industry sustainability credentials drive wine …...vale grape and wine tourism association...

02/08/2019 McLaren Vale’s green credentials drive wine industry sustainability

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Picture: Duy Dash.

Sustainable Winegrowing Australia launched in Adelaide, South Australia, last week tobecome Australia’s national sustainability program for the grape and wine sector.

Developed by the Adelaide-based Australian Wine Research Institute and McLarenVale Grape and Wine Tourism Association (MVGWTA), the program consolidates

McLaren Vale’s greencredentials drive wineindustry sustainabilityPRIMARY INDUSTRIES

Lessons learned in one of Australia’s most sustainable grape growing regionsare being incorporated into a new national program aimed at making theAussie wine industry world’s best practice.

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several smaller regional initiatives under one national umbrella.

It builds on the previous Sustainable Australia Winegrowing (SAW) and EntwineAustralia programs.

SAW began in McLaren Vale in 2014 and was the result of a series of initiativesdeveloped by MVGWTA since the early 2000s.

When it closed to make way for the national program on June 30 it was being used tobenchmark more than 70 per cent of McLaren Vale’s grapes and had also beenadopted in other South Australian regions including the Barossa Valley, Adelaide Hillsand Clare Valley.

The SAW program assessed sustainability through the triple bottom line approach(environment, economics and social) and focused on continuous improvement of thegrower and the region’s results over time.

Seven assessment areas were developed:

1. Soil Health, Nutrition and Fertiliser Management2. Pest and Disease Management3. Biodiversity Management4. Water Management5. Waste Management6. Social Relations (workers, community and wineries)7. Economic Sustainability

Many of these SAW elements will be maintained in the national program and will beboosted by components of Entwine, the previous national program.

AWRI Senior Viticulturist Dr Mardi Longbottom is managing the new SustainableWinegrowing Australia program.

She said an independent review last year looked at international sustainabilityprograms and found that a uni�ed national program would take the previous systemfrom “world class” to “best in class”.

“There are very few united national programs in the wine industry – in Californiaalone there are �ve programs, in France there are several di�erent programs so a lotof them are fragmented like we were previously,” Dr Longbottom said.

“In the past 10 years we’ve had around 25-30 per cent of crush and vine area ourindustry covered by a national program (Entwine) but we’re looking to get much



closer to 80 per cent.

“This is all about managing resources in the most e�cient ways possible, it’s all aboutsustainability in its broadest sense, it’s not just environmental sustainability, it’seconomic sustainability and the two are intrinsically linked.”

Husband and wife team Melissa and Mike Brown are committed to sustainablewinemaking at Gemtree Wines.

The McLaren Vale region 40km south of Adelaide is home to 7324ha of vines andmore than 80 wineries. Its dry climate, lack of humidity and proximity to suburbanAdelaide has given it a sustainability edge, which it began developing in the 1990swhen it became Australia’s �rst wine region to self-impose water restrictions on itsunderground resources.

The subsequent introduction of the Willunga Basin Water Scheme in 1999, whererecycled wastewater is pumped from the Christies Beach treatment plant inAdelaide’s outer southern suburbs, has given growers access to more water andreduced the pressure on stressed groundwater resources and the River Murray. Thescheme now has a 120km network of pipes delivering treated wastewater to morethan 140 users to irrigate more than 2000ha of vines.

Gemtree Wines was one of the early users of the Willunga Basin Water Scheme andnow has it connected to almost all of its 123ha of its certi�ed organic biodynamicvineyards.

The winery takes its sustainability seriously. It has three separate solar energysystems to power its winery, cellar door and vineyards and has built its cellar door

https://gemtreewines.com/



using recycled materials.

Co-founder and viticulturist Melissa Brown said Gemtree opened its sustainablecellar door in 2013 as “a showpiece of how you can run a business without having ahuge impact on the environment”.

“There’s no concrete footings and it’s made out of timber and recycled materials – the�oor is recycled cork, the outdoor deck is recycled plastic and even the chairs aremade from recycled barrel staves,” she said.

“I view myself as a custodian of the land I’ve got at the moment and it’s myresponsibility to nurture that land and pass it on in better condition.

“If you don’t have that attitude I think there will be serious consequences because theenvironment is so important to everything we do right down to tourism.”

Gemtree has also spent two decades revegetating a 10ha section of its land near thecellar door with more than 50,000 native trees and shrubs and creating an eco-trail,picnic shelters and a public barbecue area. The winery has also begun using the trailto o�er “Wine and Wander” tours targeted mainly at Chinese visitors.

“We’ve now got some emus in there and we’re looking at setting up a koala enclosureto pre-release koalas back into the wild,” Brown said.

“The eco trail is something that no one else has in McLaren Vale attached to wine andwe know that wine and nature go really well together so we’re starting to promotethe tours because it’s a unique o�ering and it’s such a competitive market.”



Gemtree produces about 100,000 cases of wine a year, dominated by Shiraz.

About 40 per cent of its wine is exported, much of it to China.

The winery is among 14 sustainable South Australian wine businesses to be part ofthe recent Earthsip sustainable showcase along with several other McLaren Valewineries including Kay Brothers, the oldest winery in the region still in foundingfamily hands.

Alice Kay at the Pedler Creek revegetation site during the early days of the projectin 2012.

Established in 1890, Kay Brothers has had a long-term sustainability mindset and hasnot used pesticides in its 22ha vineyard for 40 years. It has also adopted manybiodynamic principals and is part of a lean manufacturing pilot project to increasee�ciency and reduce costs in its winery, which produces about 10,000 cases a year.

The winery has a 30kW solar system and has spent eight years removing feral olivesand replanting 3500 trees and shrubs along Pedler Creek, which runs along theeastern boundary of its Amery vineyard.

Kay Brothers General Manager Steven Todd said the McLaren Vale region was wellsuited to sustainable grape growing and winemaking because of low humidity, whichreduced disease pressure and the need for intensive spraying programs.



He said the SAW program was e�ective, simple to use and hoped it would become anasset to producers around Australia.

“It’s beautifully simple to understand and it gives you that step change whereby youcan see what you did and you can see where you can improve,” Todd said.

“You don’t get extra points for making good wine anymore because everyone is doingit.

“Now you need to make exceptional wine and have something else that the market�nds attractive and it’s the same with sustainability.

“We’re looking after the land because it needs looking after not because there’s any�nancial gain but because that’s what we should be doing.”

Known for its premium Shiraz and Grenache, McLaren Vale is Australia’s �fth largestwine region by value, producing grapes with an estimated value of $58 million in2019. It is home to several world-renowned brands including Hardys, Wirra Wirra andd’Arenberg.

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