Winemaker Madeleine Marson and her father Mario believe that healthy soil is the foundation of great wine. Their philosophy is simple: what you put into the soil is what you get back in the glass.
They support their soil by using compost. This helps their vineyards stay strong, even with the changing climate and shifting seasons.
At Vinea Marson, they use compost from local sources, share tools with other farmers, and grow Italian grapes that ripen later in the season. Their choices make them leaders in sustainable winemaking.
Watch Madeleine's story of climate resilience, community effort, and the art of making wine with care for the land.
Transcript
[Music plays and an image appears of dewy grass glinting between grape vines]
[Images move through to show sheds with grapevines in the foreground, dew drops on a vine, vines on a wire, a wide and then a close view of Madeleine Marson talking to the camera]
Madeleine: That old thing of great wines are made in the vineyard like the vineyard is, and should be, the centre of what we do and that begins from the soil.
[Music plays as image changes to show the dewy grass beside vines in the early morning sunshine, and text appears: Food Waste for Healthy Soils, Compost for Vineyards]
[Image changes to show a medium view of Madeleine talking to the camera, and text appears: Madeleine Marson, Winemaker | Vinea Marson]
My name is Madeleine Marson.
[Image changes to show a close view of Madeleine talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show Mario Marson with Madeleine pointing left in a vineyard laneway]
I'm a winemaker and vigneron here at Vinea Marson.
[Images move through to show Madeleine looking down smiling, a shovel dropping compost at a vine trunk's base, and then Mario's hands using a wine thief to put a sample into wine glasses]
A bit of our philosophy is what you put into the soil is what you get back in the glass.
[Music plays as image changes to show Mario using a wine thief to pour wine into Madeleine's glass over a wine barrel]
[Image changes to show dew on the grape vineyard rows in the morning sun]
Compost in the vineyard, it's a living thing.
[Images move through to show Madeleine talking to the camera, a shovel smoothing compost below the vines, and then dewy grass glinting between vine rows]
There's much more versatility in what we can do by having healthier vineyard soil in which to grow grapes.
[Image changes to show Madeleine talking to the camera]
And then it's our job to make it into some delicious wine.
[Music plays as image changes to show a grassy laneway between a fence and the vine rows]
[Images move through to show Madeleine and Mario walking between vines, Mario's hand on a vine, Madeleine looking down, and then Mario looking down talking]
My father came up here from the Yarra Valley about 25 years ago, really wanting to promote Italian varieties as varieties and wines of the future.
[Image changes to show a medium view of Madeleine talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show a close view of Madeleine talking to the camera]
They respond really well in the era of climate change, where the ripening window is outside of the most extreme periods of heat.
[Music plays as image changes to show dewy grass glinting in the sunlight beside vine rows]
[Image changes to show Madeleine reaching over a wine barrel and handing Mario a wine glass, and then the image changes to show Mario's hands using a wine thief to pour wine into a wine glass]
I make the wines here and manage the vineyards with my father, Mario.
[Images move through to show views of Mario and Madeleine smelling, swirling and sampling wine, Madeleine talking to the camera, and views of Madeleine talking with Mario between the vines]
It's amazing to have the benefit of his knowledge and experience, but my job has really been about pushing the vineyard forward to be resilient in the face of climate change, talking about what would be the best way to utilise our resources to improve soil health, have healthier canopies, get better quality fruit from the vineyard.
[Images move through to show dew drops on the vine rows in the morning sun, sheds with the vineyard in the foreground, and views of Madeleine and Mario talking and tasting wine together]
So I'm really passionate about our soils and our vineyard health because it's the way in which we can secure producing a high quality, enjoyable wine into the future.
[Music plays as image changes to show a close view of wine barrels in storage]
[Image changes to show a close view of Madeleine talking to the camera]
So sustainability is the foundation of a sustainable business.
[Image changes to show a medium view of Madeleine talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show dewy grass glinting between the vine rows]
If we start with the soil it then flows onto everything that we do.
[Music plays as images move through to show a close view of dewy grass, Madeleine talking to the camera, and then views of Madeline using a shovel putting compost on the vine trunks]
So the Heathcote wine region is renowned for Cambrian remnant soils, old volcanic remnant rock that has then degraded into soil over time, known for particularly iron rich properties and generally quite nutrient rich, but also follows the traditions in Australia of not having great soils.
