Eco-sustainability and respect for the environment are not just two key issues of contemporary living. For many
wineries, including Gruppo Vinicolo Santa Margherita, they are also a concrete commitment that entails
specific, carefully targeted actions and the implementation of sustainable development-friendly principles of
behaviour to meet the needs of the present without compromising capacity or resources for future
generations.
Santa Margherita, always at the cutting edge of wine-related developments, has anticipated the burgeoning
environmental awareness in the sector by making an emphatic shift to green, a bold initiative that faithfully
reflects modern society’s focus on saving energy and reducing pollution.
For Santa Margherita, it was a revolution that affected both internal organisation and production, finding its
first foothold in a well-gauged mix of sustainable vineyard management and the use of solar energy as a source
of power at the Fossalta di Portogruaro cellar.
Sustainable agriculture.
Sustainability means reducing the use of basic chemicals in the vineyard to a minimum while steadily improving
the quality of the grapes.
Santa Margherita’s far-sighted, long-term perspective prompted it to become one of the first wineries to join
the Magis project, putting the group in the front rank of Italian wine excellence.
Today, for the first time, wine producers, the scientific community, oenologists, associations and industry are
working in harness to underwrite and improve the safety and sustainability of Italy’s wines.
Italian winemaking is forging a powerful new tool in the sustainability protocol, a document continuously
updated with new developments as they emerge from the research labs and vineyards of the country’s top
wine experts and producers. An invitation for constant improvements to optimise vineyard management.
Loris Vazzoler, Gruppo Vinicolo Santa Margherita’s technical director, says: “We have observed how sustainable
viticulture that keeps the use of chemicals to a minimum and focuses closely on every detail of the vineyard
environment will quite naturally enhance the intrinsic quality of the grapes, as well as improving the health of
all the organisms in the ecosystem”.
Self-generated photovoltaic energy
Another step forward on Santa Margherita’s path to environmental friendliness by a cellar that brings together
tradition and innovation under the aegis of sustainability. The key words now are savings – for example
through calorie and frigorie recovery during stabilisation – and self-generated energy from a 2,000 squaremetre
photovoltaic installation on the cellar roof, generating 200 kilowatts and supplying 11% of the winery’s
energy needs. Soon, a new 260-kilowatt installation will come onstream, catering for about 25% of the winery’s
requirements.
A new era of truly eco-sustainable viticulture has begun at Santa Margherita. The approach is global, the vision
new. Santa Margherita is looking forward to exciting development opportunities from eco-sustainability.
Zignago Power
The numbers mentioned above are modest in comparison with the output of Zignago Power, a company,
owned by Zignago Holding-and managed by the Marzotto family, which was set up to generate clean, low-cost
power. Currently, Santa Margherita’s Fossalto di Portogruaro winery is building a much more substantial
biomass power plant with an output of about 15 megawatts. It will be able to supply the energy requirements
of both the winery itself and the two Zignano Vetro facilities at Fossalta di Portogruaro and Empoli.
The new power plant will be a major challenge over the next few years with immense social value. Among
other things, it will offer farmers income-generating alternatives to traditional crops and sources of
supplementary income (energy-dedicated second-harvest crops; adding value to agricultural waste).
The project will also bring economic value to further cleaning of woodlands, flood beds, river beds and even
urban green spaces. Finally, it will be possible to create a remote heating system for the town of Fossalta di
Portogruaro, eliminating a major source of air pollution.
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