Rockcliffe Winery, Denmark, embraces renewable energy

Solar panels have been installed on the roof of the Denmark-based winery and its nearby cellar door, with the excess energy stored in lithium batteries.

The vineyard irrigation pumps also have a separate solar powered system, partially due to the remote position of the water source.

Rockcliffe owner Steve Hall said it made total sense for everybody to use solar power.

"Australia has an abundance of solar energy and all businesses and households should take advantage of it,'' Mr Hall said.

"Environmentally, Rockcliffe has always sought to reduce its carbon footprint as much as possible and we are delighted to install this new system.

"It is our long-term aim to operate to high environmental standards and we want to be as sustainable as possible - this is a big step forward in that direction."

The winery is self-sufficient for water use as well.

The property has no access to scheme water, even though the Denmark main runs within 40 metres of the winery.

It uses filtered dam water for much of the irrigation and cleaning and filtered rainwater, largely collected from roofs, rinses anything that wine touches, such as pipes and tanks, as well as drinking water.

The new solar panels and battery equipment, which consisted of a 100 kilowatt solar PV system and three Tesla powerwalls, was installed by KLUEM Electrical Services, based in Perth.

"Since it was installed in June, the system has saved between 20 and 25 tonnes of standard coal and about 25t of CO2 has been avoided," said KLUEM director Kyace Weeding.

"It's also the equivalent of about 2300 trees, so it's been quite an environmentally friendly system which has been amplified by its location.

"It's important to keep in mind that all of that has just been since the system was installed a few months ago, so those numbers are going to keep going up."

Rockcliffe Winery is the biggest in the Denmark area and one of the largest in the Great Southern region, which is the largest by area wine-producing region in mainland Australia.

The region is split into five sub areas - Frankland River, Porongurup, Mt Barker, Albany and Denmark.

"The weather in Denmark tends to be wet and cool during the winter and warm, but generally less than 30oC, and dry with some rainstorms in the summer,'' Dr Hall said.

In summer, humidity can lead to ideal conditions for vine disease to develop.

The additional work the wetter climate induces means vineyards in Denmark tend to be more expensive to run than those vineyards further north.

SOME OTHER GREAT READS

"For our vineyards to be profitable in Denmark, we chose high-quality varieties that are used in top tier, more expensive wines," Dr Hall said.

"Grapes that grow well in Denmark's cool climate are chardonnay, pinot noir, semillon and sauvignon blanc.

"Sauvignon blanc is generally a low-priced wine and semillon is not so popular, which means chardonnay and pinot noir are the most important grape varieties produced in Denmark and the ones we have focused on at Rockcliffe."

Rockcliffe makes its own high-quality range of wine and contracts for other large vineyards in the region, including Willoughby Park and Plantagenet.

It is the only winery which has 155 wine-making tanks onsite to produce many smaller batches.

"If the winery can source superb grapes, then Rockcliffe can make small, exquisite batches of the Nautica range, which ranks extremely highly by wine enthusiasts and reviewers," Dr Hall said.

That is the reason he decided to equip the winery with so many tanks.

He didn't want to be making enormous vats of nondescript blends, instead he wanted to refine particular outstanding vintages and make exquisite quality wines.

"We have succeeded in that," Dr Hall said.

Rockcliffe wines have been awarded five stars in the exclusive James Halliday Wine Companion for seven consecutive years from 2015 to 2021.

Want to know more?