Dudley Brown and Irina Santiago-Brown work hand-in-glove on their Inkwell site, dedicated to making wine with a vineyard-first philosophy and sustainability at the core. But it’s no exaggeration to say that Santiago-Brown wrote the book on sustainability in this country, with McLaren Vale’s pioneering Sustainable Australia Winegrowing program built around her research. (That program was then taken up into a national program, now called Sustainable Winegrowing Australia.) Both Brown and Santiago-Brown not just live by the tenets of that research, but they’re on a never-ceasing quest to improve upon it at all levels.
Santiago-Brown was also asked to write the definition for ‘Sustainable Viticulture’ in the fifth edition (published 2023) of the The Oxford Companion to Wine. She also persuaded the team there that missing an entry for ‘Regenerative Viticulture’ would be viewed as a mistake in the future and so she wrote that definition as well.
“Since 2003, we have managed our property using the triple bottom line [environmental, economic and social sustainability] with continuous improvement as the backbone of our business philosophy,” says Santiago-Brown. “Our practice has evolved substantially over the last 18 years, and this is part of the plan: do, assess, improve, cycle, journey.”
“We went down the regenerative rabbit hole in 2017/18 because we could see that we weren’t making enough of an impact to matter on the trajectory we were on with just organics.”
It’s this triple bottom line approach that lead Inkwell to be one of the first vineyards in the world to be ‘Regenerative Organic Certified’ (December, 2023). “We went down the regenerative rabbit hole in 2017/18 because we could see that we weren’t making enough of an impact to matter on the trajectory we were on with just organics,” says Brown. “Our hope is that our example creates a cascade of interest in the Australian wine industry that ultimately leads to enormous amounts healthy soil being grown with massive carbon sequestration as a result. It is our national industry’s number one opportunity to buffer itself against the growing number of extreme weather events and improve quality at the same and ultimately at lower cost.”
It could be said that grapevines are a ‘canary in the coalmine’ for a changing climate. Santiago-Brown sums up their approach to combating climate change through three key pillars of action: “Regenerative agriculture to build climate resilience; growing climate appropriate grape varieties to cope with climate change; and, accelerating biodiversity in any way we can.”
This belief in the value of soil health has grown over the years, as they witnessed the vines response to changes in the soil. Almost a decade into owning the vineyard, Irina notes how Dudley was able to identify a geological boundary running through the Inkwell. “As soon as he saw it, he knew it meant that the prior eight years of trying to ‘even up’ a particular block of vines had been entirely futile and that geology could trump viticulture. Fast forward to 2023 and five years of regenerative farming and those same vines that had refused to ‘even up’ for nearly 20 years suddenly began growing again in the middle of summer. It was then we knew that regenerative soil biology can also trump viticulture. It was then that it fully sunk in that we are now soil farmers first and viticulturists second.”
“It was then we knew that regenerative soil biology can also trump viticulture. It was then that it fully sunk in that we are now soil farmers first and viticulturists second.”
The process of action then observation is critical for the pair. “We believe that in agriculture we cannot change all variables at the same time,” she says, “otherwise we don’t really know what makes a difference. We tend to make meaningful changes one at a time and trial them before we apply it to the entire business. As an example, when we decided to introduce a mix of different plants and grasses to replace our single variety cover crop, we did it in every other row instead of in two of our blocks. We loved the results and are now applying it to the entire vineyard.”
After observing visual and anecdotal evidence of regenerative principals working in the vineyard over a few years, they implemented a rigorous system of soil testing in 2022 using traditional methods as well as the “USDA approved Haney method” which gives a far better snapshot of soil health, says Santiago-Brown. “Anecdotally, the founder of Nutri-tech Solutions – Australia’s largest biological and organic inputs producer – told us that our Haney score for soil health is double the average of organic producers and 4-5 times that of conventional farms of any type.”
Prior to cover crops, the mid-row was a grass monoculture, which needed to be slashed, where the new multi-species sward is crimp-rolled, which ensures the soil remains covered and therefore cooler. Brown notes that it also “enhances the environment for soil life and increases nitrogen and carbon levels, helping our vines to be more resilient in case of extreme weather events and allows us to harvest at full ripeness but lower Baume [the measure of sugar ripeness, which translates to potential alcohol].”
Santiago-Brown readily admits that they are still on a learning curve about their site and business and how both will respond to their actions, but she’s convinced that diversity will be at the heart of all their positive changes. “Diversity in cover crops, diversity in clones of the same variety, when possible, diversity of varieties. Diversity in people, from diverse origins to age, that work with us – at a certain stage our main team had representatives of all continents! At Inkwell, diversity is our mantra!” she says.
That varietal mix has seen the site evolve from having just the one variety to having eight, some on own roots and some grafted. The shiraz vines were planted in 1997, 2000 and ’03, with primitivo, mataro, grenache, cabernet sauvignon, arinto and grillo either planted or grafted from 2011. “The region is increasingly becoming too warm for all but carefully tended, high grade shiraz. We predict that shiraz will decline substantially as a percentage of the region’s production over the next decade,” says Santiago-Brown. “Other varieties can be grown using the land and water resources to greater benefit for grower and consumer alike.”
“We are a source block for three heritage clones of shiraz for the Vine Improvement Society of McLaren Vale,” adds Santiago-Brown, “demonstrating that our vineyard management and biosecurity practices are working, as our vines are virus free and healthy to be propagated in other properties in our region.”
