Sip by Sip

As summer presses down and the drought wears on, wise local growers, winemakers, and producers, who can see the future, are acting now. Committed to the continued health and productivity of their lands and their products, they are creating healthier grapes and fruits for wines and even ciders and brews that a growing family of old and new customers can enjoy. Four of these “sustainability pioneers,” a brewery and a cidery in Western Sonoma County, and two wineries, one with deep past in St. Helena and one relatively new in Sonoma County. All are committed to making outstanding, healthy, beautiful beverages, from the soils on out. All are certified or practicing sustainability in a major way; each is unique and practicing in a way that works for them.

Wineries have long had the message

In 1985, Spottswoode, located in St. Helena, became one of the first wineries in the Napa Valley to start farming organically. Since then, it has increased its environmental and sustainability efforts to include solar energy, biodynamic farming and attention to biodiversity. In 2020, Spottswoode became the first winery in Napa Valley to be certified as a B Corporation, which recognizes, among other things, its meeting the highest standards of social and environmental performance.

“We—meaning not just corporate America, corporate world or corporate Western world, but all of us—need to change away from this mindset of shareholder value to one of valuing all the earth and community and employees,” says Novak Milliken. “We need to, because look at where we are socially, economically, in terms of social justice, in terms of economic justice.” She is passionate about this, and about caring for the land and all of life on earth. It’s something more existential, she adds. “We hope that, by being a B Corp, along with the other things we’re doing, that we can, [even as a] teeny cog, inspire positive change.”

At Spottswoode Estate, established in 1882, with its formal gardens and Victorian home, there is an abiding feeling of serenity and stability. It is a perfect place to plan and strategize for a future with the changes it will bring because we can see, right in front of us, what we want and hope to preserve. So the work has a morale purpose along with everything else. “I think that, to continue to feel hope, we all have to feel like we’re doing something positive.”

“Being a B Corp, certifications aren’t necessary in themselves,” says Molly Sheppard, educational winemaker at Spottswoode, who teaches groups and visitors about sustainability as a framework within which to move forward (or make progress). “We know we do good work. What we really like is that B Corp certification provides a level of transparency that’s important. It’s building trust with your community, with your consumers, with the people you interact with, that you really are legitimate and ‘walking the talk,’ so to speak.”

Spottswoode, as one small but venerable winery, with a long reach into the culture of Napa Valley, can have, as Sheppard says, the ability to “shift the needle,” and shift cultural perception, driving change. Certifications are an important part of backing that up and of supporting the great organizations that want to do good things. She describes some of the good things they do at Spottswoode, under the direction of winemaker and vineyard manager, Aron Weinkauf. This includes certified organic and biodynamic farming practices, a move toward sequestering as much carbon as they can to enrich and regenerate the soils. “Farming in a way that is driving healthier soils and healthier plants and resilience [creates] more resilient vines and better wines,” she says. But that’s not the whole picture. “That’s the side note,” says Sheppard. That “side note” enhances their production of the world-class wines for which the Spottswoode Estate is famous. Both efforts are absolutely linked, and this linking, or continuity of effort, for the soils and for the product of the soils, is a growing awareness and a major characteristic of sustainability. Beth Novak Milliken adds, in summary, “The main thing is helping people to connect with the fact that, we’re here, but with climate change, being in the agriculture industry is now more challenging. There’s always variation vintage to vintage, but the extremes we experience each year are more significant now.”

Embracing the future with care 

Seismic Brewing Company announces itself in earth-shaking terms as bringing brew outstanding for its taste and for its ground-breaking approach to sustainable production. Their brand promise is written this way: “Because we want to preserve the privilege of living in this beautiful region of the world for the next generation, we are pioneering new brewing tech and utilizing renewable energy to help establish new benchmarks of sustainable brewing.” Christopher Jackson, proprietor of the Jackson Family Wines, founded Seismic and now, with the purchase of Golden State Ciders, the 10-yearold Healdsburg company, has brought GSC’s Chris Lacey over as co-CEO of both Golden State Ciders and Seismic Brewing. Both Lacey and Jackson are partners of Sonoma Craft, which owns and operates both companies. They are making strides in sustainability in a challenging time, and post-COVID stresses force producers to conserve.

