Helping Future French “Bordeaux” Winegrowers to Invent the Agriculture of Tomorrow, More Resilient and Capable of Surviving Increasingly Frequent and Violent Climatic Hazards
Château Dillon, 40 ha in « AOC Haut Médoc – Crus Bourgeois Supérieur », is located North of Bordeaux and is one of the three Agro Campus Bordeaux Gironde wine farms. It is also one of the ‘Pilot Demo Farms’ in the Climate Farm Demo project.
They strongly believe that knowledge exchange, capacity building and training should increasingly be based on peer-to-peer sharing and designed based on ‘working together’. The school’s motto — “collective intelligence, knowledge transfer and sharing” — guides students along a radically new path. They are working hard to maintain access to operational knowledge for those working in the field. And they rely on the strength of the collective and multi-stakeholder approach. They are strongly committed to transferring knowledge through numerous events in the field — very much aligned with Climate Farm Demo main objective!
Château Dillon is also involved in developing innovative teaching tools, such as simulators (for pruning, plot management, sprayer adjustment, etc.), ensuring that training is not dependent on the plant cycle and the seasons.
Another of their major missions is to serve as a showcase site and a site for experimentation and innovation in the sector.
Therefore, in 2024, they created a 5-hectare experimental vineyard for assessing innovative practices that are both compatible with society's expectations and economically viable. The primary aim is to create a reservoir of genetic diversity. This vineyard houses vine conservatories designed to safeguard the genetic diversity of grape varieties in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. The second objective is to test breakthrough scenarios. There is a long list of innovative techniques, including pruning, planting density, shading, soil conservation, robotisation, etc. And in the future, other parameters will be tested, such as energy and technical sobriety, diversification of production, agroforestry, reduction in the use of phytosanitary products, etc.
Additional information
Increasing peer-to-peer exchanges at showcase events
The Agro Campus is strongly committed to organising numerous trial visits to highlight the results to sector professionals. In fact, one of their major missions is to be a showcase site for the sector.
Château Dillon estate is testing ‘’disruptive‘’ practices. In partnership with the Blanquefort branch of the IFV and the Chamber of Agriculture 33, it has set up an experimental vineyard, with a test plot of resistant grape varieties adapted to climate change (with the idea of testing a number of innovative levers, such as introducing innovative management methods, testing vineyard shading, etc.).
But the farm also implements ‘sheep in the vineyards’ practice, with a flock of around a hundred ewes that are herded by a shepherd in the off-season and come to tend the vineyard plots throughout the winter (from October to May).
Climate Farm Demo
Ongoing | 2022-2029
- Main funding source
- Horizon Europe (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
- Geographical location
- Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Serbia