back

The Napa Sustainable Winegrowing Group meets once a month to exchange information about sustainable winegrowing. Meetings include discussions on personal experience, published articles, presentations of different interest groups and tours. Following this article is a brief summary of NSWG´s first tour. Three additional tours, along with three workshops, are planned for 1999. Anyone interested is invited to attend. The workshops will be funded by the EQIP grant that the Napa Sustainable Winegrowing Group received this year from the United States Department of Agriculture (Dates for the workshops have not been set yet).

Vineyard Tour: February 23, 1998

The tour had an unplanned focus on non-crop areas, especially stream and streamside issues, signaling the importance of the consideration of vineyard plantings within an integrated watershed system.

Robert Mondavi /Tokalon Vineyards

Our tour began at Robert Mondavi, Tokalon Vineyard, where Mitchell Klug led a walking tour of stream bank and riparian areas near the vineyard plantings. Mitchell is using cover crops (oats and barley) and trying to reduce the use of diversion ditches and drop inlets to retain soil during high rainfall periods. Non-crop areas (like the creek and surrounding riparian areas) are major considerations when planning out vineyard sites. Planning for the long-term, maintaining (augmenting) the riparian vegetative "overstory", streambank stabilization techniques and allowing the stream to take a natural meander, were some of the issues discussed. One of the concerns raised, was the uncertainty of the regulatory requirements when working in the stream environment.

Domaine Chandon/Carneros

Zach Berkowitz and Mike Morris led us on a tour of two vineyard sites. The south site demonstrated their efforts to control downstream erosion potential from their reservoir overflow into a stream channel and better fit the vineyard footprint to the watercourse. Their work showed how a system using cemented dams, rock dams and velocity dissipaters ("stepping stones") could reduce downcutting and help stabilize the stream. The group discussed the problems created when you straighten out a steam: Taking the meander out of a stream reduces its "sinuosity". When you cut out the "bends", you reduce the length of the stream, which creates a steeper slope. A steeper slope causes higher in-stream velocities, which have more potential for erosion. We also explored how Domaine Chandon is solving vineyard water needs (and a municipal wastewater problem) by using secondary treated Sonoma wastewater.

RCD Huichica Creek Sustainable Vineyard

Dave Steiner showed us efforts being made to stabilize the banks of Huichica Creek using willow revetments or cuttings woven like a basket to trap sediment and reduce erosion. Dave discussed the demonstration vineyard and described that the RCD philosophy was to "go softly on the land". Areas have been set aside for wetlands and cover crops have been planted, among them, Meadow Barley, California Brome. Pinot Noir (Wadenswil selection and clone 115) on 5C and 1103P rootstocks and clone 6 and Old Wente Chardonnay on 101-14 have been planted. 1103P has been used in the "low" blocks because it seems to tolerate "wet feet" better. Overflows from Huichica Creek and weed problems from historic land uses have made farming at this site difficult. (Native grass plantings seemed overwhelmed by annual ryegrass).


(written by David Whitmer)

back