Green Innovation 2022: Troplong Mondot’s cane recyling

Winter is pruning season across Bordeaux, and all northern hemisphere vineyards.

That means hundreds of thousands of canes cut off vines that are pruned back to around 10% of that year’s growth in preparation for the upcoming season.

Most are turned into fodder for barbecues, or simply incinerated as waste, but Château Troplong Mondot, St Emilion Premier Grand Cru Classé, is doing something with them that is revolutionary, and potentially game-changing. It’s been one of the most impressive instances of recycling that I have seen from my hundreds of châteaux visits this year, and it wins our Green Innovation of the Year award.

By transforming the cut canes into pellets, that are dried out, diced and compressed in partnership with a company in Bergerac, Troplong is now entirely self-contained for heating, and has been since 2019. This is particularly impressive because this is a château that also has a Michelin-starred restaurant and hotel attached, and the pruned-back vine cuttings provide heating for all the boiler systems on the estate, meaning not only radiators but hot water for cleaning during the winemaking process, as well as the needs of the kitchens, showers and heating needs across the whole estate.

‘This small green revolution is helping to reduce our carbon footprint, while providing sustainable technology that we would like to see available to all,’ says estate director Aymeric de la Gironde.

It helps of course that Troplong has been entirely renovated in recent years, from winery through to the public areas, allowing them to build this innovative heating system from the ground up. It is part of their wider commitment to the environment that saw them becoming accredited by the International Wineries for Climate Action (IWCA) in 2021, and part of Act4nature International, an association which aims to mobilise companies about the impact of their current processes and the options available to them to lessen their environmental impact. The cane recycling is one of several initiatives Troplong is undertaking, from using horse traction for tillage over 80% of the property since 2009, to a commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 (you can follow them via youtube with their monthly IMPACT series).

The beauty of this particular initiative is that it is extremely simple, and when you consider the potential for it to be replicated in estates across Bordeaux and further afield, it’s truly something worth celebrating.

The diagram below shows the steps of the process, from pruning to gathering the discarded canes, to crushing them, transforming them into pellets and returning them to the property for use with the existing boilers.

Main pruning photograph care of Miguel Lecuona