Million Air Summer 2021

etr li at ve eler SUMMER 2021 127

Three new projects

CHÊNE BLEU In the foothills of Mont Ventoux in southern France, in a pristine Unesco biosphere reserve, you’ll find award-winning winery Chêne Bleu. It was an abandoned estate when committed conservationist Xavier Rolet (once the London Stock Exchange’s CEO) took it on, then spent 15 years restoring it with his wife, Nicole, and his wine-growing sister and brother-in-law. No toxic chemicals were used in the vineyard, now farmed organically and biodynamically. They planted a half-hectare bamboo forest behind the winery to filter wastewater naturally, part of their zero-impact plan. But with Sustaina-BEE-lity, or Beehives for Biodiversity, they hope to involve other winemakers. The project began with a 2019 crowdfunding campaign for research into bees and wines with renowned bee and soil experts to answer this question: Could bees help make vines more resilient, make better wine, enhance nature, improve profits and decrease long-term risks? As a teen, Xavier Rolet became interested in beekeeping and set up hives near a Chêne Bleu old grenache vineyard. When some parts of it started to thrive, with higher yields, the team noticed cover crops between the rows were plusher, too. Winemakers encourage wildflowers and other plants to grow between rows because they help soil retain water and increase microbes that keep it healthy. Bees seem to help expand the biodiversity of this delicate ecosystem. Could they help wineries shift more quickly to organic viticulture, with less cost? The Rolets hope so. Pesticides are to blame for the worrying decline in bee populations worldwide, so this idea may help save the bees, too. So far, a number of wineries have expressed interest in joining. chenebleu.com

THE PORTO PROTOCOL In Portugal’s Douro Valley, Adrian Bridge, CEO of The Fladgate Partnership of port brands and tourism initiatives, admits he’s focused and driven, and thrives on challenges. He’s been a successful investment banker; climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and a peak in Antarctica; expanded Taylor’s Port into an empire of great port houses, award-winning hotels and restaurants; and debuted World of Wine, an ambitious tourism project in Porto. In the past three years, he’s taken on climate change in a big, dramatic way, by pulling wineries and industry players together and urging them to make great contributions toward finding practical solutions. His first step, in 2018, was a Climate Change Porto Leadership Summit that featured former US President Barack Obama, followed by another in 2019. The outcome from these conferences is an even more important action: an international nonprofit organization, The Porto Protocol. It hosts an online platform that is really a virtual think tank on sustainability, illustrating why collaboration is so important in finding solutions. In one accessible spot, the site brings together news, research, inspiring ideas, resources and regular climate talks. It’s a place winemakers can turn to for the latest information on everything from Frugalpac paper bottles to the Symington Port family’s rewilding projects to how New Zealand wine producer 3sixty2 achieved carbon positive status. The protocol’s members share their own experiments and how they’ve worked. Already the organization is highly successful, with hundreds of corporate and individual members signing on to the Letter of Principles, and it will surely grow even more important in the future. fladgatepartnership.com

TABLAS CREEK At eco-friendly Tablas Creek winery, in California’s Paso Robles region, owls zap vine-root-eating gophers, chickens gobble up destructive insects, and black-faced sheep chow down on the weeds between rows of vines, pausing from time to time to fertilize the soil. The idea, explains partner and general manager Jason Haas, is to make a wine estate an ecosystem. Recently he expanded his vision of what that means through regenerative farming, the latest wine buzzword. The Regenerative Organic Alliance invited Tablas Creek to participate in its three-year pilot certification program that ended last summer. It was the only winery among the participants. The idea of the organization is to reform agriculture to fight climate change. Tablas Creek had been certified organic and biodynamic for decades but regenerative farming, says Haas, also includes not tilling the earth between the vine rows, to capture carbon in the soil instead of releasing it into the atmosphere. The two other farming ‘pillars’ are animal welfare and social fairness — not just paying workers a decent wage and providing good working conditions, but also involving the farming crew in decision-making. Last year, Tablas Creek became the first Regenerative Organic Certified winery in the world, and more are now in the application process. ROC, predicts Haas, is going to be the gold standard of certifications for agriculture around the world in the future. “We have to farm like the world depends upon it to repair a damaged planet.” The payoff for wine lovers is more complex reds and whites that you can feel good about drinking. tablascreek.com

Photo The Fladgate Partnership