According to a 2005 Report by the Natural Marketing Institute, more than 70% of consumers say they are more likely to buy the products of companies who show concern about the environment. No wonder California winegrowers are going full speed ahead with efforts to be careful guardians of their land and vineyards.
There are other reasons why Golden State winemakers are grow green. One is the health of their families and workers. It’s hard enjoying your house in the middle of your vineyard during a spray of pesticide. CWC alumni wineries like Quintessa, St. Gregory, Chappellet, Topolos and Morgan are among many wineries embracing eco-friendly farming practices. “My daughters like to play in our vineyard, and we wanted it safe for them,” says Dan Lee, owner of CWC alumnus winery Morgan in Monterey County’s Santa Lucia Highlands, whose Double L Vineyard is the appellation’s only organic vineyard. In the Napa Valley, Quintessa carries the banner for sustainable farming. Its 280 acres had never been farmed and proprietors Agustin and Valeria Huneeus’ are dedicated to farming them sustainably. “We are stewards of the land,” says Valeria.
Today, we wine consumers will find different terms used to describe the wines from “green” growers. These include sustainability, certified organic, and biodynamic.
“Sustainability” is the least rigorous category of viticulture on the “green” bandwagon rolling through today’s vineyards. It involves recycling, conserving energy and water, composting, cover crops to add nutrients to the soil, and less use of pesticide. Concern with the vineyard ecosystem leads sustainable farmers to erect raptor boxes for owls and hawks among the vines and netting over grapes to protect them from birds. They also make efforts to maintain the natural order of the forests, rivers, and open land bordering their vineyards.
There is currently no legal definition of sustainable winegrowing, so no legal labeling term appears on wine bottles. However, the movement is huge among California winegrowers; wineries representing nearly 40% of California wine production have participated in industry workshops to learn more about sustainable viticulture.
Meanwhile, there are nearly 8,000 California wine grape acres that are “certified organic” by state inspectors, a step up from sustainability on the “green” meter. When a wine label reads “organic”, it means the vineyards have not seen the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides or fungicides for at least three years. It also means the wine has no added sulfites (sulfites increase shelf life). “Organic” wines differ from those labeled “made with organically grown grapes” in regard to this sulfite rule; the second category has no restrictions on sulfite content.
Finally, on top of the “green” hill you’ll find “biodynamic farming”. As the Oxford Companion to Wine says, biodynamic viticulture “is the most extreme and ideological of all alternative approaches to viticulture.” Based on the theories of 1920s philosopher Rudolf Steiner, biodynamics is organic farming plus. It not only forbids chemical fertilizers or any kind of herbicides and pesticides, but also requires some real “back to nature” type farming. Biodynamic farmers treat their soil and vines with substances made of plant or animal materials. Nine different “preparations” must be used each year. One is cow manure, packed into a cow horn and buried in the vineyard to ferment over the winter. Also, vines are sprayed with herbal teas like Chamomile, Comfrey, Horsetail and Nettle, as well as “compost teas”. But that’s not all. When they want to plant their vines, harvest their grapes or bottle their wines, biodynamic viticulturists must first check out the phases of the moon and astrological portends. For biodynamic devotees, growing green can be almost a way of life.
However wineries manage to get to “green” for their reds and whites, we wine lovers are the beneficiaries of their hard work. Here’s a toast to the vineyard boasting compost, cover crops, and owls hooting at the moon!
