OUR STORY

Our vineyard in Severnlea began life as Emerald Hill, established in 1998 by Spanish couple, Tom and Cath Jimenez. At the time their vision to experiment with alternative varieties was iconoclastic for the region – a tradition continued today at Ridgemill Estate.

An Environmentally Sensitive Footprint

Ridgemill estate employs low input farming techniques for a healthy vineyard.

We take our environmental responsibility seriously so our studio cabins have been constructed with sustainability in mind. We use only plantation timbers in construction. Our energy solutions include a 30kw solar farm and cabins are well insulated including sub-floor to reduce the need for electric heating. Consequently our buildings have minimal net emissions. We also harvest rainwater and have on-site bio sewerage plants. Explore the grounds and you’ll see grass trees rescued and tagged by the Dept. of the Environment. We have plans to expand our environmental activities further in the near  future – so watch this space.

CURRENT AND SHORT-TERM GOALS

Ridgemill Estate wines are produced from our vineyards that we manage with low input farming techniques including minimal irrigation, subject to season variation and the vineyards requirements to produce happy, healthy, high quality fruit for the premium wines we produce on site.

Winery waste from the processing and winemaking activities such as skins, seed, stalks are used to feed stock on the property that are employed to maintain the grassed areas and difficult to access areas around the dams.

Liquid waste is captured and settled, and the recovered water goes back into the environment.

The canes from the vineyard after pruning are currently left to decompose and return to the vineyard soil where it is helpful to build up the humus in the soil assisting in water retention in the vineyard.

LONG TERM GOALS

The long term vision to promote Ridgemill Estate’s sustainability is to capture all winery waste and winery marc for composting, which is then utilized in the vineyard to improve soil health by promoting diversity of the microbial community with in the soil and as a natural fertiliser, therefore reducing the need for chemical fertilizers, improving vine health and wellbeing.

The added benefit will be that with better soil, vine and microbial health we should be able to significantly reduce the need for chemicals i.e. fungicides, herbicides to very low input levels.  We no longer use insecticides in the vineyards, if required there are several natural products available.

Ridgemill Estate will always do what is needed to ensure that the business and our farm environment are sustainable into the future.

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