Bordeaux trip
In September 2024 we had the privilege of visiting Chateau Cheval Blanc, Chateau Palmer and Chateau Haut Bailly in Bordeaux to look at the regenerative practices (especially agroforestry) being implementing in their vineyards and across their businesses. One of the common themes between the three estates is that none of them think they have all the answers but they all feel it is their duty and their privilege to be able to experiment and improve the knowledge of agroecological practices in vineyards.
Chateau Palmer, Margaux
Organic and biodynamic certified Chateau Palmer in Margaux employs a Director of Regenerative Development. This means that the principles of regenerative practices are being applied not only to the farming of the grapes but across the entire business. We had the good fortune to spend an afternoon with both their consultant Charlie Felgate and their new Director of Regenerative Development Laura Esperandieu. A huge emphasis is being placed on staff wellbeing. Charlie has been developing a regenerative strategic vision in collaboration with all the staff, from vineyard workers up to senior management. Must say, everyone we met seemed to be very happy working there.
Part of that might be that they have just built a lovely canteen for everyone to eat in together, dining on food grown and reared on the estate. Land has been converted to market gardens, tended by the extremely knowledgeable Vivienne with Coco the chef checking in daily. Make no mistake, this isn’t any old land they have converted to market gardens, this is rather valuable Marguax appellation land!
This is indicative of the importance they place on diversification and polycultures.
Animals in the vines
Part of this diversification involves animals, with cows, sheep and a horse tended by the uber-cool Emily and Teddy. The horse has been newly acquired for gently heaping the soil around the vines to reduce tractor passes. This is a traditional method locally and is the preferred solution for weed control under-vine (check as I didn’t quite understand this). The cows provide manure and meat. The sheep are kept on adjacent land during the vine growing season and put in the vineyard after harvest. Emily practices rotational grazing, using electric fencing to confine them to specific areas for 1-2 days before moving them on. It is clearly a time-consuming process, moving electric fences. Emily applies regenerative techniques to the sheep too. Their tails aren’t docked, allowing them to build resistance to parasites that are naturally occurring, avoiding the use of insecticides. They also limit antibiotic use to only a sheep that is ill, rather than treating the whole flock. Emily has an intuitive and close relationship with the sheep and knows which parcels are good for them and which to avoid, which may be due to copper in the soils. (check with Laura it’s ok to put this in)
Agroforestry
Chateau Palmer have woodlands around the vineyards, plus fruit and almond trees dotted along the vine rows, approximately every 10th row. The end posts of these rows are marked so that the tractor drivers know which rows to avoid (Bordeaux canopies are relatively low and tractors straddle rows). The trees are young, therefore the results are yet to be seen…
Wine Quality
One of the things we were most excited to find out is whether there had been an improvement to wine quality following these regenerative interventions? Not according to Federico Coltorti, Head of Research & Development in Viticulture. Of course this was initially slightly deflating, until he elaborated: “No, you’ve got it wrong, the wine quality is exactly the same. If we can still make the same wine quality using regenerative viticulture, that is perfect”. Aha! It’s ok, we are on the right track…
Justin – is there anything to add from talking to Federico at the end? I went off to get Laura’s stuff out of my car
Chateau Cheval Blanc, Saint-Emilion
Reading the manifesto ‘Agroecology at Cheval Blanc’ is a joy.
You would expect nothing less, as it includes contributions from visionaries Alain Canet, Konrad Schreiber and Marc-Andre Selosse.
We had the pleasure of spending several hours with Juliette in the vines, learning the practicalities of agroforestry, cover crops, variation in planting matter, animal integration and functional biodiversity. They too have replaced some areas of vines with market gardens and animal housing. And we are talking St Emilion appellation land here!
