Green Wineries Growing
Why are more and more wineries “going green” in the vineyard with sustainable and organic viticulture techniques? Why are they adopting solar technologies and calculating their “carbon footprints?” The experience of Dan Morgan, founder/winemaker of California Wine Club alumnus Morgan Winery, sheds some light.
When Dan starting planting his Double L Vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands of Monterey County in 1996, he soon saw his three little children playing among the vines. The idea that their playtime would include pesticides didn’t sit well with Dan and his wife, Donna. Not too long afterward, Morgan Winery adopted totally organic farming methods, the first vineyard to do so in the appellation.
Winemakers, like anyone else, want a healthy environment. They want to treat the land that is giving them so much with care and respect. With sustainable practices in the vineyard and cellar, they also hope to win the trust and appreciation of wine lovers who are looking for a great bottle of wine with a “green” pedigree.
To help wineries find their way to sustainable, the non-profit California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance (CSWA) gives workshops on sustainable farming. One of the most popular involves a self-assessment. Winegrowers fill out evaluations of their current operation to determine the kinds of sustainable viticulture practices that might fit into their viticulture. “The beauty of the California Sustainable Winegrowing Program is its simplicity,” Bill Cooper of Cooper-Garrod Vineyards says. “A couple of hours for the self-assessment questions, then you review the results and pick the areas that you want to improve first. With the new, on-line version, it is even quicker and easier.”
More than 1,000 wineries and vineyard enterprises have participated in these self-assessment workshops since 2002. Other CSWA education events have attracted over 5,000 vintners and growers in various parts of California wine country.
California wineries going green include:
Sunstone Winery in Santa Barbara County. It has used no herbicides, fungicides or pesticides since its planting in the early 1990s.
Pedroncelli in Sonoma County. This small family uses cover crops and puts grapestems and pumice back on the soil.
Madrone, located in California's Sierra Foothills Gold Country. This family owned and operated winery has erected birdhouses for owls to rear their young—and it's not as simple as you might think. “There’s a science to it. The perches must be a certain distance from the right hand side of the hole in the box because when the little owlets take their first flight, they have to have somewhere to fly to,” says winemaker/owner Paul Bush. “So they won’t use the boxes unless there is someplace to land back home. You put the perch to the right, because the owlets fly to the right.
Handley Cellars near Mendocino. Milla Handley inagurated her sustainable farming practices in 1990.
Bargetto Winery of Santa Cruz. It installed solar panels to operate its vineyard pumps several years ago.
Domaine Carneros in Napa's Carneros region: This sparkling wine house installed the largest solar collection system of any winery in the world, leading California wineries to solar.
Drytown Cellars in Amador County. They took advantage of significant tax incentives to install solar powering for their entire wine facility.
Medlock Ames of Sonoma County. As leader in sustainable farming, this winery features a corridor through the vineyards for wildlife and has just hired miniature cattle to munch the cover crops between rows of vines.
The list goes on, as the world of wine becomes a leading source of “green” practices and sustainable agriculture in California. As winemakers become more adept at producing all organic wines of character, expect to see more such choices on your wine shop shelves. Salud!
