My guest for this episode is Mireia Pujol-Busquets, and she’s breeding the future of Catalonian grapes at her family’s estate vineyard just outside of Barcelona, Spain, called Alta Alella.
27% of the organic vineyards globally are in Spain, making Spain the country with the most organic vineyards in the world, by area. Mireia grew up on a vineyard that was organic from its inception in 1991, but she wanted to go her own way and follow her fascination with science. So instead of viticulture and oenology, she studied Biology at university, and then had two unique experiences working with agriculture in Thailand and Switzerland.
In Switzerland she got introduced to resistant hybrid grapes, piwis, and saw that if grapevines were allowed to reproduce sexually, instead of through cloning, they could evolve and adapt to the changes of nature. In contrast to the traditional vinifera grapes that her family grew organically – that needed to be constantly sprayed with copper and sulfur – she saw that grapes could be bred to need no sprays at all. As she looked to the legacy and the land that she would leave not only her children, but generations to come, she realized she needed to start the process of making viticulture something that improved the land, and as a farmer she saw the increasing need for more resistant and resilient vines that could survive in a rapidly more extreme climate.
So Mireia has started a project to breed the traditional vinifera varieties of Catalonia to produce resistant varieties that preserve the culture of her land, but that can be farmed without sprays of any kind, and that can withstand the increasingly extreme weather conditions. Her project is called the Resistant and Autochthonous Varieties Adapted to Climate Change (VRIAACC, acronym in Spanish). With resistant varieties of grapes and the elimination of the need to spray, she will reduce compaction, reduce emissions, create a healthier environment for humans and animals working in and around the vineyard, and reduce losses due to fungal infestations.
https://altaalella.wine/
Support this episode by subscribing via patreon.
Sponsors:
Centralas Wine
Ben Falk - Resilient Wine & Mead, Regenerative Grazing, & Permaculture Design for your Vineyard or Orchard
Dr. Jonathan Lundgren & Ecdysis - Why Regenerative
Regenerative Viticulture Solutions with Nick Hillman
Wine's F-word
Sylvan Farm & Cidery - Feral Farmed and Foraged Finger Lakes Fruit
The No-Spray Viticulture Revolution
Is Wine Sustainable? Artemisia Farm
Designing A Wineforest - Holistic Vitiforestry Permaculture
Planning A Vineyard Or Vitiforestry Project with Nicolas Haack - Part 1
What's Wrong With Wine Education? Featuring Joyce Jones & Charity Potter
The Oldest Winery In the World Is Building Resilience Through Hybrid Grapes & Vitiforestry
Regenerative Spirits Revolution with Rob Easter
The Veraison Project with Regine Rousseau
What Is Wine?
Spiritual Agriculture - Transitioning Wine Away From Capitalocentrism with Cameron Clark
What Does The Fox Know? - Biodynamic Viticulture 101 with Garett Long of Troon Vineyards
World’s Largest No-Spray Vineyard with Vitiforestry, in the Netherlands - Wijngaard Dassemus
The World’s First Regenerative Organic Certified Vineyard - Jason Haas of Tablas Creek
Wine’s Complexity - Nick Dugmore of The Stoke
Re-Defining Wine, Rebuilding A Real Wine Culture - Hermit Woods Winery, New Hampshire
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
Voices of Misery Podcast
House of Whimsical Terror
Just Dumb Enough Podcast
Stuff You Should Know
Timcast IRL