SUSTAINABILITY

SOIL CONDITIONING

EXSA believes that quality starts from the soil.

We invest in building and balancing our soils to ensure sustainable production for future generations. We follow an integrated soil management program of first balancing and then building our soils to ensure optimum production and quality. Cover crops, mulching and compost are used in our process. In the process of building our soils we have achieved richer and healthier soils with less fertilizer and water inputs.

RESIDUE REDUCTION AND BIOLOGICAL CONTROL

We manage our residue levels carefully and responsibly and follow Integrated Pest Management strategies to reduce residues.

We now favour friendly target specific fungicides above harsh, broad spectrum fungicides. By replacing harsh, broad-spectrum fungicides with friendlier, target-specific fungicides we ensure the conservation of these beneficial organisms to assist with the process of keeping our vineyards free of pests under control.

WATER USE REDUCTION

We understand that water is our most important resource.

EXSA is constantly testing ways to decrease the amount of water use per box of grapes. We have introduced soil probes in our vineyards which provide accurate data irrigation cycle calculations. By using drip irrigation in the right soils, moisture probes and aggressive mulching we have considerably decreased our water use. Some of our growers have lined their storage dams with high tech plastic lining in order to prevent water seepage and thus to increase their water security.