1st Blog - By Glenn Lucas - Mid-Atlantic Viticulture

When I first met John I recognized that he had more in mind than just farming grapes with his property.  He wanted to curate and process an experience–not one just for his customers, but for every living thing on his property. Talking further with him, I knew we would work well together. His intentions were not only subtractive in nature, to reduce the inputs on his farm, but he wanted to add to his property to cultivate the entire farm rather than just the part that grew grapes. So, that’s just what we set out to do, and it’s what we’re now doing.

Sustainability? The process of maintaining the status quo? Not here–we are adding and actively building the farm, aiding and affirming the natural processes already taking place so that when the grapes are planted and farmed there is a healthy ecosystem in place to create balance and activate new parts of the property never before seen.

What are we up to? Here are a few things:

Cover crops and natural borders using a specialized seed drill press: this part actually adds possibly more than any other, creating beautiful and effective borders to the farm that contain wildflowers attracting both natural predators, to eat insects that afflict grapes, and beneficial insects like ladybugs and bees, which help pollination when weather conditions are less than ideal.

Physical barriers: while this may seem a simple idea, the alternative can make you appreciate its simplicity in new ways. Two simple but very effective ways to avoid using chemicals to moderate rather than physical barriers are fencing and carton use.  Fencing excludes vertebrate pests like deer and raccoons that are happy to eat grapes and leaves, and placing cartons around the grapes further assists the vines to grow vertically and provide a physical barrier rather than a chemical one.

Cultural practices rather than chemical ones: What does this mean? Essentially, it boils down to man hours versus chemical applications. A lot of handwork is required to implement cultural practices rather than chemical ones. In agriculture a general rule is that you can pay people to do the job, or apply a chemical to do the job. Both can be effective, but you lose so much more when using chemicals. duGonz touches each vine 12-15 times a year to care for and curate the cultural practices here.  Keep an eye out for future blog posts to understand this more fully because a lot more could be said here.

While John and I are working together, we don’t just ask “what can we not do?” (i.e. “which practices can we do without?”). Instead, we continually ask, “how can we make this better?” This change in perspective makes the whole difference in how wine is ultimately grown. There hasn’t been a single drop of wine produced so far, but the foundation has been laid, and the processes are taking place so that when the wine does flow, it will flow slowly and smoothly from the soil beneath your feet to the glass in your hand. You will feel the difference because you will intuitively know that this wine was grown with the whole ecosystem in mind.