Beyond Organic Wine

Gifts from the Sky - Collaborating with Owls and Songbirds in Vineyards

Matt Johnson Ph.D. is a wildlife ecologist, ornithologist, agroecologist, and a professor in the Department of Wildlife at Cal Poly Humboldt in Northern California. This episode looks at the amazing solutions and incredible benefits that winegrowers can incentivize by actively welcoming songbirds and owls onto wine landscapes… as well as the beautifully rich and wonderful world that can result from opening yourself to relationships with the more than human members of your world. Resource links:Matt’s pdf presentation, with data, charts, visuals, and mind blowing info of all kinds.Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat (book)Rambunctious Garden (book)Wild Souls (book)Wesley The Owl (book)Death In The Vineyard, Part 1 - Sympathy for Vole d’Mort This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com/subscribe

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PIWIs & Hybrids - The European Report

3w ago00:53:28Tap to summarize

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.comI’ve been trying to make some strong arguments on Beyond Organic Wine for why California needs hybrid grapes, really why everyone needs them, and this episode has given me another one. California wine is becoming anachronistic. It’s becoming a relic of a past era, outdated, falling behind. Part of why this is so is because it is relatively easy to grow …

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How To Control Pierce's Disease Organically with Drew Herman

Jul 501:41:24Tap to summarize

The objective of this episode is to get vital information out to winegrowers everywhere about Pierce’s Disease, or Xylella fastidiosa (and you’ll get a whole lot more as well). Pierce’s Disease/Xylella fastidiosa isn’t a new concern for many winegrowers, but it has recently hit the news in a way that has whipped up a frenzy of new attention in California… and much of that attention is misguided, will actually cause more harm, and will incentivize the spread of Pierce’s Disease. So Drew and I recorded this conversation to serve as a resource for California especially, but also for the world… as Pierce’s Disease was found in Europe over 10 years ago, and it will likely spread globally. And it can kill vineyards. If you haven’t listened to it, I also recently released a short episode called “Is Pierce’s Disease the New Phylloxera?”This Substack is entirely reader-supported. This is a free episode because of the urgency of the issues discussed. If you’d like to keep important information like this avaialable for everyone in wine, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.In this conversation with Drew Herman, Viticulturist at Barbour Vineyard Management in Napa and Sonoma, we do a comprehensive examination of the issues surrounding and related to Pierce’s Disease, and in doing so we cover topics that apply to everything related to growing wine. Even if you don’t have to worry about Pierce’s Disease where you are, this conversation has a huge amount of information that will be relevant to everyone in wine.We dig into bacteriophages, the difference between tolerance and resistance. how pd/xf affects a vine and how the vine reacts to it, what causes it and facilitates its spread, why aren’t our vines able to deal with it and what about our vines or the way that we grow them makes them so sexy and attractive to sap sucking insects? And the real reasons the news is vilifying “immigrant” bugs. We also find out about how our nutritional mistakes and practices can help or harm plants and dial insect predation up and down, why sap analysis and foliar feeding are potentially especially important for vines on rootstock, why rootstock affects your wine pH, the importance of the timing of nutrition, how trellising incentivizes vegetative growth and billables and insect predation, the importance of sex and the need to breed new grapes and crowdsource breeding... because this is bigger than institutions. We also reveal the once in a lifetime opportunity that is available for a brave CA Winery… maybe it could be you?Resources mentioned in this episode:Wine Liberated: The Ecological Revolution and the Vintners Inspiring ChangeIs Pierce’s Disease the New Phylloxera?Genetic Analysis of North American Vitis Species Related to Pierce’s Disease Annie Bruno PD/Xf ThesisCost Analysis of PD/Xf to CaliforniaResearch into the effectiveness of XylPhi-PD Bacteriophage inoculationThis Substack is entirely reader-supported. To get access to all posts and support Beyond Organic Wine, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Thank you! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com/subscribe

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Growing a Wine & Cider Culture - Autumn Stoscheck

