The Pace of Knowing

“The pace of knowing on our part does not alter how creation works,” Michael Phillips in Mycorrhizal Planet

A recent article in the New York Times revealed that the Moon has a tail, much like a comet. “It almost seems like a magical thing,” said one of the astronomers. For a few days each month, like clockwork, a stream of sodium particles from the Moon wraps around the earth’s atmosphere. That tail is dusting the Earth with sodium. 

“But even invisible, knowing the Earth has a meteor-fueled moonbeam is satisfying enough — a reminder of the Moon’s dynamism.” Says Dr. James O’Donoghue, a planetary scientist, “I think we definitely take it for granted.”

While we can’t sense the passage of this beam around the Earth, It does not mean that other beings on the planet cannot. There is much we still do not understand about the cycles of the natural world. Nature’s smallest beings sense many things that are invisible to us. 

The more you pursue the science of regenerative agriculture, the more connections to biodynamic practices you discover. That is not to say the reasoning behind those practices are the same, but the practices themselves often closely align. 

“As the second most abundant element in the Earth’s crust and the soil, silica has been largely ignored by agronomists. Silica is crucial, however, as it provides plant defense against pests and fungal/bacterial disease and reduces plant stress. It is a cell-strengthener and an activator for many plant functions,” says Nicole Masters in her thought-provoking book For the Love of Soil.

“Soil application of colloidal silicon increased plant-available Si, but only foliar application increased the total silicon concentrations in leaves, yield, and cluster weight. Moreover, the wine produced from the silica-treated grapes were ranked better in sensory evaluations,” states the Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences in the article Effects of silicon amendments on grapevine, soil, and wine

One of the biodynamic preparations that raises most eyebrows (although all of them do for some) is BD 501 — the silica mentioned above. Silica is now routinely applied in many crops throughout the world. I’m sure most of the silica applied in agriculture is not buried in a cow horn first. Is the biodynamic method better than simply applying silica? I don’t know. However, I do know that silica prepared in the biodynamic way does make a difference in the vineyard. Our neighbors and good friends Barbara and Bill Steele at Cowhorn Vineyard have refined this practice over almost two decades of biodynamic farming. They use multiple precisely timed applications of BD 501 to encourage their Rhône varieties to reach higher brix levels in their cool Applegate Valley site. The proof is found in their exceptional wines. 

While Rudolf Steiner got a lot of the “hows” and “whats” right in his lectures, the “whys” are clearly not always on the mark. Steiner saw cow horns as kinds of radio telescopes that captured cosmic energies and transferred them to their contents. He was clearly right about silica, but cosmic energies? I think terms like “energies” and “forces” are just names for things we don’t understand. There was a lot that was not understood about plant biology in the 1920s, when Steiner gave his lectures (he died a year after giving them), while we understand much more today, there is still much that is not known. 

Having made our own BD 500 and BD 501 at Troon Vineyard for several years now we’ve had our own experience with burying cow horns to make these preparations. One thing is clear — the cow horns work in the sense that the final product is ideal for the job. Do they work because they are the perfect size and material or because of those cosmic forces? I admit there is a little bit of the “if it’s not broke don’t fix it” mentality here. Will other containers work just as well? I look forward to others doing that research and letting me know. I’d be happy to change, but I would prefer to not be the one experimenting as my immediate concerns are getting great fruit quality in the vintage at hand. 

There is one cosmic energy that no one doubts — the Sun. Apparently, now the Moon can join that club. Not only does the Moon’s gravity gives us tides, but once a month the Earth is enveloped in its tail. Like a timepiece, the moon showers us not with mysterious cosmic energies, but a dusting of sodium. We can’t see it or feel it, but to the microbiology in the soil and plants, it may sound like Big Ben striking noon. 

There are so many aspects of biodynamics that are now entering the mainstream of agricultural science. Composting at lower temperatures to increase fungal and bacterial populations. State-of-the-art compost tea brewers aerate compost tea overnight, which also builds those populations, as does the biodynamic practice of dynamizing. Even farming by the Moon may have to be reevaluated. It was obvious to many of us that biodynamics worked. All you had to do was to taste the wines. While we knew it worked, we were not very comfortable with the “whys” as presented by Steiner. Slowly, but surely those gaps are being filled by the new science of regenerative agriculture. 

It is my hope that the new Regenerative Organic Alliance and Certification will bridge those gaps. It embraces both USDA Organic and Demeter Biodynamic Certification, but fully incorporates the rapidly advancing science and knowledge that is happening in agriculture today. 

It’s not magical forces, but the Sun, soil, Moondust, mycorrhizal fungi, and manure that make agriculture work. As Michael Phillips wrote, “Nature does what needs to be done if we let her.”

Humble — something we should be when it comes to the natural systems. There is so much we do not know. Nature works, that’s truly magical.

