Although most of the land at DogRock Winery consists of rugged timbered hillsides,
the cleared area was considered ideal for vineyards and ultra premium wine production.
The timbered areas were also, considered of significant value as we are very focused on
the environment and ways of helping counter balance some of the problems facing the world today.

Since purchase of the property in 1998 we have planted 7,000 trees back on the hillsides and gullies
where no vineyards are to be planted. In 2000, we planted our first grapes and built our own house high
on one of the ridges. The house is designed to run entirely on solar and wind power and the water supply
is serviced from catching natural rainfall off the roof. The house is also counter sunk into the hillsides to
allow the earth to nestle against the walls for cave like cooling in the summer. Water is gravity fed into
the building and solar water heating services the house in summer. Winter warmth is from a slow combustion
stove which doubles for cooking as well as hot water. Although burning wood releases carbon the fuel is
considered as renewable as the 7,000 trees planted back more than
make up for the several tonnes of wood consumed each year.
In general, the only link we have to the outside world is a
telephone line.

We have also built our winery to a similar theme where 50% of the building is
underground. This eliminates a need to cooling and the wine has the luxury of
spending its maturation time in an even and regulated environment even in summer.
Solar power is used for most energy requirements and our wine boxes are 100%
recycled cardboard and are also 100% recyclable. All water usage in the winery is from
catching rain water while the wine is made with as little intervention as possible. In addition to all of

this, in 2011 we installed a solar pump and built a header dam 60 above the vineyards on a ridge

so that we can now irrigate our vineyard using only gravity or straight from the dam with the solar pump.

For all of this, our efforts were recognised by winning the Powercor Grampians/Pyrenees
Small Business Award for Environmental Responsibility in 2007, 2009 & 2011.

For more information on this and other topics we suggest you visit the vineyard and winery section as
well as the photo gallery section.