Jun 3000:26:09Tap to summarize

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.comMy guest for this episode it Autumn Stoscheck of Eve’s Cidery in beautiful Van Etten, New York. I drove over to the cidery to sit outside as evening descended and have a conversation with Autumn about this culture of wine and cider as we practice it here in the US in our unique context. If you don’t know Autumn, I’ll link to the episode I recorded with …

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Foundations of Regenerative Organic Viticulture with Jordan Lonborg

Jun 2502:13:29Tap to summarize

“To care for what we know requires care for what we don’t, the world’s lives dark in the soil, dark in the dark…”“…Forbearance is the first care we give to what we do not know. We live by lives we don’t intend, lives that exceed our thoughts and needs, outlast our designs, staying by passing through, surviving again and again the risky passages from ice to warmth, dark to light.”- “A Small Porch” by Wendell BerryForbearance is the restraint or patience we exercise even when we feel the urge to act. I love the idea that this is how we care for the things we don’t understand. In the face of our own ignorance, we show we care by restraining ourselves from acting. To acknowledge that we need to patiently observe, study, and learn more is how we show love to the things that are complex, invisible, and rooted in histories that we haven’t shared.We could apply this to anything, really, to our relationships with each other, to the way we use the ocean, and in this episode we apply it to soil… or what I call the soil-plant community.This Substack is entirely reader/listener-supported. To receive new posts and support Beyond Organic Wine, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.My guest for this episode is Jordan Lonborg. Jordan has been working in vineyards in the California central coast, and all over California, for decades. He spent 9 years at Tablas Creek where he helped transition it to becoming the first Regenerative Organic certified winery in the world. He’s now a regenerative consultant managing biodynamic, organic, and regenerative viticulture and transitions at Coastal Vineyard Care, one of California’s largest vineyard management companies.I got to see Jordan present on the importance of soil testing at the recent Mindset symposium produced by Anna Brittain. Soil testing is one of the important ways that we show forebearance and care for what we don’t know, and we talk about many aspects of the new best practices in soil testing to better understand the biology of the soil, rather than just the chemistry. Jordan explains why, to better understand nutrient cycling we can’t just get a standard soil test. But this is just the tip of the iceberg in this in-depth conversation.We talk about rhizophagy, and why this might be the most important discovery in Jordan’s lifetime. We talk about some of the less well known but amazingly important roles of mycorhizal fungi. We talk about the underground brain, plants as farmers, and the incredible feedback loop and trade between plants and soil microbiology. And we talk about how all of this is impacted by fertilizers and fungicides, and why hybrid grapes need to be part of every regenerative viticulture discussion. And Jordan talks at length and with passion about the belief that most people have that you transitioning to regenerative organic viticulture will necessarily cause you to lose yield for a while. Jordan has found that he can actually flip this and enable transitioning to result in immediate yield increases. And he discusses foliar feeding and how important he is finding foliar nutrition sprays are to vine health and, surprisingly, soil health.This is the cutting edge of soil science in relation to viticulture, and Jordan’s enthusiasm is infectious. Get ready to take some notes and have a blast learning about the amazing community of life we depend on for our wine and know so little about. Enjoy!Resources mentioned in this episode:Jordan’s presentation from the Mindset Symposium has a lot of great information, as well as a way to contact Jordan:Baselining and Understanding Soil HealthCaine Thompson and the regenerative organic vs conventional side by side trial at Robert Hall winery in Paso Robles gets mentioned, and I recorded a really fantastic episode with Caine last year:Also, we talk about Pierce’s Disease, and this is a really urgent issue in California right now… not because Pierce’s Disease is new to California, but because the big moneyed interests in California wine just realized that they can capitalize on the fear caused by the discovery of sharpshooter insects on vines sold at Costco to get the government to subsidize their pesticide and herbicide costs. We need to speak out about sane, ecological approaches and offer real alternatives to the conventional approach to “pest control” and we need to speak up urgently and immediately. And I just recorded an article offering a sane perspective and some real solutions for California winegrowers:Finally, my book Wine Liberated: The Ecological Revolution and the Vintners Inspiring Change is largely dedicated to exploring these themes in wine, and has an entire chapter dedicated specifically to regenerative organic viticulture. In fact I had originally used the Wendell Berry quote for that section of the book, but later removed it. Wine Liberated is available for pre-order, releasing in November from Chelsea Green.This Substack is entirely reader/listener-supported. To receive new posts and support Beyond Organic Wine, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com/subscribe

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Is Pierce's Disease the New Phylloxera?

