Sustainability is an ever-ongoing priority for any wine business. There's alot of language associated with it, and the risk of green-washing of course, but fundamentally its about improving the health of the vineyard and overall business. Its a challenging balancing act that needs to plan years in advance whilst also meeting the needs of the season in which we find ourselves.
So we need to work together to find solutions to problems that once you ask around, many wineries are also facing. The sharing of knowledge and resources is something I have loved about the Australian wine industry since I came on board (officially) at Vinea Marson in 2017, so I was immediately in when Hugh Jones from Humis Vineyard wanted to develop a regional approach to compost application back in 2022. So we became involved in the Turning Green Waste into Wine program. An initiative of the Heathcote Winegrowers Association, funded through Sustainability Victoria's Recycled Organics Program that sought to remove cost and equipment barriers and protect biosecurity.
As one of 10 trial sites, we've completed our first application of 180 tonnes of recycled compost that comes from your green bins, via Biomix in Stanhope, and back into our vineyards. We were also delighted to host 100 viticulturists, vineyard managers and winemakers from Heathcote and a number of surrounding regions for a Field Day in May 2024 looking not only at compost application but also biodiversity and newer vineyard technology (Maggie the winedog did not take to the autonomous weeder). The keynote address from Torbreck's Chief Viticulturist Nigel Blieschke sharing data and feedback from almost 10 years of compost use was a highlight. So too showing Nigel the vineyard, especially our sangiovese plantings, as he was running the Yalumba nursery from which Mario sourced a number of clones back in 2000. We still have the faxes between the two plotting the sangiovese takeover!
Our second application will be made in October, where a similar volume of compost will be applied undervine, before a mix of coarser mulch and straw will be added on top.
Read more about the organic recycling compost program here.