In a bid to enhance wine quality, improve working conditions, and increase the vine’s resilience to extreme weather, one high-end Argentine wine estate is not only going organic, but planting trees and ditching the tilling.
News of the development was announced at last month’s Wine Paris by Doña Paula’s consultant wine director, Cristobel ‘Toti’ Undurraga, who was appointed by the Argentine producer in December to work alongside Martin Kaiser, who is full-time director of viticulture and winemaking. Undurraga, who met with db at the trade fair on 13 February, said that Doña Paula had started the certification process for organic viticulture in January this year, but was going further, with a planting programme to re-instate native vegetation at the producer’s top vineyards, while also adopting ‘regenerative’ practices. The latter refers to a decision to increase the amount of microbiological life and carbon in vineyard soils by ensuring the ground is permanently covered with vegetation, which also means leaving it undisturbed – regenerative agriculture generally sees an end to turning or ploughing the soil. Explaining the changes taking place at Doña Paula, Undurraga told db that the moves were being made to help the winery realise its full potential, above all at its best vineyards, which are based in the Uco Valley, in particular the sub-regions of Gualtallary and Altamira. Commenting that Doña Paula was a “pioneer” with its Malbec planting in 2006 of Los Indios in the latter Uco sub-region, he said that new vineyard management techniques would bring even better
This Article was originally published on The Drink Business - Wine
