Paws Awhile: Yealand’s Estate

“THINK BOLDLY, TREAD LIGHTLY AND NEVER SAY IT CAN’T BE DONE” (A quote by Peter Yealand).

Peter Yealand is an extremely driven man. Yealand’s winery is only one of

many of his business interests. He hasn’t always been in the wine industry. Early on, Peter Yealand recognized the potential to farm Greenshell mussels commercially and in 1971 was issued with New Zealand’s first marine farming licence. In the mid 1980’s Peter established one of New Zealand’s most successful deer farm, specializing in stud animals and embryo transplants.

On the 08/08/08 Peter shared his vision of becoming the world’s most sustainable wine producer.

Yealand’s Seaview Vineyard is located in the Awatere Valley, at the Northern tip of the South Island (when we drove around we could see the North Island!). For years the Awatere Valley foothills were regarded as unsuitable for grape growing. However, Peter Yealand thought differently! He re-contoured the land, filled in ravines, smoothed gullies, terraced hills and planted a diverse range of grapes using GPS alignment, he transformed rugged pastoral land into a sustainable vineyard area. Peter developed and planted over 25 wetlands and 75,000 native trees and flaxes. Strategically placed wetlands, capture water run-off, slowly releasing the water back into the soil, whilst providing a safe haven for a number of bird species.

Yealand’s Winery is the largest privately owned vineyard in the Southern Hemisphere. It is largely self-sustainable and as we drove around the vineyard on our self-directed tour we saw many of these practices in place.

Our first impression of the vineyard was wow! As far as you could see there were rows and rows and rows of grapes! We were told, it only takes three bunches of grapes to produce one bottle of wine! How many bottles of wine would be made from all these acres upon acres of grapes? Unbelievable!

There were lots of free-range chickens around, and they had found that by playing classical music to the chickens they produced larger eggs! As mentioned above, over 25 wetland areas have been established and these have been planted out with native trees and plants. The wetland area have attracted birdlife such as; Royal Spoonbills, Black Swans, Teal ducks, White Herons, Banded Dotterals, and Pied Stilts.

The pests are controlled with methods other than chemicals, such as growing an endophytic grass species that deter insects, but are safe for livestock to eat, such as the Baby Doll sheep (an endangered miniature breed). These Baby Doll sheep reduce the need to mow with tractors and also produce a natural fertilizer for the grapes. There’s a natural breeding programme in place to increase the number of Baby Doll sheep to 10,000.

After the grape vines are pruned in autumn, the vines are bundled up and used as a fuel to burn and produce heat in the winery

To minimize irrigation and improve soil fertility, Yealand’s make their own compost using their own grape marc and landfill waste from other companies (such as mussel shells and seaweed).

The vineyard also has beehives dotted around to attract bees to produce natural honey. As we drove around we noticed there were wild flowers planted in between the rows, which attract bees to aid in pollination. These wildflowers also act as a natural deterrent to some insects.

Check out their website for more information www.yealands.co.nz