Natural selections

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DROUGHT-TOLERANT WINE

outh Australian wine company Unico Zelo has a radical approach to grape-growing: where possible, they give their vines only minimal water. “We’re oddballs,” says co-owner Brendan Carter of their place in an industry that uses 440 billion litres of water for irrigation in Australia each year. But Carter’s reasoning is anything but odd. We live on a dry continent, so we should be growing grapes that can tolerate dry conditions. “If a plant can’t survive on the water that nature naturally brings to it, then technically it shouldn’t be there,” says Carter. The company’s signature, single-vineyard wines are made from drought-hardy grapes, fiano and nero d’Avola, grown in