“We’re experiencing never before seen pricing, for both for the brewery and the cidery,” says Lacey, lamenting the prices that have gone up and are continuing to rise. “On the cider side, the apples themselves have absolutely skyrocketed due to climate change and increased competition from other industries.” With the post-COVID port problems, numerous items in the supply chain have extremely long lead times. Golden State Cider’s apples come from Oregon, Washington and California, all areas that have been hit hard from fires and drought. “The Northwest, which is usually very consistent, is going through something it hasn’t seen in a number of years. Now it’s become somewhat variable, which is crazy. Golden State Ciders are all made with 100% fresh-pressed apples, so apples are obviously our most important asset.” Freight too is a problem, with the high gas costs and the scarcity of drivers. “We work with third party freight companies, and have experienced fewer lane options with significantly higher costs,” says Lacey. Why is there a scarcity of drivers? A lot of the big companies that became much, bigger, he explains, are offering higher wages. And it makes a small business difficult. Sustainability becomes a concept not so much about choice, as necessity. And a good thing.

“The coastal climate is perfect for growing, Gravenstein, apples,” he says, of the local heirloom varietal. “It’s delicate and it’s the first of the season. People gather them all up and bake pies and make all sorts of cool things at home. We use them with our local farming partners for cider and for Brandy. And that was literally the origin of Golden State Cider—a mission shared with the slow food organization of Russian river, to save and celebrate our local heirloom apples. Our first cider we ever made was called ‘Save the Gravenstein.’”

Beverages and drought

As with any beverage, in a time of drought, water is a big issue. “We’re only using water for cleaning,” says Lacey, “not in the product itself.” The cider is all from apples, and they sell it in cans, sustainable, recyclable, and easier to transport. “A lot of our farming partners are using dry farming as their technique and pretty much all of the local farmers use organic farming, to make the apples that we use in our harvest series products.” The brewery, Seismic, is using a third of what a typical brewery would use, due to the infrastructure that they’ve built, from investing in wastewater reclamation and other processes, that drive that water usage down. “So, nothing’s going to waste or just going down a drain,” he says. “We’re cycling it through and using it multiple times. If we can invest more and save water, that’s what we want to be doing.”

The brewery is powered by a mix of on-site solar and locally-generated electricity sourced by Sonoma Clean Power. “So, it’s about supporting renewable energy, which is something we obviously want to keep doing as we press forward into the future with thoughts of going full solar, if it were a possibility down the line.” The sustainable choice is more than a movement of numbers on a ledger for optimal gain. It’s a value statement. “Going sustainable,” says Lacey, “is really part of supporting the local community and doing things in what we perceive to be the right way. That is, taking care of our local environment, and working with initiatives that we believe in, as people, and that our employees believe in. It becomes something that is core to the brand, rather than being something additional.” He does not deny the time spent and costs incurred, with all the things associated in going sustainable, but, he says, “It’s a part of who we are, from both the cidery and the brewery. And we’re not going to change that no matter what happens around us, because it is core to who we are and what we stand for.” 

Leading the way in Alexander Valley

The estate at Jordan Vineyard and Winery includes rolling hills and open space for grazing, lakes, habitat for water birds, and 12 estate blocks of grapes is a place where ecosystem stewardship and commitment to biodiversity are being practiced in the full sense of the term. The estate operates with a strong sense of mission and purpose in terms of preparing for the changes that are coming.

