Tablas Creek's Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) baseline: Organic and biodynamic certifications

Tablas Creek, the pioneer of the California Rhone movement, is the first winery in the world to have simultaneously held organic, biodynamic, and regenerative organic certifications and, to date, is only one of three wineries (the others being Applegate Valley's Troon Vineyards and Santa Barbara County's Solminer Wine Company) to have accomplished this feat. 

Why did the estate pursue a third certification beyond organic and biodynamic and why the Regenerative Organic certification? How difficult a process was it? What were the lessons learned and the benefits derived? I will explore these and other questions in a series of posts beginning with this one wherein I baseline the organization. The sources of information for my posts are interviews conducted with Jason Haas and Jordan Lonborg, Partner and General Manager and Viticulturist, respectively, at Tablas Creek.

Company Origins

Tablas Creek is jointly owned by the Perrin (Chateau du Beaucastel) and Haas (Vineyard Brands) families, a joint venture which came about as a result of a successful search by Robert Haas and the Perrin family for a California site which would be suitable for the planting of Rhone varieties. The company was launched in 1989 with the purchase of a 120-acre parcel in the Adelaida District, just west of Paso Robles. The area's climate was similar to that of the Rhone and the shallow rocky limestone soils were the same geologic origin as was the soils at Beaucastel. Average elevation was 1500 feet.

The intent of the estate was to produce wines at Tablas Creek that were similar to those produced at Chateau du Beaucastel; hence the painstaking search for similar growing conditions. Once the location was secured, Rhone vinefera, and a variety of rootstocks, were imported from the Chateau. Planting began in 1994 and, as of 2020, 115 acres had been planted to vine.

Viticulture

The estate's viticulture practices emphasize quality through dry farming and moderate crop levels. The estate gained organic certification in 2003, biodynamic certification in 2017, and Regenerative Organic Certification in 2020. The first two are discussed further herein with the third, and its transition, discussed under separate cover.

Organic Farming

Tablas Creek was always going to be farmed organically because that was the practice in use at Beaucastel where it was held that the only way to be true to terroir was to farm organically. Neil Collins, the Tablas Creek's Executive Winemaker and Vineyard Manager, had spent time training at Beaucastel and had brought organic farming to the fledgling estate upon his return.

The estate's organic practices include:

• No chemical herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers used in the vineyards
• The use of cover crops in order to minimize erosion and to host beneficial insects
• Composting in order to return nitrogen to the soil
• Compost tea to control mildew in the vineyard and to reduce the need for sulfur.

Organic farming allows for conservation tillage (ridge, mulch, or strip). According to Jordan, Tablas Creek tills its dry-farmed blocks.

Tillage in dry-farmed blocks is crucial due to the high clay content in our soil. Without some sort of soil disruption (as the soils dry out after the winter rains) large, deep cracks form, allowing precious moisture to evaporate into the atmosphere. We create what is known as a dust mulch layer by breaking up the top 3 to 4 inches of soil into finer particle sizes thus preventing any form of shrinking.

Farming organically provided an "ecosystem that was clean and balanced." But Tablas Creek wanted to do more within that framework so they began to look around for optimization opportunities. This led to initiatives to reduce external inputs. An example of this is the estate using material already on the farm to make its own compost rather than buying compost offsite and having it trucked in. This particular action reduced the carbon expended in fertilizer acquisition.

Biodynamic Farming

Tablas Creek began biodynamic farming experiments on a 20-acre plot in 2010. Jason said that the tasting team noticed that the wine from that plot came to the fore when tasted with its peers. They expanded the trial to 40 acres in subsequent vintages and the wines from these grapes proved to be "super expressive" and the associated soils were "healthy and vibrant." The entire vineyard was converted to biodynamic farming in 2016 and certification was awarded in 2017. Some of the programs implemented during the biodynamic regime are discussed below.

Sheep

Running sheep through the vineyard has a number of significant advantages:

• Efficient weed removal without the compaction that comes with spraying
• Tons of manure/acre/day on every inch of ground between the vines. Phenomenal amount of nutrients added to the soil annually
• The sheep can clear out the understory of the forest thus acting in a fire suppression role.

Pursuit of a Diverse Ecosystem

This is manifested in a number of ways, with especial focus on moving away from a monoculture. The use of sheep in the vineyard is a move in that direction but so are initiatives such as: planting fruit trees (apples, pears, plums, peaches, nectarines, quince, pomegranates, figs, cherries, and persimmons); a vegetable garden (fresh tomatoes, corn, zucchini, squash, melons, radishes, and basil); retaining sections of native vegetation and planting insect-friendly flowering plants; building owl boxes to control rodent pests naturally; and keeping their own bee hives.

