Irrigating and spraying vines with water from the winery

n a bid to help farms re-use the waste water from their wineries and harvest rainwater from the roofs of their buildings or car parks, the French Vine Institute in South-West France has secured funding from the Occitanie regional council and the Adour-Garonne water board to launch several experiments on its 15-hectare vineyard in Peyrole, Tarn.

“We are launching the Vin’Eau (vine and water) programme to assess the health risks stemming from re-use of winery water treated in tanks aerated using micro-oxygenation and re-use of rainwater to irrigate vines, clean spraying equipment or prepare spraying solutions”, explained department director Eric Serrano during a webinar organised by Ecofilae on March 14. “Starting with the 2024 season, we plan to send disks from leaves treated using the different methods to a laboratory to ensure that the two types of water do not have any negative effects on the efficacy of the treatments”.

IFV would also like to have worked on water re-use for cleaning the floors and tanks in wineries, but has yet to receive the green light from the Ministries of Agriculture, the Environment and Health. “It’s a shame because this is the most relevant way of re-using water at farm level”, comments Serrano. A new decree published at the end of January, though, should facilitate the process.