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.
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