Why now? “I grew up here,” says Dana Grande, grower relations manager, “and it it’s been very different in the last five years. Things changed for a lot of people—between fires and years of low rainfall and understanding the scarcity of resources—and this change in our climactic conditions. It’s harder to forget about it. The fact that we had brown grasses in March—it’s very clear. It makes people think about things in a very different way.” When nature presents challenging circumstances, everyone involved in farming, which ultimately means everyone who eats food and drinks beverages, needs to become part of the long-term solution of our overall sustainability. Sonoma has many programs to help farmers, growers and ranchers to learn and to monitor their progress in making changes that will help their long-term prosperity and to certify their progress, as a way of encouraging them and others on the long road to sustainability.

“I was talking to somebody about it this morning,” says Grande, adding that the individual commented, “It’s a game of inches, right?” Right.

“It’s not a game of feet and it’s not a game of miles,” she adds. “It’s a game of inches. And when everybody’s taking steps to do their part, there is a huge collective impact. That is probably what rings true for our winery employees as well, understanding their part in ensuring that we are reducing our footprint overall and understanding that simple things––combining trips, if we must go into town, buying in bulk—those small steps add up.”

Certification helps

Since 2019, Jordan has been sustainably certified under the Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing (CCSW) program. Certification is an important in their expanding efforts toward sustainability. “Winegrowers need to show continuous improvement in their practices, meeting minimum requirements,” says Grande. “They don’t just look at what the growers are doing in the vine rows or with regards to production. They look at everything in its totality to make sure the growers are hitting all parts of the triangle of sustainability––economic, environmental, social aspects.”

She says the CCSW’s most recent update was about air quality. “So, it talks about your roads, and your emissions from your vehicles that you use for your facility. So, it’s very in-depth and it’s very comprehensive. And what participation in this program allows for us to do is to kind of stay on the cutting edge of the best practices of sustainability.”

“You can think about that just from something as simple as packaging,” she says. “Shipping wine out of the winery. We’ve been able to reduce so much of the packaging that we once had. And it’s just being smarter about what we’re doing.” Short-term goals all have big cumulative effects, as do the longer term goals and general commitment to stewardship.

Good stewardship

The estate vineyard at Jordan has a big grazing project for cattle, making sure that they are fire wise on their own property, which benefits the neighbors as well. Last year, they dedicated about eight acres throughout the estate to pollinator sanctuaries, to support wild bees and other pollinating insects, which benefits the whole area, as well. “Our estate vineyard manager, worked with the pollinator project,” says Grande. “It’s called the Pollinator Partnership in San Francisco and, and they consulted with us about planting native plants and with different flowering periods to support, our pollinators.” That is an example of a long-term project with the immediate, visible results of happy bees and butterflies. The hard work of sustainable practices gives back in many beneficial ways.

“We’re constantly looking at ways to do things better and more efficiently with water usage, obviously that’s something that’s been highlighted for the last couple of years.”

While everything they do is certified “sustainable” and geared toward a bountiful future with beautiful lands and wines, they do not call themselves, “regenerative.” Grande explains. “Regenerative farming is a very specific set of practices. As much as biodynamic farming is a very specific set of practices. They are inclusive. So, I’ve seen where there are five, to six different principles defined in regenerative farming. And I could tell you that every grower, I know practices at least three of them, but they don’t practice all five or all six. We’re on a path to work ourselves towards that.”

Climate change—it’s coming

Climate change, as most people—certainly in this region—see that it’s coming and it’s not fun. With drought, fires, pandemic, and the resulting economic conditions, it’s hard out here for a grower. Yet, in this place of incomparable beauty and richness, with fruitful land, refined tastes, and experts in all fields who know how to bring all that together, keeping all that richness alive and thriving is something everyone wants. How to manage it is up to individual landowners and businesses, and the consumers who support them. In the North Bay, there are programs and experts ready to help.

The first step for everyone, including consumers, is to learn. When you offer some Golden State Cider to a friend, you know that those apples are carefully grown locally or in neighboring Washington and Oregon and are costly and precious. When you buy a bottle of Spottswoode or Jordan wine, you know you are supporting and drinking a way of life that goes back to the early days. The message from all these growers and producers is loud and clear: What we do, we do because we love it. We love the land, we love our apples, our grapes, our wines, our brews, our bees, our chickens, our livestock, and our soil. They all want to thrive, and consumers can help them by supporting them and the organizations that help them to improve. They sustain a way of life.

