Now this is the sort of food story that gets me excited.  It’s got everything – wine, miniature sheep, clever sustainability, giant guinea pigs locked in combat with eagles – perfect. 

I worked in sustainability and waste management for several years and I’ve lost count of the number of businesses that want to ‘reduce their carbon footprint’ by continuing exactly as normal but planting a few trees to offset the energy they use.  Don’t get me wrong the trees are great, but not using the energy in the first place is even better.  Peter Yealands (who, just to make the story even better, has an awesome beard) obviously understands that and is doing something about it.

In order to provide the grapes with the best growing conditions, he needs to keep the grass on his 1000 hectare estate trimmed.  This requires a tractor to travel 3500 km a year, which costs NZ$1.5 million, releases a large amount of Co2, nitrous oxides, sulphides and particulates and, no doubt, takes a huge amount of man power.  What to do?  Bring on the sheep of course……well it is New Zealand.  Not conventional sheep, which are widely used, but can also eat the grapes, oh no, we’re talking specially bred miniature sheep.  Let them loose to take care of the grass (provide additional fertiliser?) and, trials going well, you’ve saved yourself a small fortune, saved a load of harmful emissions and reduced your workload.  I love it. 

Obviously you still have to invest time in animal husbandry and potentially spend some money for additional feed, winter shelter and vets etc, but, even if the scheme ends up breaking even in a monetary/time sense, you’re still streets ahead with the emissions……assuming miniature sheep don’t fart too much.  He’s also planning to sell the wool and the meat from his new sustainable lawnmowers, which generates even more income.  The man is my new hero. 

I’ve not tried Yealands wine before but I’ll certainly be looking out for it now.