BEST PRACTICE

We make every effort to keep rural Spain alive (Añorbe population 650), creating jobs in production and sales, promoting wine tourism in the region and doing what we can to prevent the neglect of rural life in Valdizarbe.

We streamline use of agricultural machinery by living in the same valley and having all the vineyards and olive groves within 8 km of the village. Agricultural management is done on a day to day basis according to the weather, avoiding any systematic treatment programmes for particular weather conditions. This results in sustainable wines and oils of the highest quality and free of phytosanitary product residues.

The soil which blankets the roots of the grapevines and the olive trees is managed with living plant cover. This allows us to preserve and improve the valley’s flora with a highly positive impact on wildlife. Indeed, it leads to an increase in the number of animals and birds that live in Nekeas, especially birds of prey.

A flock of 800-1000 sheep has settled in the area. They graze in the vineyard in autumn and winter and in the olive plantation all year round. The sheep graze on and fertilize our fields, helping to keep local livestock farming alive.

The living plant cover also combats soil erosion, helps it to absorb rainwater and keeps evaporation contained in the summer.

The living plant cover promotes increased microbial life in the soil, improving the habitat of vine and olive tree roots and also the quality of the grapes and olives, maintaining soil properties for the future. The use of pruning waste and dung as fertilizer complete this soil management model in which we avoid the use of mineral fertilizers as far as possible.

The waste from the wine and oil produced is reused and recycled, generating useful and consumable by-products. Olive stones are used to generate much of the energy consumed. Another part is generated by the San Esteban Wind Farm

With these practices, plus the over 500,000 vine plants and 245,000 olive trees planted, we make a significant contribution to carbon sequestration, being a company with a Negative Carbon Footprint.

REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE

Waste to which we attach particular importance.

Common sense and a devotion to everything around us. We are fortunate to be able to look upon the Nekeas Valley landscape every day and we want to continue to enjoy it and improve it as far as we can, in order to hand the baton over to those to come.

Pruning wood waste: pruning offcuts remain on site, where they are shredded and become part of the soil again.

Old ripped out vines are used as wood.

The grape stalks left over from the wine making are put back into the soil in our plantations.

The remains of the winemaking process (marc and lees) are sent to the distillery, where high quality alcohol is distilled for medical use.

The residue from the olive mill is also used and includes two types: pulp and olive stone. The pulp (fleshy remains of the olive highly impregnated with oil) is sent to another mill where they finish extracting the remaining oil and compost the final residue. We keep the olive stones, the company's star product, as the stones are the fuel used for the winery and the olive mill (some villagers are also starting to take an interest).