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| Winemaker Joe Nielsen, Ram's Gate |
Well, for Ram's Gate, it was hiring winemaker, Joe Nielsen, in 2018, who upped the winery's game on both the vineyard and the winemaking fronts, launching organic farming practices and, in the cellar, going in for native fermentations (for the estate red wines) and whole cluster winemaking.
After embarking on the multi year journey to convert the vineyards to organic farming, later this year, after the paperwork is complete, Nielsen says the estate vines will be certified organic (in 2022).
(The estate vines provide the grapes for a quarter of the wines–all of the wines labeled Estate. The other wines come from prestigious, but non-organic vineyards).
SONOMA'S CARNEROS SIDE UPS ITS GAME WITH TWO ELEGANT, ORGANIC, LUXURY WINE TASTING ROOMS
Ram's Gate's move raises the organic ante for fine wines and tasting in the Carneros.
At last count, I think there were about 67 acres of organic vines in the Sonoma side of the Carneros–Larson Family has 13 and Nicholson Ranch 31 plus 28 from grower Sangiacomo. The two wineries offer a casual wine tasting experience.
But for luxury tourists, there will now be two top end hospitality sites on the organic side to visit–Donum Estate (121 acres, ETA on certification 2022), with its famous sculptures and Pinot Noir focus, and Ram's Gate, with its spacious architectural forms, oversized fireplaces, and culinary program.
JOE'S JOURNEY
I visited Ram's Gate for the first time last week and interviewed Joe. Here is our conversation about the conversion to organics and what's happening at the estate.
"Once we had done the CSWA (sustainability certification) from the vineyard side, it was pretty simple to go organic. I felt like there was a lot of opportunities that we could do that weren't that difficult as a business, So in 2019, we started the process of becoming organic.
People say organics is difficult, and there are a lot of reasons not to do it. But what I found out about this property is that we have really low vigor because of the [clay] soil. And we have the wind that dries things out all summer. We have low weed pressure, and we have low disease pressure as a result of those two things. So in many ways, we have ideal conditions for organic.
So in 2019, we started with organic herbicides. And then in 2020 we went to mechanical weed removal only in the vineyard.
We have the sheep that come through in February for about a month. We pull them out after bud break or by bud break. So they do our first mowing. They eat underneath the vines. And then we come back through with a mechanical rototiller that goes underneath the vines, and which has catch arms to keep it from all those vines. That was number one. So that was pretty easy.
It's comes down to timing, which in organic farming is very important.
Then for pesticides, because we're so windy, last year we sprayed less than I've ever done conventionally prior. It just depends on the vintage and some vintages are gonna have more problems, but so far so good. So we just completed our [required] three years of organic farming. Now we just need to go through the CCOF [certifier] process, which is just a lot of paperwork. But to me, the hard part is doing the farming. The easy part will be the paperwork.
A BIGGER PICTURE
In 2018 and 2019, I spent a lot of time traveling in Europe, seeing brands that have really made a commitment to a 100 year or 200 year plan. Part of that has been to be as sustainable as possible. So the idea is everything that we do here…it's not just going to be bandaids and it's not going to just be for short term gains. It's long term planning and long term outlook in general–thinking multiple steps ahead, not just what's going to help us tomorrow.
We're in the midst of replanting, trying to match rootstock to clones to the soil and really being thoughtful about that. I'm bringing back heritage selections of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. So instead of using Dijon clones which aren't really accustomed to our climate, we're looking at Calera and Swan–clones that have been worked in our California soils for 40-50 years and they're sort of climatized–what was cool then is cool now.
So in 2020, we did soil pits to understand what are the limiting factors in the soil and thinking about how to replace nutrients if we can. We've been doing compost. And the sheep obviously help with manure, but just trying to do the right practices to to make this as good as possible.
Part of it is trial and error. That three year transition to organics is probably to make sure everything in your soil has been organic for a while, but I think those multiple years of going through that process is also helping that part of you yourself transition–turn over a lot of stones and understand the timing.
We've also extended organic to our landscaping; we don't use any herbicides anywhere. I just want it to be something for our guests–that for those who are concerned about it, it's won't be here. Glyphosate is not being used anywhere.
WATER, RENEWABLES AND BIODIVERSITY
So outside of that, we do not rely on well water. We have 100 percent rain collection. So this year, we've gotten a little bit of rain but still half of what we need. But that rainstorm in early December was enough water for us to fill both ponds, so we have 7 million gallons of water for this year. We use about three for a season.
The whole building (when it was reconstructed in 2011), was designed to that all of our drains from the roof go to the pond.
Renewable energy is on the way. We have all the infrastructure to do it and we're working with PG&E to assess our energy usage. We want to get our building as green as possible, and get solar. We have a spot already out in a field that we're going to put it in.
On the gardening front, we have some pollinator gardens around the property which are being expanded for insectiaries and whatnot. We are trying to break up the monoculture. And we have a new chef, and I said, 'give me all the fruit trees that you want. we'll make orchards.' It's nice to kind of break up the grape thing.
THE ESTATE WINES
When it comes to winemaking, I prefer freshness, precision. So my instinct is to pick on the earlier side of things. We really want to maintain natural acidity.
I am from Michigan originally, studied winemaking in Michigan, so the inspirations for making wines from Alsace, Germany, Switzerland, came from that experience. I like those cool climate, higher acid refreshing whites. [Ram's Gate's Pinot Blanc has gotten significant praise in reviews from Esther Mobley and Slow Wine's Deborah Parker Wong.] So we've definitely carried that here. So it has been stylistically stuff I enjoy.
[The Alsatian groupies in the Carneros are few and far between, but Robert Sinskey's Abraxas, a perennial favorite, a blend of Alsatian varieties, is proof positive of the region's affinity for Alsatians.]
For me when I came here, it felt like a kid in the candy store in that I've got quite a few acres to play with. The setting had already been set for a sustainable path. And now it's just there's really no end to what we can do. I think the organic process has been pretty straightforward. They don't require you to have livestock. They don't require you to do a lot. So it's basically if pesticides and herbicides are the only two things that they're worried about, and maybe any imputs are organic. That's really not that hard.
So, in California, so what else can we do? The sheep are important. We want to start composting ourselves. We have a kitchen that gives us leftovers, which we're trying to maintain and reuse.
In the process of going organic, you learn so much about your property...it becomes sort of its own personality. And everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Once you identify that, then you can play to those strengths and work on those weaknesses just as we do as people. It just keeps compounding. Okay, well, we really liked this, let's do more of that. For the last three years we've not been using herbicides and really thinking about ground cover, cover crops, whatnot. Our shepherd says, 'Oh, your soil and your pasture just look so alive and healthy and happy. '
So if that happens in three years, what does it look like in 10 years?
WINES
I tasted all the estate wines and would call out the current release estate whites as the most exciting for their lightness, freshness and vibrancy.
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APPENDIX | Who's Organic in the Carneros
NAPA WINERIES
Robert Sinskey | 172 acres
Madonna Estate | 140 acres
Grgich | 88 acres
ZD | 31 acres
Adastra | 12 acres
SONOMA WINERIES
Donum - 121 acres (in transition; ETA 2022)
Nicholson Ranch | 31 acres
Ram's Gate - 28 acres (in transition; ETA 2022)
Sangiacomo (as a grower) | 23 acres
Larson Family | 13 acres
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