More GOLD for RedHeads’ Green initiatives

RedHeads Wine located in the Barossa Valley was last night awarded the Environmental Excellence Award for small to medium sized wineries at the 2021 South Australian Wine Industry Awards held at the National Wine Centre in Adelaide.

The award adds to two international accolades, the first was in 2019 when RedHeads was bestowed with the 2019 Global Drinks Business Green Award for Water Management and the second in 2020 when it was given a special commendation for Power Management at the same awards.

RedHeads’ green initiatives that led to this award trifecta, start in the vineyards with a state-of-the-art Water Management system comprising of soil probes to dictate when vines need water and enable them to only water when necessary and a water collection and storage system. Reducing waste water and water recycling are key focus areas RedHeads has worked towards, capturing all of the water from its winery roof and dam, collecting 2.7 million litres of extra water that can be reused around the winery and site, while the dam, with a storage capacity of 3.8 megalitres is used to supply water for irrigation.

When the winery was custom-built in 2018 by local builder, Ahrens, Power Management was also at the forefront. The winery is fully powered through 100% renewable sources with 97% powered by self-generated and stored renewable energy and the remaining 3% energy sourced from a certified renewable energy source. This equates to a saving of 22 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

Alex Trescowthick, Winery Operations Manager is extremely pleased that the word is getting out there and hopes RedHeads’ winery can be a model for other small to medium sized new builds.

“We are immensely proud of what we have achieved over the past two years, contributing to a greener future for all. We are painfully aware of the evidence for climate change and its potentially devastating consequences. To combat this, we built a new sustainable winery in the Barossa Valley in 2019, starting from just a greenfield site.” Alex said

“Building the new winery from scratch gave us the opportunity to focus on accommodating premium winemaking as well as reducing its carbon footprint, waste, and environmental impact. We hope we can inspire other wineries and industries to improve how they manage their waste and energy requirements.” Alex continued.

RedHeads by name, but GreenHeads by nature.