Biodiversity and sustainability

Our long-term focus is to restore and preserve biodiversity on our vineyards on both wine regions, Tokaj and Villány.

Over the last 15 years, we have been working on creating intact, closed lots where we can recreate the once healthy biosphere. The only way to do it is working tightly together with our immediate neighbors or being our own neighbor.

We are in both situations: the Sauska-vineyards on Medve (Tokaj) or Makár (Siklós, Villány wine region) are unique examples. To reconnect the healthy and chemical-free vineyards with its environment, we added plants and bushes. The growing presence of wild animals, game birds and insects is wonderfully visible here since the equilibration of the area.

One efficient way of non-chemical weed-control we use is the traditional straw-bed cover. Covering the topsoil makes the development of weeds impossible because of the lack of air and light. 

Collecting and utilizing rainwater is another key element of sustainability. On Makár, two large beton tanks collect rainwater for us. Already mixed with soil swamped from the vineyards, this nutrition- rich mix returns then to the vineyard as irrigation water creating a perfect healthy circle.

To build a broad-spectrum biosphere, the restoration and equilibration of the vineyards are instrumental.  Because of historical reasons (quantity over quality production during the 40-years of Communism that led to uneven, unhealthy, and tortured vineyards) we have a lot to do on this field.

The first major challenge for us was the melioration of Birsalmás from 2011 to 2017,

which today is one of the most beautiful vineyards in the region. Since then, our Medve have also been replanted:  in the 1950s, the pre-war plantation was replaced by bush vines that created a messy overall picture. The way we restored it by gently working the topsoil - only 10 cm (about 4 inches) deep - to preserve the existing life and overall circulation of the soil system.

Early summer of 2018 the Sauska Tokaj winery welcomed a whole team of Southdown Baby Doll sheep.  As part of our chemical-free vineyard project, we started to live and work with them utilizing their natural ability to clear the bottom of the vines. So far, we are very pleased with their performance! Because of their short stature, they are unable to reach the grapes while they are instrumental in fertilizing the soil.

[Update 2021] The plantation rows at both wine region are kept as green as possible; we increased the grassy area to protect the soil from sliding. That helped to revitalize the underground world, with the return of earthworms and other worms soil quality improved significantly. The challenging part is that grass competes with the vines in picking up the rainfall. Thus, we need to make sure that our plantations do not weaken and help the development of the grapes with ecologically approved nutrient replenishment and occasional row breaking. We only use degradable dressings during cultivation, zero herbicides, consciously choose “helping” weeds (white clover, red clover, camelina, blue corn-bottle, ryegrass, meadow fescue, blue fescue) to cover the rows and row-spacing. We leave space and build a home for the birds and feed them regularly.