Interview with Joël Rochard (Winery owner, connoisseur and expert in the field of viticulture)
Why is it so important for wine producers to have a well planned wastewater treatment process??
Optimised wastewater treatment must be adapted to the relevant context. I’m used to having to remind people that “every winery is a special case” when it comes to wastewater and the environment. It’s also worth noting that “the easiest type of wastewater to deal with is that which is not created in the first place”. This kind of approach required optimal management of water and liquid by-products. This step, combined with the possible separation of the systems, is often one of the largest challenges for implementation. Furthermore, the availability of water in certain regions can be a problem. This is particularly the case in areas of the Americas and the Mediterranean, leading businesses to consider reusing wastewater, particularly for watering their crops and sometimes for internal use in the winery. In this context, the use of phytoremediation (using reed soil filtration) for significantly improving hygiene, potentially in combination with membrane technologies, can be bit by bit integrated into the perspectives for further developing cleaning techniques.
What are the advantages of biological plants, particularly SBR systems, for wineries?
Aside from the large production units, the world of wine production is large still a small scale business. The harvest and processing time in wineries is also very intensive and monitoring the treatment systems is rarely a top priority, requiring systems that are easy to manage. The SBR system
is a good compromise between traditional techniques that require large volume storage and intensive processes that require technical expertise and complex monitoring.
Aside from wine tourism, what trends are currently shaping the future of the sector?
Like all sectors, the world of wine production is more and more looking at the issue of sustainability. Wine is also a cultural product where the buyer has high expectations, as well as the visitor. This is why I have developed the “eco-oenotourism” concept. This gives wineries guidance and orientation on ecological practices, particularly in regards to biodiversity in the vineyards and sustainable wine production. The eco-design concept of wineries to which I provide advice and training focuses on combining the limited use of fossil fuels using bio-climatic architectures, reducing water consumption and ecological management of wastewater by limited energy consumption, visual, odour and noise pollution.
Why are you collaborating with ATB WATER?
I believe that ATB WATER’s excellent specialist knowledge in the sector, for the food industry in particular, and their ability to implement SBR systems in a wide variety of different situations puts them in an excellent position to deal with the sheer variety found in wineries. The presence of ATB in many countries can also help contribute to development throughout the global wine sector.
