Syngenta implements pollination practices to preserve biodiversity in Abadía Retuerta vineyards

The Abadía Retuerta farm, located in the Valladolid municipality of Sardón del Duero, practices environmentally friendly agriculture and recovers biodiversity in the margins of its vineyards, through Operation Pollinator, an international program implemented by Syngenta with the collaboration of different scientific organizations in Spain, whose objective is the establishment of specific habitats for pollinating insects in the margins of the crops, which allow the creation of natural refuges for pollinators and encourage the presence of other arthropods useful as predators and parasitoids.

According to the conclusions of the aforementioned project, the study concludes that in Abadía de Retuerta, a winery faithful to its principles on Corporate Social Responsibility, agriculture is practiced completely respectful of the environment, something that allows the progress and subsistence of man, while conservation of species.

Crop margins play a crucial role in protecting soil and water, as well as increasing biodiversity

With their establishment, they maintain uncultivated areas as ecological compensation zones and recover from the margins or borders that have gradually disappeared in today’s agriculture.

The result of the study of biodiversity of the “cultivated margins” inside the vineyards of Abadía Retuerta concludes that more than 145 species of insects are located in this farm (122 pollinators and 31 predators of possible pests)

In addition, we highlight the location of 9 species of Iberian endemic insects such as the pollinating butterflies Aricia camera, Lycaena phlaeas lusitanica, Brintesia circe hispanica and Colias alfacariensis; As well as 3 species of solitary bee of great potential pollinator, a florichop beetle or beetle and an aphid predator ladybird.

The Pollinator Project was created in Spain six years ago by Syngenta with the collaboration of scientific bodies such as CSIC (Higher Council for Scientific Research) and IMIDA (Murcia Institute for Research and Agrarian Development) and universities such as ETSIA (School of Agricultural Engineers Madrid).

The implementation of environmental techniques on farms such as Abadia Retuerta is essential to achieving the EU’s 2020 targets for biodiversity and protection of natural resources, especially water and soil.

The challenge to ensure the availability of food in a sustainable way is to strike a balance between increased quality agricultural production and the implementation of environmental measures

Visionary cellar

The winery Abadía Retuerta (Sardón de Duero, Valladolid) has been producing wines since 1996, but already in 1991 the first vineyard was planted, whose origins date back to the 12th century. The farm occupies an area of 700 hectares, of which only the best terroirs (soils) distributed in small parcels or payments have been planted of vineyard. A total of 54 small payments of very differentiated characteristics have been identified, among them the composition of the soil where the vineyard grows. Each is planted with a single variety. In total there is 70% of Tempranillo, 10% of Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% of Syrah; The remaining 10% is divided between Merlot, Petit Verdot and some varieties of white that up to the 2011 vintage were only produced experimentally.

This winery, conceived and designed by the French oenologist Pascal Delbeck, and consolidated by the current winegrower and winemaker Ángel Anocíbar, is one of the most innovative and technologically advanced in Europe

It was one of the first installations in Spain to bet on the movement of wine only by gravity, highlighting its system of elevated deposits with cranes or a proprietary system for the extraction of wine.

Source: Abadía Retuerta. Photos: Ólga López.

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