EcoGrowers spread the eco-action

Rebecca has been making wine for Bremerton Wines in SA’s Langhorne Creek since 1997 and now owns and runs the business – which incorporates First Pick Viticulture – with her sister, Lucy.

“My motivation to become an EcoGrower was the desire for education around the biodiversity opportunities for our sites, and to be able to surround myself with like-minded people who I could learn from. I wanted to start to put into practice those learnings and see a real impact on the diversity and health of our land,” said Rebecca.

“I do feel a sense of urgency when it comes to vineyard floor management; the phasing out of traditionally used chemicals for weed control spurs us forward with exploring alternative approaches. In addition, anything that can improve soil health and understanding of what is happening in our soil for long term sustainability is high on our radar.”

Since joining the EcoVineyards program, Rebecca has planted natives to improve biodiversity across two vineyard sites. “These have been very successful in establishing and now we are excited to get under the surface and look at the soil health and activity.”

The next project is to establish a native grass and forbs mix on an old vineyard site with an historical invasive weed problem, before they replant vines. The sisters will also look at composting winery marc waste and utilising it for further improved soil health.

Rebecca is one of a growing number of EcoGrowers within the National EcoVineyards Program. EcoGrowers work with local experts to set up a diverse range of demonstration sites in their vineyards to provide local, practical insights.

The National EcoVineyards program is funded by Wine Australia with levies from Australia’s grape growers and winemakers and matched funds from the Australian Government. The program is delivered by Retallack Viticulture Pty Ltd with significant support from regional communities. The program aims to help grapegrowers to improve soil health, establish ground cover plants and increase functional beneficial biodiversity.

Since its inception last year, the program has provided regionally-specific and practical options to help growers improve their sustainability, resilience and profitability. Recently, a biodiversity action plan – which outlines the biodiversity assets located on a vineyard and outlines actions to be taken to promote environmental stewardship on the property – was developed. You can access an editable version of the plan template, summary page and supporting materials.

Regional plant species lists have also been developed. “These native plant community lists have been collated to reflect regional native plant species with insectary benefits that were present prior to the landscape being modified,” explained agroecologist Dr Mary Retallack, founder and National Program Manager of EcoVineyards.

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A celebration of Australian Shiraz

March 2, 2025

A white wine that’s got everything and more, from great flavour to good stories and B Corp credentials, starting at £18.29 and $24.99. Above, Brendan and Laura Carter of Unico Zelo, photographed by Meaghan Coles. ‘It’s very crisp, saline, with a little floral note but not too much’, said the woman working the counter at my local wine store. Like you, I buy my wines at retail and have to rely on the expertise of the staff when faced with labels I’ve never seen before. Prospect Wine Shop, you did me good here. The wine is everything she promised, and more. More, because while it immediately bewitches with its light, fresh, crisp refreshingness, there’s real substance here, a broadness that fans out and fills every corner of the mouth and works its way into your head, where it lingers, teasingly, tempting you to revisit it with another sip. More, because it was as delicious sipped on its own while making dinner as it was with dinner (risotto one night, clam pasta another, though it would have been just as good with anything that comes from the sea, all manner of fried things, a huge range of vegetable dishes, and lots of other things I’ve imagined since finishing that bottle …). More, because it’s sustainably grown and made by a couple who’ve made a very real commitment to running a business in ways that respect both the land and its people. Unico Zelo wines are made by Brendan and Laura Carter, who first met at the University of Adelaide, while he was studying oenology and she was studying agricultural science. She went off to Henschke to hone her wine chops while he finished his degree; then, in 2014, they launched their own winery, working out of a converted 1920s cold-storage facility in Gumeracha, an hour by car north-east of Adelaide, in the Adelaide Hills. Sounds rather mundane so far. But right out of the gate, that very year, the two managed to win the Young Gun of Wine People’s Choice award on the back of their fresh, bright and entirely unexpected Fiano, their very first wine. Rather than focusing on the obvious (which is Shiraz and Riesling in those parts), the two began by looking to the unsung and underappreciated. Such as Fiano, of which there was a whopping 58 ha (143 acres) grown in 2014 according to Kym Anderson’s statistics. Fiano, a high-acid grape indigenous to the southern Italian province of Campania, first went into Australian ground only in the early 2000s, when the Chalmers family planted some, as did Mark Lloyd at Coriole, who released the country’s first bottled example in 2006. Our Italian-wine critic Walter Speller tells the story of Lloyd’s Fiano attraction in Italian grape varieties in Australia, highlighting the fact that climate change was a primary impetus. As Lloyd said to Walter, ‘The acidity in Italian varieties is never a problem, it is almost always too high rather than too low’.

Unico Zelo, Jade & Jasper Fiano, Riverland

February 22, 2025

A white wine that’s got everything and more, from great flavour to good stories and B Corp credentials, starting at £18.29 and $24.99. Above, Brendan and Laura Carter of Unico Zelo, photographed by Meaghan Coles. ‘It’s very crisp, saline, with a little floral note but not too much’, said the woman working the counter at my local wine store. Like you, I buy my wines at retail and have to rely on the expertise of the staff when faced with labels I’ve never seen before. Prospect Wine Shop, you did me good here. The wine is everything she promised, and more. More, because while it immediately bewitches with its light, fresh, crisp refreshingness, there’s real substance here, a broadness that fans out and fills every corner of the mouth and works its way into your head, where it lingers, teasingly, tempting you to revisit it with another sip. More, because it was as delicious sipped on its own while making dinner as it was with dinner (risotto one night, clam pasta another, though it would have been just as good with anything that comes from the sea, all manner of fried things, a huge range of vegetable dishes, and lots of other things I’ve imagined since finishing that bottle …). More, because it’s sustainably grown and made by a couple who’ve made a very real commitment to running a business in ways that respect both the land and its people. Unico Zelo wines are made by Brendan and Laura Carter, who first met at the University of Adelaide, while he was studying oenology and she was studying agricultural science. She went off to Henschke to hone her wine chops while he finished his degree; then, in 2014, they launched their own winery, working out of a converted 1920s cold-storage facility in Gumeracha, an hour by car north-east of Adelaide, in the Adelaide Hills. Sounds rather mundane so far. But right out of the gate, that very year, the two managed to win the Young Gun of Wine People’s Choice award on the back of their fresh, bright and entirely unexpected Fiano, their very first wine. Rather than focusing on the obvious (which is Shiraz and Riesling in those parts), the two began by looking to the unsung and underappreciated. Such as Fiano, of which there was a whopping 58 ha (143 acres) grown in 2014 according to Kym Anderson’s statistics. Fiano, a high-acid grape indigenous to the southern Italian province of Campania, first went into Australian ground only in the early 2000s, when the Chalmers family planted some, as did Mark Lloyd at Coriole, who released the country’s first bottled example in 2006. Our Italian-wine critic Walter Speller tells the story of Lloyd’s Fiano attraction in Italian grape varieties in Australia, highlighting the fact that climate change was a primary impetus. As Lloyd said to Walter, ‘The acidity in Italian varieties is never a problem, it is almost always too high rather than too low’.