Making it last

The term ‘sustainability’ is often bandied about in various industries; for wineries, the context of the word has morphed to include organic production, efficient and environmentally conscious viticultural practices and business sustainability for the marketplace.

Cullen Wines has been certified organic and has operated with biodynamic farming practices since 2003. Howard Park (ranked second on the WA Business News ‘Book of Lists’, see page 20) is also working towards sustainable viticulture practices and has adopted biodynamic methods under its Madfish Sideways label.

Wine Industry Association WA general manager Aymee Mastaglia says the resurgence in organic and biodynamic practices has been in response to the renewed interest in organic produce from consumers.

“We are hearing so much in the UK about food miles, how far has the food and wine travelled from paddock to table, it is only a matter of time before you hear that sort of thing in Australia as well,” she says.

Sustainable practices are a modern-day requirement and not only for the environmental benefits.

“Over the last few years there has been a real focus on production and ways to minimise cost, that is not only costs to people’s pockets but also to the environment,” Ms Mastaglia says.

WIAWA is focused on sustainability for the industry, and has based its support on the demands of the industry.

“We are looking at opportunities for wineries to become more sustainable, we are doing a series of energy and water audits to make sure they are using their energy and water allocations as efficiently and effectively as possible,” she says.

“The whole method behind our madness with energy efficiency, sustainability, organics, biodynamics and water efficiency is creating the best product that we can.”

One of the three WA wineries taking part in the energy audits, funded by the Grape Wine Research Development Corporation and managed by WIAWA, is Ferngrove (ranked third on the ‘Book of Lists’).

The audit concluded that wineries such as Ferngrove can make improvements to their sustainability and bottom line by engaging in three levels of change – behavioural, general maintenance and long-term action.

“Sub-metering of major energy-use items, benchmarking energy use and setting achievable energy reduction targets are important aspects to a sustainable, continuous improvement program and improving your bottom-line savings,” the report says.

The economics of winemaking is clearly a driving force in the focus on sustainability.

The Yard Wine Company’s founder, Larry Cherubino, believes the costs of production and the pressure from the top of the supply chain are driving the need to engage in efficient and sustainable practices. “Production is only going to get more expensive. The cost of shipping is only the tip of the iceberg,” he says.

Fogarty Wine Group proprietor Peter Fogarty agreed, saying there are multiple reasons sustainability is in vogue.

“Our power costs have gone up across the board, most businesses have seen a 30 per cent increase in power costs, if you can’t sell your wine for more, you have to be efficient in the way you run your operations,” he says.

“I think a lot of work in vineyards nowadays is focused on using less and less machinery if you can, and less use of sprays that are harmful. Several of our vineyards, they are not organic and certainly not biodynamic, but we run them as efficiently as we can using as little spray as possible.”