In an effort to address climate change and the needs of the future, Chilean wineries have adopted practices such as regenerative and circular agriculture, which allow them to reduce their carbon footprint and water use without losing the quality of their grapes.
Currently, the wine industry is one of the most important in the country, contributing 0.5% of GDP and positioning Chile as the fourth largest wine producer in the world. It is also an industry that in recent years has been able to incorporate respect for the environment into its production model, making significant efforts in the area of innovation and sustainability.
As part of the collaboration between Fundación Imagen de Chile and Wines of Chile, we made a tour with the international press of some of the wineries in the sixth region that exemplify this effort to care for the environment.
Grazing technique and vermiculture
Faced with an increasingly adverse climate scenario, causing events such as droughts to become commonplace, a few years ago Viña Montes decided to start adapting its plantations to lower irrigation levels, a project called "Sustainable Dry Farming". By exposing the vines to low amounts of water, mostly dependent on rainfall, they have managed to prepare them to survive periods of drought. This has allowed them to optimize the amount used for irrigation, with a 65% reduction in use.
The need to reuse water also led them to adopt a "worm filter" system, a technique that uses bacteria and earthworms to eliminate pollutants from liquid industrial waste. Thus, the decontaminated water can be used for irrigation, and the humus resulting from the process is used as fertilizer for the plantations.
The use of vermiculture has been extended to more vineyards, as in the case of Viña La Playa, which now uses it both in its vineyards and in its hotel. To avoid chemical herbicides, La Playa uses a grazing technique with about 600 sheep, which allows for weed control and at the same time incorporates organic matter through guano, regenerating soil and capturing CO2.
Among the main initiatives to protect the environment that Viña La Playa is currently promoting is the protection of the Chilean coastline. Since 2020, they are official members of 1% FOR THE PLANET, an instance in which they donate part of their income for the conservation of the coastline in Pichilemu, being the first winery in Latin America to subscribe to this initiative.
Solar panels and sustainable architecture
Reducing its carbon footprint is a trend that is increasingly being taken up by a variety of industries. This is the case of Viña Cono Sur, in Chimbarongo, which since 2007 decided to offset all emissions associated with the transportation of its wines to destination markets, becoming the first winery in the world to obtain Carbon Neutral Delivery certification.
As part of their regenerative agriculture techniques, Cono Sur uses geese and biological corridors with native species that they plant in their own greenhouse to control insects, pests, and to enrich their soils. They also have a photovoltaic plant that has allowed them to reduce their energy consumption by more than 30%. Eighty-three percent of their vineyards are supplied by solar panels.
Viña VIK is located 64 km from Cono Sur, in San Vicente de Tagua Tagua, in the Millahue Valley, the third best winery in the world according to the World's Best Vineyards 2023, and in addition to standing out for its ultra premium wines and its luxurious hotel, today it applies high standards of sustainability.
An example of this is its night and hand harvesting practices, which translates into a reduction in the energy consumption required to cool the grapes, optimizing the winemaking process. This dynamic is complemented by a winery with water mirrors that allow the barrel room to cool naturally, part of an architecture designed in a sustainable manner.
In addition, in the quest to create wines without intervention and with a seal of origin, they decided to make their own barrels under the "Barroir" concept, with staves imported from France but toasted with Chilean oak harvested from the ground in the Millahue forest, to give the wines the authentic flavor of the Chilean soil.
This is a series of long-term commitments that demonstrate that Chilean wineries are looking to the future, a clean and sustainable future.
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