[Image changes to show Madeleine smiling looking down, and then the image changes to show Madeleine putting compost on the vines]
Compost is one of the great ways in which to increase the organic matter in the soil.
[Music plays as image changes to show a close view of dewy grass and plants in the laneway]
[Images move through to show a medium and then a close view of Madeleine talking to the camera, a stock ear tag "42" nailed on a post below a pink ribbon, and then a shovel leaning on a fence]
Organic matter is important in vineyard soils so that you can create good quality fruit, healthy yields, but also for the overall benefit of the soil health and the environment.
[Music plays as image changes to show sheds with dewy vines glinting in the morning sunlight in the foreground]
[Image changes to show Madeleine talking to the camera]
It increases the microbes in the soil.
[Images move through to show an irrigation pipe and tap on a wire, a vine's root system, a close view of compost, and dewy grass on a vine row as Madeleine's legs walk from left to right]
It increases the ability of water to infiltrate through these different root systems that exist. It also increases the ability of plants to uptake that water and nutrient from the soil.
[Images move through to show Madeleine talking to the camera, views of Madeleine using a trowel below a vine, checking the soil, and testing its quality with her hands, and Madeleine looking down]
Compost, it's really important to get that into the vineyard, to increase the vitality and diversity within your soil so that it's really friable soil, in your hand it breaks down and you can see all the different root systems and worms and creates this environment that's super healthy.
[Images move through to show close and then a medium view of Madeleine talking to the camera, and then Madeleine shovelling compost under the vines]
Means that you have healthier plants, as well as decreasing the risk of soil erosion and the loss of that organic matter that is fundamental to the health of our vineyard.
[Music plays as image changes to show a close view of the shovel smoothing the compost]
[Images move through to show Madeleine using a shovel between vines and compost, views of Madeleine talking to the camera, and views of Madeleine talking with Mario looking at documents]
So compost has been used in our vineyard for about 20 years, but we've had some kind of barriers to adoption in terms of cost and the availability of the tonnage that we require, having to hire or loan the equipment from multiple different wine regions and that also carries a biosecurity risk in terms of making sure that if we're going from a phylloxera zone to a non phylloxera zone, that we're protecting our vineyards and our wine region from pests and diseases.
[Images move through to show medium and wide views of Madeline shovelling through a compost heap]
So Vinea Marson's been part of a Heathcote wine region project looking at decreasing the barriers to adoption.
[Images move through to show Madeleine talking to the camera, and then various views of Madeleine smiling as she sifts compost though her hands]
So that project has bought equipment and also negotiated a competitive price on compost with a recycling facility locally.
[Image changes to show Madeleine pruning vines with the pruned branches, in the foreground, and then the image changes to show a medium view of Madeleine pruning vines alongside a male]
That means that our membership can hire the equipment to save on time, costs, as well as protecting our biosecurity.
[Image changes to show a close view of Madeleine pruning a vine with secateurs]
So this has increased the amount of compost that is put out into our vineyards.
[Images move through to show a side view of Madeleine pruning a vine, and then medium and close views of Madeleine talking to the camera]
I think one of the biggest things I took away from the project that we ran and the experience of the other vineyards in applying compost is that no one wanted to decrease the use of compost.
[Image changes to show a wide view of Mario and Madeleine talking and walking towards the camera between vine rows]
It had pushed everyone forward to continue integrating it as part of their vineyard management.
[Images move through to show a medium view of Mario and Madeleine talking and walking between vine rows, a vine branch, and then a close view of Madeleine talking to the camera]
So climate resilience in a vineyard like this in central Victoria means being very agile to the challenges of stream heat windows and temperature changes.
[Images move through to show medium and close views of Madeleine talking to the camera, and then grape vines curling around fence wires as the camera rotates right]
I also call it intra seasonality, we're getting multiple seasons in one during our growing season and it's our job to prepare the vines to be most resilient to those challenges and soil is the key way in which you do that.
[Images move through to show Mario walking between vine rows, dewy grass between vine rows, and then a medium view of Madeleine talking to the camera]
So I think the goal with different methods to improve soil health is to leave the place better than when you found it, to have a healthier ecosystem, to produce higher quality fruit more consistently.
[Image changes to show a close view of Madeleine talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show Madeline smiling at the camera]
The sustainability of how much fruit, but also how much wine and the quality of that wine is fundamentally important to what we do.
[Music plays as image changes to show a green screen with the Australian Government Coat of Arms, and text appears: Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water]
