Troon Talk Podcast: Harvest 2024
New Troon Talk Podcast Episode: Harvest 2024 with assistant winemaker Micah Wagner and winemaker Nate Wall!
Going Native
The native gardens at Troon Vineyard & Farm came to be as naturally as the plants in them. A bit of serendipity along with good karma introduced Troon winemaker Nate Wall to Suzie Savoie of Klamath-Siskiyou Native Seeds and our native garden project was born. What started as a small garden continues to expand to every corner of our farm, and integrating plants native to Southern Oregon is now an essential element of our farming philosophy.
Biodiversity is fundamental to biodynamic agriculture as it mirrors the systems that have evolved in nature. We are always seeking a natural balance in our work and from our farm’s produce. While biodiversity is required to be Demeter Biodynamic® Certified, we felt it was essential to go beyond the minimum requirements of certification to achieve our quality goals. It is not enough to simply be diverse. As you will learn in this podcast, to create a more native natural system, you must plant the right plants in the right place.
What started as a small project on one-third of an acre is now spreading throughout our farm – just as native plants should. What has grown from the seed of an idea conceived by Nate and Suzie has grown to include the entire Troon team – both physically and emotionally.
In this episode, the incredibly eloquent Suzie Savoie discusses native plants and seeds with Troon winemaker Nate Wall and director of agriculture Garett Long.
Farm Like the World Depends On It
In this episode of Troon Talk, we welcome special guest Elizabeth Whitlow, executive director of the Regenerative Organic Alliance, and Garett Long, Troon Vineyard and Farm director of agriculture.
The Regenerative Organic Alliance’s slogan is “ Farm like the world depends on it,” which it does. Slogans are a lot easier to write than do. It has been a growing experience at Troon Vineyard & Farm —which seems appropriate—to be an early adopter of the Regenerative Organic Certification (ROC) — the second winery in the world, and now, one of four farms globally to achieve Regenerative Organic Gold Certified® status. It has been a transformational experience. A few were alpha testers; we were beta testers, and today, there are millions of Regenerative Organic certified acres. What once was only an idea is becoming a movement.
The keywords are, of course, regenerative and organic. You must be USDA organically certified to apply to be Regenerative Organic Certified. Organic is the baseline, but it is only the beginning as Big Ag has co-opted the organic certification. Any certification that allows hydroponic agriculture, which USDA Organic allows, cannot be regenerative. How can you regenerate your soil if there is no soil? Now, California is working on an "official' definition of regenerative, which is likely to dilute the term and diminish the work of the Regenerative Organic Alliance.
My original interest in ROC was committing to improving your farm using measurable standards. We were already Demeter Biodynamic® certified at Troon Vineyard & Farm, so we were well down that path, but like most farmers who strive to attain these standards, we wanted to take it to a higher level. ROC seemed to be such a program. With a focus on no-till, regular soil testing, livestock, and social welfare — they touched all the bases. As the ROC grows, I hope they can resist being co-opted by Big Ag. It would be sad to lose all that has been accomplished. Changes are afoot at the Regenerative Organic Alliance as they search for a new CEO. Hopefully, these will be positive changes.
Something passing under the radar is continued positive changes at Demeter USA, and I am optimistic about the future of Biodynamics in the United States. Under the direction of Evrett Lundquist, Demeter is discussing integrating many of the same soil health and social welfare standards found in ROC. Demeter will always be, at heart, a small farm standard, which is a beautiful thing. Big Ag will never pollute Biodynamics because they have no soul — and Biodynamic farmers do.
The soul in Biodynamics is often referred to as spirituality. Some Biodynamic farmers start with their spirituality, which leads them to farming. Others, like me, come to Biodynamics as a quest for quality and then find personal spirituality in their relationship with their farm. You don’t have to be an anthroposophist to be a Biodynamic farmer, but you do need to be connected to nature.
Both the ROC and Demeter Biodynamic® create a structure from which you can develop a foundation for the health of the soil, plants, and people that make up your farm. They are standards to be achieved and a starting place for your journey to create a regenerative farm. The goal is always to make the Earth a better place for the next generations. That goal is achieved by not simply following the rules but learning from them and growing as both farmers and humans. Eventually, the requirements of the certifications become second nature, and you grow beyond them. Observation, intention, and an open mind are the most effective tools in agriculture.
