Respect for the land, the community and our environment has been part of our business strategy and philosophy from the day we planted our first vines at Gimblett Road in 1981. We've been leading environmental responsibility and sustainability in the New Zealand wine industry ever since.
In 1998, Pask Winery became one of the first New Zealand wineries to achieve ISO 14001 accreditation. We believe that the only way to ensure the integrity of our wines is to own the full winemaking process and practice sustainable methods. That means sustainability is an all-encompassing philosophy for us.
We continue to be attentive to our vineyard's needs and use best-practice sustainability, including:
-
Monitoring for possible erosion risk and compaction, and ensure we maintain or increase organic matter in the soil.
-
Returning used grape-skin matter, or marc, to the vineyard to be spread amongst the rows, with any excess donated to a local mushroom farm to ensure best use of winegrowing waste.
-
Avoiding the use of agri-chemicals and nutrient applications unless they are absolutely justified and only if they have been approved for use by Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand.
-
Conserving water according to resource management protocols.
-
Replacing unproductive or diseased vines as soon as feasible, ensuring best use of scarce vineyard land and the uptake of resources by the vineyard.
Pask is also committed to NZ Winegrowers initiatives such as the Virus Elimination Project, aimed at monitoring and controlling grapevine viruses and eventually maintaining virus-free vineyards.