‘’Let nature do the fertilization.’’

Does this method make winemaking easier or harder in the long run?

In the early years of our journey through permaculture winemaking, we had our work cut out for us, since human intervention has been quite invasive and has hurt mother nature to a considerable degree. The use and abuse of fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides are only some of the factors that have led to this result, the subsequent weakening of nature’s power. For generations, the majority of the farming and agricultural population has thought of nature as something flawed in need of fixing through human intervention. What all this means is, in order to rewind all the damage our land had endured up to that point, a lot of hard work, time and effort had to be invested. That includes, but is not limited to, the detailed checking of our vineyard for any diseases every other day, and the decision to opt for manual labor, if and when possible, in order to avoid causing accidental harm to the coexisting wildlife.

When it comes to the vinification itself, all we can say with certainty is that the route we’ve decided to take is definitely the riskier one. The first rule we have is to throw away any grapes that aren’t 100% healthy upon inspection, which often leads to a significant reduction of the final output, when compared to conventionally run vineyards. In the next stage of production, the job is equally as demanding since we have to always keep an eye on the fermenting musts and the wines to make sure everything is running smoothly. Some of our tests to achieve that include tasting the produce to check for any issues that may have occurred, making sure the temperature of each tank is stable, as well as running regular lab tests to analyze the wine’s volatile acidity, and the microbe biomass (to keep the yeast population of the fermentation process within limits) etc

In conclusion, it is true that our chosen method of winemaking comes with some great obstacles we must overcome, however, we are optimistic about the future of this experience, and truly believe it will eventually become easier to juggle the responsibilities that come with it. Until then, one thing is for sure and that is that winemaking of this kind will continue to intrigue us more than anything else and we are willing to explore it through its hardships so that one day we can peacefully enjoy the fruits of our labor.