I try to think of my grandchildren as we choose how to farm. They will not likely be debating Steiner's philosophies, but they will have to live in the world we leave to them. Doing the work to be certified is a gift to our grandchildren.
On the days that we received our Demeter Biodynamic® certification and then our Regenerative Organic Gold certification, instead of feeling achievement, I felt like we had just gotten to the starting line—that the work was starting to begin. I was right. The more you know, the more you realize you don't know, but the more you learn, the more you understand the clues that nature offers.
There is much more work to be done.
When we recorded this episode, Elizabeth was still executive director of the Regenerative Organic Alliance. She has just transitioned to a new strategic advisor and board member position. Elizabeth has successfully led the ROA and has been a guiding light as this movement has grown. We thank her for her services to the Earth.
A Biodynamic peach harvested from Troon Vineyard & Farm’s food forest
Eat a Peach
Decades ago, on my first visit to Italy, while having lunch at a winery in Piemonte, they presented us with their farm’s peaches for dessert. It was an event that opened my eyes — and palate. I had never tasted anything so expressive, so pure, so beautifully simple. Fortunately, I was ready to comprehend the experience.
I was still new to the wine business then, but I had been learning how to taste — to focus for several years. I was ready to appreciate that peach. There are many things we eat that taste good, but few that make our life more complete—both in experiences and our quality of life. Flavors like that take me back to my grandparent’s farm. They were organic farmers and never even knew it. My memories of the flavors of my grandmother’s cooking still inspire me. That peach in Italy gave those memories back to me.
As Biodynamic farmers, we often discuss the environment and soil health, but the greatest gift of Biodynamics is how delicious things grown this way taste. In those flavors, we find produce packed with nutrition. Real flavor and health are intertwined. Perhaps the words energies and flavors should be interchangeable in Steiner’s writings.
Highly processed wine and foods cheat us. By turning up the volume on a few tastes that evolution has taught our brains we need to survive, they deceive our palates and deliver gift-wrapped poison.
This week, we harvested our first peaches from our food forest at Troon Vineyard & Farm. As you see from the photo above, they’re beautiful, full of Earth’s energy and, take my word for it, delicious. When introducing Biodynamics at Troon, my first goal was to repair the soil and make better wines. While that certainly has happened, it was only the beginning. Now, there are vineyards and acres of orchards, vegetables, cider apple trees, hay fields, and livestock. Today, not only are our wines in wine shops and restaurants, but our produce is on restaurant menus, in grocery stores, and on our farmstand. The energy of the Earth combined with our work now touches many people.
A grape, a peach, or a tomato may seem like simple things, but they are miracles. Industrial agriculture rips all the magic out of them. Biodynamics nurtures that magic and, in the process, nurtures us.
Biodynamic farming sounds complicated, but it is simple in many ways. We are only trying to work with nature and express those energies the way nature evolved them to work. If we do our job, those energies—those flavors—will be captured in what we grow and the wines we craft.
The wine business is divided between those that produce beverage alcohol and those that simply honor the grape. The food industry has the same divide. In simplicity, you find both the flavors and quality that make our lives more compelling and engaged with the universe. Authenticity is a natural thing.
We must start paying attention to what we eat and drink and relearn how to taste. Our culture has lost that ability, and it’s killing us. Nutrition and flavor are connected, and the relationship is complex, but eating well is simple. The Slow Food movement has it right. Take time to taste.
When you eat a peach, eat a peach.
Blending at Troon: Part 2
Troon Vineyard winemaker Nate Wall and assistant winemaker Micah Wagner continue to discuss how we create our Druid’s and Ascendent Blends.
New Podcast: The Druid's Blends - Blending at Troon Part One
In this episode, we introduce new assistant winemaker Micah Wagner, and then Micah and Troon winemaker Nate Wall discuss making Troon Vineyard's Druid's Red, White, and Pink Biodynamic Blends. In part 2, to follow shortly, they dig deeper into the art and science of blending in winemaking.
