THE Granite Belt has continued its success with winery awards taking down one for sustainability.
Twisted Gum Wines near Ballandean recently returned from Queensland’s Premier’s Sustainability Awards and they didn’t come home empty handed, taking home the Small Business Award for sustainability.
A statement from the awards described the process that led to their win.
“Twisted Gum Wines near Ballandean has introduced a unique and innovative sustainable vineyard management system,” the statement said.
“This involved growing the vines in small blocks surrounded by native forest, without using irrigation, maintaining a permanent grass sward between rows, and spreading large amounts of mulch under vines.
“The system means there is no need for insecticides, and reduced chemical fertilisers, fungicides and herbicides.
“Energy requirements are reduced; there are improved water flows in the river system, reduced greenhouse gases, and improvements in biodiversity.”
Michelle Coelli accepted the award on behalf of the Coelli Family.
“This is just a fantastic result us and I do not think it has really sunk in yet,” Michelle said.
“It is a fabulous reward for all the hard work that we have put into the vineyard over the last eight years, since we converted it over from a traditional high input irrigated vineyard to a sustainable low input unirrigated vineyard, where we spread large amounts of mulch under vines, use no insecticides and minimise the use of other chemicals.
“When we first started we thought there would be lots of research and examples of other vineyards that we could learn from, but we were amazed that there was such a limited amount of information out there on the replacement of irrigation with mulch in vineyards – especially on granite soils in a summer dominant rainfall area like we have here in the Granite Belt.”
It continues success for the winery after they also received the award for the Best Small Cellar Door in the Granite Belt from Gourmet Traveller Wine Magazine and maintained their four Star rating in James Halliday’s Australian Wine Companion.