As regards trees on the estate, Jordan states (in a follow-up email);

As far as fruit trees are concerned, we have one orchard made up of Pome fruits (apples, peras and quince), cherries, and figs. There are about 10 acres of olive trees planted as windbreaks lining roads throughout the property. Lastly, throughout our dry-farmed plantings, we typically plant one fruit tree for every 50 vines or so. In the unfortunate case of vine death in dry-farmed locations, we plant fruit trees instead of planting another vine.

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This then, was the state of affairs when Tablas Creek was approached to participate in a Regenerative Organic Certification pilot program. Before getting into the particulars of the program, I will, in my next post, cover the basic elements of Regenerative Agriculture and the Regenerative Organic Certification.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

The business end of the Grapekeeper rent-a-vine program

Grapekeeper is a multi-faceted, sustainably oriented, luxury rent-a-vine program that is the brainchild of Portuguese Environmental Engineer and Entrepreneur (and Winelover) Ana Monforte Weijters. After its initial launch in 2018, the company rebooted in 2019 guided by the business model illustrated below. 

Entry requirements for producers are (i) sustainability and (ii) quality. Ana mourned the fact that sustainability had almost become a marketing gimmick; it is fundamental to her business. She defines it as: "the capacity to endure in a relatively ongoing way across various domains of life. To use resources without depletion or, even better, with regeneration, to produce experiences as products that enrich the consumer as well as the other contributors in the production chain."

Grapekeeper offers customers the ability to rent vineyards in one of three sizes from a current list of seven producers drawn from Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and Portugal (see Table 1 below). The customer can invest in one of three size classes with an estimated number of bottles promised at each level. The estimated number of bottles for a given plot size will vary from producer to producer based on vineyard yields. The level one offering promises an estimated number of bottles plus a number of benefits while levels two and three includes all of the activities of the preceding levels plus a higher number of bottles coincident with the increased plot sizes.

Table 1. Producers profiled on the Grapekeeper website.

Partner	Location	Cultivar(s)	Wine Style	Offerings
Stafelter Hof	Mosel	Organically farmed Riesling	Still white	150 - 450 sq m; 600 - 900 sq m; 1050 - 1350 sq m
Selva Capuzza	Lake Garda	Turbiana	Still white	100 - 300 sq m; 400 - 700 sq m; 1050 - 1350 sq m
Vinyes del Terrer	Tarragona	Garnacha Tinta, Cabernet Sauvignon	Still red (85% Garnacha Tinta)	200 - 800 sq m; 1000 - 1600 sq m; 1800 - 2000 sq m
Vega Aixlà	Montsant	Organically farmed Tempranillo	Still red	200 - 800 sq m; 1000 - 1600 sq m; 1800 - 2000 sq m
Rivetto	Piedmont	Barbera	Still red	100 - 300 sq m; 400 - 600 sq m; 700 - 1000 sq m
Serveaux Fils	Champagne	Pinot Meunier	Champagne	100 - 300 sq m; 400 - 600 sq m; 700 - 1200 sq m
Vinha do Carrel	Douro	40+; 80 - 100-year-old vines	Field-blend still red	300 - 400 sq m;500 - 700 sq m; 800 - 1000 sq m

The customer is always invited to visit the vineyard to discuss sustainability and its influence on, among other things, wine quality, regional sustainability, and the communities that are dependent on wine production for their sustenance. There is also a fun aspect to the program as the customer can bring family and friends along to aid in the harvesting of his/her plot. Ana has indicated that a number of new producers will be added to the fold over the course of the next three months.

Ana defines Grapekeeper success as:

• Getting wines to clients
• Financial health
• Seeing the people around her happy.

The key, she said, is health: health of the people, health of the ecosystem, and health of the business. For her, people are the most important part of this venture.

Ana Monforte Weijters
(Courtesy Grapekeeper)

As far as the future is concerned, she wants to be more inclusive and to continue to grow the business. She sees a lot of potential for client growth as well as geographical expansion of the producer cohort. She also sees opportunities to build a raft of communities as both the producer and client groups grow; but that is down the road a bit.

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What are the future prospects for the business? Jamie Goode is complimentary when he notes that Ana has teamed up "with some serious wine producers." One of the keys to the venture's success will be its rate of customer acquisition and development of a more durable marketing strategy to fuel that growth. Today customer marketing is primarily word-of-mouth; that is not a strategy with legs.

Ana has been critical to the company's success to date and will continue to be so in the future. She possesses a number of qualities that will stand her -- and the business -- in good stead going forward:

• She is a visionary but is also able to effectively communicate that vision to enlist prospects and to operationalize the concepts as key elements in a going concern
• She is highly motivated and extremely hard-working. It seems that every time I communicate with her she is either driving or flying to or from a producer meeting. One thing that she has the be careful of is not being seduced by the sexiness of producer visits to the detriment of customer-acquisition efforts
• She is thoughtful, yet approachable, and is well-versed in issues relating to sustainability and regenerative agriculture
• She is empowered, driven, fearless, and in possession of an entrepreneurial spirit but is also warm-hearted, unselfish, and willing to pitch in to help.

