Sustainable Viticulture: Trendy Buzzword or the Future of Farming?
Honeybee Hives at Highfield Estate Vineyard, Woodchurch
SWGB (Sustainable Wines of Great Britain) is an organisation that have created a new certification program for vineyards in the UK that want to be more sustainable. It set the minimum standard and best practices for improving wildlife habitats, promoting biodiversity, and reducing, reusing and recycling waste. It could also help us to combat climate change in the UK.
So what is so special about sustainable farming? Well, it requires us to consider the entire ecosystem under our stewardship—not just what we do on the piece of land directly cultivated. There are many approaches to eco-friendly farming, for example, organic, biodynamic and regenerative. For us at Wayfarer Wines, we aren’t against any of those approaches as they all make us think more deeply about what we are doing and how it impacts the environment. But for us, Sustainable Farming was the best fit. It felt like a good challenge – forcing us to go a step further and really think about the wider consequences of our activities on the entire eco system.
The main principles of sustainable viticulture are centred around soil health, estate conservation, reducing carbon footprint and reducing waste. This year we plan to introduce an area of wild flowers in our smaller, better established vineyard, which will not only improve soil health but can also sequester carbon dioxide. Longer term we aim to do this in our larger site too. Sustainable farming helps us to look at the the wider eco system and how we can support it - we have recently committed to promoting biodiversity by introducing honeybees to the vineyard – arguably this will not have a direct impact on crop or fruit quality (vines are self-pollinators unfortunately!) but they are fantastic for pollination of local flowers which form habitats for other wildlife, and for pollinating the crops we eat.
This month we are looking closely at calculating our carbon footprint and making steps to reduce it. We have also recently sourced a new supplier for all our packaging which we use to ship items online- its now 100% biodegradable, compostable and recyclable. It’s also made in the UK, which will help reduce our carbon footprint even further!
We are committed to working sustainably and will be working through the year to improve under the guidance of SWGB! If you are interested in learning more about our sustainability practices, I would recommend visiting us for a tour- come and see for yourselves!