Permaculture and PIWIs

Immaculate, legitimate, complete "sustainability" is impossible to achieve in man-made agricultural systems, but at Thomas Niedermayr, I'd say they come as close as humanly possible.

This 5 hecatre vineyard of PIWIs* (aka disease resistant varieties) is mixed with fruit, nut, and forest trees representing 300 different species, as well as vegetables, herbs, flowers, bees, ducks, and chickens. Plus Forsythia (last photo), not quite in bloom yet. The three grape varieties here - Bronner, Souvignier gris, and Solaris - are some of the parents of the younger generation of PIWIs/resistant varieties that I wrote about in previous posts. Souvignier gris and Bronner have required zero sprays....ZERO....in 20 years. Solaris is "higher maintence," requiring a few applications of sulfur most seasons. That's right, no copper.

While distinctly different from vinifera, the wines were delicious. Thomas and his right hand, Luisa, shepard the grapes through the vinification process with no additions other than 30 mg/l of sulfur at bottling. They allow the uniqueness and expressiveness of these varieties and of the incredible site to speak for themselves.