We have been working for much of the last 12 months to define our next ten year Paradise Rescued Vision. One of the strong values we hold close to our hearts in our culture – and clearly written on our pictureVision – is that of Continual Improvement.
The words are pretty self explanatory but essentially it is the eustress or ‘edge’ that feeds our passion and desire to produce a better sustainable vineyard, winery, wine and customer experience. It is effectively the feedback loop that empowers our next work plans, creates opportunity and focusses our research and innovation.
In 2010, we started with a very clear Vision and plan which included a three pillar business model:-
- Good fruit
- Expert Vinification
- Niche Brand Market Access
and although the words may change slightly in our Vision 2030, essentially the same three pillars will be there. The core theme behind it was to recognise that to create a great wine business on our micro scale level, the wine had to be as good as possible but that we recognised that this process didn’t start in the winery. It all begins in the vineyard. And hence why we started from day one with an Organic Viticulture strategy. The data and recognitions (seven medals – one gold, one double gold) plus our own visual feedback in the vineyard suggest that we have had a reasonable level of success. And we are very proud of that success.
The Cabernet Franc vineyard at Paradise Rescued, overlooked by the 12th century church of Cardan.
But as we look forward, we are seeking to go to the next level. And following the same three pillar logic as previously, that begins with our soil and land. Over the same period of time, our world has made some progress in addressing its future and safeguarding the wellbeing of future generations. But the sustainability data is less compelling. The concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is still rising and we don’t yet look like we have even started to “flatten the curve”.
We therefore recognise that, no matter how small our vineyard and voice, we must expand our vision to meet an increasingly urgent challenge. The voice of one is powerful (when committed) and we will endeavour to share our vision through both our personal leadership and to our industry colleagues and wider world. As our Paradise Rescued motto says “Failure is not an option”. The consequences are unthinkable.
One major part of our next ten year Vision will be the (further) improved health of our soil. We have consistently challenged our vineyard and winery team with the question: how do we build on that base of good organic viticulture to create great soil health that in turn will improve the vigour of our vines and the quality of our fruit plus wine? Our answer is through Regenerative Organic Viticulture.
It’s not easy in this introductory blog nor at this stage of understanding or implementing our Vision to tell you which of the many tools available we will trial and deploy in our vineyards. There is no one single recipe to follow; we will have to determine what works best for our terroir and vineyards.
Our goals are to improve the health of our soil, increasing the biodiversity and sequester carbon. We believe this will provide further benefits to our soil, vines, wines and community mission. As we channel down Regenerative Organic Viticulture from our Vision into different strategies, as part of our leadership commitment, we will share our progress. We will continue – as always – to be open with our community, visitors and wider industry.
On our own, we and our world will not succeed. As we grow and learn together, our optimism for a sustainable world will grow too. We welcome your support, encouragement and participation.