The Wine Soundtrack Podcast
It was a great pleasure to be interviewed by Allison Levine on her Wine Soundtrack Podcast
Tart Troon: Biodynamic Red Wine Vinegar
Winemaking is the art of preventing grape juice from becoming vinegar, but for us, our winegrowing is more a novel than a short story. Making vinegar is the next chapter in the story of Troon Vineyard. Wine and vinegar are sequential expressions of our Biodynamic viticulture. As part of the same plot, we are crafting our vinegar with the same intentionality and aspiration as our wines.
That and we thought it would be fun. It is.
Jennifer Tiesl, part of our farm team and, has taken on this new project with the zestiness a vinegarist should have. Jennifer’s first step was to reach out to an amazing local resource—Kirsten Shockey, Applegate Valley resident, renowned fermentation expert, and author of Homebrewed Vinegar, among many other books. Kirsten has also co-founded the Fermentation School. Together, they’ve built our vinegar works.
In this episode of our podcast, Jennifer and Kirsten discuss how we have moved this project forward as we prepare to release our first Troon Vineyard and Farm Estate Biodynamic® Red Wine Vinegar.
Our first vinegar is from our Estate Syrah. As always in wine production, some barrels, tanks, and carboys accumulate many gallons of wine that don’t make it into bottles. We felt these orphaned wines needed a home worthy of the work we invested in them, and the idea of making vinegar with a pedigree was a natural next step.
The next step was where to make our vinegar. It’s not a great idea to make vinegar in a winery. There is a bit of a conflict in microbiology, as one of the main tenets of winemaking is not to make vinegar. Luckily, there is a historic barn on the exact opposite corner of our farm from the winery, and we converted part of this barn to become our vinegar works. We had a place; now we needed wine.
To understand why we have wines without a home, you have to appreciate our blending process, which begins with Troon winemaker Nate Wall commandeering several racks of wine glasses from our tasting room. Beakers of barrel and tank samples of wine fill the little space left on the table after the wine glasses are deployed. The potential blend combinations seem countless, but after hours of iteration after iteration, the final choices for the blend are made. It is amazing how the smallest changes can change the personality of a wine. A percent more here or a half-percent less there make a real difference in the final wine. The inevitable result of such a rigorous selection process is some very good wine is left homeless.
Not anymore. We will release our first Estate Biodynamic Vinegar later this summer. Following in years to come will be Troon Vinegars with extended barrel aging.
Our vinegar story will be imbued with the same energy as the novel our winemaking has become. After all, it is a sequel.
You won’t be able to put either book down.
A rainbow over the compost piles at Troon Vineyard in Oregon’s Applegate Valley
Biodynamic Communication
Intentionality is fundamental to Biodynamics. The Biodynamic community is good at intentional farming but not when it comes to intentional storytelling. We are not telling our story.
A century after Rudolf Steiner gave his Agriculture Course lectures, Biodynamics remains a misunderstood discipline that has gained little traction outside the world of fine wine. The vast majority of Demeter Certified farms in the United States are wineries. Where are the farmers growing food?
Modern agricultural science realized the soil microbiome is the key to plant health. Biodynamics has always been based on this concept. Scientists are discovering that microbiology is more effective than chemicals in the long-term. The so-called “Green Revolution” increased yields in the short-term, but stripped both the soil and the food produced from it of nutritional value. Simultaneously eliminated was flavor. The goals of the Green Revolution were only realized in quantity, not quality.
The battle between quantity and quality has been an issue that has never been clearly understood with food. The volume of what is consumed satisfies but does not nourish. A new green revolution needs to balance both.
The vision of Biodynamic agriculture is to feed both body and soul. But to sustain both, we need to better to communicate the benefits of this thoughtful way of farming. This has been a major failure of the Biodynamic movement.
People need nourishment they can afford. This should be the mission of Biodynamic agriculture. That means more Biodynamic farmers. We need less Steiner and anthroposophy and more food. Spirituality is personal. Hunger is universal.
Some of the most important names in the history of Biodynamics have preached the importance of making Biodynamic farming both practical and profitable. Without achieving these goals, they knew Biodynamics would end up forgotten on the compost pile of history. Are we farmers or philosophers? The Biodynamic movement needs to decide if we want to change farming and help save the planet or if we want to be trapped in a philosophical movement from the early 1900s.
