DE BORTOLI ENVIRONMENT INITIATIVES – WATER MANAGEMENT

Water has always been a precious commodity in Australia, the driest continent on the    planet. An extended, record-breaking drought, changes to the weather patterns     attributed to global warming, a growing population and serious problems with salinity and river degradation have made the efficient management and use of water resources not just responsible but imperative.

Over the past six years, De Bortoli Wines have been trialling and implementing a whole range of water saving and recycling initiatives across all our vineyards and wineries that have seen a significant reduction in the amount of water we use. These water management initiatives are an important part of our family philosophy of leaving a sustainable legacy for future generations.

At our winery in Bilbul, New South Wales, there have been numerous changes made to reduce our water usage ranging from major equipment upgrades to simply changing some of our winery practices.
 
The upgrading of our Bilbul wastewater treatment facility has been one of our major environmental (and economic) success stories. The new low energy aeration facility has seen a dramatic reduction of 90% in the amount of energy used to treat wastewater (a saving of more than $200 000 per year in electricity). Early in the redesign process of the wastewater treatment facility, we identified sodium salinity as a major environmental threat and so chose to remove all sodium-based chemicals from production. The removal of sodium has meant that most of the winery’s wastewater can now be used to irrigate the grain and fodder crops we grow on a 65-hectare farm next door to the winery. These crops are harvested and sold and play a major part in moving Bilbul towards being a waste free winery.

We are also installing low water use equipment such as waterless vacuum pumps and are changing winery work practices, such as sweeping and shovelling waste rather than hosing.

In the Yarra Valley, our anaerobic/aerobic biological water treatment plant allows us to use the majority of our wastewater for irrigation while evaporation savers on our dams (a floating apparatus that releasesbio-degradable hydrated lime which forms a thin layer on the water surface) have reduced water loss through evaporation by between 30 and 50 per cent (an averager ha of water can lose 15-20 megalitres per annum).

The Yarra Valley has also seen an increased use of composting and mulching (mostly made from our own grape marc and manure from nearby farms) which is already reducing our water consumption by up to 40 per cent, equivalent to the yearly use of water by 680 households.

Mulching is being increasingly used across all our vineyards – in the Hunter, King and Yarra Valleys and in Bilbul. In the Hunter, our wastewater treatment plant is allowing us to irrigate crops with recycled water and, with the reduced water use due to mulching, we aim to reduce water usage at our Hunter Valley vineyard by 66 per cent within the next couple of years.

At all sites, there is a commitment to improving the stability of waterways near or through the properties with tree planting along these waterways to help improve and stabilise creekbeds.

Though many of these water saving initiatives have the happy side effect of saving us money, the true drive for De Bortoli Wines is to manage water as efficiently as possible in order for us to keep producing great quality, sustainable wines for many generations to come.