Growers learned in show and tell how an organic and biodynamic property in Napa manages biodiversity for healthier vines on a 280 acre property.
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In a field day focused on highlighting estate and region wide pest management and biodiversity, Caleb Mosley, president of the Napa Valley Grapegrowers, acknowledged the challenge Quintessa’s team faced in managing such a large property–280 acres (140 planted) on diverse terrain, with more than 120 acres of oak trees–under both organic and biodynamic certification.
“I want to say one of the things that I think is really unique and a challenge that you and the team here have overcome is that you practice these really intricate and difficult ideas on a large property,” he said, before a group of about 20+ growers Wednesday July 15 at the Rutherford property.
The framed photo on the easel is an aerial photo of the estate, much of which is visible in the land in the vista below, which attendees could see from the promontory where the talk was held. The estate was virgin land before the winery’s founding in 1989.
Here is a map Quintessa published earlier on its website that shows the diversity of soil types and terrain:
The property is owned by the Chilean born Huneeus family headed by Agustin Huneeus Sr. (former CEO of Concha y Toro) and Valeria Huneeus who aligned early on with biodynamic, holistic farming, and have over the long span of their winery’s history worked with a who’s who of organic, biodynamic and biodiversity greats.
Biodynamics was the de facto “organic plus” and regenerative standard before the more recent “no till” regenerative movement found its own voice. Though the two movements have some things in common, but they also differ in goals and methods. (Too long of a story for this post! A great topic for another day.)
The Quintessa estate makes 10,000 cases of a singular Bordeaux style blend that sells for $250 a bottle and is highly rated. In 2023, the blend was 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc, 2% Carménère, 2% Merlot, and 1% Petit Verdot.
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That list of Quintessa collaborators over the years includes:
• Texas born biodynamic pioneer Alan York, who is familiar to some for the role he played at Apricot Lane Farms, which he converted to organic and biodynamic farming. The farm’s conversion is a tale well told in the hit documentary The Biggest Little Farm.)
• Renowned Miguel Altieri, a former Berkeley professor who is credited with having founded the field of Agro-Ecology and who has worked with both the Pope and Prince Charles to create healthier farming systems globally.
• Rodrigo Soto, one of the biodynamic pioneers in Chile who managed the Hunneus’ estates in Chile and later at Quintessa, and has a history of working with biodynamic leaders including Benziger, York and as well as being a leader himself, hosting the Napa biodynamic conference at Quintessa in 2023.
• Olga Barbosa, one of the pioneering, global biodiversity academic and foundational experts on vineyard integration into ecosystems, leading pioneering biodiversity initiatives in Chile with Emiliana and working with the Napa Valley Grapegrowers as well as Quintessa.
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Olga Barbosa lecturing on the importance of biodiversity at a 2023 biodynamic conference at Quintessa
The Big Picture: “We Need to Increase Resilience not Resisistance’
The field day’s theme was seeing the big picture of how to leverage an understanding of biodiversity in growing great grapes and how it matters.
Wineburg and the Napa Valley Grapegrowers have collaborated in the past with Barbosa to learn more about the way the ecology and vineyards interact.
In a 2023 talk at Quintessa, Barbosa said, “We need to increase resilience not resistance.”
She compared and contrasted the traditional idea of productive land with one that includes ecosystem services
Ecosystem services model: A slide from Barbosa’s 2023 talk at Quintessa. While people may imagine land as either productive or unproductive, this slide illustrates the integrated model on a vineyard in Chile. It is also the direction UCANR scientists are moving in their understanding of farming systems.
Moseley said putting this into practice is challenging but worthwhile. He recalled working on the estate for two years, working with Martin.
“This is not a small 40-acre where you can get a crew in there whenever you want. You have to farm this as a large organism with larger blocks, and still be able to be at that level of intimacy with what’s happening with an organic mentality. I don’t know of any other estate that’s done what you guys are doing.”
“I think the real power of it is in stepping back and looking at the bigger picture and how do you interact with the estate? How do you think about the vineyard, and what can you do in the bigger picture?” Moseley continued.
