Troon Vineyard (Applegate Valley AVA, Oregon): The road to the Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) door

As was the case for the first winery to attain Regenerative Organic certification -- Tablas Creek -- Troon Vineyard, the second winery to claim that honor, is organic- and biodynamic-certified and is focused on wines made from Rhone varieties. Their life experiences, however, have been markedly different. As a precursor to discussing Troon's experience with the Regenerative Organic certification process, I describe herein the trodden path. Information sources for this blog post are an interview conducted with Craig Camp, the enterprise General Manager, and Garett Long, its Director of Agriculture, as well as Craig's elevated musings in his blog Wine Camp.

I have known Craig for many a year now, having first met him at the 2012 Oregon Wine Bloggers Conference and then interacting with him at several subsequent industry events and through his sojourn as General Manager of Cornerstone Winery. Craig is a warm, giving, insightful, cerebral observer of the wine scene who uses social media to great effect. Craig's focus on soil quality and healthful wines have been driving forces all along his career, with organic, biodynamic, and regenerative certifications at Troon Vineyards the proof in the pudding. 

Troon Vineyard is located in the Applegate Valley AVA, a location whose modern history begins in 1972 with Dick Troon's planting of the forerunner of today's estate. The AVA designation was awarded in 2000. The AVAs locale is shown in the chart below.

High-Level view of Troon Vineyards
(Source: weinlagen-info.de)

According to Craig, Troon was an old-school farm with great unrealized potential. Dick eventually sold the farm to the Martin Family and, somewhere along the way it was divided, into the East and West Ranches (separate owners) with the winery attached to the West Ranch. Craig left Napa to manage the ranch and winery.

The initial plan was for Craig to whip the enterprise into shape in preparation for a sale but he saw the potential and initiated a plan to rejuvenate the soils by "going cold turkey" for organic certification. The then owner was not interested in extensive efforts to upgrade the vineyard and it was not until the property was bought by the Whites, and reunited with the previously hived-off portion, that Craig got a sympathetic ear, and the associated investment, to begin rehabilitation of the lands. And Biodynamic farming, according to Craig, provided the framework for moving the vineyard forward.

Writing in his blog, Craig noted that he was drawn to biodynamics for two reasons:

First, I had tasted too many excellent wines made biodynamically and I aspired to make wines with that kind of life and energy. I wanted to make better wine and was convinced this was the way to achieve that goal. Second, was the focus in biodynamics on rebuilding soil microbiome through a proactive series of probiotic applications based around compost, compost teas and other fermented applications. I believed that the tenets of biodynamics created an ideal framework to rebuild our soils and indeed they did at Troon Vineyard. As with almost every biodynamic winegrower I know, I was drawn to the regenerative farming concepts of biodynamics, but was less comfortable with Rudolf Steiner and the Anthroposocial side of biodynamics.

The steps taken along the biodynamic path are laid out in the following chart.

The compost program has an area 1 acre in size devoted to it and will eventually host four piles. The organic manure is obtained from neighboring Noble Family Organic Dairy while the organic hay is obtained from another neighbor.

The investments from the owners were necessary to set Troon Vineyard on its current path but Craig also highlights the addition of Nate Wall (Winemaker), Andrew Breedy (Biodynamic Consultant), and Jason Cole (Viticultural Consultant). More recently Garett Long has been added as Director of Agriculture with responsibility for the Farming, Biodynamic, and Regenerative programs.

Given the diseased nature of the vineyard, Craig had determined that a complete replant was in order. The plan, and its implementation are shown in the chart below. They are currently 2/3 of the way to completion but the soil revitalization effort has been so successful that even the remaining diseased vines are producing high-quality fruit.

In terms of vineyard floor management, Troon is moving towards no-till as quickly as they can with the major impediment being the Red Blotch virus in place in the older vineyard blocks. There is some concern that no-till in the older vineyards would encourage leafhopper populations with the potential for their proliferation and spread to the newer blocks (The linkage between leafhoppers and Red Blotch virus is not definitive but ... why take the chance). The approach that Troon is using in the interim is tilling every other row and mowing.

In Craig's view, and as demonstrated in his writings, he was practicing Regenerative agriculture. And then along came this program with that exact title -- Regenerative Organic Certified. His interest was more than piqued.

