Fancy an Organic Dry Creek Winery? Quivira's For Sale | $24 Million Price Tag

 

Dry Creek Valley's Quivira Winery is for sale. It's been famous for its delicious rosé and Sauvignon Blanc for decades, not to mention its Zinfandel. 

The deal includes the winery and 62 certified organic vineyard acres. 

See the details on Zillow. 

Congratulations to Corison! Now CCOF Certified Organic in the Vineyard

 

Cathy and William’s daughter Grace Corison Martin

Corison announcement on their FB page: 

"Our Kronos and Sunbasket vineyards are officially certified organic! After 25 years of farming with these methods, we are beyond excited to be certified. Happy Autumnal Equinox!" 

Getting credit for what she already does. Hurray. All 19 acres on both sites were certified 06/12/23, according to the CCOF website.

Corison wrote in an email announcing the certification: "We have always farmed using these sustainable [and organic farming] methods, and are proud to support organics with this certification. "Our soils are wildly alive!"

When I first started writing this blog, I had the loveliest visit with Cathy - that was back in 2011. I was writing my app Organically Napa at the time. (Not currently available). 

She took me up to her second floor porch and we looked out across the neighboring vineyards on the bench. She pointed out the "extra greeny" ones, obviously using synthetic fertilizers (not allowed in organics). She discussed the water problems that were already happening at that time, saying some neighbors' straws were coming up dry. 

Though she was farming organically, at the time, she didn't see the need to certify back then. Unfortunately I could not include her in my app, which I had limited to only certified organic vineyard sourcing. 

I am so happy to see the tide has turned and then next generation has taken things in hand and gotten the Corison family on the other side of the certification fence. Could this be a shining example to others?

Note: Corison is one of the 289 eco friendly wineries you can read more about in Slow Wine Guide USA 2023. Copies are available here.

Azolla!

Aquatic carbon sequestration or vegan fertilizer? Just two more of the reasons to learn about Azolla, a native plant that one wine grower uses for his farm's fertility. Learn more on  WineBusiness at https://www.winebusiness.com/news/article/276393

Meet Napa's Third Largest Organic Vineyard Owner, Jackson Family Wines, and Its Organic Napa Estates

It's amazing that in one fell swoop, Jackson Family Wines has become, almost overnight, Napa's third largest organic vineyard owner with 480 planted acres certified organic in 2022-23. (Note: these figures were updated Oct. 31. 2023).

Where are its newly certified organic vines located? 

The organic certifier CCOF has now shared this information. which is part of winery's public client profile. Though the total is 663, the winery in its press release said 480 acres were planted.

Analysis

The data shows that the largest certified organic Jackson owned parcels are clustered in various AVAs and specific types of terrain, with mountain vineyards predominating. No surprise as it's well known that these were Jess Jackson's favorites.

Largest Organic Vineyard Holdings - 50-200 acres

Four sites are responsible for 452 acres. All except the Oakville site are on mountain areas. 

1. Potelle, Mount Veeder AVA | 202 acres

2. Keyes, Howell Mountain AVA | 109 acres

3. Cardinale, Oakville AVA | 80 acres

4. Veeder, Mount Veeder AVA | 61 acres

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Vineyards - 10-50 Acres

5. La Jota, Howell Mountain AVA | 41 Acres

6. Rhyolite Ride, Diamond Mountain District AVA (?) | 39

7. Atalon, Calistoga AVA | 30 acres

8. Wurtele, Spring Mountain AVA | 27 acres

9. Lokoya, Spring Mountain AVA | 24 acres

10. Wilson, St. Helena AVA |  14 acres

11. Ho, Mount Veeder AVA | 11 acres

12. Wallis, Diamond Mountain District AVA | 10 acres

Historic Sites - Fewer Than 10 Acres

This group is tiny but prominent, as it's historic sites surrounding Freemark Abbey. 

