Nurturing Nature For Sustainability
Sustainability
When we began this vineyard journey, our original goal was to be both organic and biodynamic. Our love and respect for nature was a driving force in our vineyard protocols. We appreciated that the interconnectedness of all systems in nature was integral to maintaining balance and beauty in our environment. And we sensed that would create balance and beauty in our wines.
We maintained organic standards for the first year and a half, until the middle of our “second leaf” in early June, we began seeing brown spots on the leaves. We pulled every leaf with a spot and monitored closely. They continued to spread. We would learn we were facing a fungal disease found in humid warm regions of the Mid-Atlantic known as “Black Rot,” Guignardia Bidwelli, for which there is no organic prevention or treatment.
After investigating every recent research released on organic methods to deal with Black Rot, we realized we would have to give up the vision of growing our grapes organically. But with that, we never gave up on growing our grapes “as organically as possible” and have continued to try to balance the pragmatism of having a crop with maintaining as environmentally sensitive practices in our vineyard as possible. The French call this, “La Lutte Raisonnée – the Reasoned Struggle.
Biodiversity
We emphasize biodiversity, using sheep to add nutrients to the vineyard soil and graze it down after harvest and in the early spring. We use their manure to make compost which we add to the vines every year. We have chickens to feed on the insect population in the vineyard and honeybees to help with pollination for our fruit trees and gardens we planted. And we have Livestock Guardian Dogs (LGDs) to protect them all, with two new Maremma puppies joining us this summer of 2024.
And our crew works hard to maintain an airy, balanced canopy on our vines. We are fortunate that our site does not reach dewpoint at night, so we begin each day (when it hasn’t rained) with dry leaves and grapes. We have well-drained soils, and our cool, breezy steep-sloped site allows for great air-movement, assisting in fighting fungal disease pressure. We monitor closely, which our small, six-acre vineyard allows. We are, as always, indebted to our dedicated crew for the care they put into their work on our mountain. Muchas gracias!
