We work to combat the deficit of rainwater in our Vendrell winery with mulching. After a first test this 2023, the intention is to gradually extend it to other areas of the estate.
In order to combat the lack of rainfall and also to achieve a more sustainable maintenance of the vineyards, at Avgvstvs Forvm we have started to apply the mulching technique, which consists of applying vegetable matter to the soil where the vines grow. In this way, the soil retains moisture and we can compensate, in part, for the lack of rainfall we are currently experiencing, in addition to other advantages.
The new technique has been tested in some of the winery’s vineyards in El Vendrell this year, in an initiative led by the Avgvstvs Forvm winegrower, Oriol Roca. Specifically, a layer of between 0.14 and 0.18 cubic metres per square metre has been applied with the aim of observing how the different types of vineyards and soil moisture evolve, and to find the ideal thickness for our needs.
The main advantage of using mulching is that the vegetable matter or any other shredded material used will help to protect the soil and retain moisture, which means that the soil will stay moist for longer as evaporation is slowed down. It is therefore a very interesting option in view of the drought scenario that Catalonia is currently experiencing and which is pushing us to find even more sustainable ways of growing vines and producing our Penedès wines.
Apart from making better use of rainfall, mulching offers many other advantages in the management of the Avgvstvs Forvm estate and winery near Tarragona. On the one hand, the layer with which we protect the soil gradually decomposes and, as it is vegetable matter, in doing so it provides the soil with extra nutrients which, in turn, will feed the vineyards from which our wines and bittersweet vinegars are born. In addition, its application also helps to control the growth of weeds in the soil. Specifically, it is calculated that with a layer between 5 and 10 centimetres thick of mulching, the germination and growth of weeds is considerably reduced as the soil does not receive solar radiation.
All of this means that the application of mulching reduces the need to plough the land where the vineyards are located, which in turn reduces CO emissions and allows us to reduce the winery’s pollutant footprint. In addition, to make the layer that we add to the soil we are reusing the plant remains from the pruning of the trees and the different planters on the estate, with a waste reduction and reuse solution that enables us to make progress in our sustainable management objectives. This test of the mulching technique, which we hope to extend in the near future, is in addition to other initiatives in favour of sustainability at Avgvstvs Forvm, which we invite you to get a closer look at on a visit to the Penedès winery.