Grapekeeper is in good hands.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

The conception and design of Grapekeeper, the Champagne of rent-a-vine programs

The closest most winelovers will get to owning a vineyard is at the point of purchase of a bottle of wine. That is insufficient for some wine drinkers of means; so they go out and buy a vineyard and get the relevant assistance for wine production. Then there are the in-betweeners: they have the passion but not the means/interest to pursue full-time ownership. For this segment of the wine-loving community, renting a (portion of a) vineyard fits the bill. And there are a number of solutions set up to meet this need but they tend to be very specific.

Not so Grapekeeper, the multi-faceted, luxury, sustainably oriented, rent-a-vine program that is the brainchild of Portuguese Environmental Engineer and Entrepreuner (and Winelover) Ana Monforte Weijters. I will be describing the fundamentals of this program over two posts beginning herein with its conception and initial development. I have become familiar with Grapekeeper through my travels with Ana in Portugal as part of the #Winelover Community, through joint work on #Winelover Committee projects, as a subject of two InstagramLive interviews on Regenerative Agriculture, through two Grapekeeper-specific interviews, through many Messenger and email exchanges, and through secondary research.

Ana Monforte Weijters (Courtesy Grapekeeper)

Ana describes herself as Founder, Chief of all Troubles, and Managing Director of Grapekeeper. She grew up in the Portuguese countryside in a small town called Maia. She made wine with her grandfather and remembers these as exhilarating times filled with smells, people, and memories (especially around harvest).

Ana left Maia and continued her studies in Porto where she graduated with a degree in Environmental Engineering. Her work experience includes stints in Antwerp and Africa where she consulted on waste management, sustainability, biodiversity, and climate-effects mitigation.

She was resident in the Netherlands between 2007 and 2010 and again between 2015 and 2021, the early part of the latter period being co-incident with a burgeoning interest in wine. In this timeframe she studied the WSET approach and begun visiting vineyards. As her vineyard visits grew in number, Ana began to think of winemakers as "keepers of the land." She postulated that quality differences between wines reflected the differences in the way that winemakers managed the land.

Ana's first harvest was in Mosel in 2017 after which she went on to Piedmont. After a week of touring and talking to farmers, the first wisps of the Grapekeeper concept began to waft through her consciousness. That initial conception was a melding of:

• Fantastic producers with vision, personality, and terroir
• Sustainable farming of specific plots
• Consumers who had the ability to shift things because of their purchasing power (Ana sees these as people who are open to/practice sustainable, conscious, holistic buying and consumption and who perceive "that a luxury must be luxurious throughout all its value chain and touch, in a positive way, everyone and everything involved in its making.").

With this framework in mind, Ana began the legwork of developing an understanding of the market, market players, and existing business models. Once she had fleshed out her knowledge base, she launched an initial offering in 2018 -- with a business partner -- centered on vineyards in Germany and Italy. This was already an innovative offering in that (i) it had sustainability at its core and (ii) it offered potential customers a choice of vineyards/wine styles/wine types derived from two countries. They "did a lot of tweaking" of the offering and business model in that initial year.

The partnership did not pan out (Ana prefers not to dwell on the why nots) so she re-launched as the sole owner in 2019. The business was given a boost by her June entry into a Netherlands business competition sponsored by Quote Magazine. The competition, and the associated magazine and media coverage, “sped up the process" by providing her (i) the time and space within which to examine the business and develop a sound implementation plan and (ii) the opportunity to meet potential producer partners (Niepoort, in the Douro, for example).

By the end of 1919 she had developed a robust business model. had established a set of strict criteria for Program producers, determined an initial customer-acquisition strategy, and defined her role within the model. And then the pandemic hit, slowing everything down to a crawl. But it also provided her the time to refine the offering and the business model. I will cover the current offerings and business model in a subsequent post.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Chinon AOC and the wines of Olga Raffault

The region that is currently called Chinon AOC has been producing grapes and wines for hundreds of years and was rewarded with an AOC designation in 1937. The Olga Raffault family has been making quality wines in this region for over five generations but I was only recently introduced to their offerings. I explore the region, the estate, and its wines in this post.

Chinon AOC

The Chinon AOC covers 18 communes on both sides of the Vienne River prior to its merger with the Loire. There are approximately 1,821 ha of Cabernet Franc vines in the region and, in general, the wines from the area are fresh and supple with flavors and aromas of red fruits and violets. Three different terroirs have been identified  and the wine styles vary based on their terroir of origin. The slopes and hills along the Vienne River are composed of a Late-Cretaceous limestone called Tuffeau and the wines from this soil have great structure and aging capability.  The area around the commune of Veron is characterized by a Late-Cretaceous clay and produces wines that are intermediate to the lighter Chinons produced in the alluvial sand and gravel soils that can be found in communes such as Panzoult.  Chinon wines are barrel-aged but the neutral barrels impart no oak flavors to the wine thus allowing the natural character of the grape to advance unimpeded to the bottle.

