In previous posts I’ve looked at the classic sustainable, organic and bio dynamic certifications, but in doing the research I came across other initiatives that I wanted to share. Complementary to sustainable viticulture, they show a broader perspective of how properties interact with and preserve their natural environment. There are so many I’m only scratching the surface here – I’ll be back with more.

BEE FRIENDLY is a great name; it explains exactly what it’s all about and their website has a cute bee cursor that buzzes across the page. A European label created in 2011 by a panel of bee experts, organic agriculture and agribusiness specialists, it promotes pollinator-friendly systems.

There are almost 1000 species of wild bees in France, that are all weakened by both pesticides and reduced biodiversity. The vine is self-pollinating, it doesn’t rely on bees or other pollinators, but we’ve seen how important biodiversity is for the health of the vineyard. No bees, no biodiversity and vice versa.  

The Bee Friendly certification is independently audited with four levels, encouraging producers tokeep improving.  The long list of criteria covers six themes; traceability, pesticide use (with a list of banned molecules and measures to protect pollinators during treatments), a ban on GMOs, the designation and creation of areas of biodiversity, pollinator protection during harvest, and partnership with beekeepers.

Almost 30 Bordeaux properties are now certified Bee Friendly, including a few names that will be familiar for regular readers: Château Lestrille and Château Thieuley in Entre-Deux-Mers and Chateau Branaire-Ducru in Saint Julien, which is not surprising given their amazing rose collection. The cheerful Bee Friendly logo is easy to spot, so consumers can support the well-being of bees.

In 2020, Château Brown, in Pessac Léognan, started working with young horticulturist Pauline Rival, to dedicate 700 square meters of this land to create a flower farm. They use a no-till method to preserve soil microorganisms and to encourage the bees. They also leave 45% of the 60-ha property uncultivated as woods and orchards to protect the biodiversity. 

Many vineyards in Bordeaux are selling chateau-bottled honey alongside their bottles of wine. There are more and more beehives in the vines, introduced to improve or maintain the biodiversity of the properties. Château Dauzac in Margaux runs workshops with their beekeeper where visitors can learn about the life of a beehive, and Chateau Rabaud-Promis in Sauternes has redesigned their bottle illustrating their passion for bees.

Bats and birds 

In a previous post I mentioned how in 2015, the LPO (France’s league for the protection of birds) worked with the whole of the Margaux appellation to take a wildlife inventory. They found 17 different species of bats, 185 species of wild bees, 51 species of birds and 30 species of butterfly. They have now established biodiversity corridors, which allow this wildlife to move more freely across the appellation.

The LPO are busy across Bordeaux helping properties create biodiversity refuges. As well as trees (see below), vineyards are making birds feel at home by installing bird boxes. This recent Instagram post from Château de Cérons, shows upcycling wine cases makes very chic bird boxes!  

Out of the 33 French bat species, 22 are present in the Gironde. Vineyards love them as they feed on insects, especially moths. These moths lay their eggs in vine flowers, and when they hatch, the caterpillars attack flowers and berries, reducing yield but also encouraging grey rot. 

Bats eat 1.5 to 2 times their weight in bugs, in a single evening, a bat can eat over 2000 mosquitoes and 600 moths. Encouraging bats to fly around the vineyard at dusk is one of the best ways to keep the moth population under control without using insecticides. 
Bats live in buildings, woods, and cracks in stonewalls. Saint Emilion and the satellites, the Côtes and parts of the Entre-Deux-Mers are fortunate to have natural underground limestone caves, also a perfect habitat for bats.  

A joint project by the French Bird Protection League (LPO) and the CIVB, has developed an online bat observatory, an app and a geo-location system to measure just how efficient the bats are and how wineries can provide and improve their habitat. Planting trees in the vineyards helps, as does building bat houses; the Cadillac-Cotes de Bordeaux appellation even has instructions for a DIY bat box on its website! 

A ‘Batman dans les vignes’ project encourages children to get involved in protecting the environment, with schools building bat houses for neighbouring vineyards.

Agro-forestry

Agro-forestry is a philosophy that applies how forests work to agriculture, especially monoculture, increasing biodiversity both above and below ground. Trees are also climatic shock absorbers, cooling the atmosphere in summer and offering protection against the wind, which dries the soil. 

There are multiple approaches to agro-forestry in Bordeaux, too many to include them all, but when you drive through the vineyards, you’ll see more and more trees in the middle of fields of vines, often fruit trees. Chateau Lafon-Rochet in Saint Estèphe is planting 13,000 trees and hedges that will create 10kms of hedgerow in and around the estate. In Margaux, Chateau Palmer is a pioneer of agro-forestry, moving away from monoculture by planting fruit trees and hedgerows amongst the vines. They introduced biodynamics in 2008 and now have sheep grazing in the winter vineyard for even more biodiversity.

At Château Paloumey, as part of the conversation to organic agriculture, Pierre Cazeneuve is planting four hectares of agro-forestry. He’s testing planting a line of trees every 5 rows of vines; the trees will act as a bio-climate barrier, creating shade and humidity to reduce the impact of warmer summers.  

Château Bonnet has uprooted 2 hectares to plant 100 acacia trees as part of a crop diversification programme. These trees fix nitrogen in the soil and provide flowers for the bees. Acacia wood is often used for vine trellising stakes, on old, abandoned plots, they sometimes root and become trees. 

Microbiome and a sense of place.