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"The Regenerative Organic Certification excites me as it incorporates all the things I find important about the Organic and Biodynamic Certifications while also resolving my concerns with both." So said Craig in his blog and we will explore this topic further in an upcoming post.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Regenerative Agriculture and the Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) program

The below-illustrated certification is held by three wineries on the planet: Tablas Creek , Troon Vineyards and Solminer Wine Company. I discuss the long arc to the underlying farming system -- and provide a high-level view of the program -- in this post.

Conventional Agriculture

Conventional agriculture has been instrumental in feeding a growing human population; much more so with the mechanization and synthetic fertilizer advances of the last century. But, as shown in the chart below, this approach had some deleterious effects on the environment and fueled the search for alternatives that began early in the 20th century. The results of these searches are combined in the chart below under the rubric "Organo-Regenerative Farming Practices."

Organic Agriculture

The first movement away from conventional agriculture began in the 1920s in reaction to ecological and soil-related issues (Doring, et al.*):

... acidification of soils, loss of soil structure, soil fatigue, decrease of seed and food quality, and increases in plant and animal diseases were attributed to the chemical-technical intensification of agriculture. In addition, yield levels in Germany decreased drastically in the 1920s in comparison to the years before World War I, even though the use of mineral fertilizers increased.

This early movement toward organic farming focused on improved soil fertility and sustainability while reducing mineral-fertilizer use and producing high-quality crops. 

The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization defines organic farming as (Doring, et al.*):

... a holistic production management system which promotes and enhances agroecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. It emphasizes the use of management practices in preference to the use of off-farm inputs ... This is accomplished by using, where possible, agronomic, biological, and mechanical methods, as opposed to using synthetic materials, to fulfill any specific function within the system.

The Rodale Institute defines organic agriculture as:

... a production system that regenerates the health of soils, ecosystems and people wherein, in opposition to the conventional approach, the farmer depends on natural processes, biodiversity and local-condition cycles to provide plant nutrition and fight pests and weeds. 

But the organization does not see the farmer as only being involved with avoidance and substitution tactics; they are also engaged in proactive steps -- crop rotation, composted matter, green manure crops -- to improve soil health.

The table below captures the practices encompassed within organic agriculture.

Table 1. Organic Management Practices

Discipline	Practice	Action	Benefits
Soil Management	Cover crops	Planted between rows	Protects soil from erosion  Add or scavenge nutrients, as desired Alleviate compaction Improve soil structure Helps to smother weeds and control pests and diseases Attract beneficial arthropods Enhance water-holding capacity of the soil Increase biodiversity
	Crop rotation	Different crops differentially on the same plot of land	Improve soil health Optimize nutrients in the soil Combat pest and weed pressures
	Compost	Aerobic combination of traditional waste applied to soil	Reduces weeds and plant disease organisms Provides extra water-holding capacity Promotes the slow release of nitrogen Enhances the plant’s ability to fight off disease
	Organic No-Till	Small-Scale Farmers: hoes and rakes Large Farmers: Roller-Crimper	- Cover crops cut and left on the ground, forms thick mulch that suffocates weeds
Pest Management	Healthy soils	Prevention	Create strong plants that are resistant to pest pressure Encourage populations of natural predators and beneficial insects
	Crop selection	Select pest-resistant varieties of crops
	Pheremones	Disturb pest-mating cycles
	Trapping
	Targeted sprays	Last resort Organic-approved pesticides

Biodynamic Farming

Biodynamic farming, founded in 1924 by Rudolf Steiner, was one of the first movements towards organic agriculture. It is (Doring, et al.) "... a holistic agricultural system based on respect for the spiritual dimension of the living and inorganic environment." 

Biodynamic agriculture is, for the most part, the organic agricultural system with extensions supporting application of specific biodynamic preparations -- said to stimulate soil nutrient cycling, promote crop photosynthetic activity, and transform compost -- along with adherence to the lunar calendar for certain agricultural activities. It should, ideally, be practiced on mixed farms -- including crops and livestock -- to meet Steiner's requirement of the farm as an organism.

Table 2. Main ingredients of the biodynamic preparations 500 to 507 (Source: Doring, et al.)

