Blood, sweat and… trees?

Running a vineyard isn’t always easy. It takes a lot of hard-work, dedication and passion to own and manage a vineyard, especially when you want complete control over the winemaking process to ensure each bottle has encapsulated the characteristics of your estate. Fortunately we have the passion and dedication in abundance and believe that shines through in our single vineyard wines.

Hard-work – the blood, the sweat, the tears – is all the more enjoyable and rewarding when you’re doing something you care deeply about. Our recognition is knowing, and seeing first hand, how our wines bring enjoyment to the people who drink them at our Cellar Doors and festivals and customers who tell us how well our wines went down at a dinner party or cosied up on the sofa with a good film. That’s our reward; that’s what makes all the hard-work worthwhile.

There are others though, who need recognition for their hard-work and passion for the environment that will continue to assist us in displaying the finest the Yarra Valley has to offer. They are the volunteers who came to our estate last week and helped us plant a phenomenal 1500 trees.

The benefit of trees

Good wine comes from the effort and love that goes into making them and a really vital part of that is the commitment to a healthy local environment and robust biodiversity. That commitment — as part of a Yarra Ranges Council initiative to protect, restore and sustainably manage our natural environment — resulted in H&J employees, along with our heroic local volunteers, planting these 1500 trees for the benefit of the Yarra Ranges, Victoria, Australia and the world at large.

Positive and constructive restoration of our environment can work hand in hand with land productivity and that’s what this initiative was all about. Environmental revolutions start with small, hyper-local initiatives like this and gradually grow to regional, national and international movements.

The benefits of this exercise are many and compound to make a profound effect on the sustainability of our estate and the environmentally friendly credentials of our wines.

These trees will make a huge difference to the air quality of our estate as they take carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide out of the air and replacing it with oxygen.

Carbon offsetting and taking tonnes of harmful gasses out of the air is not all they have to offer though. They will also act as a wind barrier to protect growing tips from wind channelling which will boost the harvest in a sustainable, eco-friendly way through improved pollination and yields.

As well as protecting the vines from wind they will offer shade to our cows that do so much to control grass and weeds which helps with the biodiversity of grassy ecosystems.

Trees are natural air conditioners and the cooling effect they can provide will protect the estate from overheating. As they grow, these saplings will also help stop soil erosion by encouraging water penetration and reducing sediment which is great for the health of the vineyard and the quality of grapes we can grow.

Local wildlife will benefit from an expanded habitat that provides food and shelter for birds and other animals. Over time the increased population will attract a more diverse range of life that will create a more harmonious local ecosystem.

Thank you

Each tree planted is a boon to the environment and we are so proud to have 1500 new trees growing on our estate. They will not just benefit our vineyard but Yarra Valley as a whole and for that we offer our thanks to the council and all the volunteers who gave up their time to help us last weekend. We could not have done it without your help and you’re all heroes to us.

In years to come, our wines will not just reflect our hard-work, passion and dedication but that of the wonderful volunteers and the trees they planted.