Steiner said his lectures, ‘Spiritual foundations for the renewal of agriculture” in 1924, were “suggestions” based on anthroposophy, not agriculture. The lectures were to be a starting point for the Experimental Circle of Anthroposophical Farmers. These people created Biodynamics as we know it today, not Steiner. Steiner died the year after he gave the lectures and never used the word biodynamic.
Ehrenfried Pfeiffer could rightly be considered the father of both Biodynamic and organic agriculture. He worked directly with Steiner and led the research after his death. He later migrated to Britain, where he laid the foundations for the organic agriculture movement, and then to the United States, where he met and inspired J.I. Rodale, who became a leader of organic agriculture in the United States and founded The Rodale Institute, which is a force in organic agriculture education to this day. Realizing that making all the Biodynamic preparations would be too difficult for most small farmers, he created his Pfeiffer compost starter, a Biodynamic shortcut, which contained most of the Biodynamic preparations and is still on sale today.
There is a long list of people who built the foundation of practical Biodynamics as it is practiced today. In Australia, Alex Podolinsky championed Biodynamic strategies as the “agriculture of the future” that could go beyond home gardens into large-scale commercial agriculture. In the United States, there was Alan Chadwick, who did not even use the Biodynamic preparations, and then Alan York who counseled wineries to build a solid agricultural foundation before layering on Biodynamics.
Steiner was a philosopher who gave a few lectures about agriculture. Pfeiffer, Podolinsky, Chadwick and York were farmers with a philosophy.
Steiner ended his lectures with these words,
“In these lectures, I have only been able to supply certain guidelines, of course, but I am sure that they will provide a foundation for many different experiments extending over a long period of time, and that they will lead to brilliant results if worked into your agronomical practices on an experimental basis. That should be a guideline for dealing with the material presented in this course. I am in complete agreement with the decision of the farmers participating in this course that what you have learned here should not leave this group but should serve as a basis for experimentation — and that the farmers’ association, the Agricultural Experimental Circle — will determine when the experiments have proceeded far enough for this material to be made public… What would happen — and this has already happened with other lecture cycles — is simply that other people, including farmers, would hear about it from the wrong source. Farmers that hear about it from other farmers will merely say, “Pity that they’ve lost their minds.” That is what they will say the first time, and maybe the second. But when farmers actually see something working, they then have a hard time rejecting it out of hand.”
Pity they’ve lost their minds seems to be a common sentiment with doubters of Biodynamics. But the fact is that we, the farmers, actually see something working. There is a spiritual side to Biodynamics, but Steiner thought the spiritual came first. For those practicing practical Biodynamics, farming comes first, and spirituality is personal to each farmer and their farm.
There are few things more satisfying to the soul than a farm full of life.
Troon Farm Preview 2024
Troon Vineyard & Farm’s Agricultural teams looks at 2024 in our gardens, orchards and vineyards.
Concrete Winemaking - Nomblot Tanks at Troon Vineyard
Winemaker Nate Wall and Nomblot Tank Expert Phillip Taratko Discuss Using Concrete Winemaking Vessels at Troon Vineyard
Farming by the Moon
Troon Vineyard’s director of agriculture Garett Long and biodynamic consultant Andrew Beedy discuss farming by the Moon at Troon Vineyard.
Riding the Range
The Rhône Rangers represent not a region or single grape variety but a shared vision. With a name brought to fame on an old Wine Spectator cover, a unique wine organization was born.
The Annual Rhône Rangers Experience held in Paso Robles this February — and every February — is a testament to their — our — vision. This year’s event, the 19th, saw over eighty wineries presenting their wines to more than five hundred passionate consumers.
In my decades of doing wine events, I have never encountered a better-educated group of consumers. When you pour a roussanne or cinsault few attendees say I’ve never heard of that. It is a great gift to the winemakers pouring their wines.