Preparation #	Designation	Main Ingredient	Use
500	Horn manure	Cow manure	Field spray
501	Horn silica	Finely ground quartz silica	Field spray
502	Yarrow	Yarrow blossoms	Compost
503	Chamomile	Chamomile blossoms	Compost
504	Stinging nettle	Stinging nettle shoots and leaves	Compost
505	Oak bark	Oak bark	Compost
506	Dandelion	Dandelion flowers	Compost
507	Valerian	Valerian flower extract	Compost

Healthy soils and crops are the foundation of biodynamic viticulture. According to adherents, if the microbiome of the soil is not healthy, the vine cannot get what it needs from the soil and can only survive with direct application of nitrogen. This "mainlining of nitrogen" prevents the vine from forming a normal healthy root system. Biodynamic viticulture seeks to "return the microbiome to a healthy balance so that the grapevine can return to its natural process of extracting what it needs from the soil." This makes for a healthier, stronger vine and more flavorful fruit and wine.

In viticulture, organic and biodynamic farming approaches were initially applied in the late-1960s with efforts focused on maintaining crop yields while improving soil fertility and reducing the use of mineral fertilizers. Today 316,000 ha of grapes are grown organically (4.55% of the global grape-growing area), with Europe (266,000 ha) being responsible for the lion's share. Spain, Italy, and France have the largest organic grape-growing areas. Worldwide, 11,200 ha of land are farmed, or are in transition to being farmed, under biodynamic principles.

Certification is available under both the organic and biodynamic farming regimes. There are a number of sustainability certifications but the challenge, according to Tablas Creek's Jason Haas, "is that the word 'sustainable' is not protected and people can claim it without doing much. These standards also have different standards and requirements and often do not set a particularly high bar." Ana Monforte Weitjers, whose business is built around sustainable vineyards, sees the concept as having become "almost a marketing gimmick."

Regenerative Agriculture

Regeneration International defines Regenerative Agriculture as

... a holistic land management practice that leverages the power of photosynthesis in plants to close the carbon cycle and build soil health, crop resilience, and nutrient density.

According to the organization, soil health is improved through practices that increase soil organic matter. These practices:

• Contribute to generating/building soils and soil fertility and health
• Increase water percolation, water retention, and clean and safe water runoff
• Increase biodiversity and ecosystem health and resiliency
• Invert the carbon emissions of our current agriculture to one of remarkably significant carbon sequestration thereby cleansing the atmosphere of legacy levels of carbon dioxide.

Terra Genesis International sees Regenerative Agriculture as a set of farming principles and practices that increases biodiversity, enriches soils, improves watersheds, and enhances ecosystem services. It aims to "capture carbon in soil and aboveground biomass, reversing current global trends of atmospheric accumulation ... at the same time it offers increased yields, resilience to climate instability, and higher health and vitality for farming and ranching communities."

In contrast to the foregoing, the Regenerative Agriculture Initiative relies on "outcomes-based criteria," rather than prescriptive practices, to bound its system. The outcomes that it seeks are Healthy Soils, Healthy Ecosystems, Healthy Communities, and a Healthy Climate.

The practices that comprise Regenerative Agriculture are drawn from a number of parallel disciplines, as shown in the figure below.

Regenerative Organic Certified

The Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) is a "revolutionary" new certification for food, fiber, and personal care ingredients that has been developed under the auspices of the Regenerative Organic Alliance. Using the USDA Organic certification as a jumping-off point, ROC incorporates elements of Biodynamics and Permaculture into its Land Management corpus and extends beyond that sphere to cover Animal Welfare and Farmer and Worker Fairness. The organizing framework of the program was illustrated in the initial chart in the post.

The program completed its pilot phase in early 2020 (Tablas Creek participated in the pilot). The objectives of the pilot were to (ROA):

1. Develop a greater understanding of how standards can be implemented at the farm and ranch level
2. Provide information that would help to inform the creation of training materials, audit tools, guidance documents, etc.

The program integrates a set of existing standards with ROA protocols to arrive at its finished product. It should be noted that the framework shown at the top of the post is at the highest-possible level of classification; the actual practices extend a number of levels down in terms of detail and specificity. The chart below shows the key differences between the program's three levels.

The chart below shows the mix of the standards that are incorporated into the program as well as a potential timeline for an entity starting the process from ground zero.

Example roadmap
(Source: organicproducenetwork.com)

In commenting on the ROC, Jason Haas noted the following:

An important difference between ROC and the other initiatives is that it is outcomes- rather than process-based. In addition, there are things that ROC addresses that the other soil-based protocols like organic and biodynamic don't because they are focused narrowly.\; things such as resource-use reduction, animal welfare, and farmworker equity. The goal of ROC is to put in place a comprehensive gold standard for farming, from impacts to soils, resources, farm animals, and working communities.

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With this background in place, I will next turn to Tablas Creek's experiences adopting/adapting to the standard.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

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