A respected terroir and a healthy vineyard – English
News

A respected terroir and a healthy vineyard

26 juillet 2018

Back

Château Brown’s philosophy is to promote biodiversity in the vineyard as far as possible by planting plant cover, hedges, various trees, and bird nesting boxes to offset the negative effects of monoculture. The central idea is that the more varied the environment, the better it is at regulating itself. Pressure from pests and disease is more effectively controlled thanks to species diversity, improvements to soil life, and a larger secondary population.

Moreover, we have opted for sustainable pest management to combat vine diseases by focusing on organic and bio-control products and prophylaxis, and failing that on appropriate use of plant protection products.

 

1-Using prophylaxis as a preventative defence against disease

There are around fifteen vine pests living in the vineyards of Bordeaux: bacteria, insects, nematodes, fungi, viruses and more. However, we have initiated various practices to help us reduce the use of plant protection products to combat these diseases.

To reduce exposure to the risk of disease by taking a preventative approach (known as ‘prophylaxis’), our vines undergo rigorous tidying. Shoot removal, leaf thinning, pollarding and grape aeration are all actions (the most important of which are performed by hand) designed to limit moisture and thus certain diseases such as downy mildew, powdery mildew and above all botrytis.

For example, from June onwards the leaves across our entire vineyard are thinned by hand to maximise grape aeration and thus minimise the risk of disease.

 

2- The most dangerous products are not permitted in our vineyard

Various fungicides are applied throughout the season to combat downy mildew and powdery mildew, in particular at the critical point in the flowering process. But as far as possible, we use approved organic or biocontrol products (natural and non-chemical) to combat these fungi. Since 2019, 70% of our treatments used were approved organic or biocontrol.

Retour