoy this interview with Professor Maggie Delmas, Professor of Management at the Institute of Environment and Sustainability at UCLA and the Anderson School of Management. Here is a link to her study of critical scores showing that certified Biodynamic and Organic wine tastes better:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800921000112?dgcid=author

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