Winery

"To me, sustainable means leaving the landmore fertile than you found it. We have been sustainable from our first farming day back in 1997. In addition to using all natural means for grape growing, I have taken the next steps. We compost our grape skins and stems and fold them back into the soil. We plant a winter cover crop of fava beans, fetch, clover and wild mustard, which gets tilled into the soil each spring to provide vital nutrients, giving the vines a great boost of energy as they come out of dormancy. And as we prune each winter, we use the resulting ash to create a line of beautiful ash-glazed pottery. It doesn't stop with the grapes, however. We encourage a balanced ecosystem and natural habitat that plays home to so many wonderful creatures. Brush piles and unsprayed ditches provide safe places for the quail and the ducks to lay eggs. Longer spring grasses are left knee high for the geese. Bat boxes, ladybugs, the list goes on. Finally, living sustainably means taking responsibility for our ranch forman, Lorenzo, and his family in Mexico. We provide him with year-round work and a steady income, allowing him to plan for reuniting his family. Our farming activities are a bit slower at times, but we feel much better about it in the end. All told, farming sustainably affects both what you do and how you do it." -- Michael Chiarello

"Working with the gentle yet precise advise of our advisor, Amigo Bob Cantisano and I walk the vineyards every month, and devise the solutions to problems that nature can best address. Sometimes our allies are critters, sometimes a plant, sometimes a matter of timing our activities to a stronger part of a natural cycle, and therefore yielding an advantage over the situation. Whatever the challenge, I can count on Amigo Bob as a leader and a friend. He is simply one of the most important thinkers of our time in ways of gentler, low footprint farming, ways that we simply must adopt with seriousness and speed regardless of the crop or stock." -- Michael Chiarello

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