Here, vienyard and wines with High Environmental Value

The labeling of 95% of our vineyard in HVE and/or organic or organic conversion is the opportunity to focus on the three letters HVE. HVE stands for High Environmental Value (in french : Haute Valeur Environnementale). Concretely, this label indicates that the winegrower favors the resources and mechanisms of Nature.

After reading this article, I hope that you will know a little more about what this HVE label stands for, which you will see more and more in the wines of the Vignerons de Buzet.

Only level 3 allows to label wines

The HVE engagement is broken down on a scale of 3 levels. Only level 3, the highest level, is used to label wines from HVE-recognized wineries.

By implementing agricultural practices based in particular on the principles of agro-ecology since 2005, member winegrowers committed to the HVE approach have naturally reached level 3.

In total, there are 1696 ha of our vineyard from which we can produce wines that can carry the HVE label.

Some of our wines already bear the white and orange HVE label, since some of our winegrowers were among the pioneers to take part in the approach. In fact, we are the first collective structure to have been able to label wine-growing areas as early as 2017.

Les Vignerons de Buzet have chosen HVE path A

If you are interested in the HVE label, you have probably seen that there are two ways to obtain the white and orange pellet. These two ways have been named - in a very original way! - by the certifier path A and path B. It is not a question here of settling the debate on the legitimacy of these two methods! For more explanations, this article published in the Vitisphère magazine (in french) explains in an objective way the differences between the A and B pathways.

At Vignerons de Buzet, in any case, we have chosen path A, the one that seemed to us the most demanding and above all the most coherent with our long-term approach for sustainable viticulture.

The HVE label focus on biodiversity

For us, Les Vignerons de Buzet, the HVE label is therefore based on four themes. Each one includes a series of result indicators. These four themes with High Environmental Value are :

• Biodiversity
• Phytosanitary strategy (calculation of the untreated surface and the treatment frequency index, implementation of alternative methods to chemical control, etc.).
• Fertilization management (soil cover practice, calculation of the unfertilized surface, ...)
• Irrigation management (on the wine-growing part of their farms, our winegrowers are not concerned by this problem since irrigation of the vine is forbidden in our country. However, since the label concerns the entire farm, some of them have had to take this issue into account for their other crops).

For example, our winegrowers are committed to the preservation of biodiversity in their vineyards. They seek to create cooperation between their vines and the natural environment in which they flourish. Our winegrowers protect certain rare species present in their vineyards, such as the Little Owl.

Our winegrowers also make extensive use of plant cover: they allow plant species to develop between the rows of vines in order to naturally enrich the soil and the vine plant.

Who controls the HVE label?

The HVE label is awarded under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture. The entire farm is labeled. We, at Vignerons de Buzet, our member winegrowers also grow other crops. So, since the label is awarded for the entire farm, "we have worked closely with other agricultural structures", says Carine Magot, in charge of the vineyard service at the Les Vignerons de Buzet cooperative. Our winegrowers have thus evolved and had all their agricultural practices (not just the vineyard part) recognized.