Sonoma's Organic Vineyards Growth Slows Dramatically | Hovering at 4 Percent

PERCENTAGE OF ORGANIC VINES IN SONOMA

I was delighted to be on Sam Coturri and pals' most excellent podcast last week, and Sam asked me what percentage of vineyards in Sonoma are organic. So I decided to tally it up today.

My unofficial count (better than nothing because the govt. does not count organic wine grape acreage, sadly) showed a total of  2,332 acres. Out of 57,000 acres (2022 county crop report number), that means Sonoma's organic acreage is 4 percent. 

It's gaining, but nothing like in Napa, where it's closer to 14 percent, adding close to 1,000 acres this year alone thanks to Jackson Family's Napa conversion of 667 acres (which has not been replicated at scale in Sonoma).

SONOMA ORGANIC VINEYARD TRENDS

After a few years of significant growth in which several 200+ acre vineyards in Sonoma went organic–including Gundlach Bundschu and Donum Estate–2023 saw a tiny increase in organic acreage in the county with just 40 acres of newly certified organic vines. 

In 2021, Donum added 202 acres to the county's organic acreage followed in 2022 by GunBun with 264 in 2022.

But in 2023, only 40.5 new acres were added - or roughly just 20 percent of the new growth seen in 2021 and 2022. 

Furthermore, many vineyards surrendered their organic certifications. 

2021
Donum	202
Hanzell	46
Hobo + WINE	12
Mendoza	4
		264

2022
DesForges	5.5
Grist	68
New Puli	1.9
Abbots Passage	40
Vineburg LLC dba Gundlach Bundschu Winery	264
		379.4

2023
RAEN	7
Bazzano	15
Fifth Hill (Ned Hill)	13
Sophie James	5.5
		40.5

DECERTIFICATION

While a wet year in 2023 might be blamed for suspending organic certification in 2023, only four growers or wineries –Bartholomew, Benovia, Bucher, and Cassata–left organic certification in 2023.   

	2020-2023
Brereton	NA
Charlie Smith	NA
Bucher Farms	38
Bartholomew	22
Cassata Sonoma	21
Amapola Creek (in 2020)	20
Benovia Winery (Cohn Vineyard)	18
Larson Family Winery	15
Belli Vineyards	12
	146

Two steps forward, one step back?

Meanwhile, Ridge Vineyards continues to hold the top spot with 266 acres of organic vines, followed by Donum and GunBun.

Other major organic players include Benziger and Eco Terreno each with 100 acres and Hamel which has 97.