As a business, why would a winery want to venture outside the big five varieties that dominate consumer purchases? There are practical answers to that question. First, anyone not growing the ideal varieties for their vineyard site is just kidding themselves. They will never make a wine that will stand out from the crowd. The second reason is as pragmatic. Why try to compete in an overcrowded market with mediocre chardonnay or cabernet sauvignon when you can do something special? If you can’t deliver something exceptionally interesting, how can you compete? Better is the ultimate sales pitch.
There is something distinct about the Rhône Rangers and their members, who are comrades in arms when it comes to the wine sales wars. Perhaps it is that so many varieties are represented or simply the mindset of those who plan to take this alternative route. I was honored to be on the seminar panel for this year’s Rhône Rangers Experience. Eight wineries offered eight wines to over two hundred attendees without repeating a style or variety. Well, there was a grenache rosé and a red grenache, but you get the point.
What is enlightening and humbling to me when I participate in these panels is how diverse the personal voyage of each speaker is as their personality expresses itself in their wines. The humbling part is that it’s always important for a winemaker to understand there is more than one valid expression of each variety.
The panel presented two wines that stood out to me among a group where every wine was a passionate example of the winemaker’s vision. That said, these two wines connected to my vision. The 2022 Last of Five Cinsault from Nenow Family Wines in Paso was lifted, lovely and floral. The 2021 Grenache Robert Rae from Clementine Carter in the Santa Rita Hills was a study in delicate balance with silky tannins and zesty fruit. I presented our 2022 Troon Vineyard Amphora Mourvèdre and was thrilled by the responses I received from the attendees. We are excited by the balance and distinctive textures that aging in amphorae brought to this young vine mourvèdre.
As always, I am busy pouring at these events and cannot get out from behind my table to taste other wines. Yet at my table at the Rhône Rangers experience I am always invigorated by the energy of the consumers who are as passionate about these varieties as those of us who grow and make wines from the classic varieties of southern France.
There are no lone rangers at this wine tasting.
2023 Vintage Recap
Troon vineyard winemaker Nate Wall and assistant winemaker Hannah Thorning review harvest 2023 in our new podcast episode!
Biodynamic Energies (or not wearing enough hats)
“Matter is energy. In the universe there are many energy fields which we cannot normally perceive. Some energies have a spiritual source which act upon a person’s soul. However, this “soul” does not exist ab initio as orthodox Christianity teaches; it has to be brought into existence by a process of guided self-observation. However, this is rarely achieved owing to man’s unique ability to be distracted from spiritual matters by everyday trivia,” Monty’s Python’s Meaning of Life.
Attention. Observation. These were the skills that kept you alive in the time before television, the Internet, and electric lights. The rhythm of the Solar System was the rhythm of life. Generational observation of those rhythms built a foundation to guide you as to the best time to plant and harvest and the work you had to do.
Then we lost it all.
Regaining this knowledge with all the noise surrounding us today is a struggle. Attention and observation must be connected to science and an open mind. It is connecting these dots that biodynamics struggles with today.
Having recently returned from the National Biodynamic Conference in Westminster, Colorado, these struggles were only highlighted. As Rudolf Steiner proposed in his Agricultural Course almost one hundred years ago, Biodynamics was spiritual science — an extension of the Anthroposophy, the movement he founded in the early 20th century.
Today’s split is whether biodynamics is spirituality with science or science with spirituality. There is a difference. In Anthroposophy, spirituality comes first. Today, many practitioners of biodynamics follow science, which leads to discovering spirituality. Guided by your observations and discoveries, you find the energies that make you and every part of your farm — one. There is a logic in biodynamics that modern science is discovering. Biodynamics provided a foundation based on folk wisdom, knowledge attained in an era of focused observation that is now being integrated with modern science, this era’s method of focused attention. The difference is that the old knowledge was not polluted by the commercialism that has led agricultural science down the path of chemicals and patents instead of natural systems and respect for how life has evolved on this planet.
The program at the recent National Biodynamic Conference was heavy on the spiritual and light on the science. The problem with that is that the science, the how-to of biodynamic farming, is something we can learn. Spirituality is something we attain by practicing biodynamics. One is a technique, and the other is a personal voyage. Teach us how to farm, and the inner energies of our farms will reveal themselves to us. You don’t have to follow Anthroposophy to be a biodynamic farmer — you need to connect with the energies that evolved to create the natural system we call Earth — and the science that opens these secrets to us.