Olga Raffault

Olga Raffault is located in Veron commune of Chinon but farms 24 ha across the region: 23 ha of Cabernet Franc and 1 ha of Chenin Blanc. Estate vines average 30 years of age and are distributed over the three Chinon terroirs. The location of the owned vineyards are illustrated in the chart below while the wines, and their construction, follow immediately after.

Sources and composition of Olga Raffualt wines

I recently tasted three of the Raffault wines: the 2018 Chinon Blanc Champs-Chenin; the 2018 Olga Raffault Chinon Les Peuilles; and the 2016 Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses.

The Chinon Blanc Champs-Chenin showed intense white fruit on the nose along with sage, herbs, and spice. Complex and layered. Brisk acidity on the palate. Citrus and citrus rind accompanying a rust-like minerality. Drying on the palate. Lengthy finish. 

Rich, red fruit on the nose for the 2018 Les Peuilles, along with forest floor, gunflint, and a smokiness. Ripe red fruit on the palate. Concentrated. Full round mouthfeel. Late arriving tannins and salinity. Lengthy, coating finish.

The 2016 Les Picasses had a perfumed nose with bright red fruit, spice, minerality, licorice, saltwater taffy and wet cigarette. On the palate, a red fruit core and smooth tannins. Complex and balanced. Long, lean finish.

These three wines were of exceptional quality with the reds approachable but with the peaks 5 to 10 years out. The QPR here is awesome.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Trees in the vineyard (Agroforestry) and the effect on grapevine root systems

Agroforestry is one of the key soil health and land management practices of the Regenerative Organic Certification. The practice, as defined by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), involves "the intentional integration of trees and shrubs into crop and animal farming." Trees provide a number of below- and above-ground services which may be of benefit to the viticulturist (documented by Favor). I have previously reported on the impact of trees on vineyard water parameters and soil-based nutrients. I continue herein with an examination of the effect of trees on vine root systems. Portions of this post draws heavily on the research reported out in Favor's work.

Soil Structure

The vineyard site is a key variable in the production of high-quality grapes, which is, itself, a key requirement for the production of high-quality wine. According to Wolf and Boyer (Vineyard Site Selection, Virginia Cooperative Extension), the best vineyard soils "permit deep and spreading root growth" and provide a moderate supply of water year-round. Katherine Favor posits that "much of the ability of vines to absorb both water and nutrients in the face of competition depends on the health and spatial distribution of the vine's root system" with research suggesting that "the depth and expansion of grapevine roots is highly dependent on soil structure and permeability ... and that grapevine root plasticity is also influenced by planting density and competition." 

What are the soil characteristics that will permit "deep and spreading root growth" and year-round access to water?  The most important requirements are internal water drainage and water-holding capacity. Geologic permeability (the capability of a porous rock or sediment to permit the flow of fluids through its pore spaces -- Dictionary.com) is seen by Wolf and Boyer as perhaps the most important consideration in a candidate vineyard's soil. Mark Chien (Soil and Site Selection Considerations for Wine Grape Vineyards, Pennsylvania State University) sees well-drained soils as a common denominator among all great vineyard sites. These soils "strike a balance between adequate depth and drainage and water-holding capacity" and vines deployed therein will have adequate water access during the summer and can rapidly drain water from the soils in the event of rainfall during the grape-ripening period. According to Favor, soil porosity is an even more important determinant of grape quality than is nutrient availability.

Another key soil feature is effective rooting depth. According to UCDavis, about 60% of the root structure of a vine plant can be found in the first two feet of the surface but individual roots can grow as deep as 20 feet, depending on soil permeability, the level of the water table, and the rootstock variety.

According to Favor, the above characteristics, among others, are influenced by soil structure. Soil structure -- the spatial arrangement of individual soil particles, their aggregates, and the pore space between them -- "affects soil strength, water holding capacity, nutrient retention, aeration, friability, erodibility, plant root movement and biological activity." A high-quality soil structure allows for deeper and stronger vine root systems and higher grape production quality. Soil quality characteristics are summarized in the chart below.

Agroforestry's Impact on Soil Structure

Agroforestry has been shown to improve soil structure through a variety of mechanisms (Favor):

• A mulching effect from litterfall and pruning materials can have beneficial effects on topsoil structure
• Soil cover improves soil structure by reducing raindrop and irrigation effect → conserved surface macroporosity → greater water infiltration rates → improved soil penetration
• High amounts of root biomass produced by the trees
• Tree roots improve soil macroporosity by breaking up compacted soils and leaving behind old root channels that grapevine roots are able to occupy for greater rooting depth capability
• Finer roots contribute to improved soil structure
• Tree buffer treatments produced higher porosity, increased mesoporosity, and improved soil structure
• Increased organic matter (OM) content
• Soil structure is largely influenced by the amount of OM in the soil
• Higher levels of OM → higher aggregate stability and overall improved structure
• Higher levels of OM contribute to increasing water infiltration and fertility
• Organic matter is able to use "sticky substances" to glue soil particles together → stable soil pores.