Agroforestry
Similarly to Chateau Palmer, Cheval Blanc has retained woodland surrounding the vineyards and have replaced individual vines dotted along rows. In their case this is every 8th row with tall end posts clearly indicating these rows to tractor drivers. When replanting a block, they have also planted a small grove/copse of trees, which Juliette feels is both easier to manage and the best for biodiversity. The copse has different levels of vegetation, which is good for biodiversity. She also feels it could be a good compromise for chateaux using machine harvesting as it is not possible to machine harvest rows with trees planted in them.
At the start of the experiment (and it is an experiment – they felt it would be wrong to wait until someone else had proven the case), they wanted to test everything. They could have done just one block and waited for the results before expanding the trial throughout the estate. However, they felt there is an urgency to help mitigate and adapt to climate change, and to restore biodiversity. Therefore they have planted 1500 trees across 30% of Cheval Blanc vineyards, 50% of ?? and 100% of the small 5 ha white wine vineyard Le Petit Cheval. The appellation is very supportive of their work as it will encourage other producers to plant trees.
Prior to planting, agroforestry supremo Alain Canet shared the plans with all staff, to ensure they understood why the trees were being planted.
Type of trees
Both woodland trees and fruit trees have been planted. The fruit trees are good for produce, but their lifespans are much shorter than the 100 years expected from a Chateau Cheval Blanc grapevine. Peaches, apricots, apples, pears and plums were trialled. Peaches proved too fragile. The apricots do not suit the soil type. Apples, pears and plums are perfect.
Age of trees
Hoping to get a head start, initially 4 year old trees were trialled. However, they soon discovered that this was not the best solution as the trees suffered transplant shock when removed from their comfortable nursery conditions and placed in the open vineyard, with sunburn, wind, frost, etc. A later planting of one year old trees has almost caught up with these early 4 year old plantings.
Young trees are also preferable as they can be pruned to the correct shape without having to make cuts into older wood.
Training system
To enable machinery to pass along the rows, the trees are trained with the first branches above the top foliage wire and with all branches in line with the row, i.e. no branches are allowed to protrude into the row. The woodland trees will be pollarded, with prunings from all the trees put on the ground and shredded along with vine prunings to increase organic matter.
Monitoring outcomes
Juliette is working with Marc-Andre Selosse and using interns to monitor:
- Water status: this is the big question… will the trees provide too much competition for water?
- Harvest yields and composition: indicators are being measured each year at the same place in the vineyard
- Fungal diseases: they are being hypervigilant to the appearance of decomposing fungi as they do not wish to introduce trunk disease. Whilst they are clearly working to increase mycorrhizal fungi in the soil, they will remove any trees with evidence of disease
- Soil biology (check if this should be called something else): they are most interested in what is happening underground with fungi and bacteria. Soil samples were taken before planting the trees to create baseline data. Intermediate sampling has been done this year with researchers anticipating that changes around the vicinity of the trees taking place rapidly, but it will take longer to see a difference further away from the trees. Another 5 years is needed to see a real difference – we’re talking long timescales here!
These are not (yet) scientific research trials. If and when they have evidence of interesting outcomes, they will start working with researchers.
And the most amazing thing? If the experiment turns out to not be working… that’s fine, they’ll just pull out the trees. They just don’t want to wait 10 years to find out first.
Cover crops
The mindset change…
15 years ago Cheval Blanc used cultivation to control the vineyard floor. They started to cultivate less and realised that the ‘weeds’ were not a problem. So in 2020 they started using cover crops to protect the soil.
As with Chateau Palmer they still gently mound up the soil around the vines. (hmm – I still don’t understand this)
What do they sow and why?
When we visited in September 2024, there was actively growing clover and the remnants of mulch from the cover crops that had been growing during the season. This season had been a mix of 10 species, 60% cereals and 40% legumes. This is to provide the correct level of nitrogen that the vines need and to produce a mulch to cover the soil.
Some blocks still use cultivation, enabling them to compare the soil under the 2 regimes.