Growing Forward: A Panel Discussion on Regenerative Agriculture

“Craig Camp, who has been heralded for turning around Troon Vineyards in Oregon’s Applegate Valley points out that in their replanted vineyards “biodynamics is the framework we integrated into our process. Regenerative organic is the next step.” Wine Industry Network.

Please join us for a panel discussion about regenerative agriculture with Paul Skinner, Paul Dolan and Jordon Lonborg and myself as we discus the future of winegrowing.

Inspiration

I have been more than fortunate to be literally immersed in a world filled with inspiring people during my whole career. People that lift you and make you reach for ever higher goals. To be called inspirational is obviously an honor, but, in fact, it is far more humbling. To be inspiring you have had to be inspired. You stand on the shoulders of so many.

Needless to say, I was more than flattered and honored to be named to the “Wine’s Most Inspirational People 2021” list in their article:

Craig Camp: Leading the Way for Vineyard Rejuvenation from Conventional to Biodynamic Farming

I have been deeply involved in fine wine, both the business and making of it, for almost four decades. The people that have inspired me are too many to count, but I will name a few anyway.

Mentors like Becky Wasserman, Christopher Cannan, Neil and Maria Empson, Barry and Audrey Sterling, and Angelo Gaja introduced me to the wines of the world. Don Clemens and Scott Larsen first showed me how special a wine could be as they shared their best bottles with me. Then there are those inspirational people I grew alongside, winemakers like Tony Soter, Cathy Corison, Richard Sanford, Josh Jensen, Cecil DeLoach, Fred Fisher, Joy Sterling, Dick Ward, and David Graves, Manuel Marchetti, Andrea Sottimano, Tino Colla, Andrea Constanti and Dominque Lafon. Sharing their voyage, even in a small way, continues to inspire me every day.

Inspiration also comes from younger, energetic people who are making a new future in wine, many of whom I have had the honor to work alongside. Winemakers like Thomas Houseman, Jeff Keene, Tony Rynders, Nate Wall, and James Cahill, viticulturists like Jason Cole, and marketing and salespeople like Kim McLeod, Nadia Kinkade, Meg Ordaz, Nate Winters, and Ashley Wells. Then there is Paul Mabray, the pioneer that takes all the arrows while driving winery marketing technology forward for the entire industry.

Inspiration is a continuum. One cannot inspire without being inspired. It is a debt that can only be repaid by paying it forward. The most inspiring people don't set out to be inspiring. They just show up every day and do the work. That's the most inspiring thing of all.

And Now for Something Completely Different

Well, that was interesting. Goodbye 2020.

I was really looking forward to 2020. It was going to be a benchmark year as, after three years of intense effort we were going to receive our full Demeter Biodynamic® Certification. Finally, Troon Vineyard, always a vineyard with unfulfilled potential, was going to show what it could do.

Obviously, far, far more important, and more terrible, things happened. 

In late February, I was on the Slow Wine Tour as we had achieved another Slow Wine award at Troon Vineyard. San Francisco, Seattle and Denver in four days. Then, during the first week of March, while I was in San Francisco for the Oregon Wine Trail tasting event, I was unnerved to see the desk clerk at my hotel was wearing a mask when she checked me in. Then, at the packed event, people made nervous, feeble jokes about not shaking hands, while making clumsy attempts at bumping elbows. COVID had arrived. 

Then everything imploded. 

Our tasting rooms and our restaurant customers were closed down, sales events were canceled and the world came to a stop. Or so it seemed at first. 

While everything else closed, the farming just kept going. Farms can’t stop for pandemics. The winery became an eerie place. Most days I was alone in the offices and vineyard crew was spread out over the entire farm. It is easy to social distance on one-hundred acres. The cellar team would alternate days so only one person at a time was in the cellar. Despite the challenges, the work got done. 

Actually, the work in the vineyard was a comforting thing. With the entire world in an uproar, the quiet and beauty of the vineyard and the surrounding mountains made it a calming and safe place.

Selling wine was not a safe and calming place. A major segment of our customers simply vanished overnight as restaurants and wine bars were shuttered. For a small biodynamic winery producing wines from varieties that are not mainstream commercial pop hits, this was not a good thing. 

But then something very special happened.

Our regular customers, wine club members and locals, stepped up to support their local businesses when they needed it most. Our walk-in and online orders took off. Then there were our retail store customers who could have settled for the big, well-known commercial brands, but stuck with small producers like us. It is a favor we will do our best to repay forever. 

Then, thankfully, good weather arrived. 

In summer things felt lighter as we could have outdoor tastings at our tasting rooms and the energy that our guests brought to Troon revitalized our team. We are lucky to have a large patio and lawn at the winery and a courtyard at our Carlton tasting room. Outdoor tastings were not going to be an issue, as even in normal summers everyone prefers to be tasting outside. Social distance was not a problem as we easily spread out tables across the lawn. During the long, warm sunny days of summer in the Applegate Valley we were busy as outdoor wine tasting felt like a safe option. 

Then the fires arrived. 