This big picture thinking has led to increasing biodiversity throughout the property, a long term project.
“We have this natural asset of the intact oak woodlands and the intact trees within the vineyard. On top of that, we’ve also made an active effort to increase the diversity–planting native trees, planting insectaries,” Wineburg said.
Restoring the area bordering Napa river restoration was one of many projects.
“We plant coyote brush and manzanitas and it's a beautiful place now down there,” said Galvan. “Every 10 rows, I put in insectary cover crops.”
In an area designed for guests to see the insectaries, they switched to predominantly native species.
Elsewhere they mimicked other biodiversity techniques Barbosa pioneered at Emiliana in Chile, including building connecting corridors.
“We built an insectary there, as well as at the house and at Martine’s house, partly with the idea of trying to connect the corridors for the insects–creating areas where the native bees and insects have a certain amount of space that they can jump from one to the other. So creating a corridor for them to further expand around the estate and take advantage of these extensive oak woodlands,” Wineburg said.
“We also very consciously made the landscaping around the winery with native species.” That is another hallmark of Barbosa’s work at Emiliana in Chile.
She said, “The source of the native yeast is, in fact, in the oak wood, which is not in the grapes.”
“I want to give credit to someone who was here before me–Michael Sipiora,” said Moseley. “He had been here for a long time (2002-2014). So when I got here, the ethos established by Augustine and Valeria had already been here.
“When I landed here, there was a beautiful row of buckwheat–I've never seen it as healthy and as robust. That was 10 years ago. So what I wanted to describe with that is that this has been an ethos that has transcended different management styles and different people.”
Mosely said he’d taken some “fancy, nerdy” steps in the vineyard in the Silver North block where the lower part is wetter. The team used two different rootstocks–one for each of the two different soil types.
“We designed an irrigation system based on where the soil change was. We actually installed subsurface drainage on the bottom, wetter area. Now you look at that block and you wouldn't be able to tell there's two different rootstocks. It worked out beautifully.”
Isolating unwanted pests is another detail the estate carefully manages. If workers work in. block that has mealybugs, they will not work in a no-mealybug area the same day, to avoid spreading the insects.
Their insectaries do not invite unwanted insects.
Sheep management has changed over the years in relationship to containing unwanted impacts that could infect healthy vines, Galvan said.
“When we bring animals onto the property, like the sheep, we have to be conscious of where they’re going because they’re moving stuff around. I think there’s a lot of unintended consequences there.”
Wineburg said today they use the sheep only in the woodland areas and only to suppress potential fire fuels.
In discussion, a participant asked how the transition to organic/biodynamic went.
“For us, it wasn’t a transition…we've operated for so long with these practices before getting certified. We did it because Valeria believed in it, because we believed in it, not for marketing. We hadn't feel the need to bring in an outside organization,” said Wineburg.
Wineburg said conversations at large began changing about certification.
“So many more people were talking about things, and if we would talk about it and not be certified, someone say like, ‘But you're just talking about it.’ And so we took the steps to get certified.”
The company certified the estate as organic in 2020 and Demeter certified biodynamic in 2021.
Organic farming is important, especially in a very competitive market, Wineburg said.
“I think in a more and more challenging market for grapes for wine that point of differentiation is important. And as a winemaker, I will insist on buying organic grapes. Or if they're going to say that they're like practicing organic, I want proof of that.
“It's not just like a value add. It's a need to have, and it's not that hard in our Mediterranean climate. They can do it in Bordeaux, and it's really hot and humid there. Like there's no excuse. Period. So that's now like a baseline.”
Said Moseley, “The beautiful part about Quintessa and what’s been done here is that it’s been a full-blown commitment to organic farming certification, certification with biodynamic farming, and the principles of those are embodied in the practices here that work really well for Quintessa. I think that’s that’s really impressive for a property of this scale.”
Next: Part 2 of the July 15 Field Day, which focuses on UCANR entomologist Houston Wilson’s talk.
The third field day is July 22 at Opus One. You must be registered for directions to the demo site.
