Marketing Opportunities for Small-scale Organic Wine Producers in Slovenia: Proposing a Wine Cluster Model

The organic wine sector provides high quality artisan products as well as public goods and services and is gaining an importance in a global context. As such, this approach to wine production is seen as a potentially significant source of economic development and an initiator of change in local, rural areas. However, despite recent growing public and scientific interest in alternative approaches farming, organic wine production is still poorly researched.

This thesis focuses on examining the characteristics, challenges, and goals of the organic wine sector in Slovenia through the eyes of ten participant winemakers. Each participant winemaker is a small-scale organic producer that is a member of a “cluster.” The study’s participants’ responses indicate that while clustering presents an important marketing aspect for organic wine producers in Slovenia, the current clustering practice utilized by winemakers is ineffective. One of the biggest barriers that prevent organic winemakers to cluster is the sheer diversity of production approaches that they are practicing. Understanding of organic wine sector is rather simplistic and assumes that different approaches like organic, biodynamic and natural all fall under the same name “organic”. This heterogeneity creates fracturing within the organic wine community: winemakers who practice different production approaches are not motivated to collaborate with others whose approaches differ. This problem is compounded by the fact that there are lax certification and regulation standards for organic wines, thus allowing broad discrepancies in the qualities of wines and cause value loss. The conclusions of this study suggest that Slovenian organic wine sector requires careful attention in order to understand the complex nature of different production approaches and enhance the future development.

This study of the wine cluster model and its application will contribute to further research on agriculture clusters. It will also set a good example for other wine growing regions where small-scale wine production could be perceived as a niche marketing opportunity instead of a frustrating barrier.