The winds were predicted, but their actual arrival was unnerving as everyone was aware of the danger — a danger that was more than realized. Our neighbors in the towns of Talent and Phoenix saw their communities destroyed. Simple Machine Winery in Talent lost everything. Many winery and vineyard workers lost their homes. The first day of the fires, the skies were blue at Troon, but then the smoke settled in for a few weeks. Once again, we had been luckier than many. The main problem we experienced was that the smoke curtailed our outdoor tastings. Certainly a minor inconvenience compared to what so many suffered. The wine community came together with the Rogue Valley Wine Country Cares fundraiser to raise $57,000 to support housing costs for those that lost their homes. The wine industry is filled with good people. 

Then it was time for harvest. 

There is never a day filled with such unbridled optimism at a winery than the first day of harvest. We all did our best to maintain that facade. As dawn broke on that first day, we started picking in particularly heavy smoke. I wore both a N95 and a surgical mask and the pickers struggled to work in their masks and the smoke making an already difficult job that much harder. The cellar crew all wore N95 masks, now to ward off both smoke and COVID. Not one person complained. While we could not see each other’s smiles, you could still could still hear the jokes and laughter. 

When we briefly removed our masks as Troon Vineyard winemaker Nate Wall made the traditional Champagne toast as the first grapes arrived, it was clear that neither the smoke or COVID could steal our optimism for this new vintage.

Finally, the smoke cleared and most of the vintage was completed under blue skies surrounded by beautiful vistas of the Siskiyou Mountains. Once again we were lucky as our wines were not affected by the smoke. The fires were too far away from Troon so we were not covered with the fresh smoke that can impact the wine.

It is always strangely quiet when the vintage is over.

Harvest interns always bring a lot of energy, fun and enthusiasm to the harvest crew and their departure marks the official end of harvest. It also makes the winery feel quieter and a bit empty. It is always a time for reflection and looking forward. Now that the smoke had cleared the late October weather was unusually warm, customers returned to our tasting rooms and their support once again buoyed our spirits. 

Then in November everything imploded — again.

Just as other businesses had done, we had carefully planned how to keep our tasting rooms open for indoor tasting during the winter months. The social distance between tables had been carefully measured, firm mask requirements and disinfecting strategies had been put into action. Everyone on the team was committed to the safety of our guests and each other. I have been inspired by the commitment of everyone at Troon during this year. You could always see their deep respect for each other on their faces — because they were always masked. 

Then, as COVID dramatically spiked we once again were limited to outdoor tastings. Winter outdoor wine tastings are not an inviting prospect in the mountains of Southern Oregon.

But then something very special happened — again.

Yet again the Troon team pivoted and recreated our outdoor patios with heaters, blankets and windbreaks to make guests as comfortable as possible. Once again our customers have come through for us braving the elements to taste and buy our wines. You can never look at these people that supported you during this difficult year the same way again. We are very lucky.

All of us are looking forward to 2021. 

As you look to the next vintage you are always filled with optimism. I know 2021 will be a special vintage. We learned many things this year. We know more about each other and more about our customers. We are better than we were at the start of 2020. Both more efficient and more empathetic. Smarter and more creative. Tougher and more humble. 

Most of all we have to treasure our good fortune in 2020. We were able to hold our own while so many others had the business that they had dreamed of and sweated over for years devastated. We were able to make exciting wines in challenging situations. More than anything we did not lose anyone to this terrible disease, although some of our team lost extended family members. The lessons of vintage 2020 are to count your blessings. 

We practice regenerative agriculture at Troon Vineyard. Regenerative means to put in more than you take out. In 2020, that did not only apply to the vineyard. 

Well, this will be interesting. Hello 2021.

The Space Between the Notes

Recently, while tasting an old vine cinsault from Chile it occurred to me that the moments I enjoyed most about this delicate wine were those that I could not easily grasp. A long time ago, I realized I want some space in my wines. Space for me. Many wines fill all those spaces and leave nothing left to your imagination. They fill every space with their own noise leaving nothing for you to think about. I don't want a wine to complete my sentences for me.

That seems to be the goal of so many wines these days. They want to take all the work of tasting away from you. Of course, in the process, they take most of the pleasure away. This is the season for "top 100" lists from all the major media. Heck, one is even making top 100 lists by country. You can be sure that these lists are chock full of wines that require little participation on your part. Just cough up the big bucks to buy them, pull the cork, pour into the right Riedel, take a sip, and the rest is all taken care of for you. Thoughtless winemaking creates wines that require no thought. It is an easy recipe.

Of course, most of the winemakers that make these loud wines are far from thoughtless as it takes substantial technical skill to execute the manipulations required to make these wines. Oddly, it requires serious technical skills to make all highly manipulated wines be they mass-produced million case brands or highly allocated unicorns, costing hundreds of dollars a bottle. It is surprising how similar the winemaking process is for these two extremes of the wine marketing world. Obviously, the cheaper wines come from lesser vineyards with much higher yields per acre, but the farming itself and the extensive use of cultured yeasts and a myriad of other additives makes them soul mates.