13. VanZ, St. Helena AVA | 5 acres

14. Ahern in St. Helena AVA | 4 acres (at Freemark Abbey)

15. Freemark Abbey, St. Helena AVA | 2 acres

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Here's another slice of the data:

---------------------------------------------ACREAGE BY AVA

GROUP 1 - MOUNTAIN AVAS

---Mount Veeder AVA - 274 Acres

Potelle, Mount Veeder AVA | 202 acres

Veeder, Mount Veeder AVA | 61 acres

Ho, Mount Veeder AVA | 11 acres

---Howell Mountain AVA - 150 Acres

Keyes, Howell Mountain AVA | 109 acres

La Jota, Howell Mountain AVA | 41 acres

---Spring Mountain AVA - 51 Acres

Wurtele, Spring Mountain AVA | 27 acres

Lokoya, Spring Mountain AVA | 24 acres

---Diamond Mountain AVA - 10 Acres

Wallis, Diamond Mountain AVA | 10 acres

---Calistoga AVA - 39 Acres (Hillsides)

Rhyolite Ride, Calistoga AVA (?) | 39

GROUP 2 - VALLEY PROPERTIES

---Oakville AVA - 80 Acres

Cardinale, Oakville AVA | 80 acres

---St. Helena AVA - 25 Acres

Wilson, St. Helena AVA |  14 acres

VanZ, St. Helena AVA | 5 acres

Ahern in St. Helena AVA | 4 acres (at Freemark Abbey)

Freemark Abbey, St. Helena AVA | 2 acres

---Calistoga AVA - 30 Acres (Valley)

Atalon, Calistoga AVA | 30 acres

The Bigger Picture

Jackson also owns or controls as much as 50,000 acres, if Wikipedia is to be believed. Older stats said it owned 15,000 acres including 13,000 in California. (It has recently purchased vineyards in Oregon and Washington.)

So 663 acres is a good start. 

Lower Price Tiers: New Producers with Organic Paths

It's often hard for people to get their head around the fact that a company and its various brands are often not consistent in their certifications. Indeed, even within one brand, some wines may be organically grown while others are not. 

Jackson's coastal vineyards are not farmed organically–farm from it–and its Napa wines are costly. But its decision to go organic on its high end Napa vines is a notable shift and a major commitment.

On the other hand, brands with wines in the same price range of some of KJ's coastal vineyard wines, which are often farmed with dangerous chemicals, are on an organic path. 

Scheid has announced its plans to certify 3,000 acres and has already completed certification on 667 acres (in Monterey County). In Paso Robles, Castoro Cellars already has 1,400 acres of organic vines with another 200 in the pipeline. 

A Canadian pension fund backed grower, Kylix Vineyards (affiliated with Grapevine Capital Partners, which has previously represented Harvard's endowment investments) has recently certified 485 acres of vineyards organic in Paso's San Juan Creek AVA. And the Riboli Family (Stella Rosa is one of their brands) is making headway with 60 acres newly certified organic and another 100 acres in the pipeline in Paso westside holdings.

Giant Trinchero, a CCOF designated "new applicant," has 183 acres in Yolo County in the organic certification pipeline, according to the CCOF website.

Wine Business ranks Jackson Family Wines as the ninth largest winery in the U.S. with    production of 6 million cases. Now it's taking its first giant step into the organic sector. 

NOTE: Lawrence Family is a first in organic acreage in Napa, with  633 acres currently certified organic and biodynamic and 18 more acres in the three year transition period. That does not include Martha's Vineyard (33 acres) which it sources from but which is owned by a different family.  

UPDATE: Oct. 31: Jackson Family Wines' company press release says only 480 acres are planted, out of the 663.

This is depressing...

Market research says organic is most attractive to younger consumers...but...

There is not one organically grown wine among this Top 100 List, is there?

The cheapest organic option typically is Shaw Organic ($4 at Trader Joe's), but that is not showing up here.

But who can blame younger consumers–distribution of organically grown wines is so very limited.