Delight your senses

Explanations of all these sustainability terms can be confusing. The short version is, our grapes are grown organically and our wine is made organically. All of our wines are made from 100% organically grown grapes. All of our wines are also made using 100% organic winemaking methods.

Biodynamic grape growing is kind of like Organic farming taken to the next level, and treats the farm as an ecosystem. Goats & chickens & cows for fertilizer & natural weed control, composting & whatnot. It also has some mystical elements such as harvesting & planting according to moon cycles.

“Natural wine” is an unregulated term, more of a movement than a specific set of rules or regulations. Most natural wineries follow largely organic practices, often working with organic or sustainable vineyards, but may still add sulfites to their wine, usually in lower amounts than mainstream wines. The general idea is to return to a pre-modern style of winemaking that gets away from the pitfalls of modern ways. For our part, our natural wines are organically grown, organically made, sulfite-free, additive-free, vegan, and about as healthy & sustainable as you get get while still getting drunk.

Many of the vineyard we work with dry farm (don’t irrigate) but not all. We think minimizing irrigation is great in our drought-tortured state, but sometimes the plants need a little water, and we’re okay with that.

We have our own small vineyard that we farm organically. Additionally, we work with local, organic, small farmers to source the best grapes from the best locations. The farmers we work with are the best at what they do, and by building relationships with them we are able to work with the best organic grapes California has to offer.

We all little or no sulfites to our wines. With all of our wines, we start out adding zero sulfites (a common preservative found in all mainstream wines). As the wines age, we add only the minimum amount to ensure maximum quality and longevity of our wines, and no more.

There is a strong, and reasonable debate about this issue in the wine industry. Sulfites have been used in wine for hundreds of years, but not for the thousands of years that wine has been made. So there is a strong debate over whether it is traditional.

There is also a debate about whether they are a health issue. Some research suggests negative effects, but most research is inconclusive or indicates that they are only a major issue with severe allergies. Nonetheless, wine drinkers continue to report headaches from wines with too much sulfites.

Ultimately, we use little or no sulfites as a company out of an abundance of caution. If we can avoid using an additive & preservative, we will.

Wine made naturally contains around 10ppm sulfite and if no more is added then at bottling the remaining sulfite level is almost zero. Whereas winemakers typically add up to 200ppm to wine, and final amounts at bottling are typically around 80-150 total SO2, much more than what exists in a wine without sulfite added. So it is clear that this preservative is added by many wines at a level far above what naturally exists.

Others, specifically my fellow winemakers, point out that it is very difficult to make a good wine without sulfites. As an industry we have become accustomed to the crutch of sulfites, which keeps wine from turning to vinegar. Sadly, many organic & natural winemakers remove their crutch and their wines fail, giving sulfite-free winemaking a bad reputation. Removing sulfite is like removing meat from your diet: you can’t just serve meat & potatoes and remove the meat. You have to cook a stir-fry, build the meal around the vegetables rather than just removing the meat. Thus, sulfite-free winemaking is absolutely achievable, but requires a much more careful & clear methodology and attention to detail in craftsmanship.

But what is the issue with sulfites after all? Some claim it is the source of migraines, others do not want preservatives in their wine & food. Others, including many scientific studies, defend its use as innocuous. To us, this isn’t really important because there will be more studies and long-term we may find there actually are issues with sulfites; people claimed that DDT was harmless up until the moment it was discovered that it was very harmful. For our part, we have figured out how to make great wine with little or none of this preservative, and many folks don’t want this preservative in their wines, so we make our wine with little or none of it and folks love it!