While the duo scrutinise every element of their vineyard and business to be more effective and sustainable, their gaze extends well beyond their fence line. Brown founded the movement that brought about the McLaren Vale Character Preservation Acts, limiting urban sprawl into the winegrowing region, with a planned 6,000-house suburb now being developed for vineyards using reclaimed irrigation water. He also received a $4-million grant to establish the McLaren Vale Mains Water Substitution project, which swapped mains water out for reclaimed wastewater to use for irrigation, “ultimately saving one gigalitre of potable water annually – enough drinking water for all of McLaren Vale,” says Santiago-Brown. “This had the flow on effect of reducing wastewater to the Gulf of St. Vincent by one gigalitre per year in perpetuity and saving as many as 70 growers from bankruptcy when mains water prices increased 350 per cent shortly thereafter.”
From raising money to buy generators for burnt out Kangaroo Island farmers to donating six tonnes of grapes to help raise $50,000 for the homeless, the pair are constantly working to improve their part of the world. In winter 2024, they are planting a demonstration mini-forest to radically increase insect and bird diversity while also creating a public educational space. “We live in our vineyard, and we understand that there is no business without people,” says Santiago-Brown. “We believe in giving people opportunity, protecting our community and region and above all education.”
Inkwell also has gender parity across their business. “In the last two vintages, we decided to have female cellar/vineyard hands to show that women are strong enough to be useful in a barely automated hands-on winery,” says Santiago-Brown, who also notes that they employed recently settled refugees from Myanmar this season to pick their harvest. “They had never picked grapes before, and we needed a reliable group to pick our fruit: win-win.”
The pair also maintain a contract pruning crew of both experienced hands and those learning the craft. Those older workers, 70 years old and greater, mentor the newer arrivals, while the flow of work to the senior contractors can be regulated to give them as much or as little work as they need. NDVI surveys (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, which consist of aerial/satellite images that chart the density of vegetation to show how plants are performing) are also employed to map vagaries in vigour across the site to allow for targeted viticulture with appropriate compost and water applications and canopy and yield management for specific areas. Soil monitoring probes, which have been used since 2004, add another layer to the precision viticulture approach.
“We believe that in agriculture we cannot change all variables at the same time, otherwise we don’t really know what makes a difference. We tend to make meaningful changes one at a time and trial them before we apply it to the entire business. As an example, when we decided to introduce a mix of different plants and grasses to replace our single variety cover crop, we did it in every other row in two of our blocks. We loved the results and are now applying it to the entire vineyard.”
“All around, our decisions start with soil health and enhancement of microbial life and diversity everywhere we can,” says Santiago-Brown. Around 20 per cent of the Inkwell site is devoted to biodiversity corridors planted across the middle of the property connecting with bushland beyond their fences, which creates both a sanctuary and a pathway for native fauna and insects that help regulate invasive populations. Those corridors no doubt also enhance the experience of guests at their luxury off-grid hotel, which is built from recycled shipping containers, run on solar power and serviced with filtered rainwater.
The vineyard that Brown bought in 2003 was a far cry from this ideal, with the site “poorly managed”, but by ’07 the fruit was “receiving the highest guaranteed price for shiraz” in the region. “By 2008, we completed the shift to organic practices,” says Santiago-Brown. “In 2009, we switched from potable water to reclaimed water for all vineyard irrigation. In 2017, we were certified organic. In 2018 we were the first ‘beta’ customer for now industry leading vineyard mapping software company PlatFarm.”
The pair are also switching their vehicles away from diesel to electric, with their ATV and forklift already upgraded. The next plank in that plan is to replace the old Fiat tractor, but they have to wait for Monarch electric tractors to become available in the country. Unsurprisingly, Inkwell is the first agricultural business in Australia on the waiting list.
The rigorous focus for the pair also naturally extends to their onsite winery. “Because of the viticulture practices and because we have never used commercial yeasts in our winery, we have an entirely unique yeast in our winery finishing our fermentation,” says Santiago-Brown. “We are presently in year five of a project with geneticist Anthony Borneman at the AWRI to isolate (done) and culture (not done yet) a non-saccharomyces yeast called schizosaccharomyces that occurs on our property and naturally completes all our ferments. It is the first time this is demonstrated in the world.”
Santiago-Brown notes that they still learning precisely how this impacts their wines but believes it contributes a uniqueness – a reflection of the terroir of their place through locally specific yeast – which works in concert with their viticultural and winemaking practices (which includes no additions bar sulphur and sometimes none at all) and the varying geologies, from deep white sands to clay on limestone and ironstone, to create singular expressions.
“Our highly variable site is a microcosm of much of McLaren Vale. With two distinct geologies and at least five soil types including high and deep coastal sands, to historically overworked pastureland to cracking black clay and sandy loam with west, south and north aspects,” says Santiago-Brown. “It is simultaneously similar and different to the wildly diverse sites in the McLaren Vale region.”
Irina notes how she and Dudley are increasingly discovering species of flora and fauna new to the vineyard thanks to the regenerative practices. “The scents of the vineyard are always impressive throughout the year. It’s rewarding when we recognise some of these scents in our wines. Petrichor after rain. Grape vine blossoms, cut grasses, fresh slashed wild fennel, ad the list goes on.”
“All of the above leads to what we call the ‘fingerprint of the place’ at Inkwell,” she says, “which, in our wines, translates into freshness, high but balanced natural acidity, smooth tannins and usually lower than regional average alcohol content in fully mature fruit.”
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