The other thing they have in common is they require little of your attention. For inexpensive wines, this is a well-deserved point of pride – take a gulp and enjoy your dinner. With expensive wines it is more paternalistic – they know what makes a wine great so you don't need to worry about it. They've punched all the buttons – new oak, big fruit, heavy bottles – so just take a gulp and enjoy your dinner. These wines remind me of what the doctor said to the woman about to give birth in Monty Python's Meaning of Life skit "The Miracle of Birth." When she asks what she should do, he replies, "nothing, you're not qualified."

Overwhelming your senses is not art. If you are listening to Mozart and keep turning up the volume eventually, the beauty of the music is lost and just becomes more noise.

The wines that are most interesting to drink are not seamless. It is in those seams that the compelling moments live. Those spaces make the experience of wine your own. I feel cheated by wines that take those spaces away from me by insisting on filling in all the blanks themselves.

“Music is the space between the notes,” said French composer Claude Debussy. In the spaces of a wine are the notes that make it unique.

Video: Talking Biodynamics and Troon Vineyard Wines with Amy Gross on Wine4.me

It was a pleasure to spend time with Amy talking about our wines, Biodynamics and Oregon’s Applegate Valley!

Interview on the Organic Wine Podcast

I spent a entertaining hour discussing biodynamics regenerative agriculture at Troon Vineyard and life in Oregon’s Applegate Valley with Adam Huss on his Organic Wine Podcast.

“Today we take a trip to the country to meet Craig Camp, the General Manager of Troon Vineyard in the Applegate Valley AVA of Southwest Oregon. Troon is a certified organic and biodynamic winery and estate vineyard that focuses on blends made from the grapes of Southern France, which seem to do extremely well in this northern area with a hot Mediterranean climate.

Craig was brought in to regenerate every aspect of Troon, and we had a very enjoyable conversation about everything that is happening there that he has helped implement. From soil testing and replanting and staff education to sheep dogs to organic vegetable gardens and more, even from the outside it’s exciting to hear about what he’s doing, and you can hear the excitement in the way he talks about it.

Craig has a personal story in regards to wine that I can relate to as well. He fell in love with wine far away from where it was grown, and over the course of his life and several career changes, he worked backwards toward an understanding of how the finest wine begins in a healthy, probiotic soil.”

— Adam Huss

Listen to My Interview on The Organic Wine Podcast

Dirt is Not Terroir

It was the early eighties, and I was yet again rereading several chapters of Edmund Penning-Rowsell’s tome The Wines of Bordeaux. I had just spent the day tasting in Graves and Sauternes from the tank and barrel with renowned French wine exporter Christopher Cannan. Now it was night, and I was getter ready for bed in a small, dimly lit guest room above the offices of his company Europvin in the city of Bordeaux. We were visiting the Chateaux he worked with throughout all the appellations of Bordeaux. Each night before sleep I would review the appellations we had visited that day and those we would visit the next. That week long visit to Bordeaux was followed by a week in Burgundy with Becky Wasserman and my nightly reading changed to Burgundy, then a brand-new book authored by Anthony Hanson.

The next year I made a similar trip to Italy. Setting off with famed Italian wine exporter Neil Empson, we visited almost every wine area of Italy to taste at nearly every estate in his extensive portfolio on a three-week tasting marathon. In my bag was a well-worn copy of Burton Anderson’s Vino, the Italian wine bible of the day. My reading pattern was the same as when I was in France, reviewing each night on where we had been and cramming on where we were headed the next day.

I have been lucky over my career to have made multiple such trips to France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Australia. Top that off with many, many trips through the wine regions of California, Oregon and Washington. On each trip I would devour the current wine literature of each region before, during and after each visit.

I was obsessed with wine books and literally would buy and read whatever came out each year and my bookshelves overflowed with dog-eared, wine-stained volumes. This was the era of my life when I was a wine importer and distributor based in Chicago. Then, two decades ago, I made the transition from wine distribution to wine production and my reading list began to change. Slowly but surely instead of reading books about wine, I began reading books about farming. I recently realized this when I noticed that the last five books I’ve read all have the word soil in the title.

Even though my reading materials have changed, I am still as obsessed by the concept of terroir as I was decades ago in that small room in Bordeaux. However, what that means to me has changed significantly.

Those books presented terroir as something magical. That each site is a unique expression of the soil where it was grown. Then you actually start to grow wine and a new reality presents itself.

Take Oregon and Burgundy for example. In the Willamette Valley the soils are volcanic or sedimentary acidic soils. Summers are almost desert-like with no rain for months. Burgundies are grown on alkaline limestone soils and there is rain throughout the growing season. There’s not much in common here except one thing — outstanding pinot noir. Time after time experienced professional tasters find it difficult to tell which wine is Willamette Valley and which is Burgundy.