Jun 1900:10:07Tap to summarize

What I want to say in this piece is urgent. It’s urgent because of the recent discovery of sharpshooters on grapevines at several Costco locations in Northern California, where most of California wine is grow. It’s also urgent because Pierce’s Disease is a very serious plant disease that affects grapevines, perhaps as serious as Phylloxera, and I’ll get more into that. And it’s also urgent because the response to this situation is already proving to be as short-sighted and destructive as the disease itself.I have been talking about the urgent need to prepare for the spread of Pierce’s Disease for some time now. I recorded a conversation with Adam Tolmach of The Ojai Vineyard, in which Pierce’s Disease is the main subject. And I wrote about Pierce’s Disease in my book, Wine Liberated. When I wrote about it, now almost a year ago, I had no idea it would be so timely. But I can’t wait for the book to come out, so I’m doing this and other presentations as resources for California winegrowers, and soon winegrowers from other areas as well. Pierce’s Disease has made it to Europe.What I hope comes of this is that we reach out to the same politicians, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, who are asking for millions of dollars to “contain and eradicate” sharpshooters, and propose some long-term solutions that are actual solutions instead of just temporarily throwing money at something to assuage constituents yet accomplish little other than further ecological destruction.First, Is Pierce’s Disease the New Phylloxera? In some ways, no, but in some very serious ways, yes, it is.While Phylloxera is a root louse, Pierce’s Disease or Xylella fastidiosa, which I will refer to as PD for the most of rest of this piece, is a bacterial infection that can infect many plants including grapevines. PD is transmitted by insects to plants, and then the bacteria does the damage that causes vine death, while the actual phylloxera bug is the cause of vine death because it eats vine roots.But both can result in vine death. I say “can” because just like with phylloxera, Vitis vinifera has zero adaptation to resist or tolerate Pierce’s Disease. Vitis vinifera, of course, is the species of grapevine that accounts for most of the wine grown in California. The reason it has no adaptation to resist either PD or phylloxera is because it’s not from here where PD and phylloxera evolved. The majority of our wine grapes were brought over from Europe and are highly susceptible to the many insects, disease, and fungi that evolved on North America.However, there are several species of grapevines from California and the Southern United States and Mexico that have evolved adaptation to resist and tolerate Pierce’s Disease. Vitis Arizonica, Vitis Girdiana, Vitis Candicans aka Mustangensis, Vitis Cinerea, and Vitis Rotondifolia aka Muscadina, Vitis Cordifolia, and Vitis Monticola are among the species that have some degree of Pierce’s Disease tolerance or resistance. And all of these species have this PD resistance because sharpshooters and Pierce’s Disease are as endemic to this continent as are these grapevine species.So I want to first point out that the problem is not, as I’m hearing in the press, that sharpshooters are an “invasive pest” issue. Yes, glassy-winged sharpshooters came from the Southeastern US and are not native to California, but California has at least two other native species of sharpshooters that transmit PD – the bluegreen sharpshooter and the redheaded sharpshooter. These are not invasive, and our native species are not wine’s problem. The issue is that we have a wine industry built on vines without the genetic preparation for our normal, local native fauna.This is a really important and urgent point to get across to our politicians. Because the way a large percentage of those millions of your tax dollars are going to be spent is to remove insect habitat, that is to kill plants, with herbicides and to kill insects with insecticides. These are the main approaches to deterring and eradicating the “threat” of the existence of an insect that has been part of the California community since before Europeans got here, in order to protect our winecrops that we brought in from another continent and planted on hundreds of thousands of acres that happened to be sharpshooter territory.Let me be plain: There is no way to actually control and eradicate sharpshooters, except in a very localized and short-term perspective. And even if we could, it would be incredibly destructive to biodiversity and environmental and human health. Pierce’s Disease is not spreading because sharpshooters are “invasive.” It’s spreading because of climate change that we humans caused, and that is