Beyond Organic Wine

The World's Largest Regenerative Organic Viticulture Trial Is Really Hopeful - Caine Thompson, O'Neill Vintners

My guest for this episode is Caine Thompson, head of sustainability for O’Neill Vintners. Caine has initiated and oversees the largest side-by-side trial of regenerative organic viticulture in the world at Robert Hall Winery, one of O’Neill Vintners flagship brands in Paso Robles. Going into it’s 5^th year in 2025, this regenerative organic viticulture trial is already providing data that show that regenerative organic viticulture, in Paso Robles, provides, at minimum, economic & wine quality parity with conventional agriculture while improving soil and vine health, carbon and water storage, and benefitting multiple other elements of the ecosystem and socio-cultural context of the winery. O’Neill has already converted the rest of Robert Hall’s estate vineyards to regenerative organic viticulture after seeing the results from just the first years of the trial.

I often use this podcast to bring attention to smaller producers doing great work who might otherwise not get the same media coverage that large brands get. And I do think that’s important. But an ecological approach to wine is not a niche obsession. It’s what needs to become the dominant culture. So I think it is also important to applaud the genuine commitments to ecological alignment by larger companies. With many other beverage brands under its control, O’Neill is the kind of company that can begin to set a larger trend and cause real change to happen. There is a lot of heart behind this story, thanks to Caine and the others he works with. Prepare yourself to hear something both inspiring and hopeful for a change.

https://oneillwine.com/

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Beyond Organic Wine

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Free Range Flower Winery - Aaliyah Nitoto

My guest for this episode makes wine from flowers. Her name is Aaliyah Nitoto and her winery is called Free Range Flower Winery. She’s based out of Oakland, California, so she could use grapes. But her first attempts at infiltrating the grape wine hegemony we’re overly welcoming. As she assessed and regrouped, her studies led her to a different calling. Her story is inspiring and her fermentations are both refreshingly novel and at the same time steeped in historical tradition. At every step she has had to confront and overcome the Grape supremacy of the dominant wine culture, and a few other obstacles as well. But she has created a beautiful, and ecological approach to wine, and I’m grateful to get to share her story with you.

https://www.freerangeflowerwinery.com/

Your support is greatly needed and appreciated:

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Beyond Organic Wine

or just spread the word... thanks!

NOK Vino's Nico Kimberly - Hybrid Grapes in New Hampshire

This episode digs into several varieties of hybrid grapes being grown in New Hampshire by the team that makes up NOK Vino. I speak with Nico Kimberly, the founder of NOK Vino, about the challenging viticulture of New Hampshire, what its like to be making wine in a new, young wine region, the importance of community to these efforts, and the diversity of grapes that are making it possible to do what he’s doing. Nico has a refreshingly non-dogmatic perspective, that approaches each site and each vintage as having unique needs that must be carefully observed and thoughtfully and individually managed, and each plant and life in and around his vineyards as individuals to learn from, care for, and live symbiotically with.

https://nokvino.com/

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Beyond Organic Wine

Honoring Groundbreaking Winemakers

Maybe you took a break from alcohol this January and you don't want to go back to drinking wines made within the dominant paradigm. Maybe you'd like to try something truly extraordinary, rare, unique, ecological, and excellent. If so... this episode offers some suggestions. 

For this episode I assembled a gathering of Los Angeles wine professionals to taste through a handful of wines that represent winemakers who are among some of the most groundbreaking... and the most unacknowledged for the amazing work they do.

Tasters (besides me):

Elodie Oliver- wine educator, sales with Nomadic

Chiara Shannon - regenerative farmer/owner Ampelos Vineyards (Sta. Rita Hills), The Yogi Sommelier

Teron Stevenson - partner at Offhand Wine Bar, one of the Westside Winos

Wines Tasted (in order of tasting):

"Random Apples" by Raging Cider & Mead - found, foraged seedling & uncultivated apples from Southern California

"Sparkling Prickly Pear" by Wild Texas Wine - foraged uncultivated 100% prickly pear brut sparkling wine, traditional method

"Okneski Vineyard" by Herrmann York - backyard vineyard Zinfandel from Redlands, CA (Contributed by Teron Stevenson)

"In A Dark Country Sky" by La Garagista - whole cluster Vermont Marquette

"The Pariah" by North American Press - sparkling Catawba revival, first in California in 60 years

To highlight a few incredible wine producers, I necessarily must leave out others. So, like any spotlight of this kind, please know that my intention was not to be comprehensive. Most of these producers do stand out, though, for doing wine in a way that very few, if any, are doing it, and with exemplary and even uncommon quality and craft. 