Burgundy and the Willamette Valley are not alone in this for the same experts can confuse California and Washington Cabernet with Bordeaux and California Coast and Oregon Syrah with Rhône wines. Each of these areas are very different from each other. How it is possible that all can produce wines whose provenance confuses the experts?

The reason is we have always made the cornerstone of terroir the type of soil the vine grows in — limestone, volcanic, granitic, sedimentary and so on. But it turns out that it’s not the exact type of soil that matters as much as the life in the soil itself. It has been this realization that changed my reading from wine books to soil books.

Terroir is not an expression of inert dirt, it is the individual expression of living soil and how a healthy plant intertwines with that soil. Dirt is not always soil. Soil is a system teeming with life.

Obviously, there are distinct sites. Terroir is a combination of many things. Climate and mesoclimate are critical, then there is the human element — row spacing, trellising and picking the right variety for the right place. For example, planting cabernet in a cool climate and pinot in a warm climate is not a great idea. But it takes grapes grown on healthy vines on living soils to make an expressive wine with a distinct character.

What makes for a living soil? Here is where you find the reason that biodynamic wines have a unique liveliness that stands out. Sustainable agriculture is not enough. That only means that you are killing the life in your soils more slowly than industrial agriculture. It is only with regenerative agriculture that you can build soil that creates distinctive, individualistic wines.

Plants and the microbiology in the soil have a complex symbiotic relationship. The plant takes a large percentage of the carbohydrates it produces through photosynthesis and pushes this exudate out through its roots to attract the microbes it needs to extract nutrition from the soil. It can change the mix of exudates depending on its requirements at the moment. A healthy plant decides the microbiology in the soil by the mix of gourmet microbe treats it sends out through its roots. That microbiology then returns the favor by processing the nutrients in the soil into a form the plant can utilize. The healthier the plant, the healthier that microbiology becomes. The healthier that microbiology becomes, the healthier the plant becomes. Not a bad system.

Then we come in and screw it up. The application of pesticides, fungicides and fertilizers destroys nature’s well-tuned system. In that system is to be found what makes a vineyard unique. It is an essential element of what we call terroir. The grapes that make distinctive wines come from vines in vineyards where nature’s system is humming along. Our job as farmers is to assist the plant and soil in regenerating that balance year after year. This is vital when you have a perennial crop like vines that do not lend themselves to crop rotation.

Coming back to the Willamette Valley and Burgundy comparison, perhaps their shared qualities come more from the life in their soils than their geological provenance.

I still read before and after vineyard visits. However, these days they are not wine books, they are soil books. It is in the soil you find great wine.

Regenerative Agriculture

Troon Vineyard is now both Demeter Biodynamic® and CCOF Organic Certified. Certainly, that’s an accomplishment that I am more than proud of attaining in the minimum required three years. Yet, there are parts of both certifications that have always made me uncomfortable.

The USDA Organic certification has been largely taken over by industrial organic farms. For example, the massive national distribution of certain organic salad brands. It even allows hydroponic agriculture. The concept of “organic” agriculture that does not involve soil certainly does not meet the standards I would set for a natural food growing system.

Then there is biodynamics, which I was drawn to in two ways. 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 than comfortable with Rudolf Steiner and the Anthroposophical side of biodynamics. Like most biodynamic wineries, we focused on the practical aspects of biodynamics and more-or-less ignored the Anthroposophical side.

Apparently, many others had the same feeling I did as there is now a new certification that incorporates the best of both organic and biodynamics while actively incorporating the human element. This new certification includes an essential word — regenerative. Called the Regenerative Organic Certification it combines the restrictive nature (telling you what you can’t use) of organic certification with the proactive, probiotic nature of biodynamics and creates a more complete structure for rebuilding soil. As it says on their website, “farm like the world depends on it.”

My search for a framework for regenerative viticulture soon transformed into the broader view of the “whole farm” concept that defines biodynamics. Practicing regenerative agriculture is more than simple organic viticulture. Biodiversity creates more biodiversity and is the key to regenerative agriculture. At Troon Vineyard our viticultural inputs now include cider apple trees, vegetable gardens, sheep, chickens, grains, bees, pollinator habitats and compost — lots and lots of compost.

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. I also find the addition of social fairness as a cornerstone of the program brings an important element not included in the other programs. Obviously, industrial farms would have difficulties meeting this requirement. The animal welfare requirements, which are also included in the Demeter Biodynamic® Farm Standard, are also important additions as many animals on organic certified farms, while better than industrial feed lots, do not live in humane conditions.

We will certainly keep both our Organic and Demeter Biodynamic® Certifications. You have to be certified organic to achieve the Regenerative Organic Certification and the framework of biodynamics has achieved all I had hoped and more.

The focus on regeneration is what is key to me. We have to put back more than we take to establish a natural food growing system. Farm like the world depends on it — because it does.