expanding the range that sharpshooters can occupy. And it’s spreading because of monocultures of plants like grapevines on which sharpshooters love to feed. And killing plants and removing biodiversity to destroy sharpshooter habitat and protect a maladapted monoculture is going to further accelerate climate change and increase the northward progression of sharpshooters, not stop them.Just ask the winegrowers in Texas and Georgia and North Carolina… they’ve been dealing with sharpshooters and highly prevalent Pierce’s Disease forever. In fact, we really should ask winegrowers in the Southeast and Texas about Pierce’s Disease… they have developed many resources and strategies for dealing with PD, and we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. I want to highlight two very important strategies that would be far more sane and ecological than trying to control and eradicate sharpshooters.First, Texas A&M developed an organic bacteriophage inoculation for vines that seems to be quite effective. The cost that I was able to find online was approximately $7 per vine per year, product and labor inclusive, for 2 annual injections. This is something that has been tested by Ridge at their Lytton Springs vineyard on Zinfandel. Other studies have found it to be highly effective on Cabernet Sauvignon, and decently effective on Chardonnay. It’s called XylPhi-PD.And as amazing as this product is, it’s not a long term solution. I don’t think it’s a great solution to create yet another input requirement for a maladapted grape. Do we really want to inoculate our vines twice a year for $7/vine. Inoculation is a stop gap measure while we transition to adapted grapevines. Yes, let’s give our tax dollars to this to avoid mass pesticide and herbicide use and environmental degradation. But let’s work toward the long term real solution of building a wine industry on resistance genetics.Which brings me to my second resource learned from the US South and Texas: We need to start using Pierce’s Disease resistant wine grapes. This is the other area toward which we should direct resources in several ways. We should financially incentivize Californians to rip out Vitis vinifera if they are going to replant with PD resistant varieties. But while this is a much better use of our tax dollars, there aren’t that many options for PD resistant wine grapes. UC Davis has bred and released 5 PD resistant varieties so far, and there are maybe another 5 that are popular for wine in the US South. There are hundreds of varieties of Muscadines, of course, and while I think there’s a lot of potential to modern Muscadine wines, especially among younger generations, they can be very different from vinifera and won’t be seen by most Pinot Noir growers, for example, as a viable substitute.So the other urgent need we have is for grape breeding. We need to financially incentivize it. And we need more than just one guy at UC Davis doing it. State funds should be given to California grape nurseries to bring in resistant grape species and varieties, and use CA nurseries as Davis extension sites for grape breeding. Breeding new varieties of delicious resistant grapes is the only real solution, and it’s a solution that gives us the potential for a more biodiverse, resilient, ecologically healthy future.California has been one of the easiest places to grow vinifera on earth for a while, but that has held us back from adapting. We have fallen behind even Europe, who are adopting and planting new resistant varieties more and more every year, ironically using North American genetics that we are neglecting. And this neglect has caught up to us. Wine won’t survive here by doubling down on the same varieties of grapes we’ve been growing. It is time for California to adapt.(Apologies for the reduced audio quality on this… I’m moving this week.) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com/subscribe

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Farming Something More Than Grapes

Jun 1501:21:26Tap to summarize

My guest for this episode is Shannon Mayhew, Estate Sustainability Director for Brooks Winery in Oregon. Brooks is a B-corp, Demeter certified biodynamic, and regenerative winery with some of Oregon’s oldest own-rooted vinifera vines. This conversation focuses on how we might think about our wine farms as opportunities to grow something more than grapes, and how we can grow and farm the contexts, and support the communities, that make our grapes and wine more delicious and sustainable. Xerces SocietyPre-order Wine Liberated: The Ecological Revolution and the Vintners Inspiring ChangeListen to the library episode with Jonathan Lundgren of Ecdysis This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com/subscribe

