Respect for, and protection of, the land on which we live and grow is central to everything we do here at Huxbear. Growing vines offers a real opportunity to improve the quality of the land while allowing us to create an environment that is optimal for the crop; something that can be difficult with many forms of agriculture.

Energy and our carbon footprint
Our business and home are completely off grid for electricity. Greater than 95% of the electricity produced here is renewably produced by us from a large solar array. We have been able to achieve this by minimising the amount of energy consumed in the winery by working with the ambient temperature and sunlight to perform operations – that would usually require large amounts of energy – at the optimum time of year.
Waste products from the production of wine are composted on site wherever possible.
Although we supply wine to customers throughout England, the vast majority of our wine is sold in Devon, often directly to customers at the place of production.
We only use (natural and biodegradable) cork closures for all of our wines and our boxes and leaflets are produced from recycled cardboard and paper.

Soil
Maintaining the quality of the soil is important for the plants, us and whoever we pass the land on to. None of our land is ever cultivated and the land between the rows of vines is grassed. This has the double advantage of reducing soil erosion and retaining organic matter. Our prunings are cut and mowed back into the soil, which also helps with organic matter, as well as reducing the requirement for fertilisers. The grass further helps to reduce leaching of the fertilisers that we do apply to the fields.

Pesticides and Biodiversity
We don't use any broad spectrum pesticides in the vineyard. We have been able to achieve this by encouraging biodiversity wherever possible in and around the vineyard. As well as specific areas of set aside land, there are wild flowers beneath the vines, both of which help to encourage insects. This improvement in the biodiversity has allowed a natural balance, which in turn keeps the thrips and mites at a manageable level.
Also, our fields are separated by hedgerow, including blackthorn, gorse and dog rose,  which, like the wild flowers under the vines, are all excellent sources of food for bees and other pollinators. 

Water
While grape production isn't a particularly water intensive form of agriculture – we don't irrigate – we reduce our water consumption wherever possible. Those operations that do require water are performed with rainwater collected from the winery roof. In the winery (and at home) our water supply is from an artesian well.