We’ve seen above how trees encourage biodiversity above ground, offering homes to bats, birds and bugs, but they also help keep the soil alive. Trees encourage a natural regeneration of the topsoil, increasing biodiversity of the soil with yeasts, bacteria and mycelia that live on and around their roots. The soil microbiome.

Adepts of this approach believe it is this biodiversity of the soil that is terroir. Fungi and lichens break down mother rock to make up soil humus, allowing vines to access minerals, making wines with a better expression of the place. No biodiversity, no living soil, no expression of terroir!  

Miyawaki

Dr Akira Miyawaki was a Japonaise botanist who died last year. His method of planting mini forests of local species in close proximity to each other allows a forest to be created from nothing in tens of years whereas traditional re forestation could take hundreds of years.

I previously mentioned the micro-forestry project at Château Lestrille. Working with the NGO HISA, the château celebrated their 120th anniversary by planting a “Miyawaki” micro forest as part of their nature trail, a faster way to create a biodiversity sanctuary using local species. 

In January 2021 Château Phélan Ségur in Saint Estèphe used the same technique in the centre of their vineyard. They created a mini forest as a biodiversity reserve as part of an on-going programme to preserve and increase the natural biodiversity across the 114 ha property. This includes a re evaluation of the beautiful 19th century park as a nature reserve and the creation of a stunning new lake in front of the chateau. Beautiful and biodiverse.

Wildlife 

The Medoc peninsula became a ‘Parc Naturel Régional’ in 2019. Those of you who are familiar with the Medoc – the place, rather than what’s in the bottle – will know it is a low-lying peninsula between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gironde Estuary. It was drained by the Dutch back in the 17^th century, but there is still lots of marshland close to the estuary and along the ‘jalles’, the small streams and drainage ditches that crisscross the region. This represents a valuable biodiversity resource, especially for waterfowl, see the reference to the LPO reserve at Château La Lagune above.

Natura 2000 is a European-wide network of nature reserves that covers over 18% of EU land and 8% of its marine territory. It offers a network of breeding sites for Europe’s most threatened species. Most of the land is privately owned, where people are encouraged to work with nature rather than against it. The park and woods of Château du Taillan in Haut Medoc, just on the outskirts of Bordeaux city, is part of this network. 

Bringing it all together

Château La Lagune has been working with the LPO for several years to encourage and diversify animal life in the vineyard, preserving existing ecological structures (ditches, meadows, isolated trees and woods) and creating new ones. They are planting trees close to the ‘Moulin La Lagune’ (the old windmill represented on the label of their second wine) and have started a programme of hedge planting, already covering 2km.

As well as being organic, respecting and preserving the environment, they have created two Zones Réservoirs Naturelles (ZNR) that cover over 40ha. These are natural ecosystems for wildlife to rest or reproduce, animals that are also useful in the vineyard .

The first near the is a 10 ha wild space in the parkland of the chateau. The second is a beautiful marshland covering almost 40 ha in Ludon-Médoc, a criss cross of drainage ditches and streams where they graze their ‘Marine d’Aquitaine’ cows .

They are also planting a 5000m2 agro-ecological orchard in front of the château, with apple, pear and fig trees but also currants and blueberry bushes. Planting in four circles to recreate a forest ecosystem: the first three circles are fruit trees, and the outer one is made up of ornamental trees, again promoting biodiversity and naturally decreasing fruit pests. 

Eco-pastoralism

We’ve seen how monoculture can be the enemy of biodiversity. Some properties are going further than vegetative diversity, they are introducing animals. Geese aren’t unusual in Bordeaux, they make great ‘guard dogs’. I’ve been chased away from Chateau Gazin in Pomerol by geese in the past! 

Château Giscours in Margaux is a real working farm. The property is enormous, 400 ha with 180 ha of vines and 50 ha of beautiful 19^th century parkland, with the remainder made up of marshland and meadow, home to more than 100 farm animals. 

It’s the perfect environment to cultivate biodiversity. The low-lying meadows are grazed by cows and sheep, with goats and chickens closer to the chateau, and ducks and geese on the ponds in the park.

In 2012, they started working with Conservatoire des Races d’Aquitaine introducing the Bordelais cattle breed to their meadows, followed in 2019 by 60 Landes sheep. These animals maintain the 150 hectares of park and meadows surrounding the Château, enhancing plant and animal biodiversity, prioritizing natural fertilization of the soils, pollution free.

In 2019, the Château planted a vegetable garden. Now Chef Benjamin Laurent creates menus for guests using produce from both the farm and gardens, even using yeast from the cellar to proof his own bread. ‘La Table de Giscours’ is a complete regenerative farm-to-table experience. 

Back to the future

Historically the large Bordeaux estates were not monoculture. Their parks, woods, marshes and hedgerows were part of a unique ecosystem. These ecosystems are now once again being seen as a valuable resource, not only for the natural environment but also for the people who work there and their guests.

Revitalized orchards, kitchen gardens, bee hives and livestock allow in-house chefs to offer guests unique farm to table experiences. With a lot more than wine being produced on the property, chateaux such as Giscours, Phelan Segur and La Lagune are using the natural resources of their properties to create unique Bordeaux experiences in beautiful and biodiverse surroundings. A biodiversity that benefits both wildlife and wine lovers.

In the next post, I’ll look at social responsibility in the vineyards – a broader approach to sustainability.  Please sign up here  to receive future blog posts delivered directly to your inbox. 

To learn more about Bordeaux, you can buy  Bordeaux Bootcamp here, and to learn more about Wine and Wellness, with The Drinking Woman’s Diet here.  

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