A PROJECT to ensure Brown Family Wine Group will be sustainable in the future and minimise its impact on the planet has taken a major step forward, with the business having achieved Sustainable Winegrowing Australia (SWA) certification for a number of its vineyards and winemaking sites.
The business achieved certification for its Heathcote vineyard, two winemaking sites in Milawa and Launceston as well as all its Tasmanian vineyards, under the SWA scheme, Australia's national program for grapegrowers and winemakers.
The remaining company–owned vineyards at Milawa, Banksdale and Mystic Park are also set for certification by early next year.
The group's Victorian viticulture manager, Sean Dean, said the process began by becoming members of SWA about five years ago, deciding last year to be begin the certification process which involves conducting comprehensive audits on each of the selected sites.
"While we're busy with vintage at the moment, we'll continue with the certification process of the remaining sites as soon is it's finished," he said.
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"We plan to have all of our vineyards and wineries completely certified by January next year."
Mr Dean said the process involved reporting on energy and fuel usage as well as waste generated at each site, and while the existing systems captured this information, he believes they will now be in a better position to assess and improve their processes.
"It streamlined the process and made us more aware that if we wanted to continue to be certified under a program like this, we need to make sure we know what our scope one and two emissions are going forward," he said.
"Also, the more wine businesses that become certified, the better the benchmarking data, so you can see, for instance, what your power use is compared to someone else in a similar area.
"While it's not the main reason we did it, we see it as an advantage because we can see where we are and if where we need to look at making improvements."
Mr Dean said the drive behind achieving SWA certification was to understand the impact the business was having on the planet and to identify ways they could improve.
He said one of their discoveries related to reducing power consumption at Milawa and a 600kW solar system is about to be constructed on site which is expected to be operational by July this year, generating about 10 per cent of the site's electricity requirement.
The business has also decided to seek organic certification for its Heathcote vineyard and will cease use of synthetic herbicides, fertilisers and fungicides at the site.
"While SWA certification wasn't the driving force behind it, it encouraged us to look at softer means of farming such as organic methods, which would be challenging in some of our vineyards, but is achievable in Heathcote," said Mr Dean.
"Hopefully if we're successful in three years' time, we'll have an organically certified vineyard in the Heathcote wine region and be able to produce organic wines.
"We're confident enough to start with Heathcote, and if all goes well, we may look at other vineyards further down the track."
Mr Dean said the SWA certification process has also made them take a closer look at their waste production and what can be reused or recycled.
"This was a program we needed to get on board with," he said.
"Sustainable Winegrowing Australia has close to 1200 members (with 519 certified members) and it was important for us, as a medium sized wine business, to get involved.
"We also purchase a lot of fruit from grape growers throughout the King Valley and Victoria and because we are now certified, my next challenge is to try and get all of our grape suppliers to become involved.
"Because we've gone through the process, I'm in a better position to assist them in doing the same."
Mr Dean said the last growing season had been challenging, particularly in the North East, with above average rainfall and flooding experienced in October and November.
He said this year's yields will be slightly down on other years and the mild and dry summer meant a late start to vintage, but the fruit getting to ripen slowly has brought out its best.
"The quality of fruit in the vineyard is probably as good as I've seen it for a long time, with very little disease in the vineyard during the vintage period," he said.
"The slow ripening meant we got really exceptional colour in the reds, and good flavour in both reds and whites with beautiful, natural acidity, so the quality of the fruit has been exceptional."
