Natural wines and their farming methods are becoming increasingly popular when it comes to wine making. As with any other industry, there is still a variety of fantastic bottles of wines, as well as the not so good ones. Planty is a man that first started to experiment with organic farming over 15 years ago, where he managed to make excellent developments that led to him earning the fruit after Grand Cry Sauternes Chateau Guiraud was awarded the Agriculture Biologique (AB) farming logo – France’s national logo for organic wine.
The 2011 vintage is the first grand cru Sauternes to carry the logo and is one of the few chateaux in the Bordeaux 1855 classification to be certified organic. The white wine – made from a mixture of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc grape has a tradition of being grown in the south-western French region, with production now involving no artificial pesticides, fertilisers or herbicides.
This is a huge development in France, especially with a backdrop of the drinks business Green Awards, showing that the drinks industry is continuing to take its environmental footprint seriously. He said that making his vineyard organic is a small part of his bigger thinking. “Taking the decision to conduct the vineyard of Chateau Guiraud in organic farming is par of a global philosophy. It was not difficult to take as I am very sensitive to all the questions dealing with nature and the environment. Technocally it was a daily challenge as we have o take great care of everything happening in the vineyard”.
In 1996, Planty decided to work different after his friend, who spent his whole life treating fields with chemicals had died of cancer. Progress was initially very slow, but he began to “regenerate the soil” with liquid manure and the flora and fauna began to flourish. This lead to an increase in insects, birds, and fauna in general, which then brought along new benefits and new challenges.
“It is actually the aim of choosing such an agricultural move. The more you have diversity in fauna and flora, the better the balance between the different species is going to work.”
An insect censur of Chateaux Guiraud’s 100 hectares of vineyards found 635 different varieties, which compares the the fewer than 200 varieties in “conventional” vineyards. Risks such as mildew are closely monitored and long range weather forecasts allow time to plan preventative treatments. French organic vineyards doubles between 2007 and 2012 and then increased again 28% between 2009 and 2010 to reach 50,268 hectares (124,214 acres). While Château Guiraud was the first Bordeaux grand cru to experiment with organic growing, Château Fonroque, a Saint-Emilion grand cru, was first to win the organic label in 2006.
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