At the end of the Monty Python skit quoted above, instead of the spiritual answer, they decided that the actual problem was that people don’t wear enough hats. Even in comedy skits, the debate is between heaven and Earth. In biodynamic agriculture, there should be no such debate — as heaven and Earth are one in the same.
What the Fox Knew: The National Biodynamic Conference
Welcome to a special edition of the Troon Talk Podcast recorded during the National Biodynamic Conference in Westminster, Colorado, this November. Please excuse the quality of these recordings made during the conference in public places using Bluetooth microphones. However, I am sure you will find the content more than worthwhile.
The first segment is a discussion between Dr. Lynne Carpenter-Boggs, a professor of soil science and chair of crop and soil sciences at Washington State University, and Troon Vineyard’s director of agriculture, Garett Long. Her research and teaching have included soil microbiology, alternative agricultural systems, and composting. Her work often bridges the gap between biodynamic grower observations and scientific principles.
In our second segment, we present Garett’s keynote address at the end of the conference that focused on the future of biodynamics 100 years after Rudolf Steiner gave the agriculture lectures that formed the foundations of biodynamic and organic agriculture.
The conference was exciting, bringing together an incredibly diverse range of biodynamic farmers. As the conference was interrupted by COVID, this is the first time the community has been able to gather since 2018. It is always an amazing opportunity to discuss the challenges of farming biodynamically with other farmers.
I am sure you will find this podcast episode full of interesting insights into biodynamics.
Making Biodynamic Preparations: A Community
We recently hosted a day-long Biodynamic Preparation-making workshop at Troon Vineyard in Oregon's Applegate Valley with Biodynamic farmers Marjory House and Garett Long. In this episode, they discuss the workshop, what makes the Preparations effective, and look at the future of Biodynamic farming.
There is a companion video of the Preparation-making workshop that can be viewed at this link.
In this episode of our Troon Talk Podcast, Biodynamic Consultant Andrew Beedy and Troon’s Director of Agriculture Garett Long discuss making the compost preparations.
The Biodynamic Compost Preparations
Every fall, our next-door neighbors at Noble Organic Dairy Farm deliver 400 tons of cow manure to us at Troon Vineyard and Farm. To this treasure, we add the pomace from our harvest, kitchen scraps, garden, and landscaping residue, and biodynamic hay we grow on our farm. Then, when the piles are constructed, the last additions transform these raw materials from compost to biodynamic compost.
To this massive mass of refuse and manure, we add minuscule quantities — homeopathic quantities — of the biodynamic compost preparations: 502 Yarrow, 503 Camomile, 504 Stinging Nettle, 505 Oak Bark, 506 Dandelion, and 507 Valerian. While cow horn manure — BD 500 — is the media’s symbol of the biodynamic preparations, these six compost preparations are the building blocks of biodynamics - the soul of our soils.
The preparations are hard to understand, and we don’t pretend we do. There is much that is not understood in agriculture. Working with the preparations is a weaving together of intentions, experiences, microbiology, and natural processes.
We are striving to produce all of our biodynamic preparations on our farm. As of this year, the only one we have yet to produce is the 505 Oak Bark, which we will produce next year. In biodynamics, the process and intention are part of the results.
First, you grow the plants, the botanicals that are the base of the preparations. Then, nature transforms them. Each interaction with your farm’s microbiology captures nature’s energies. That is the point of biodynamics. The making of the preps focuses your intentions. Growing the botanicals adds biodiversity, and burying them connects them to your farm. Applying them completes that circle. That’s the part that works. Nature works in cycles — in circles. Our work is to help the circle complete itself — not invent our own geometry.
Native Americans used yarrow to treat wounds and colds. The use of chamomile and valerian to improve sleep and reduce anxiety is well known. Stinging nettle has been used for centuries to treat painful muscles, joints, arthritis, and anemia. Oak bark and dandelion teas were used to aid appetite and digestion. For millennia, these botanicals have been recognized as natural medicines. Rudolf Steiner was inspired to focus on natural herbs by meeting Felix Kogutski, an Austrian herb-gatherer who sold these plants to pharmacies and medical schools. Steiner died in 1925, shortly after outlining the preparations. Dr. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer did the real work of developing them. His book, published in 1938, took Stiener’s original ideas from his lectures in 1924, researched them and made them practical, and provided the foundation on which preparation-making exists today.
