Chile: developing a sustainable protocol for the wine industry

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Caliterra is a winery in Chile’s Colchagua Valley that was founded as a joint venture between Eduardo Chadwick and Robert Mondavi in 1996. In 2004 Eduardo Chadwick bought Mondavi’s share back when Mondavi was sold to Constellation, and decided to change strategy.‘We thought about organics,’ explains chief winemaker Sergio Cuadra, ‘but we wanted a broader approach to winegrowing and winemaking. We thought that sustainability as a concept was the best option we had.’ There was a problem, though: the sustainable approach wasn’t certifiable. As a result, Caliterra contacted Professor Yerko Moreno of University of Talca, with a view to creating a protocol for sustainability in Chile.

Moreno lived in Oregon for five years, and so has taken a keen interest in the development of the LIVE certification for sustainability in Oregon. He thinks the situation in Chile is very similar to what happened in Oregon several years ago as growers began to think about ways of working sustainably, but where they weren’t satisfied with organics and biodynamics. In Oregon, the growers approached a researcher for help establishing the scheme, Carmo Candolfi-Vasconcelos; this approached has been mirrored with Caliterra approaching Moreno. Moreno outlined how Caliterra and the University of Talca were devising the sustainable protocol, which they hope will be adopted by much of the Chilean wine industry.

‘We have used many ideas from the LIVE system,’ Moreno explained, ‘which is based on the IOBC guidelines and the key aspects covered by the OIV sustainability guidelines.’ While these guidelines are useful, they don’t give the details, and so Moreno and his colleagues need to consider the particular growing conditions in the different Chilean wine regions. Other information is gathered from guidelines for social responsibility, which is a unique feature of this Chilean protocol. Not only does it cover the environment, but it also deals with social issues. ‘This is very important,’ says Moreno, ‘but it is not considered in organics and biodynamics.’ Moreno also stresses that the system must be profitable. ‘If you go broke, there is one less environmental warrior in the system.’ He also adds that, ‘If you do it because of marketing, it is going to be a mess.’

The Talca team consists of five people in the University and five people from Caliterra (two winemakers, two viticulturalists and an agronomist), and the project has now been going for 18 months. The first goal is to develop version 1.0, which has three chapters: a green chapter (viticulture), a red chapter (in the winery), and an orange chapter (social). When this version 1.0 is complete, it will be opened up to companies who specialize in certification, with a view to giving one of them a contract for the third-party certification of sustainability in Chile.

One example of the sort of approach the sustainable protocol will take is with regards to irrigation. Many vineyard managers irrigate whenever they want; others will do monitoring of water status of vines and soils. ‘We promote and give a better score if you have three monitoring methods and use them,’ says Moreno. ‘You have to justify everything you do, and record keeping is a key aspect of our system.’

Another is the use of herbicides. ‘For years and years people have been using residual herbicides,’ says Moreno. ‘We tell people that if you stop using them you will see the benefit in one season. Already the winery owners have realized that they have to be looser in managing their vineyards. They used to look neat with vines only, but now we start to see different plant species and biodiversity.’ Growers get points for biodiversity in their vineyards.

Cover crops are also encouraged, but Moreno pointed out that there were some pitfalls for the unwary. ‘You seed them and think that all this biodiversity is great, but you can find that they are hosting pests,’ he warned. ‘Nature is not easy to understand. We need to find out which cover crops work best for each vineyard.’

Moreno and his colleagues have been working on using precision viticulture approaches to manage vineyards more effectively. These use aerial imagery to identify differences in vigour in the vineyard. Using software, this sort of imagery can identify separate management blocks, which can then be managed differentially to increase quality. For example, some parts of the vineyard might be ripening later than others, perhaps because there were differences in soils in those particular blocks. Rather than
wait for these blocks to catch up, they could be picked separately, while the earlier ripening blocks could be picked at peak ripeness. Another example would be particular sections of the vineyard that are susceptible to disease or certain pests. Action could be taken just on these blocks, rather than on the whole vineyard level.

Biological control approaches for pests are one of the cornerstones of sustainable viticulture. Moreno cites the ladybird Cryptolaemus montrouzieri as a promising biological control agent for mealy bug. Mealy bug can be a big problem for vineyards because it is a vector for leaf roll virus. However, this form of biological control hasn’t been tried yet because it will only work when there is a big enough infestation of mealy bug to support the ladybird predator. Red spider mites are a problem, and these can be controlled biologically, by predatory mites such as Phytoseiulus persimilis. Alternatively, they can be controlled by spraying oil. For nematode problems, biological nematicides exist, as well as rootstocks that are resistant to nematodes. ‘We have learned to monitor things and determine thresholds for taking action,’ says Moreno. He stresses the importance of information. ‘If you don’t have information you are blind, and you just have to use the calendar,’ he says, referring to the old-style practice of calendar spraying.

The hope is that the protocol produced by Moreno and his colleagues will be taken up by wineries across Chile and provide a solid certified sustainable basis for the whole industry.

In the picture below some are wearing leggings for the horse back riding.

We all had a great time, interesting talkings about our wines and our already classic barbecue.

One thing we all learned was that some times (and only some times) our wine memory plays games on us, in the art of comparing and judging wines.






Sergio Cuadra
Chief Winemaker Viña Caliterra