A Leader in Sustainable Winegrowing Since 1994

Local Perinet Winemaker Antoni Sanchez-Ortiz notes how years of abandonment has lead nature reestablish its place among the vines, hazelnut, olives, and forest. To maintain this balance of nature and winemaking, the winery has established an ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) initiative.

The resource concentration hypothesis looks at how the advent of modern agriculture as monoculture created an environment where pests can grow faster because their resource, the crop, is more prevalent. Biodiversity is fundamental for pest management and Daniel Paredes, Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California Davis, in the department of Wildlife Fish and Conservation Biology, is studying how sustaining natural habitat around vineyards can increase biodiversity.

The What, When and How Much for Applying Key Nutrients. The goal of fertilization for any crop is to ensure the optimum levels of nutrients are available to the plant at key stages in the growth cycle. Balancing these factors is an art as well as a science. The first step is identifying what nutrients to apply. The second step is deciding how much fertilizer to apply. The third step is choosing the best time to make the application.

Mealybugs, especially the vine mealybug, excrete a white waxy substance in clusters that is unacceptable to wineries. They also excrete a sweet honeydew that is a substrate for black sooty mold. Black sooty mold covers the fruit and the rest of the vine with a black coating. In addition, mealybugs spread Grapevine Leafroll-associated Virus 3 (GLRaV-3). Between damage to fruit and vine decline from virus, the economic impacts of the pest are substantial.