 

Sustainability Programs

1. Sonoma County Energy Independence Office – sonomacountyenergy.org
2. Sonoma County Green Business Program – sonomacountyenergy.org
3. Sonoma County Water Agency – sonomawater.org
4. Sonoma Green, for saving water – SonomaGreen@sonoma-county.org.
5. Napa County Sustainable Practices – sustainablenapacounty.org
6. Fish Friendly Farming – fishfriendlyfarming.org
7. How to understand B Corps – bcorporation.net/en-us/about-b-corps/legal-requirements

 

A Probiotic for the Land and for You

Here is a drink you may not have heard about: Biotic Kvass (pronounced kah-voss), an up-and-coming pro-biotic beverage made by two brothers committed to sustainable business practices in Petaluma. Biotic Ferments, a Certified B Corp, focuses on sourcing from regenerative organic agriculture, with the aim of uplifting the health of all living systems, beginning with the human being.

You may say, “Wait! Isn’t Biotic a beverage company?” And you would be correct. But it’s more than that. “Biotic is a social purpose corporation,” says CEO Ryan Johnston of Biotic Ferments. “That means that we legally exist to do more than make profit. Improving the health of our community,’ is written into our bylaws.” And, we might add, as it relates to those who consume his healthy probiotic products made with locally grown, organic, fermented beets or carrots. Those who drink the kvass both support and benefit by a landscape and agricultural network enriched by Biotic’s regenerative practices. “We try and think of our business as a living organism,” he says. “And ask ourselves, ‘Is this increasing or decreasing the life-supporting capacity of humans and the planet?’” He adds, “Ideally, if you’re institutionalizing practices that are life-giving, then, as the business grows, so does the positive impact.”

Kvass is a traditional fermented beverage that has provided gut health support to Eastern Europeans for centuries including the Johnstons’ Polish ancestors. Using fresh regional ingredients, Biotic has evolved the traditional beet kvass recipes to match a healthy West Coast lifestyle.

Biotic Kvass is widely available in North Bay grocery stores, often on the shelf near Kombucha, another popular probiotic drink. Because it’s made from beets or carrots, kvass has far less sugar than leading kombuchas and a crisp, refreshing taste. Biotics comes in “Classic Beet,” “Turmeric Tangerine,” “Spicy Ginger” and many other eye-opening flavors. It is made from 100% organic ingredients craft-fermented with probiotics. “Supporting the health of the gut microbiome is one of the most powerful ways to increase overall human health,” says Johnston.

In addition to regenerative ingredient sourcing, Biotic’s Petaluma fermentary is powered by renewable energy, and their beverages use carbon-neutral water, thanks to Sonoma Clean Power. To reduce the transportation footprint and support regional economies, Biotic moved its packaging sourcing from overseas back to the United States in 2019. To complete the cycle, fermentation of all the food “waste” from production goes to Green Star Farm as pastured animal feed to nourish regeneratively grazed animals, which are managed to sequester carbon into the soil. “It’s all part of one system,” says Johnston. “Regeneration is about putting the pieces back together.”

Sonoma Clean Power supports Biotic Brands to be 100% sustainable. “We pay their Evergreen premium,” says Johnston. It’s easy and efficient. “We literally just switch over through their normal service.” No costly installation of solar panels. No haggles with the landlord. Simple. Clean. As for water, his water comes from the Sonoma County Water Agency, which is all carbon neutral as well. So overall, Biotic Brands has created a regenerative network from which to create a clean, healthful beverage that supports the human being and the soil. The circle is complete when a consumer buys a bottle and drinks it—it’s nourishing a way of life.

 

[Lead photo courtesy of Jordan Vineyard & Winery]