REGENERATIVE FARMING

In over 30 years of grape farming, RVS believes that the future prosperity of Central Coast vineyards lies in regenerative land management. With the impacts of climate change to comes, we see it as the only way to create healthy and productive vineyards that can weather the challenges of the future.

Regenerative agriculture is a sustainable farming approach that works towards restoring the land and making it more resilient for the future. It's not organics, nor biodynamics (though either of those systems can be incorporated), but a way of unpicking some of the mistakes of the past by taking a holistic approach to managing the land. In other words, instead of trying to bend the natural world to our will, with regenerative farming we work with nature, focussing on aspects such as soil health and biodiversity to achieve a natural equilibrium between the vines and the land.

In a regenerative farming approach, every aspect of vine management is seen as interlinked (because in nature, it is!). It's about rehabilitating the vineyard land by increasing its biodiversity, improving the water cycle and enhancing the ecosystem. The methods are many and varied, but we favor simple, time-honored techniques such as using cover crops to strengthen and enrich the topsoil, then bringing in grazing animals (where possible) to harvest them. Their naturally fertilizing action increases the microbial activity and structure of the soil while simultaneously improving its water retention. Other simple techniques, such as spraying the vines with worm compost ‘tea', have similarly profound effects, boosting the health and vitality of the vines without the need for costly chemical fertilisers or labor-intensive tilling.

The really good news is, regeneratively farmed vineyards become much easier to manage! Once a healthy equilibrium is found, the need for constant spraying, reactive pest and weed controls, water shortage panics and emergency irrigation start to disappear. The vines become healthier and stronger, with deeper roots and improved fruit quality and yields. All of which ultimately makes being in the vineyard a more pleasant and rewarding experience.