World Environment Day is June 5, 2014. While we tend to think ‘solar energy’ and ‘recycling’ when it comes to making our earth a greener place, there are local wine estates that are taking great green strides in the vineyards.
Lomond: Repairing the Land and Righting Rivers
Lomond viticulturalist Wayne Gabb made a personal pact to keep the viticulture at Lomond as “clean and green” as possible and to maintain the farm’s abundant biodiversity by setting aside 750 ha for conservation (only 350 ha are allocated for vineyards). It’s an attitude to farming that has earned Lomond membership to the BWI and the Walker Bay Fynbos Conservancy as well as awards for outstanding wine.
What are the brass tacks of Lomond’s approach? It is things like giving life to the soil by inoculating it with micro-organisms to increase organic matter, which creates an environment that promotes the self-induced resistance of plants to disease. And, a predator release programme that uses naturally prevalent predators like hadedas and guinea fowl to keep insects under control, and perches for peregrine falcons and steppe buzzards, which prey on smaller grape-eating birds.
On a larger scale, Lomond worked with Cape Nature and the Department of Water Affairs to restore the natural flow of the Uilenskraal River. Not only did this rehabilitate the riparian environment, increasing sustainable breeding of invertebrates, but water that previously ran into the sea was redirected into a 6 million cubic metre dam on the farm. The dam serves the irrigation needs of the farm as well as the local communities of De Kelders and Gansbaai via the local council’s water purification works.
Gabb, who studied science at the University of Cape Town, also runs a business that provides organic interventions for all types of farming and home gardening, including nutrients, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, fertilisers and composting. “Lomond provided the motivation to develop these products so we could minimise impact on our environment. It’s an eco-motivated approach but it seems to bring out the very best in our wines,” said Gabb.
