Vineyard Sustainability
We at Browne Family Vineyards understand the importance of preserving Mother Earth as well as listening to our consumers. In addition to the important work we are doing through the Forest Project to support reforestation with our partners One Tree Planted, sustainability in our vineyards is of huge importance to us. Director of Vineyards Operations, Dustin Tobin is responsible for overseeing Browne Family Vineyards’ sustainability programs. All great wines start in the vineyard, in the productive soil that the land has so graciously provided us. Although we may not farm organically or have any certifications, it is our promise to you that we are farming in the most sustainable fashion for our growing environment without compromising the health and wellbeing of you the consumer, our dedicated and hardworking employees and most importantly Planet Earth.
Just like organic farmers, we take great precautions when selecting our products that will be applied throughout the growing season. We do not want to use anything that could potentially cause harm to the precious and fragile environment. We understand that we need to conserve the fertile soil that our grapevines are planted in. If we treat these soils safely and with love they will provide us with the much needed foundation to continue growing healthy vines and producing world class grapes for years to come.
Most recently the major focus has been on herbicide use. Just last year we purchased a weed cultivator that we now use regularly. This has helped us to reduce our herbicide inputs by over 90%. This cultivator has also provided us with a couple of added benefits that we didn’t know we would get when we purchased this. The use of this weed cultivator has also allowed us to be more efficient in our irrigation applications. The cultivator flattens out naturally occurring hills that occur under the vines. By flattening these hills it allows the water to go where it is needed instead of running down the hill. It also breaks up and loosens the hard compact dirt allowing the water to infiltrate at a much more rapid rate without losing it to evaporation which allows us to use much less water. Most importantly we have removed the use of glyphosate out of our herbicide program. Our goal is to be 95% herbicide free in the next couple of years.
The safety of our employees and consumers is of top priority at Browne Family Vineyards. We know that we must preserve our fragile and giving Earth in order to provide you, our valued customers with high quality wine for years to come! This is why we practice sustainability in everything we do in our estate vineyard. So when you drink a beautiful estate grown wine please know, you are drinking a wine from a vineyard where keeping the soil and vines happy and healthy is our everyday practice.