Your support is greatly needed and appreciated:

You Can Support this podcast by subscribing via patreon.

Or by donating or taking action at:

Beyond Organic Wine

or just spread the word... thanks!

Regenerative Viticulture Foundation - Becky Sykes

Becky Sykes is the Program Director of the Regenerative Viticulture Foundation, and she’s gives us a great introduction to many of the resources and opportunities available to wine producers through their work. Becky tells us about the RVF’s upcoming 1 block challenge, as well as their regenerative Toolkit that you can participate in as a winegrower, and we discuss many of the other resources and ideas that the RVF brings attention to. In short, you’ll hear many reasons why and how you can get involved with the Regenerative Viticulture Foundation and help move viticulture in a regenerative direction.

https://www.regenerativeviticulture.org/

Also, please check out this past episode which discusses and gives resources for regenerative ag data:

https://www.organicwinepodcast.com/episodes-1/ecdysis-regenerative-wine

Here are some fun and informative links about ecoacoustics:

Ecoacoustics: The Ecological Investigation and Interpretation of Environmental Sound

Sounds of the underground reveal soil biodiversity dynamics...

A Fun Video About Soil Ecoacoustics

Your support is greatly needed and appreciated:

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Beyond Organic Wine

Better Living (and Drinking) Through Hybrid Grapes with Bruce Reisch

Bruce Reisch joined the faculty of Cornell University in New York in 1980 and spent the last 40 years specializing in developing new grape cultivars as well as new grape breeding techniques. During this time his program released 14 new grape cultivars, 10 of which are wine grapes. In fact I have one of his most popular grapes, Traminette, growing with a persimmon tree in my front winegarden here in LA. Bruce was also Chair for over 10 years of the Grape Crop Germplasm Committee, a national committee overseeing U.S. Department of Agriculture efforts to preserve wild and cultivated grapevines. He has studied grapes all over the world, published many papers on a variety of topics in the realms of Grape breeding and genomics, Molecular genetic mapping, and Marker-assisted selection, and won awards for the excellence of his grapes and his career achievements.

Bruce talks about the qualities of most of the cultivars that were developed during his time at Cornell, and gives us a historical context and an overview of current practices and objectives for grape breeding. We also discuss the possibility, almost a thought experiment, of growing a seedling vineyard to mimic the genetic variation that happens as grapes propagate and grow without human influence in forest lands. There are so many juicy tidbits throughout this conversation, it’s pointless to start listing just a few. This is a fantastic, comprehensive introduction to hybrid grape culture and why it is the present and future of wine.

A big thanks to our sponsor:

Paradisos Del Sol

Links to grape fungal resistance tables:

(Please note: I offer these links as examples only of tables that give ratings on fungal resistance. Resistance is never absolute, varies from location to location, and is influenced by many factors including: climate, weather, care, trellising, micro-climate, soil health, and many other factors. I do not endorse either the information nor the sources of the information, and I strongly recommend gathering lots of information from many sources, especially from growers of the cultivars, in your region if possible.)

https://cropprotectionhub.omafra.gov.on.ca/supporting-information/grapes/relative-susceptibility-of-grape-cultivars-to-diseases

https://doubleavineyards.com/

Your support is greatly needed and appreciated:

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Beyond Organic Wine

 

The First Principle of Regenerative Viticulture

Behind the ecological devastation caused by conventional, industrial viticulture and agriculture in general are ideas of disconnection and individualism, which lead to extraction and parasitism. These won't be solved by focusing on soil health. We need to rebuild our belonging to the community of life. Gratitude is a great place to start to reconnect with our dependence on our community.

The Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address

Beyond Organic Wine Reading Recs

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Beyond Organic Wine

The Lost Art & Science of Natural Wine - Daniel Callan, Slamdance Koöperatieve

My guest for this episode is Daniel Callan, the cellar man behind Slamdance Koöperatieve. Daniel pointed out to me recently that I've been too focused on winegrowing. I had to agree, and Daniel’s suggestion was that we talk about how the past of winemaking may actually be its future. Because, essentially, all wines made throughout history until sometime around the start of the 20^th century, were natural wines, and were made without additives nor fossil fuel powered, high-tech wineries and wine factories. Daniel is a student of the history of winemaking in general, but in California specifically. He believes everything we’re trying now has already been tried and we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We can learn from those who came before… we just have to read some books that we can find at the library. He even looks to the old vines as a kind of genetic library for what does well in his region, and makes wine from varieties that mostly don’t exist elsewhere in any scalable quantity. This is a refreshingly technical winemaking episode that follows Daniel’s process for making his wine in detail from harvest to bottling, as well as a look at how we can find answers to the challenges of climate change and a post-industrial world by looking to the past.

@slamdancekooperatievewines

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Beyond Organic Wine

Hybrid Grapes In California - The Future of Wine with Adam Tolmach of The Ojai Vineyard

This episode features a conversation with Adam Tolmach of Ojai Vineyards, and it’s located not too far from Los Angeles in distance. Adam Tolmach lost his estate vineyard a couple decades ago to a vine disease that is endemic to Southern California. This disease has become a serious problem for anywhere in North America that has mild enough winters… and that area is steadily creeping north. This vine disease is known as Pierce's Disease, it is spread by insects… specifically sharpshooters, and as Adam suggests, it was the cause of the death of tens of thousands of acres of vineyards in Southern California, and likely contributed to the contraction of the wine industry here and its move to Northern California by the end of the 19^th century.  

There are currently only two options for preventing your vineyard from succumbing to Pierce's Disease if you live in an area that has it, which is pretty much the entire Southern United States: you can either spray aggressively with knock-down insecticides – the intense, kill-on-contact kind – OR you can plant varieties of grapes that have inherent resistance to the disease… and those varieties of grapes are the kind that contain the genetics of the native vines that evolved with the disease. In other words, you need hybrids. There are no vinifera varieties that are resistant to Pierce's Disease.

So, in 2017, Adam resurrected his estate vineyard by planting a selection of modern hybrid grapes that were bred here in California specifically to be resistant to Pierce's Disease. There are so many really incredible discussion points that come up in this conversation, but I wanted to give some further context to this.

Nothing illustrates the truth that hybrids are the future of wine more than this disease. With climate change, the range of this disease is continually spreading further north. It is on the doorstep of 90% of the winemaking in the US, and it knocking louder every year. It was recently found in Humbolt County, which is almost to California’s northern border. It is a zero tolerance disease… as Adam says, one bite from an insect that carries the disease can kill that vine within about 3 years. So the choices are pretty stark about what you can do to deal with it: either A) cling to vinifera and nuke your vineyards with really awful chemical insecticides continually, essentially creating a dead zone around your vines, or B) adapt and embrace change and build a wine culture ecologically on a greater diversity of varieties.

As I began researching for this conversation with Adam Tolmach, I discovered that there are quite a few vineyards who have planted small amounts of the resistant varieties that Adam grows. Even Caymus in Napa Valley. Nobody is really publicizing it yet, but hybrids are being integrated quietly, almost surreptitiously into our wine culture here. We’re in the don’t ask, don’t tell phase with regard to hybrids in California. Someday soon, we’re just going to have to grow up and embrace them as equals. And I’m really grateful to Adam for being one of the folks who’s willing to champion them.

https://ojaivineyard.com/

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Beyond Organic Wine

Mallorca Indigenous Grape Varieties For Climate Change Resilience with Tomeu Llabrés

My guest for this episode grows and makes wine on one of the most popular island vacation spots in the Mediterranean Sea: Mallorca. His name is Tomeu Llabrés, and his winery is C’an Verdura. You might be surprised to find out how much of an impact Mallorca has had on the world. You might be less surprised to find that the local, indigenous varieties of grapes that Tomeu works with out-perform on several measures the Cabernet and other “trendy” grapes that were brought to Mallorca just a few decades ago to cater to tourists. We’ll get to know the Mallorcan grapes better, and find some solutions to making cool wines in a hotter world.

https://vinscanverdura.com/

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Beyond Organic Wine