Sustainability

Accredited vineyard and winery member of Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand®

- Liquid waste treated through wetland
- Solid waste composted
- Kitchen waste worm farm
- All glass, paper, plastics, packaging etc recycled
- Applying for CarboNZero
- Researching alternative energy sources, Bio-Diesel, solar etcVINEYARD

VINEYARD
Amisfield is an accredited member of the New Zealand Winegrowers Sustainable winegrowing program. This is a quality management system that defines all viticulture practices and scores them in terms of environmental sustainability. This allows us to grow all our produce to the highest quality standard while maintaining the lowest impact on the environment.

"Working with nature, not against it" is the motto at the Amisfield Vineyard, this means among other things, planting native species of plants inter row to encourage the types of bugs that eat, the bugs we don't want! Our South African born vineyard manager Andre Lategan introduced a rasp of Guinea Fowl back in 2004 and these are now flourishing in the vineyard, taking care of the horrid grass grub, eliminating the need to spray and from time to time, they make for a tasty treat!

But probably the biggest feather in the vineyards cap is the purpose built wetland area behind the winery. This wetland is responsible for keeping all the water we use on a loop, feeding the waste water from the winery into tanks then through bug banks and cells that filter the water over time before it comes to rest in a pond. As an environmental indicator frogs have been introduced to the pond to ensure its purity before this water is used to irrigate the vines and shelter belts.
All the marc (skins and stalks) are composted on an aerated concrete pad, using worms and the natural breakdown process, the generous supply of oxygen ensures this is a quick turnaround that can handle the waste over around 600Tonnes of fruit in a season. This composting is being used to claim back soil on a depleted block of land.

WINERY
All fruit is hand harvested, then gravity fed into tanks off the specially built crush pad, which sits above the presses and tanks. Our barrel hall is temperature controlled by being buried underground to limit thermal loading and protect from the harsh winter conditions, no air conditioning needed here! Chemical use in the winery is limited, instead we use hot and high pressure water blasters to clean barrels, most surfaces and tanks.

COMPANY
The company philosophy has three fundamental tenets, Quality, Economy and Sustainability. From the outset we had the environment foremost in our minds and included features such as gravity flow, energy efficiency and recyclable waste stream management in order to reduce our environmental footprint. Our composting process and wetland system has set a new benchmark for industry best practice and, in conjunction with the regional authority, will become the standard for the future. The quality management systems established ensure that we continually seek new and more innovative ways of making better wine with less impact on our environment.