WHAT:

Structural changes in Luxembourg’s viticulture are progressing fast. The wineries are getting bigger and need well-trained specialists with specific skills. Many wine-growing businesses are often not continued by the younger generation due to financial reasons or high workload. According to some forecasts, the area under vines is declining, and thus so may the added value for the region, along with the social and cultural importance of viticulture in the Moselle valley. Sales of Luxembourg wines and crémants had been stagnating or even declining in traditional target markets – even before COVID-19. The political demands and other external pressures on the profession are increasing, whereas the acceptance of some working methods decreases in a society that moves further and further away from primary production. There are multiple committees and structures, sometimes doubling the work, but they lack common opinion-forming and coordinated representation of interests of individual group members of the winemaking profession.

A possible solution to many of these professional and socio-political challenges could be the creation of a multi-layered, powerful new advocacy structure for the winemaking professions, a ‘Comité des Vins et Crémants Luxembourgeois’. GAL Leader Miselerland has decided to strategically support the professional groups in creating this structure in a completely bottom-up participatory approach.

HOW:

As The Impact Lab we are in charge of the development of the overall strategy and the design of the methodology of this bottom-up participatory process. A project of this magnitude largely bases its legitimacy and therefore its sustainability on taking into account the ideas and opinions of the various stakeholders. Such high level of participation, necessary throughout the process, however, must be well-structured to guarantee the best possible outcomes of the project. Thus, our multi-layered approach consists of individual and collective interviews, creation of a support group with decisional power and a large crowdsourcing campaign to ensure that the needs, interests and ideas of the entire profession, from individual to institutional levels, are sufficiently considered throughout the process.

RESULT:

Although the project is still ongoing, it will be possible for representatives of the sector to soon make informed decisions as to the follow-up based on the real needs and ideas received from a large majority of stakeholders of the Luxemburgish wine sector.  By shaping the entire development process of the new structure in a participatory manner it will be possible to make space for new, promising and sustainable ideas, supported by the entire winemaking profession, that could permanently strengthen and influence the development of viticulture in Luxemburg.

Photos’ credits: www.ciel.lusortie-dans-les-vignesnggallerypage2