In summary, the agroforestry-related increase in OM → increased soil structure → increased rooting capability → higher yields and higher quality fruit production (Favor).

Competition Between Tree and Grapevine Roots

According to Favor, "much of the ability of vines to absorb both water and nutrients in the face of competition depends on the health and spatial distribution of the vines' root system." 

Research has shown an overlap in the activity spheres of plants and vines: 63% of grapevine roots are in the upper 60 cm of soil compared to 77% of conifer roots while 80% of grapevine roots are in the upper 1 m of soil compared to 91% for trees. Grapevines might have a deeper concentration of roots at deeper soil profiles as their remaining roots extend to depths of as much as 12 m. Grapevine roots can spread out up to 10 m laterally from the trunk.

The most frequent agroforesty applications to date are olive trees with grapevines. Olive trees have similar lateral-root experiences as does the grapevine but its vertical roots grow even deeper. Similar to the grapevine, olive trees absorb the majority of nutrients in the top 1 m of soil and water in the top 1.2 - 1.7 m of soil. As Favor concludes, there may be substantial below-ground overlap between these systems.

Competition notwithstanding, Favor concludes that:

The positive effects that trees impart on soil structure, soil quality and root plasticity allow for deeper and stronger root systems that can better absorb nutrients and water despite competition from trees ... Fracture lines left behind by tree roots allow opportunities for grapevines to grow even deeper than they otherwise would have ... Additionally, competition from tree roots can trigger grapevine root plasticity, which results in increased root length density and increased nutrient and water absorption capacity per cm of soil. Tree roots and grapevine roots are indeed able to adapt to competition and thrive despite occupying overlapping niches.

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This concludes our examination of the below-ground services provided by trees in an agroforestry system. As per Favor, "there is growing evidence that incorporating trees into vineyards could play a valuable role in the future of viticulture in the coming years."

I will next turn to examination of the above-ground services provided by trees in an agroforestry system.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Idda: The Gaja-Graci Mt Etna joint venture

The entry of "non-local" producers has long been a hallmark of winemaking on Mt Etna but a blue whale landed in 2017 with the announcement of a 50/50 joint venture between Angelo Gaja and Alberto Graci for the production of wines on the mountain. According to doctorwine.it, "The arrival of Angelo Gaja ... was one of the most important events in the recent history of Etna wine. The attention from a producer of such great and recognized prestige has confirmed the undisputed value of the volcano's terroir, strengthening its image and consolidating its position among the most interesting areas in the world for wine production."

Initially unnamed (subsequently called Idda -- "she" in local dialect -- a reference to the ever-present volcano), the venture --valued at €4 million by Club Oenethique -- was launched with the acquisition of the Masseria Setteporte vineyards (with the exception of 10 ha surrounding the Portale homestead). I herein reflect on the joint venture and taste two examples of its wines.

The Partners

Angelo Gaja

Angelo Gaja is, according to BBR, "... Italy's most renowned and dynamic wine personality and his impact on wine production in the last 30 years cannot be overestimated."

The 5th generation of the family to manage the estate founded in 1859 by Giovanni Gaja, Angelo began working at the winery in 1961 after completing Enology studies at Alba and Montpellier. He took the reins of the business in 1970 and initiated a number of groundbreaking and, in many cases, controversial practices. He installed temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks, aged wines in barriques, was the first to release single-vineyard Barbarescos, released wines that did not conform to regulations, and re-introduced French varieties to Piedmont. Controversies notwithstanding, the quality of his wines were high and customer acceptance unparalleled.

Today Gaja farms 101 ha in Barbaresco and Barolo in addition to efforts in Alta Langa (30 ha), Montalcino (Pieve Santa Restituta), and Bolgheri (Ca'Marcanda).

Alberto Graci

Alberto Graci is of Sicilian farming stock but left home to pursue studies in Rome and an investment banking career in Milan. He returned to Sicily upon his grandfather's death and sold the farm in order to buy vineyard property on Mt Etna. Alberto arrived on the mountain in 2004 and purchased property on its northern slope. In New Wines of Mt Etna, Benjamin North Spencer relates the Graci entry to the region as follws: "Many people come to Etna for a slice of adventure. But it was curiosity that first drew Alberto Aiello Graci to the mountain." Once he got there, though, " '... it was the honorable history ...' " that made him want to stay.