Here is some recommended reading on regenerative agriculture:

Dirt by David Montgomery

Hidden Half of Nature by David Montgomery

Restoration Agriculture by Mark Shepard

The Soil Will Save Us by Kristin Ohlson

Dirt to Soil by Gabe Brown

The Third Plate by Dan Barber

Demeter Certification

It started in a grown over abandoned cow pasture three and a half years ago and ended with Champagne on the patio at Troon Vineyard last week. 

The start was picking the site for the compost piles. The Champagne toast was to celebrate what we have achieved in these years in-between. Troon Vineyard is now one of only twelve wineries in Oregon to be certified Demeter Biodynamic® in both the winery and vineyard. To add a bit of icing to the cake, both the vineyard and winery are now also certified CCOF Organic. 

Searching with me for a compost site in an abandoned and overgrown pasture over three years ago was biodynamic consultant Andrew Beedy. The new proprietors of Troon Vineyard, Dr. Bryan and Denise White had fully committed to the concept and investment required to transform Troon Vineyard from industrial agriculture to biodynamics. Now Andrew and I started the project forward. If you were standing there that day with Andrew and me and then came back to Troon Vineyard today, you would not recognize you were on the same farm. Only Grayback Mountain, still majestically towering over the Applegate Valley, would tell you that this spot was Troon Vineyard. The distressed, dilapidated and diseased vineyard that was Troon Vineyard in 2016 has been replaced by a living farm. Today, everywhere you look is activity and, most importantly, life. 

While media tends to focus on buried cow horns and other photogenic aspects of biodynamics, the heart of biodynamics is the people who practice it. A farm is not a natural occurrence in nature. Mother Nature does not plant grapevines in nice neat rows. Our goal and I believe the goal of biodynamics, is to let the natural systems of nature function as normally as possible in the rather unnatural environment that is a farm. 

It takes a village to achieve a goal like Demeter Biodynamic® Certification. Fortunately we built a dynamic team to accomplish this goal. Proprietors Bryan and Denise White have provided a solid foundation for us to build on. Biodynamic consultant Andrew Beedy and viticulturist Jason Cole provided the framework for our vineyard crew, led by ranch manager Adan Cortes, to transform not only the vineyard but the entire property. Our cellar team, winemaker Nate Wall and assistant winemaker Sarah Thompson fully embraced biodynamics and daily keep us moving forward as we expand and deepen our practice of regenerative farming and winemaking.

Troon Vineyard CCOF Organic Certification

For me, I will admit this is an emotional moment as I remember first seeing this vineyard in 2016. Today, when I stand in the same spot where I first surveyed this vineyard, surrounded by the majestic beauty of the Siskiyou Mountains, I can clearly recall feeling that this was a special place and a special vineyard. To see the possibilities I saw transformed into reality sometimes seems like almost a dream, but it is a dream come true.

Certification was a goal and now it is a goal achieved. It fact it just means that we have arrived at the starting line. So much of the work over the last three years has been repairing and restoring and we are far from done with those jobs. Now the goal is to more deeply understand this vineyard, this farm, and to make the practice of biodynamics our own. To achieve certification you are given a set of rules to follow. If you check off all the boxes you achieve certification. Now, as a jazz musician must master the scales before they can improvise, that we have learned to work within the framework of biodynamics, we must learn to go beyond that framework and discover the natural system of this farm. That will be our ultimate goal. Our job is to learn what this farm needs and then do our best to provide for those needs. The next years will be focused on building biodiversity. We will be welcoming some new members to our biodynamic team as next spring a flock of sheep, more chickens, and the requisite guard dogs (Pyrénées of course!) became part of our farm.

We celebrated our certifications with a Champagne toast. We toasted not only to what we accomplished, but what we will accomplish in the future. Becoming one of the few Demeter Biodynamic® Certified wineries and vineyards is a true milestone. Now, on to the next one. 

Rebirth, Regeneration, Rediscovery

“Troon Vineyard is a story of rebirth, regeneration, and rediscovery,” reads the lede in the Oregon Wine Press article “Troon Renaissance” in their July issue about the transformation of Troon Vineyard. The author, Barbara Barrielle, could not have better captured the spirit of what has been accomplished at this small vineyard in the Applegate Valley of Southern Oregon. 

When I first visited Troon Vineyard in 2016, I felt a connection to the vineyard from the first day because I could feel the potential of this site. I can still clearly remember that day as I stared at the vineyard with the dramatic backdrop of Grayback Mountain and the Siskiyou Range. I felt that this was not only a site with potential, but with soul. The serene beauty of the Applegate Valley is unmatched by other American wine regions and, while the site and the valley were beautiful, the condition of the vineyard was not. This was a vineyard that needed to be born again. 

