Yalumba: Excellence In Sustainability
ByMany Wine Society members will be familiar with the delicious South Australian wines of Yalumba. As such, I thought you may be interested to hear that the company was recognised at last week’s ‘London’s Green Awards’, where they won the award for ‘Best International Business for Creativity in Sustainability.’
A grenache bush vine at Yalumba
Having dealt with Yalumba for a number of years, this is no great surprise: their attention to detail is quite incredible (they even have their own nursery for vine propagation). As a family-owned business (and the oldest of its kind in Australia), ensuring the long term health of both its vineyards and business has been a key strategy for fifth-generation Robert Hill Smith.
In typical perfectionist fashion, Yalumba have therefore taken their sustainable policy to dizzying heights. They have spent 2 million dollars in the past decade converting vineyard over to drip irrigation, resulting in water usage dropping by 40% and saving one billion litres of water/annum (the equivalent of 1000 Olympic size swimming pools). They use no insecticides in their vineyards and offset each hectare of vineyard with a hectare of native vegetation (80% of this has been through their own plantings). In the winery, they have installed heat recovery systems for their refrigeration units, and their packaging is now 98% recycled or recyclable.
First and foremost, they make superb wine; yet their environmental credentials are of course highly commendable and a good fit with The Society’s own stance.
As well as the wines we currently stock, we will also be releasing an exclusive-label 2011 sauvignon blanc called ‘Circles’ (which will be priced under £7 per bottle). This will be available next year.
Pierre Mansour
Australia Buyer
I’ve always been a fan of Yalumba wines and was fascinated to read about the lengths they have gone to produce consistently excellent wines whilst also going several extra miles on the environmental front.