Healthy Vines, Pure Wines: Methods in Organic, Biodynamic, Natural, and Sustainable Viticulture

Focusing on the New Worlds’ oldest and most famed wine producing areas in California’s greater Sonoma/Napa/North Bay region we will compile practices and examples of wine country’s most exemplary sustainable operations. Being in a very well established and affluent part of the US, we feel that solutions forged here can help expand both the understanding of how best practices can be achieved, and the pitfalls to be avoided on the road to greater sustainability in many a wine region around the world. Example wineries and vineyards include Raymond Vineyards, Buena Vista, Carneros, Benziger, and Kendell Jackson and we will focus on different growing methods and standards such as the Demeter Wine Processing Standard, dry growing, organic, bio-dynamic, and innovative production and bottling methods that minimize waste by recycling as much as possible. We have been learning a lot in California about conserving water during a prolonged drought and made strides in water conservation in agriculture and viticulture. Sonoma County is committed to becoming the nation’s first 100% sustainable wine region through a three-phased program to be completed by 2020. Wineries are becoming more integrated into the community as hosts of community events, dances, farmers markets, and agritourism partnerships with surrounding stakeholders to help travelers minimize their use of fossil fuels while here. Ways that the wine sector is intersecting with tourism to benefit the environment will be highlighted. This book is the second I have been involved with regarding sustainability in the wine industry, the first being a collaboration between myself, Professor Robert Girling, and Heather Gordy called The Good Company: Sustainability in Hospitality, Tourism, and Wine. I have also very recently, been working on a project with the UN World Tourism Organization’s International Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories to establish one here in Sonoma. It is with gratitude that I can say we have been approved and have begun development in earnest of the UNWTO Sonoma County Sustainable Tourism Observatory. Each of the 12 Wineries featured in the book will be a factual case study while also describing the soul and the breadth of the endeavor. With examples ranging from the tiny bodega to the industry leading mega wineries we aim to be as inclusive as possible. Not intended as a tome, but a readable journey including extensive resources to assist in further research, brief articles by leading authorities on implementation of new cutting edge methodologies, and tried and true methods making a comeback from the ancient world to the present.