What made you change your mind from I.T
specialist to a winemaker?
My families and I used to live in the suburb which

Who is Jonathan Hesford?

just one block away from the World Trade Center inBritish winemaker in the south of France, used

2001, however, after seeing both planes crash into theto be postgrad student of viticulture andbuildings from a few hundred metres, we left ouroenology program in Lincoln University in NZ,

apartment with what we could carry. In the aftermath

after that, working as a winemaker in NZ forof that disaster, we lost our home, my job and ourfew years before moved to south of France.

right to live in the States.The experience made us think
about what really mattered in our life. We wanted adifferent environment for our children. Also we wanted
to have more control over our direction and to spend

Johnathan own an estate with 10 hectares ofvines which locate at very south of France, winefrom Domaine Treloar are all used the fruits with

our time working at something that truly motivates us.

high standard from vineyards without other

Owning a vineyard is an idea that many wine lovers

involvement since 2006. There is no permanent

dream about but we wanted to do it right. I took aemployee, only hire part-time workers for vine

short course at Plumpton College in the UK and thenpruning and fruit harvesting.

volunteered at Halfpenny Green Vineyards in

Jonathan became a student in Lincoln at the age

Staffordshire for 6 months to get my hands dirty andof 35 because he wanted to become amake sure I was really suited to the work. I loved it!

winemaker rather an I.T specialist.

Wow, it was such a shocking accident, right? But, were there
any fears when you changed your career or any discussion
with your wife?

Anybody change their career can be a big fear,
because there has to be something must be given
up, it’s really tough to give up regular salaryand follow with unknown risk, once start thenew beginning for establishing new vineyard andwinery, meanwhile, the finical fear is always

Interesting! So let us ask some wine making
from now on. We heard you are doing newworld winemaking. Why did you choose the newworld? Also, what is the difference between oldworld and new world?

New-world winemaking is aimed at producing
wine the appeal to consumers, which are not fromtraditional winemaking.
For flavour, New-world winemaking tends to be

there, as a father, I should always ensure thefruity, softer, with a little bit of sweetness, morefamily can still stay comfortably and bring up

easily to be accepted by consumers. Meanwhile,

children without suffering from the fact.

the old-world wine are more complex flavour
profile,drierwithmore

tanninsandearthy

characters.
For technology, new-world winemaking are moreSustainab
le managem
ent withmoderated, controlled
chemicals
addition con
tributes balance in viney
finally resu
ard,
lt in healthyfru
its with highquality, finally great w
ine are there!

technical rather than the old-world winemaking,almost all the winemakers are quantified while,
the winemaker from old-world would like to have
lot more control over the process by their old
experience rather than academic knowledge.

I see. And also, we heard the vineyard place affect the taste of wine a lot, but how did
you choose current place? What was the important point when you selected the place ofthe vineyard? (e.g. weed, pest, and fungus management in the vineyards/ soil, waterand fertilizer management. etc)
1) The amount of fertilizer applies, the amount of herbicide, soil management (e.g.
manual work, ploughing the soil). Yield management of the fruits, which highlyrely on ripeness time, design the amount of fertilizer supplement, once there arevaried ripeness in grapes, which could lead to undesirable result in final product.
2) Also adding sulfites, fining agents for flocculation and clarification, as well as
flavour agent could contribute reliant of these chemical agents, and wineries will
be forced to use these for the later days.
3) sustainable management in vineyard to limit manufactured product usage.

How do you maintain the water quality?
Town water is used in his winery which means he has to pay for it, with thecost of water limits the usage in winery. Otherwise, management of wastewater
also become a cost, from the view of economy, the cost should be limited, also,
the wastewater directly run from winery floor into waterbed, therefore, winerytakes responsibility to protect water body in village from pollution, there are no
chemical agent and microbial input in wastewater for sedimentation, wastewaterin winery is also reused for tree irrigation.

How to minimize the environmental impact of the material that the vineyard use, e.g chemical residues,
diffuse discharges, single-use plastics, waste to landfill, supply chain efficiency
Herbicide, pesticide and other chemicals are avoided use in winery, the only chemicals in used issodium hydroxide for hygiene, only 500 grams of citric acid usage in one year winemaking to avoid
chemical waste, winery pesticide waste should be deal with separatelyo te n ti a l p ee x is ti n g o r pst & d is e a se?

wild weed
ildew, themryedw
uld notd poshoots shobotrytis anf
ldoon
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thcg
fe
spray mix
to avoid iner trimmin
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reon
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to grow incskudriderewethe
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ae
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ould
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idohc
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to reduce
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iddle
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should be
or not.
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seic
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summer, thunandchemicals
Moderatee im p a, m it ig a te thecudretoow

ct ofAccumulating carbon into the soil is good for vine growth and carbon sequestration. Are there any
efforts to conduct this?
Sustainable management have the philosophy the idea should be maintaining a living soil, sothat the soil itself regenerates the nutrients that the vine need, actually vine doesn’t require
such much nutrient, nitrogen from air could be provided sufficient for leave growing, once there
are not too much leaves there, vine will intake nitrogen from soil, there are sufficient nitrogenand carbon provided by cuttings and leaves from vineyards, there only small amount of fertilizer
is required for mineral deficiency, limited nutrient input could avoid high vigorous issue as well.
Keep nutrient balance between soil and vine is always a consideration of mine.

How to minimize the carbon emission during the industry production in vineyards? For example, using
renewable energy or so.
Reduced diesel usage of tractors, winery even isn’t refrigerated however, the improved winery
construction with old stone wall could protect wine from overheating in summer and cold stroke inwinter, heat management could be achieved by windows and shutters.

WHAT WE
WANNA
SAY

During the day that the modern winemaking contribute great profit with highefficiency by selling cheap nice wine, Jonathan still keep his mind insustainable winemaking with less human input and rely on the natural balance,
he slows down his step from busy London and comes to Roussillon for hiswinemaking career. The countryside in south of France provide him a dreamto establish his wonderland to deal with vine and wine, nothing is important
than the balance between estate and the chef winemaker himself, and thenatural feedback to him is much more than profit. keep simple, keep lively
then, enjoy the beautiful wine, cheers!