responsible
agriculture
Santa Julia believes that wine starts in the vineyards; therefore, their health condition is a matter of the utmost importance. Organic agriculture combines tradition, innovation and science while taking care of our environment and promoting fair relationships (Fair for Life) and a good quality of life for all the people involved in the activity.
“We work the land and all our vineyards in a sustainable way. This implies effective teamwork
PRODUCTION OF WORM HUMUS
Worm humus is a process of biological decay. In order to make humus we need compost and we use our own compost. The humus is used as a natural fertilizer in our vineyards. The annual hummus yield is between 120 and 125 tonnes in our Maipu vineyards.
“In this way we make sure we look after our land and environment by means of strict sustainable practices.” Edgardo Consoli, Agricultural Manager
PRODUCtion
OF OUR OWN COMPOST
Compost is a natural fertilizer made of organic wastes (domestic waste, herbs, animal manure, etc.), earth and lime. It is extremely useful to improve the soil lifespan and fertility. We have our own compost production in our Maipu vineyards and the compost yield ranges 10.000 tonnes a year.
Boiler
Gas was replaced by reused fuel made from oil and other fuels, also by olive pits. We have a pallet production project: fuel will be manufactured from the company’s waste: cardboard, paper, and broken pallets
Solar Panels
We are part of a cooperative in Santa Rosa, together with the local Municipality we have managed to install a solar park of 13 hectares with a total of 11,500 panels.
We control weeds in a mechanical or manual way do and we do not use herbicides or agrochemicals to control agricultural pests. . The soil is oxygenated by the plantation of grass and by adding humus and compost of our own production.
Water
TREATMENT
There are two main water sources in Santa Julia: one is the ice thaw that comes from the mountains, gathers in the reservoirs and is then distributed by means of channels; the other is groundwater. Santa Julia has a water equalization and recycling plant which supplies water to our vineyards. This effluent treatment plant recycles all the industrial wastewater, which is neutralized with lime and then bombed to a tank and used for irrigation purposes. Water treatment involves the oxygenation of the water and the control of its PH. Then, this treated water is mixed with the irrigation water. This enables us to reduce the use of well water and save electric energy in well pumps. All these processes are regulated by a government agency – the Irrigation General Department.
THE NURSERY GARDEN
Innovation is one of Santa Julia´s core values and one of our main features is working with unconventional wine grape varieties.
In our Santa Rosa vineyard, we have a nursery garden with over 35 grape varieties which come from different parts of the world and are unknown in Argentina. They are vinified in small quantities in the winery fermentation laboratory. Those varieties which, after some years, show good adaptability to the soil and climate conditions of the area will eventually become part of the winery varieties line.
