For over forty years Zema Estate has been proudly family-owned. We’re committed to using sustainable practices in our winery and vineyards to ensure we pass the land on in a better condition for generations to come.
Our winery and vineyards are certified members of Sustainable Winegrowing Australia - which is a research-backed national certification program for Grapegrowers and Winemakers committed to making sustainable wine.
These are just some of the many ways we are reducing our impact:
Energy and Fuel Efficiency: Each year, we conduct a thorough review of our energy and fuel consumption. We actively seek opportunities for improvement, implementing enhancements to machinery and equipment whenever feasible, or identifying areas for future optimisation.
Solar Power: The primary source of power for our winery is supplied by solar panels.
Packaging Sustainability: We are dedicated to reducing the environmental impact of our packaging. This includes minimising the size, weight, and thickness of packaging materials, as well as optimising pallet configurations to minimize void space. Additionally, we prioritise the use of renewable materials such as paper, cardboard, and biopolymers, thereby reducing our reliance on non-renewable virgin materials.
Waste Management: We responsibly recycle cardboard and glass locally, ensuring these materials are reused and diverted from landfills.
Vintage waste, green matter and marc is fed to our cattle.
Cross flow filtration is our sole use of filtration and with no fining, the impact is much less than traditional pad or earth filtration.
Water: Our Winery and Cellar Door are completely serviced by rainwater we harvest onsite.
Vine Canopy: Targeted Irrigation Strategies, keeping our vines healthy and well balanced. Reducing over-watering, and fertiliser rates have helped us decrease large canopies, which intern reduces trimming in summer and disease management.
Less Chemicals: We take the approach of ‘less is more’ with minimal intervention practices in order to minimise our impact on the environment and maximise efficiencies and cost savings.
Spray program concentrating on timing and preventative measures using organically friendly Copper and Sulphur sprays for disease control.
Pest management: we encourage natural predators and use organically focused pest control where possible.
We maintain neat and tidy mid-row natural grass swards and under vine weeds, this reduces our herbicide chemical requirements.
Trellis: Recycling of wire is encouraged, where possible broken posts are repaired with Oclok fittings and posts which do need to be re-purposed are reused on internal fencing on our property.
We’re currently adhear to the Coonawarra Grapegrowers Association Environmental Management Plan, focuses on; avoiding/minimising generation of waste, water extraction, biodiversity and conservation, chemical storage, and Phylloxera control. From this strong foundation, we’ll transition towards the Sustainable Winegrowing Australia model.
We identify and protect native vegetation on our vineyards and properties. Where possible we implement revegetation and waterway-recovery programs.
