As far as Kate Thorn is concerned, it all goes back to the land. "From the work we've done on the land here springs the whole ethos of the company, really. It's somewhere in every decision we make." The philosophy is simple: good earth makes good wine, and giving back to the land in appreciation for how it helps the wines is key for Banrock Station.
Thorn, who is the winemakers' conservation manager, describes the state of the property when they first bought it in 1993 as being exhausted. "We've got 1,850 hectares of land, and about 250 hectares of that is vineyard; the balance of the land is for conservation. Our wetlands flow directly from the Murray river, Australia's biggest river system, and that river has a lot of environmental issues. When we came here, there had been many years of degradation, thanks to past agricultural practices and to the way the river had been managed. We have a really variable climate, but human use and regulation of the river drastically altered the natural cycles."
Regulation of the river system resulted in a stable water level over the wetlands, Thorn explains, "but that's really not the way the natural cycle of these wetlands works; they need to dry out completely, and they need to flood. With the help of WetlandCare Australia, we started to return the wetland to its natural state in one of the first projects of its kind, and these days government officials and scientists come to visit and see what we've done."
And from that work has flowed a whole outlook for Banrock Station. "The vision of the company has always been based on the natural assets we've got here, the beautiful environment, but it's also based on the fact that when we got here it was under threat," says Thorn. "We wanted to do the right thing by the property, by looking after the environment, by finding the vineyard practices and the irrigation techniques which would produce great wine while improving the landscape, instead of worsening the problem."
Thorn is focused on finding more environmentally friendly ways of growing grapes: "In the vineyards, for example, we are trialling varieties which are most suited to the Australian climate. And we're doing some pioneering work in irrigation techniques – we're working on something called subsurface irrigation, which is another step on from drip irrigation because the water source is below the soil, so you pretty much eliminate the problem of waste through evaporation. We've also installed solar-powered soil-moisture monitors, which make sure that we never over-water."
The good news is these initiatives also help to produce consistently good quality fruit which goes into Banrock Station's wines. "People can keep coming back to a wine that is going to be consistently good, and just by purchasing it, they can do that little bit for the environment as well."
But the effects are felt more widely in the company too, with the vineyard's restaurant checking the carbon miles of the food they sell. Banrock Station has also been working on several ways to reduce the carbon intensity of its packaging, from using lightweight glass in the bottles to experimenting with Tetra Paks.
The success of conservation at Banrock Station's own property led it to sponsor projects further afield. "We've also become involved with efforts to conserve the salmon in Lake Ontario in Canada; we've been supporting work to restock streams and improve stream habitats," says Thorn. "In New Zealand we're working on a project to support the pateke [brown teal] duck, and in the UK we've supported the Eden Project and the Co-operative Group's Plan Bee campaigns, and more recently we're helping Natural England with its work on wildflower preservation."
Over the past few years, Banrock Station has donated £2.5m to different environmental projects around the world, including £30,000 to Natural England earlier this year.
And all because, at the absolute core of the company, are the vineyards, and the soil that sustains them. "For us in the end, it's all about the wine, and the earth it comes from," says Thorn. "We try to produce it with a conscience, and to make sure that we're looking after the earth too."