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Sangiovese Vs. Marquette

Jun 600:02:17Tap to summarize

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.comSince there is very little knowledge about growing hybrid grapes in places where a majority of the wine on earth is grown, like California where I live, I want to provide really practical and useful information when I think I have it to share. I have grown and made wine from dozens of varieties of vinifera and hybrid grapes, and I currently grow multipl…

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Wine Artistry

Jun 100:20:13Tap to summarize

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.comI’m thrilled to announce that my first book is officially available for pre-order! The book is called Wine Liberated: The Ecological Revolution and the Vintners Inspiring Change. The heroes of Wine Liberated are people who I met through this podcast, who took the time to share their knowledge and inspire me and listeners around the world with their cou…

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The Most Difficult Place To Grow Wine On Earth

May 2502:09:07Tap to summarize

A big thanks to our special sponsor for this episode: Shifting Gears TravelMy guest for this episode is Tim Jordan, who is a co-founder of and winemaker and consultant for Common Wealth Crush. From overseeing winegrowing brands Star Party and Midland in Augusta County, to his winemaking and vineyard responsibilities at Common Wealth Crush, Tim has his finger on the dynamic pulse of Virginia wine. Born and raised in the Shenandoah Valley, he holds a PhD in entomology from Virginia Tech, with a focus on grapevine insects. This specialized knowledge and passion for Virginia winegrowing has propelled him through numerous roles in the industry over the years, including as vineyard manager for Michael Shaps Wineworks, winemaker at Barren Ridge Vineyards, consultant with Shenandoah Vineyard Services, and now co-founder of Common Wealth Crush. Tim is also part of the grape breeding program in Virginia, in collaboration with the USDA, that is developing new grape varieties that can successfully produce delicious wine within the unique regional limitations and challenges that grapes face in Virginia. I wish every state had one of these programs.I have a special relationship with Virginia in a way. Virginia is the setting for the first episode of the Beyond Organic Wine podcast (which I highly recommend listening to if you haven’t), and it’s the setting for Chapter 1 of my book, Wine Liberated. That’s because Virginia is one of the oldest wine regions in the US, and it’s simultaneously one of the most difficult places to grow wine on earth. So the lessons we learn from the folks growing wine there organically, ecologically, or regeneratively – and there is a growing group of winemakers who are – these are lessons that can be applied broadly across most of the winegrowing world. But Virginia is also a place where Vinifera Culture has been, and continues to be, heavily invested in. Enormous amounts of resources are given every year to trying to produce wine from Vitis vinifera in Virginia. This is a product of a colonized wine culture that defines wine as the fermented juice of varieties of Vitis vinifera only, and it’s time we call this what it is… utter and unsustainable folly.Yet, as you’ll hear, this is what most people learn as we begin our journey with wine. And so Tim’s journey began by planting and growing vinifera in Virginia. But twenty years on, Tim has learned too much to go back. He won’t plant vinifera again for his wine, and he’s setting an example that I hope more and more growers in Virginia, and around the world, follow. This theme is merely background, however, for an in-depth look at a thoughtful, community focused, ecologically informed journey to grow wine in one of the most challenging wine regions on earth. Enjoy! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com/subscribe

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All episodes

Gifts from the Sky - Collaborating with Owls and Songbirds in Vineyards

PIWIs & Hybrids - The European Report

How To Control Pierce's Disease Organically with Drew Herman

Growing a Wine & Cider Culture - Autumn Stoscheck

Foundations of Regenerative Organic Viticulture with Jordan Lonborg

Is Pierce's Disease the New Phylloxera?

Farming Something More Than Grapes

Sangiovese Vs. Marquette

Wine Artistry

The Most Difficult Place To Grow Wine On Earth