Jamie Goode, he of the wine gang fame asked could we be included in the natural wine groupment last year. Well it’s so debatable what natural means, something different to whoever, you choose to ask?

For me its using the natural flora and fauna to encourage the good bugs to overcome the bad bugs in simple terms!!!Seeing these orchids growing in the vineyard is great, they encourage the good bugs ,ladybirds etc. I will print some pictures of some of the vineyards that use purely chemical weed control and chemicals to kill any growth from the stem, yes it works, its cheap and its quick but as far as I’m concerned it makes a totally sterile zone which the bad bugs manage to reasserts their numbers before the good bugs can take control unless you re apply the chemicals, a viscous circle as far as I'm concerned occurs and its just a recipe for using more chemical weeedkillers.
We've steered away fro this over the last 15 years and even our technician, who is pro chemical has admitted that our system has worked, as long as we don't push for higher yields we are O.K. Its common sense really I see the same happening with the modern dairy cow for example it comes back to the old adage of everything in moderation!!!!! and if you push things to hard they get stressed and then are open to attack!!! Your thoughts please.