Graci's current holdings include Contrada Arcuria (20 ha), 80-year-old vines (1.5 ha) in Contrada Feudo di Mezzo, young vines in Contrada Muganazzi (5.5 ha), young vines in Contrada Santo Spirito (0.9 ha), and 100-year-old vines at 1000 m in Contrada Barbabacchi (2 ha). The estate pursues full maturity of the major native varieties in a certified-organic environment with vinification and aging of harvested grapes occurring in concrete tanks and large oak barrels.

Idda Vineyard Holdings

The figures below show the municipality-level locations of the Idda vineyards and the associated growing environments.

Map courtesy of Cittavino

The Biancavilla holdings were described previously while Monica Larner describes Belpasso  as "a little island of soil sandwiched between more recent lava flows" and the Idda vineyard therein as being resident on "rocky volcanic soils."

The Tartaraci vineyard is located on the northwestern flank of the mountain at 1000 m elevation. The property was once owned by Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson, bequeathed to him by the Kingdom of Naples for seeing off the French in 1799. The vineyard is planted to 90-year-old bushvines of Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappucchio, Garnacca, Grecanico, and Carricante. The vineyard, typically one of the latest on Etna to be harvested, lies outside of the DOC zone. Frank Cornelissen and Buscemi source grapes from Contrada Tartaraci.

According to Monica Larner (Wine Advocate), Idda's goal is the production of 90% whites and 10% reds as its final wine composition and has planted 12 ha of Carricante over the last 3 years in pursuit of that goal. In discussing the growing strategy in the south, Gaia Gaja indicates that they are planting on "hotter, more exposed terroir ... to try harvesting the white Carricante grape earlier and thus retain more of its celebrated acidity while giving it a bit more body." Further, they would like to move higher up on the slopes in the future as insurance against climate change.

The Wines

Idda currently produces a white (100% Carricante) and an Etna Rosso. I tasted the 2020 version of the former and the 2018 version of the latter.

In a recent Wilson Daniels panel conversation, Salvino Benanti described 2018 in the southwest as a "good vintage" and 2020 as "on the warm side ... quite dry ... similar to 2014 or 2017."

The white wine is classified Sicilia DOC. The wine is whole-bunch-pressed before cold decantation and fermentation in stainless steel tanks. The wine is aged for 1 year in 15 l oak casks and stainless steel tanks. 

I have tasted Carricante-based wines from all faces of Mt Etna and, more specifically, I have tasted Benanti, Tenuta di Fessina, and Feudo Cavaliere whites from the southwest, and I find no typicality in this wine vis a vis these others. In my tasting of Carricante-based wines, I stated thusly: "Carricante-based wines from the east to south flanks of Etna are characterized by salinity, minerality, and acidity and, at its optimum, these characteristics meld extremely well." The Idda white showed a perfumed nose with lime and lime skin and a honey-dew melon undertone. Light-bodied and unfocused with low-grade acidity, missing salinity, and a lack of complexity. 

Salvo Foti says that it takes between 10 to 15 years for Carricante juice to show concentration and I wonder if this is somehow involved here. Or this could have been a bad bottle of some sort. I will continue to explore to see if I get similar characteristics in future bottles.

The Etna Rosso was more readily identifiable as such. Ripe plum and vanilla bean on the nose. Light-bodied and smooth on the palate with broad-based fruit and low acidity. 

Some Observations/Thoughts/Questions on the Joint Venture

The joint venture serves as a vehicle for Gaja's entry into the Etna marketplace. This means that Gaja sees the market as underperforming and sees himself being able to capitalize on the upside potential. That upside potential may be realized organically or by Gaja's entry or by future things that he brings to the table.

It is a feather in Mt Etna's cap for Gaja to be making wine on the mountain and is definitely a feather in Graci's cap for him to be a part of the team. Why did Gaja pick Graci? Someone of Gaja's stature could have had his pick of partners from among the producers. There is some discourse that Gaja had met Graci previously and liked his spirit. There is also the sense that Gaja wanted a local expert to serve as a guide. But Graci, even though Sicilian, is not from Mt Etna. Further, his entry to the market came after "foreigners" like Franchetti and Cornelissen had already entered the market. The Salvo Foti-Rhyss Vineyard joint venture was a more classic insider-outsider play. In any case, given the passage of time, and the effort that they have expended, those early entrants have probably earned "insider" status by now.

In terms of experience, Graci is very involved with properties on the north face of the mountain so I found it intriguing that all of the properties involved in the JV are on the southwest and northwest faces. The best locale for white grapes on Mt Etna is the east face and if one is looking to make a great white wine, that is the terroir that I would have expected to see engaged. It is true that Benanti, Feudi Cavaliere, and Tenuta di Fessina all have white wines from the southwest but their primary white wines are from the east.

