At Fishbone, our team have been working towards a more sustainable vineyard and farming approach to the Fishbone property at Wilyabrup. Our team has focused on a number of key requirements in order to maintain a healthy farm whilst keeping a natural, ecological environment in place.
We take the collection and use of water seriously. There are no running streams through out the 165 acre property, so our water is collected from property run-off into two dams located on the Eastern and Western sides of the farm. The dams also provide water for our cows and the native wildlife passing through the property and often hang around in the safe surroundings.
We are doing our part to help the environment by way of energy pollution reduction with addition of solar power. Solar panels have been installed to pump water from the dams to the vineyard and also fill water troughs for our cows that graze throughout the property.
We have installed trickle irrigation to drip feed the vines and therefore control the amount of water used, saving on water losses by way of evaporation.
The team has a strong focus in adding organics wherever possible to the vines. Advanced soil probiotics improve our soil health by unlocking nutrients in the soil and boosts plant growth. It also assists in decreasing the impact of soil disease
and pests. Compost is also used under-vine to help retain moisture and promote organisms within the soil.
Control of weeds is a difficult endeavour however at the end of harvest and through the winter months, sheep are let into the vineyards which eat weeds without damaging the vines. This form of weed control also adds a little natural fertiliser which assists the development of earth worms.
We do not use machine barrel pruning to remove the bulk of the cane after harvest. All our vines are hand pruned to help reduce carbon-emission from machinery. Netting is used to help protect the vines and fruit from the natural elements without affecting the environment.
No machine harvesting is used on the property; all harvesting is done by manual labour using seasonal workers. Grapes are crushed and fermented with a minimalistic approach in the wine making process. The addition of sulphites
is important in maintaining quality, however additional are carefully monitored to ensure minimal imputes are added. Natural wild yeast ferments are also used in each vintage.
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