Our vines are managed through traditional sustainable practices. This ensures our wines remain true to their origins and provides you with honest flavours in elegant wines.
URLAR Gladstone became BioGro certified in 2010.
Our commitment to Organic Viticulure and Winemaking has continued to this day. We also embrace biodynamic practices throughout the year.
URLAR is about giving life back to the soil and managing the vineyard as a balanced sustainable farming unit. This includes organic practices such as recycling through composts and liquid manures and increasing plant bio diversity through inter-row crops.
Our own Highland cow herd provide the manure to drive our composting process.
Using the biodynamic farming and gardening calendar, the influences of the sun, the moon, the planets and stars are recognised and used where possible.
Our 31 hectare vineyard is located on free-draining soils has over 100,000 vines planted. Our planned inter-row crop rotation will maintain healthy soils full of life and biodiversity.
Flowers, such as buckwheat, lupins and phacelia provide crucial protection to the vineyard attracting beneficial insects that will kill off unwanted pests that can destroy the fruit and vines. A good example of this is the Tasman Wasp which preys on the Leaf roller Catapillar - a pest that causes harmful botrytis, a type of rot in the grape bunches.
Biodynamic preparations allow us to further enhance our Vineyard. We apply 500, 501, and CPP on an annual basis. For more information please visit http://biodynamic.org.nz/