Biodiversity
We were thrilled to achieved our Sustainable Winegrowing Australia certification which acknowledges our approach to management in the vineyard and winery. This certification is recognition for our long-standing commitment to making wine ‘the right way’ and our mantra to ‘farm in nature’s image’.
In addition to what we have always practiced, we have progressed a number of amazing biodiversity-led projects this year:
- The ‘Wine and Bat’ study;
- Bees hives; and
- A partnership with Euroa Arboretum to grow insectariums and seed orchards.
Wine and Bats
Did you know that we have masses of microbats in the Strathbogies?
In partnership with the University of New England, and two talented PhDs, we have established the most comprehensive bat study of its kind anywhere in the world!
In short, microbats can eat an extraordinary number of insects (equivalent to their bodyweight every day). Unwanted insects can very quickly damage the vines. If we can support the microbats to eat the unwanted insects, then we wont have the same pressure in the vineyard and should expect better yields of pristine fruit.
Bee hives
We have introduced an army of bees into the vineyard. This army helps pollinate all plants around the vineyard and farm, from the cover crops in the rows of vines, to the fruit trees at home, not to mention the grapevines where they can boost yield by pollinating more flowers than would otherwise be done by wind. Oh, and they provide honey to our restaurant too! We absolutely love having the bees around – a great sense of comfort comes from knowing they are there, working alongside us…
Euroa Arboretum
What is an Arboretum? An arboretum is a special place where plants (everything from grasses to trees) are propagated to help preserve and promote local flora. In the case of the Euroa Arboretum, it focuses on plant species that are native to our region and helps build seed banks for landscape restoration.
We have partnered with the Euroa Arboretum to grow insectariums in the vineyard that double as seed orchards for the team at the arboretum. The benefit to our vineyard and farm is the insectariums support a broad array of insect life – both pollinator and predator insects – to provide balance throughout our local ecology. The benefit to the Euroa Arboretum is that their teams can come and harvest the seed we grow to help build their seed banks for support landscape restoration.
We are very proud of the ground we are making with our biodiversity initiatives. These will help us make better wine, support our local ecology, support our regional biodiversity and help leave our farm better than when we found it.