There appears to be some opportunity to beneficially leverage the Gaja name. Vineyard prices in the southwest and west are lower than in the east so the cost to get the project fully up and running would be lower in the former than in the latter. Meanwhile, the Gaja market power can be leveraged to price the wines aggressively (for example, a 2019 Masseria Settoporte is about $25 while a 2020 Idda is about $50), shortening to time to breakeven.

Salvino Benanti thinks that winemaking on Mt Etna will become an oligopoly in the near-term with winemakers being forced to make investments to stay competitive. There is no doubt that Idda has the resources to play -- and win -- in that game.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Throwback: Vineyard visit and lunch at Masseria Setteporte (Biancavilla, Mt. Etna), source of a portion of the land that comprises the Gaja-Graci Idda joint venture

Early in May 2017, my good friend, and Mt. Etna resident, Brandon Tokash sent a message informing me that Angelo Gaja, the famed Barbaresco producer, had formed a partnership with Alberto Graci to produce wines on the southwestern slope of the volcano. Further, a vineyard that we had visited a year earlier, Masseria Setteporte, was the source of a significant portion of the property. This was a development that piqued my interest on a number of levels: (i) I am a fan of Angelo and his wines (I have visited his Barbaresco property on two occasions) and was aware of the messaging impact such an announcement would have on producers and consumers of Etna wine alike; (ii) I was somewhat surprised by the location choice; and (iii) I had spent an entire day at Masseria Setteporte just a year prior and wondered if anyone in the room that day had seen this coming.

Since that original announcement, I have been planning to write about the venture and its product line. I finally got my hands on some product to aid in this discussion. I begin with my visit to the Biancavilla property.

The Masseria Setteporte estate has been a generational holding in the Portale-family portfolio. The estate was first modernized by Ferdinando Portale who transitioned from bush to vertically trained vines. Piero Portale took ownership of the property in 2002 and extended the size from 12 ha to 27 ha. Of the 27 ha, approximately 16 were devoted to vineyards.

The vineyards resided at altitudes ranging between 650 and 800 m and were south-facing. The farm was certified organic.

Brandon took me out to Biancavilla one Saturday to meet with Piero and partake of one of his famous culinary creations. We were joined there by Benjamin North Spencer (New Wines of Mt. Etna).

Lunch was prepared by Piero Portale who, in addition to owning the winery, was (at that time) a lawyer, a partner in a restaurant (La Cantinaccia), and a renowned and dedicated foodie.

We were welcomed to the dining area with glasses of Murgo Brut (from magnum), accompanied by farm-grown olives (Nocellera di Etna) and 4-month-old Sheep's milk cheese (sourced from sheep which forage on the farm).

The meat served as the main course was 45-day, dry-aged Chianina (native to Tuscany). This was accompanied by a salad comprised of tomatoes, onions, dried sardines ,olives, and olive oil. The course was accompanied by the estate's red wines. The Chef's preparation had the meat resting on the grill for 30 seconds so I had to give my portion additional time on the grill to ensure that it was not alive.

Piero (top middle) along with Brandon Tokash and
Benjamin North Spencer (New Wines of Mt. Etna)

The main course was followed by a chocolate dipped in rum and an Amaro from the German producer Underberg.

We did our vineyard tour post-lunch.

I will continue with the structure and composition of the joint venture and a tasting of two of its wines.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Trees in the vineyard (Agroforestry) and the impact on soil-based nutrients

Agroforestry, as it relates to viticulture, is concerned with the co-location of trees and vineyards. Trees provide a number of below- and above-ground services which may be of benefit to the viticulturist (documented by Favor). I have previously reported on the impact of trees on vineyard water parameters and continue herein with the effects on soil-based nutrients. The effects portion of this post draws heavily on the Favor work.

Background on Soil-based Nutrients

Adequate amounts of the appropriate nutrients are required to support proper growth of the grape vine, fruit development, and fruit maturity; those nutrients are obtained from the soil by the plant.  The table below shows the mineral requirements of the vine plant, the role of each mineral, acceptable ranges of each mineral in the soil, and the impact of mineral deficiency on the vine.

Source: Compiled from LGRGP.org and others

Sources
Rocks
The earth is made up of varying proportions of the 90 or so naturally occurring elements but, according to Alex Maltman (Vineyards, Rocks, & Soils), four of these -- oxygen at 48%, silicon at 28%, aluminum at 8%, and iron at 6% -- are responsible for 88% of its composition. In most geological materials, these elements combine to form minerals -- "a naturally occurring combination of specific elements that are arranged in a particular repeating three-dimensional structure or lattice" (opentextbc.ca, Minerals and Rocks).

In nature, minerals are found in rocks "and the vast majority of rocks are composed of at least a few different minerals." Jackson (Wine Science: Principles and Applications) stipulates that (p. 245) "... the mineral content of soil is primarily derived from the parental rock substrate." The figures below show the weathering of rocks into minerals.

