The Girondin Emile Grelier estate is one of the pioneers of agroforestry in viticulture with nearly a thousand trees.
Its vines are protected from pests and the rows are less exposed to heat waves, the trees acting as "air conditioners".
Its manager, Benoît Vinet, believes that agroforestry is now "in vogue" among winegrowers, thanks in particular to the credibility brought by the conversion of the prestigious Château Cheval Blanc.
Did you know ?
Originally, the vine is a forest liana.
And on his eight-hectare wine estate, Benoît Vinet allows it to reconnect in part with its natural inclination, by planting trees... He is one of the pioneers of agroforestry in viticulture with nearly a thousand trees, three quarters of fruit trees and a quarter of leafy trees, planted on his Emile Grelier estate in Lapouyade, in Gironde.
An exception in the country of Bordeaux monoculture, where plains of vines follow one another as far as the eye can see.
He planted his first trees in 2008 in an alley and today the vines of the rows placed under these plum, pear and apple trees have climbed up to the branches of these fruit trees.
A future plant arbor is announced and the winemaker is even preparing a special “grapes in the trees” cuvée.
It is not a question of creating a plant canopy over all these rows of vines, which would produce too much shade, but rather of experimenting with the interactions between vines and trees.
Less pests on the vine, and financial gains
“The idea is to create a vineyard that is sustainable and resilient to insect attacks and climate change,” says Benoît Vinet.
And his bet is already partly successful.
On the biodiversity side: hares, birds, snakes, hedgehogs, amphibians and bats have taken up residence on its estate.
While waiting for the trees to grow, about fifty birdhouses have been installed to serve as their shelters and ponds have been dug so that the animals can drink there and the batrachians can reproduce there.
Considerate, the winegrower removes a snake plate at the end of a row, which protects them from birds of prey, before the passage of a small tractor.
“We very easily regulate all the parasites, such as grape worms, cycadelles, even snails and slugs, whereas in organic farming it can be complicated, observes Benoît Vinet.
It doesn't work for fungal diseases (mildew and powdery mildew), but I'm hopeful it improves with tree planting density.”
To achieve this, he also plans to return to older grape varieties, while his estate is almost entirely planted with Merlot.
The trees also act as windbreaks that are particularly devastating to the vines in the event of a heat wave.
“The transpiration of the trees makes us hope for a kind of air conditioning in the vines, points out the winegrower.
We'll keep our Merlots a little longer than elsewhere, perhaps…” And the estate is also reaping the financial fruits of its agroforestry choice.
“We started from nothing, our first bottle for direct sale was in 2014, he says and today, we have more than 300 resellers in France (wine merchants, delicatessens, organic stores).
Such a breakthrough in Bordeaux can be explained by this particular history”.
Adapted harvests
On the rows of vines where there are trees, we necessarily harvest by hand.
"I prune very short so as to have small bunches, so that they occupy 100% of the linear and obtain a high aromatic concentration", says the winemaker.
The rest is harvested mechanically.
And historically, it is moreover the arrival of tractors and then of harvesting machines which standardized the relief of the vineyards.
"It does not require more work in the vines than a classic vineyard, but you have to maintain the trees and harvest their fruits", describes the winemaker.
Last year, the estate, of which 5 to 10% of the trees went into production, marketed its first fruits (plums, apples, pears, apricots and cherries).
Signatory of a charter with the conservatory of plant species, it is home to 50 different varieties of apple trees, 35 pear trees and around twenty plum trees.
Hardier and more disease resistant breeds.
Twenty years ago, after having acquired this meadow bordered by forest, he began to plant vines in organic farming, as his parents did in Charente in the 1980s. He then asked a naturalist to make a diagnosis on the site which teaches him that despite the reduction in chemical inputs, biodiversity is not very rich there.
It's a shock for the winemaker and his wife, Dephine.
And that's when they decided to try to recreate a complete ecosystem, by planting trees.
While some may have been skeptical at the start, “today, no one would allow themselves to question what we put in place, we are easily listened to,” notes Benoît Vinet.
An open-air laboratory
Researchers from different institutes (Inra, Biosphere and Vitinnov) have worked on the vineyard, one of the first to set up in agroforestry with the Château d'Esther, in Saint-Loubès.
And the winegrower is also starting to become a specialist: “We know that a lot of things are at stake at the level of mycorrhizae, he specifies.
Those of the endomycorrhizae family are more favorable to the vine”.
Translation: for example, it is not recommended to plant pedunculate oak in the vines but to favor fast-growing trees.
He is still testing cohabitations but is beginning to master his subject: “I prune all these hardwood trees (radical pruning) to avoid a shading effect which could be detrimental to the vine.
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Last year, the vineyard supported around ten projects in New Aquitaine, as part of the hedge planting program piloted by France Relance.
The estate is also regularly open to the public for themed walks.
A few days ago, winegrowers from Portugal and Austria came to visit the site.
And, projects are emerging in Dordogne or Charente in particular.
"Agroforestry is in vogue in the wine world," says the winemaker.
Since Château Cheval Blanc went there last year, it has brought credibility.
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