In 2016, the rebirth of Troon Vineyard began. This was no easy task as the owner at that time did not share my vision of the potential of the vineyard and the wines. For years, Troon had been focused on what I would call “gimmick” marketing. Funny labels and contrived marketing spin were the strategies. Also, key staff members had been driven off by, shall we say, less than enlightened management practices. I still cringe when I think of the loss of one, particularly talented staff member due to insensitive treatment. Fortunately, at least, she moved on to another winery in the Applegate Valley and remains a friend to this day. I had been brought in to put the business in order so that it could be sold. I saw it as a short-term project, and I was getting ready to move on when Denise and Bryan White arrived and decided to purchase Troon. In the meantime, I'd fallen in love with this vineyard. Thankfully, they did too. For it would demand a labor of love to not only restore the vineyard but to restore honor to a tarnished brand.

Troon Vineyard had been in a dark period for some time. To say the brand was tarnished would be an understatement. I was brought in to put a bandaid on it and then to move on once first-aid was applied. That’s all the owner at that time wanted, and I just wanted to get out of Napa and have some time to find a compelling vineyard in the Willamette Valley. It did not take me long to realize I had found that vineyard, but it was in the Applegate Valley. Without an owner that is connected to the vineyard and the soil, there is no hope. The vineyard convinced me to hope anyway.

What is now Troon Vineyard was divided at that time. The west ranch was being farmed using the nuclear option by the family that had purchased it in a sale that had broken the property apart. Knowing little about farming, they pushed the vines to their limit using every chemical trick and allowing the vines to overproduce and exhaust themselves. I’ll always remember reading their spray list and seeing a product called Venom. Any product with such a name needed to be checked out. The first thing I saw on the product label was that it killed bees - all of them. These poor plants would never completely recover from this abuse, but, hopefully, the soils and the bees could. Fortunately, the east ranch was still under our control, and there I pulled the plug on chemicals in the vineyard and the cellar. It was not an easy task as the winemaking and vineyard team at the time had never been asked to aspire to make great wines, so they had not.

We had to not only regenerate the site, but the people that worked it.

In 2017, the regeneration of Troon Vineyard began. The essential step was the purchase of the Troon Winery and the west ranch by the Whites. They had already purchased the half of the original property that had been sold off and then they purchased the Troon Winery site to reunite the entire estate. The other big step was the arrival of biodynamic consultant Andrew Beedy. A huge leap forward was made as, now that both vineyard blocks were under our control, we were able to move immediately and totally to organic and biodynamic agriculture on the entire estate. Then plans were initiated for a range of research projects to dig into every aspect of the vineyard. There was a lot to learn.

This year also was the start of our compost program, which required us to produce over two hundred tons of biodynamic compost a year. That’s a lot of manure. Fortunately for us, our neighbor here in the Applegate Valley is the Noble Organic Dairy with thousands of cows eager to contribute to our cause.

Regenerative agriculture became the foundation of everything we did, and biodynamics provided the framework to build on. We were searching for the soul of this vineyard. It had been there all along, but we had to rediscover it. 

In 2018, the rediscovery of Troon Vineyard began. Vineyard Soil Technologies from Napa Valley arrived and dug over seventy five-feet deep soil pits. A team of soil scientists spent a week in the pits researching every aspect of the vineyard. At the same time, we began our project with Biome Makers, as they created an annual database on the bacteria, fungi, and yeasts that made our soils unique. Master viticulturist Jason Cole came on board to manage the redevelopment of the vineyard. We wanted to understand how every aspect of the vineyard changed as we implemented biodynamics. We needed all the data we could obtain to help us make the right decisions. 

There were a lot of decisions to be made as we had decided to replant the entire vineyard. The existing vines were simply beyond saving. The biggest issue was extensive red blotch virus infection, but the vines had also been weakened by the years of conventional farming. Weak vines are easy targets for other vine diseases, and these vines had become an encyclopedia of afflictions. As devastating and expensive it was to have to replant the entire vineyard, there was a silver lining as we could now choose the right varieties for this site and plant them the right way. Instead of having to deal with a hodgepodge of varieties, some less than ideal for the site, we could replant with a plan. That plan would be to focus on the varieties of southern France. Those varieties would include syrah, grenache, mourvèdre, cinsault, counoise, tannat, malbec, negrette, bourboulenc, marsanne, roussanne, viognier, clairette blanche, bourboulenc, vermentino (rolle) and picpoul. Many of these varieties will not appear as single-variety wines but will be part of blends. 

Blends are to become the heart of Troon Vineyard as we create the new Troon.

In 2019 we recreated Troon Vineyard as the replanting project began as we planted ten new acres of vines. Some of these were new areas, never before planted, and others were replanting of vineyards we had removed the year before. It is always a sad experience to remove vines - even sick ones. Planting new vines is the flip-side of that emotion as there is nothing that fuels the spirit of optimism more than putting vines in the ground. We are planting not only for ourselves but for future generations. There are few things that “pay it forward” more than planting a vineyard. These vines will produce wines we’ll never taste, made by people we’ll never meet.