Decaying Organic Material
Jamie Goode (Rescuing Minerality) contends that the bulk of soil mineral content comes "from decaying organic material, not decomposed rock and it is microbial activity in the soil that affects the ability of soil to break down organic matter into mineral ions that can be used by the plant." Maltman agrees with Goode: "... in practice, it's the humus that's more important, indeed essential."

Atmosphere
According to Schwarcz and Schoeninger (Stable Isotope Analysis in Human Nutrition, Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 34, pp. 293-321), almost 100% of exchangeable nitrogen is found in the atmosphere or dissolved in the world's oceans and is transferred from these environments into the biological system through the terrestrial nitrogen cycle.

Cation Exchange
Soil-based nutrients are resident either in the soil solution (water and dissolved minerals in the soil pores) or in the soil matrix (mineral particles and organic matter).  Two problems present themselves, however: (i) the concentration of nutrients in the soil solution is low and (ii) the nutrients resident in the soil matrix are immobile.  Plant roots have developed adaptions to allow growth into the soil matrix and capture of the nutrients needed for metabolic activity (Dr. Paul Schreiner, USDA-ARS) and we will discuss these later.

Most of the mineral nutrients that the vine needs are cations so the soil's cation exchange capacity (CEC) is a major enabler of  it's nutrient acquisition. The positively charged mineral ions bind loosely to the clay and humus colloids in the soil and these minerals are released in exchange for hydrogen ions secreted by the vine roots. (Clay minerals act as harbors for nutrients because the positive ions of the nutrients are trapped by the negative charge of the clay minerals.  The abundance and types of minerals determine whether the clay is classed as low- or high-CEC.). The ion that makes the strongest link with the clay is the hydrogen ion "... and its almost as though the vine knows this! The vine's metabolism can prompt its roots to pump out hydrogen ions into the soil water, which then dislodges the other ions held on the clays, thus making them available to the vine roots" (Maltman). 

The Effect of Trees on Vine Nutrition Parameters

The effect of trees on vine nutrition parameters are summarized in the chart below and described in greater detail in the sections following.

Increased Nutrient Availability

As shown in the chart above, trees increase nutrient availability by increasing organic matter, cycling nutrients from deep to shallow profiles, fixing nitrogen, and transforming nutrients into a more plant-absorbable form.  

As regards organic matter (Favor):

• Agroforestry systems have the potential to increase this material by 50 to 100% 
• They return an average of 7.4 tons of organic matter/ha/year in the form of prunings
• They also produce organic matter through litterfall, root slough, and root exudates
• Nutrients that take the form of organic matter are released slowly at rates comparable to rates of plant absorption 
• They also present in a stable molecular form that is resistant to leaching
• Organic matter produced by trees serves as a source of food for microbes
• Results in increased microbial populations (by as much as 30%)
• Microbes excrete enzymes that mineralize nutrients, stabilize carbon and N in the soil, and decompose organic matter into simple, plant-available forms
• Results in higher plant nutrient uptake
• Results in increased cation exchange capacity
• Translates to a greater ability of soil to hold onto exchangeable cations
• Better retention of applied nutrients
• Resistance from nutrient leaching

• Nutrients that take the form of organic matter are released slowly at rates comparable to rates of plant absorption

Trees cycle nutrients from deeper profiles by accessing those nutrients deep underground, converting them into plant tissue and organic material, and dropping organic material to the ground in the form of leaf-litter and above-ground debris. As this material degrades, it releases nutrients into the upper soil profiles where they become available for use by other crops (Favor).

Almost 100% of exchangeable nitrogen is found in the atmosphere or dissolved in the world's oceans and is transferred from these environments into the biological system through the terrestrial nitrogen cycle illustrated in the figure below.  

Source: http://tolweb.org/notes/?note_id=3920

Depending on the species, trees can fix nitrogen at average rates of 40 to 200 kg N/ha/yr (Favor).

Finally, the increased microbial life -- resulting from the tree-related increase in organic material -- excrete enzymes that decompose organic material into simple, plant-available forms, resulting in higher plant nutrient uptake.

Reduced Nutrient Loss

By reducing nutrient losses from leaching, erosion, and runoff, trees allow the retention of  greater amounts of soil-based nutrients in the vineyard. According to Favor:

• Agroforestry systems increase soil organic by as much as 100% with as little as a 10% increase decreasing soil erodibility by between 13 and 23%
• Litterfall increases ground cover which reduces runoff and erosion
• Surface mulch associated with agroforestry systems reduces the kinetic impact of rainfall, retaining the soil surface structure.

Competition Between Trees and Grapevines

At distances of less than 4 m, there is intense competition for nutrients, especially nitrogen, between plants and grapevines. The negative effects observed were reduced vine vigor and yield with no obvious effect on berry quality. Beyond 4 m, no negative competitive effects were observed.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme