Manual of techniques for sustainable mountain viticulture Josep Lluís Pérez Verdú

mountain vine growing regions to introduce changes in the way in which vineyards are operated and

to innovative in their productive and commercial strategy: 

•

Apply new techniques to increase productivity, maintaining or even increasing the quality of the

grape.

•

Stand out in the market by producing wines that combine a good basic quality with a strong per-

sonality, intelligently using the natural and human resources available.

With future generations in mind, long-term survival of mountain viticulture requires strong financial fea-

sibility, with low vulnerability to inevitable market fluctuations. 

However, the prosperity and economic progress of mountain vineyards cannot be achieved at the cost

of the environment. Alongside the taste for good wines, social sensitivity for environmental protection

has also increased. More particularly, mountain landscapes provide natural, visual, social and econo-

mic values that must be preserved. The symbiosis between the landscape and the wine culture is lea-

ding to a new tourist sector: wine tourist, which in some regions may be as economically relevant as

the viticulture and its derived winery activities themselves. 

One of the main techniques for increasing mountain vineyard productivity is by forming terraces for

crop mechanisation. To a greater or lesser extent, land terracing using basic, badly thought out tech-

niques leads to the breakdown of the landscape and the increase in erosion due to concentrated of

run-off. Random terracing is environmentally unsustainable and, in particularly sensitive areas, may put

the continuity of the wine production activity at risk. 

However, the landscape does not have to be mummified. The land must be kept alive and production

work must be permitted, provided this is done harmonically and without jeopardising its most emble-

matic views. The abandoning of the vineyard and loss of the mosaic landscape are just as bad as the

proliferation of grossly terraced vineyards that monopolise the land due to their low productivity. The

landscape must also be accessible and open and it must encourage compatible contact between viti-

culture and society. 

The Mediterranean area also has a high risk of erosion of poor and sparse soils that form a natural

resource of high value. In more arid areas, erosion may be the start of desertification processes that

are extremely difficult to reverse.

Old vineyards in the Priorat region

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Therefore, a fragile environment is another of the basic conditioning factors that the new mountain viti-

culture must include, especially that of the Mediterranean. 

The profitable and environment-friendly development of mountain viticulture is not, therefore, an

obvious matter. Economic and environmental sustainability may seem irreconcilable objectives and

often present themselves as such. However, the recipe for environmental protection is no longer an

Why continue with mountain viticulture?

Despite the adverse orographic conditions for vine growing and the high production costs this

represents, it is important to ensure mountain viticulture remains environmentally and financially

feasible in order to: 

•

Uphold an activity in the rural mountain environment and avoid population drift. Prosperous

economic activities must be added to the feeling of belonging to an area.

•

Preserve unique landscapes formed over centuries of balanced work by mankind. 

•

Promote the mosaic use of land as one of the most appropriate measures of preventing forest

fires, especially in Mediterranean areas. The vine has been proven to be a good fire-break.

•

Conserve the variety of autochthonous grape especially adapted to the land and the climate

of each area.

•

Use the strong character of mountain regions to produce unique, top quality wines for the glo-

bal market.

These historic, socio-economic and landscape-based values offer a relevant contribution

towards the cultural and biological diversity of the planet and are an undeniable tourist attraction,

the exploitation of which may have significant weight in the local economy. 

In short, it is a case of using a strong local identity as a driving force for sustainability and plat-

form for influencing global values.

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impassable productive barrier but instead a socio-economic opportunity that is simple, despite its

complexity: (eco)innovation. In the case of mountain viticulture, the increase in resource productivity

and grape quality must offset the increase in vineyard construction and operating costs as a result of

the prevention of environmental impact (negative external economic issues). As such, mountain viti-

culture may become a production activity with a present and a future and provide all its direct and indi-

rect economic added value to the districts housing it. 

The final social aim is to contribute towards rural development and to secure the population in the

region through the creation of stable, quality jobs for both men and women that enable them to enjoy

decent standards of living. 

With these clearly established goals, the mountain viticulture developed by Mas Martinet is based on

the integration of two apparently independent groups of techniques that provide all their sustainability

potential when applied together:

•

Sustainable terracing.

•

Vine vigour control.

These techniques have been developed without bearing in mind the vine-growing limitations established

by the regulations of the European wine production regions (irrigation, production per hectare, number

of buds, etc.). This has been the case for two reasons:

•

The heterogeneity of these limitations, which often respond more to a century-old tradition than

solid scientific bases, and that have may have made perfect sense in times gone by but that must

now be reviewed in light of current knowledge and technological possibilities. 

•

The very nature of an experimental and demonstrative project that seeks to open up new ways for

sustainable mountain viticulture requires very clear final objectives, despite acting with complete

freedom to meet them, with no pre-established conditions that restrict creativity before it can be

expressed. Innovation also consists of questioning the traditional way things are done. 

More specifically, it is the wine producing regions that must be ready for the new viticulture techniques

arising, taking the necessary time to assess them carefully and decided how many should be integra-

ted into existing regulations and in which manner, in order to modify or add to them. 

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