Monday, October 21, 2024

The Economics of Organic Viticulture - Come See the Heavy Hitters in Organics in Person Nov. 7 in Napa



Grgich Hills Estate at Rutherford will host a kickass lineup of organic experts at a Napa Green sponsored afternoon event Thursday Nov. 7. 

Rarely do so many organic experts appear together in one live event in wine country. 

In addition, new stats on organic wine grape vineyard in California shows that Napa has a quarter of the state's organic vineyard acreage

Here's the list of speakers and topics. Copy in italics is mine.

2:00 Introduction

Anna Brittain | Executive Director | Napa Green

2:05 Organic Vineyard Management in Varying Contexts & Conditions

Phil Coturri | Enterprise Vineyard Management & Winery Sixteen 600

Who he is: Phil has converted hundreds of acres of vineyards to organics in both Sonoma and Napa, where he manages the vines at Oakville Ranch, Neotempo and Mayacamas (which included a giant replanting of the estate). He is also known for his wine growing in Sonoma and for creating the Moon Mountain District AVA (which used to be part of the Sonoma Valley AVA). In Sonoma, he farms for Lasseter, Kamen (where he famously created blocks planted on volcanic rocks), and he used to farm for Dick Arrowood. (You can only imagine the pairing of a leftwing, Deadhead vineyard guy [Phil] with a right wing famous Cabernet guy ([Arrowood] who was famous for putting Sonoma Cab on the map.) His own winery in Sonoma, Winery Sixteen 600, is a gem.

You can read more about him in this Sonoma magazine profile [https://www.sonomamag.com/meet-the-godfather-of-sonoma-wine-country/from 2023.

2:30 The Financial Case for Regenerative Organic Viticulture

Bernat Sort Costa | Regenerative Organic Research Manager | Grgich Hills Estate

Who he is: Spanish born Costa attended viticulture and enology school in Barcelona before coming to Grgich Hills originally as an intern in 2017. He became assistant winemaker in 2017 before assuming his role as regenerative organic research manager in 2023. 

2:50 Cost-Benefit Analysis of Regenerative Ag

Axel Herrera Moreno, Postdoc, UC Davis Dept. of Land, Air & Water Resources

Who he is: Axel works with UC Davis' leading regenerative viticulture researcher, Dr. Christina Lazcano, associate professor in the department. Axel presented a cost analysis at a recent regenerative ag event (not organic) at Jackson Family. (See Wine Business story here). That study is looking at the effects of combining two regenerative practices at a time to try to isolate the impacts of each combination. Laszano is presenting the findings of their research at the Terroir conference in Argentina next month. 

3:10 Break to pour wine

3:20 Dollars & Sense of Implementing Climate-Smart Viticulture

Moderator: Anna Brittain

Napa Green is a leader in greening viticulture and wineries.

Rebekah Wineburg | Winemaker | Quintessa

Quintessa is a certified organic and biodynamic estate with 160 acres. Chilean biodiversity expert Olga Barbosa is working with Wineburg to improve biodiversity on 35 acres. (Barbosa has also worked on projects with the Napa Valley Grape Growers). 

Brad Kurtz | Vineyard Director | Gloria Ferrer

Gloria Ferrer, owned by the Spanish based Freixenet company, is on the verge of completing organic certification on 330 acres and implementing many regenerative practices.

Sarah Ferguson | CEO/Co-Founder | Ruetd

Ruetd is a data analytics firm specializing in viticulture. Ferguson has worked extensively with the Napa Valley Grape Growers.

4:15 Wrap-up

For ticket information, click here.



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