- Soil temperatures: in the very hot 2022 growing season the cover crops made a real impact to soil temperatures
- Organic matter: to date there has not been a difference in organic matter but at the time of our visit they were awaiting the results of some sampling
- Earthworm counts: there has been an increase between earthworm counts of 2020 vs today and also between cover cropped and non-cover cropped soil. Sampling is done using mustard sampling (literally spreading mustard over the soil and counting the earthworms that appear!0
How do they sow?
Cover crop seeds are sown annually. A few weeks after harvest the ground is worked very superficially. Two rows are seeded simultaneously with the straddle tractor. The drill opens up a slot in the soil, deposits the seed and closes the slot up again. This presents difficulties with sowing large and small seeds at the same time but they have worked with a cereals company to adapt the technology to viticulture.
How are they managed?
The cover crops are rolled to create a mat of cover. This is one of the areas of experimentation that turned out differently to that anticipated. One rolling is not sufficient as the plants re-grow. They need to roll it 2 or 3 times to stop it growing back.
(Bio)diversity to avoid monocultures and reduce chemical inputs
Cheval Blanc is unusual in Bordeaux in that they have a high percentage of Cabernet Franc. They have done much work to preserve old clones to increase diversity of planting material and therefore increase resilience.
The cover crops and trees increase diversity and biodiversity, helping with insect pests. They decided not to plant cherry trees to avoid spotted wing drosophila (SWD) which they had a problem with in 217 but not since. Sexual confusion has been successful against ver de la grappe (European grape moth Lobesia botrana) for 20 years. It is mandatory to spray against Flavescence doree every 4 years.
Fungal diseases are an issue in this maritime climate. Chateau Cheval Blanc has not gone for organic certification as they do not want to add more copper to the soil. They therefore practice a regime of spraying the minimum amount of products with good efficacy, minimising workers’ exposure, diesel use and water use. No herbicides are used.
To increase polyculture, a large area has been replanted for market gardens, with all staff receiving produce. There are also pigs, sheep and chickens. The sheep are put into the vineyards once the leaves have gone orange after harvest. This provides fertiliser.
We were there for harvest, which is of course an exciting time at any wine estate. What was lovely at Chateau Cheval Blanc was the way all the workers sit together for lunch, from pickers and press operatives all the way up to Pierre Olivier Clouet. The food is from the estate. and they all get to enjoy a glass of Cheval Blanc wine with their lunch. As did we. This isn’t restricted to harvest time though. There might not be three course meals laid on throughout the year but all the staff come together to eat their lunch. It’s great for staff wellbeing.
Chateau Haut-Bailly, Graves
I was intrigued to visit this estate as an organisation called Reforest’Action has been running a programme of agroforestry there.
As soon as I arrived and met the inspiring Veronique Sanders, I knew this was going to be excellent. 4th generation custodian of the estate, Veronique is as impressive as Haut-Bailly. Agroecological practices, regenerative practices, sustainable practices, whatever you want to call them… they are not new here. This is not an estate that has jumped on a bandwagon. They have always farmed in concert with nature.
They have never used herbicide.
No monocultures here
Some of these vines are 120 years old. The soils must be exceptional to keep them going that long. Unusually they are field blends with vines tagged at veraison to indicate whether they are to be early or later harvested. Veronique has some beautiful maps of how the use of the land has evolved over the centuries. There used to be a mix of vines and other plants but over time all the land was put to vine. She has overseen a programme of reintroducing biodiversity, persevering in the face of adversity when newly planted hedges have been killed off by droughts and cold.
The cover crops ensure year round ground cover.
Agroforestry
Looking down from the stunning new winery (partially hidden by gardens growing on the roof) you get an understanding of how Graves is one of the most forested parts of Bordeaux. There are trees planted all around the vines.
Water use
A huge water tank has been built into the design of the new winery, with harvested water stored for when it is needed.
Soil health
Mustard tests have shown that earthworm counts have gone up hugely.
Conclusion
These are 3 producers doing great things, feeling it is their responsibility to demonstrate what is possible. They are generous with their time and sharing their knowledge. The wine’s not bad either 😉