Making and using the biodynamic preparations makes you feel a part of nature’s cycles. We can’t understand all of them, but we can still work harmoniously with them. We need to honor what we don’t understand and the things that work without destroying the natural systems that have evolved on Earth.
There is another intangible when making and using the preparations — it’s fun. There is not a better team-building exercise than picking dandelions and the other flowers together. Even filling cow horns with manure becomes a group celebration.
Energies of all kinds enrich your farm.
A video look at making Biodynamic Preparation 502
Alternative Vessels for Alternative Wines
Winery tours have become increasingly boring over the last few decades. The rows of stainless steel tanks and stacks of beautiful new French Oak barrels became the norm. Of course, as the wineries became boring — so did the wines.
The wines increasingly became the product of the vessels and additives, not the vineyard where the grapes were grown. Modern technology was so ubiquitous in the cellar that shiny tanks and new barrels became the norm — the traditional way of winemaking.
Clearly, this is not based on historical winemaking. Clay vessels, concrete, large well-used wood tanks and barrels were used to make the wines that made Bordeaux, Burgundy and Barolo famous names long before the first stainless steel tank arrived.
Not to say that there were not a lot of problems. I well remember the bretty wines from revered wineries a few decades ago. Yet, even if those wines had faults, they were at least authentic. As Nicolas Joly notes, “Until the end of the 1950s not all wines were good, far from it, but almost all of them were authentic.”
We’re at the end of a five-year complete replant of our vineyard at Troon in Oregon’s Applegate Valley. It was an intense project. Our goal in all this work and investment was to make wines that reflected this vineyard, this soil, and this place — authentic Applegate Valley wines.
So what’s old is new in the cellar at Troon Vineyard. Over the last few years, new amphorae have arrived, old foudré were found and concrete tanks are arriving this year to join the neutral French Oak barrels we buy from friends in the Willamette Valley.
In this episode of Troon Talk, Troon Vineyard winemaker Nate Wall discusses alternative vessels for alternative wines in-depth.
The Whole Farm Includes the Workers
It is no secret that agricultural workers are abused and exploited. This applies to the entire world, but that it happens so blatantly in wealthy countries like the United States is particularly shameful. From the beginning, this has been one of the major attractions to me about Regenerative Organic Certification (ROC).
There are three pillars to be scaled to achieve Regenerative Organic Gold certification. At Troon Vineyard, as we were already certified CCOF Organic and Demeter Biodynamic®, we were well along on the Agricultural and Animal Welfare pillars. Still, the Social Welfare pillar was a concept we felt we were attuned to, but being certified was new territory.
It was new territory for us and unique for the Equitable Food Initiative (EFI), the certifying body for our Social Welfare pillar. As so many farm workers are mistreated by “big ag” operations, they have necessarily been focusing their work there. Small farms, like Troon, are governed not only by Federal laws and OSHA but by a state government that at least attempts to protect worker rights. So we operate under the stricter Oregon OSHA and agricultural minimum wage requirements. Basically, by law, we are required to do most of the things included in the EFI. To accommodate our unique, small-farm situation, EFI created a new certification called ERGO. Troon Vineyard was the alpha tester for this new certification and became the first small farm in the world to achieve it. Being first aligns with our goal to help create a ROC certification system that other small farms aspire to achieve.
An essential and enlightening aspect of this certification process was the creation of a committee of workers from throughout the farm, even our small one, to improve communications between teams. It is important to understand that no matter how much you think you are trying to hear every team member, there is always room for improvement and issues you are unaware of. This process alone made us think about we relate to each other.
Troon Vineyard assistant winemaker Hannah Thorning, our guest on the episode, led our team through this process. When we achieved our EFI ERGO certification, we joined three other farms worldwide to become Regenerative Organic Gold Certified®. I know you will enjoy our discussion of the process and achievement.