One of the largest organic vineyards in the country has scooped the top prize at the Cawthron Marlborough Environment Awards.

Dog Point Vineyards received the supreme award after winning the landscape and habitat enhancement category at the ceremony at the Marlborough Convention Centre on Friday night.

Co-owner Margaret Sutherland said she was "absolutely surprised" to win their category, let alone the overall prize.

The small waterway, which runs through the 150-hectare site, was choked with weeds and willow trees. These were taken out and thousands of natives, cabbage trees, totara and flax were planted in their place.

"The goal is to extend our native planting from one side of the property to the other. Over 10 years into the project, we could stop now and call it finished, but Ivan and Margaret won't do that," Nigel says.

They want to leave it in a better state for the next generation, he says, an environmental ethos that also includes the use of 2500 sheep to graze the vineyard, as well as other non-native plantings.

Nigel says the company makes olive oil from trees on the property, harvests pine nuts from the pines, and it has an organic vegetable garden onsite.

Two fulltime gardners tend the grounds, and it takes more than a day to mow all the 'parks and reserves' - what Nigel calls all the lawns dotted around the property.

"Over the years we've had some really neat staff who have embraced our ethos. They still get out there in the quieter months between harvest and pruning, so we do quite a bit of planting at that time of year," Sutherland said.

Native plantings lured native birds, which did not eat the grapes, and a gully of Tasmanian blackwood trees were watered with wastewater from the winery.

"It's a busy place. There's lots going on, and of course making wine is what we do. But it's creating something for the future," Sutherland said.

"We're trying to leave the property better than we found it."

The judges said Dog Point Vineyards were chosen as the supreme winner for demonstrating conservation with a commercial edge.

Sutherland said she hoped other vineyards would consider investing in organic production and native regeneration.

"We really would like other vineyards to make time for planting natives. They too will find it really rewarding when the tuis and bellbirds flock to it."

Read More at source: Stuff.co.nz