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The El Grifo winery's own vineyard is already 100% ecological and is committed to a paradigm shift that seeks to restore and improve the soil and the ecosystem
He 100% of the vineyard that belongs to The tap it's ecological. Assuming the consequences of climate change in the cultivation of vines means looking for alternatives and effective solutions.. And regenerative viticulture is. It is an agricultural approach that seeks to restore and improve the soil and ecosystem in the cultivation of vineyards and that, therefore, focuses on sustainable practices that promote biodiversity.
The team led by the winemaker Elisa Ludeña has integrated various techniques with optimal results. The project came to light in November 2022, with the aim of improving soils. In a first phase, It is about restoring ecosystem processes by focusing on the three “emes” from the ground: organic matter, Minerals and Microorganisms that must be increased and balanced.
The practices to achieve it are: the use of plant covers, this is planting different seeds to improve water infiltration, protect the floor from temperatures, beneficial insect shelter, atmospheric nitrogen fixation, carbon fixation… Also composting and organic fertilization tasks, that is, the contribution of organic matter for the proliferation of macroorganisms. And polyculture, which consists of different crops in the same area and creates a benefit to cover the development needs of each other, always with optimal soil health, so that cultivation competitions are not created.
In The tap, after analyzing the soil of the farms, They observed that their soils are rich in nutrients and micronutrients, but they are not balanced, making a large part of these nutrients not assimilable by the plant. Likewise, many bacteria and few fungi were found., obvious signs of impoverishment.
Currently, the oldest winery in the Canary Islands It has a plot where practices that help balance the “ideal soil” are implemented with the aim of maintaining a relationship between carbon and nitrogen., which helps organic matter proliferate. Fertilizers began to provide the soil with organic matter, using fertilizers of known organic matter concentration. Regarding mineral amendments, They are carried out after an analysis of the soils that showed a lack of some minerals or an imbalance between them that does not make them assimilable for cultivation..
Once the necessary contributions have been made, sowing of a seed mixture began (alfalfa, avena, centeno, chicharos, lupins and broad beans) taking advantage of the first winter rains to ensure its sprouting and that it is not competition with the vine, so the planting coincides with the vines without pruning and at the time of sprouting of the vineyard, the vegetation cover is practically dry. It is not expected to harvest harvest from these crops, Therefore, once its cycle has finished, it is left to dry and spread on the ground so that it continues its decomposition and benefits in the soil..
Fertilizers and mineral amendments are applied to all farms. The tap, while the planting of vegetal cover is limited to a single area, to be able to analyze the results well.
Monitoring the ripening of the berries on the plot where the regenerative viticulture work is carried out, revealed that the most striking values are the average volume of the berries, this is, grapes of larger size and their colors, lower colors appearing in the final stage of ripening because there is greater leaf mass and the grapes are not as exposed to sunlight.
In their 250 years of existence, The tap has faced the challenges of the present and the future through research. It proves it, one more time, with its commitment to living soils and a new paradigm in the cultivation of vineyards: regenerative viticulture
