By transforming our Casa Gran estate into a sustainable ecosystem, our core philosophy seeks to balance conscientious stewardship of the environment with production of the highest quality wine grapes.
Our viticulture techniques have been developed to improve biodiversity and the health of our soils, keeping them dynamic and alive by through mycorrhization, a symbiotic relationship between the roots and helpful fungi in the soil, which helps our vines obtain better nutrients.
Ground covers are to the soil what the skin is to the flesh: they protect it and provide biodiversity. Within our philosophy, biodiversity is not the final objective but rather a strategy for creating an entire living system. Our vines coexist all year-round with cover crops that were specifically designed for each individual plot of land, depending on the vigour of the vines, their density and the type of soil.
We aim for our soils to be nutritionally self-sufficient. A sustainable balance of nutrients provides us with top-quality results without ever needing to rely on chemical additives. This is another reason we use selected ground flora that enrich soil with organic matter and attach nitrogen from the air. We also create a carbon contribution by grinding up vine pruning remains and spreading the pulp on the soil.
Insects, reptiles, birds and various Mediterranean animals such as wild boars and rabbits, along with a variety of trees and other vegetation all play a very important role in a balanced ecosystem.
For this reason, we have developed biodiversity “hot spots” or corridors and dry-stone walls as compensatory areas within our vineyards. A flock of sheep feeds on the vineyard cover crops and on grape pomace during fall and winter. The interaction of all these living things creates harmony in our viticultural paradise.
The Mediterranean climate offers adequate rainfall, but this is unevenly distributed during the year and mainly concentrated in fall and winter. Our ground covers and biodiversity corridors help to prevent erosion and force the rainwater to penetrate into the subsoil, providing a natural reserve for spring and summer.
We also designed systems to conduct excess rainwater throughout our estate into retaining areas, which in turn encourage more water to seep into these subsoil reserves. Ducts from various buildings also collect rainwater and funnel it into these reservoirs.
