Objective

To develop and test herbicide-free weeding practices and techniques.

To provide viable solutions for reducing the use of phytosanitary products.

To support partner winegrowers in eliminating chemical herbicides.

To elimate herbicide use among all partner winegrowers and the Cognac AOC by 2028.

Description

In 2019, winegrowers expressed their interest in a collective project during Hennessy’s Technical Forum on Sustainable Viticulture Practices. This interest, combined with Hennessy’s long-standing commitment to help their winegrowers transition to sustainable viticulture, resulted in the 2020 application to take part in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food’s Ecophyto II plan. 

As part of the Ecophyto II+ plan, the Ferme 30000 programme aims to move 30,000 farms towards low usage of plant protection products by 2021. The end goal is to reduce their use by 50% by 2025. 

Hennessy, in partnership with 17 Cognac AOC winegrowers, launched the five-year pilot scheme in July 2020 at a meeting in the Hennessy vineyard of La Bataille in Saint-Preuil. The ambition is to collectively develop and transmit practices that are both sustainable and viable, more respectful of the environment and that allow for production levels and grape quality to be maintained. To ensure the relevance of the solutions found and their reproducibility among other winegrowers, the partnership is representative, in terms of size and soil type of the wine-growing region as a whole. 

Implementation

The winegrowers are developing and testing herbicide-free practices and techniques and find viable solutions to reduce the use of phytosanitary products. To assess progress, quantified objectives have been defined and will be monitored using technical, environmental, agronomic, economic and social indicators. 

The roadmap is spread over five years, with a specific theme for each year.

• 2020: Diagnostic phase.
• 2021: Mechanical work under the row.
• 2022: Plant and non-plant cover under the row.
• 2023: Robotics and autonomous tractors.
• 2024: Report on the actions and results presented to partner winegrowers.

Support

To support the winegrowers, Hennessy is providing them with the knowledge and skills they need to be more autonomous in how they work the soil. To do this they:

• Provided a demonstration of EmiSOL during the launch in July 2020. This tool allows mechanical weeding of the soil on two simultaneous rows.
• Call on external expertise, ranging from mechanisation (mechanical weeding with different types of tools) to agronomy (improving their understanding of the composition, both mineral and biological, of their soils and soil fertility).
• Organised workshops on mechanical weeding in 2021. This included practical onsite demonstrations of equipment. By studying the microbiological composition and biomass of their soils, combined with field observations and technical input from an expert, participants were able to enhance their knowledge of agronomy in terms of soil fertility, and particularly regarding the benefits of plant cover.
• Provide participants with regular visits from a technical expert between May and August to troubleshoot diseases and pests in their vines.
• Provide concrete tools (videos, technical factsheets, articles) to ensure that these best practices are shared.
• Share the results of experiments carried out on the La Bataille pilot vineyard. 

Presentation of the results

The results of this pilot will be sent to the 1,600 partner wine growers who will benefit from support for the appropriation of the techniques developed. These non-chemical solutions will allow them to eliminate herbicides across their combined 33,000 ha of vineyards that supply Hennessy.

Partners

Moët Hennessy (Hennessy is owned by Moet Hennessy which is ultimately controlled by Moët Hennessy Louis Vuittonn LVMH).

16 partner Cognac AOC winegrowers (AOC-appellation d'origine contrôlée/controlled designation of origin)

Results

108 ha have already been worked without using herbicides.

4 mechanisation workshops and two agronomy days focussing on soil fertility have taken place.

A biodiversity day in the winegrowing region was held.

Downloads

Videos

Photo gallery

Documents