The work that began in 2016 was recognized in 2019 as we were awarded our first Demeter Biodynamic® and CCOF Organic certifications. There are separate certifications for the winery and vineyard. Therefore, we received our full certifications for the winery, but our “in-transition” certifications for the vineyard. We’ll get the final Demeter Biodynamic® certification for the vineyard in 2020 as it takes three full years of biodynamic farming, and in 2019 we were a few months short of that goal. 

The older vines were now really showing the impact of our biodynamic regenerative agriculture program. They were healthier and producing better fruit. Our good friends in the Applegate Valley, Barbara and Bill Steele, at Cowhorn Vineyard, had graciously agreed to sell us some of their biodynamic syrah, grenache, marsanne, roussanne, and viognier to get us through the shortfalls of our own production as we replanted. So we had grapes from our own estate that were dramatically improved in quality combined with excellent fruit from Cowhorn to work with, but, as with a great violin, you need a virtuoso to play it to show what it can do. That talent arrived as this vintage was made under the guidance of new Troon Vineyard winemaker Nate Wall. Nate is an incredibly sensitive and passionate winemaker whose love for the site equals the Whites and my own. His background in science (B.S. in Biology and M.S. in Environmental Engineering) was ideal for our philosophy of searching for the science in biodynamics. His extensive experience making pinot noir in the Willamette Valley provided the light, minimalist touch needed for wines from the Applegate Valley. 

The confluence of a healthier vineyard, better fruit, and the right people made the 2019 vintage a milestone vintage for Troon Vineyard. The wines from this vintage finally give a glimpse of what this special vineyard is capable of producing. The first of our new generation of wines included wines released in 2020: Piquette, Pét tanNat (100% tannat pét nat), and Kubli Bench blends that included an Amber (orange wine) and a Rosé. Another orange wine, Amber Amphora Vermentino, has been aging on the skins and stems in three amphorae for the better part of a year and will be released this fall. While most of the 2019 red wines (which we are equally excited about) will not be released for a few years, we did produce a 100% carbonic maceration Grenache, which we are enjoying chilled this summer.

So in 2020, Troon Vineyard has been reborn, we have regenerated the vineyard and the wines and created a team that has rediscovered the soul of a vineyard. Joining that team in 2020 is the energetic and creative assistant winemaker Sarah Thompson. This will be the year we receive our full Demeter Biodynamic® certification that will recognize years of hard work and investment. But these achievements only mean that we have arrived at the starting line of a race that never finishes. There is no such thing as a finish line in winemaking.

Regeneration is a constant. Every year it begins again only building on the work of the preceding years. Agriculture is a relay race. We can only do our best for the land, the plants, and our wines and then, finally, pass the baton on to the next runner. Hopefully, they’ll run the race with the same intensity that we ran our leg.

Wine Photos: Planting the Biodynamic Preparations at Troon Vineyard

One of our main goals in practicing biodynamics in our pursuit of regenerative agriculture is to minimize inputs from off the farm. So we are planting and using the components to make the biodynamic preparations from plants that we grow ourselves.

Winemaker Nate Wall and assistant winemaker Sarah Thompson planting valerian to make biodynamic preparation 507 in the Troon Vineyard biodynamic preparations garden and area. We also make our BP 500 an 501 at this spot.

Two Conferences, Two Biodynamics

Winemaker Nate Wall and consultant Andrew Beedy make Biodynamic Barrel compost at Troon Vineyard

In a time that seems far-far away these days, within a few months of each other, I attended two biodynamic conferences. One was the Biodynamic Wine Conference in San Francisco and the other was the Biodynamic Conference in Portland. While the names of these two conferences only differed by one word, the conferences themselves were worlds apart. 

The Demeter sponsored Biodynamic Wine Conference was all about down-to-earth biodynamic and organic farming. The sessions were about composting, soil microbiome, and building mycorrhizal communities. It was also about asking questions. What tenets of biodynamics worked and which didn’t? It was an excellent conference that both inspired and informed. A few months later, I attended the Biodynamic Association’s Biodynamic Conference and found myself in another world - literally another world. Scanning the conference schedule I was hard-pressed to find sessions with the practical focus of the previous conference. However, there were sessions like, “How to Invite Elementals onto Your Farm”, “How Inner Development Affects Our Tasks on the Farm” and “5 Solutions for Land-Based Wealth Distribution”. I discovered there were two worlds of biodynamics and they were worlds apart. 

I came to biodynamics the same way most wine people do. At first, I was extremely skeptical, but time-after-time I would taste a wine that impressed me and time-after-time they were biodynamic wines. Skepticism slowly turned to curiosity, then turned to conviction. As I met more biodynamic winegrowers I was impressed by their practical approach and commitment to soil health as the foundation of healthy vines. Healthy vines in healthy soils give you the best chance of making worthwhile wines. 

One of the wines I loved was Nicolas Joly’s Coulée de Serrant, but I found his writings on the subject too esoteric. Then there was Rudolf Steiner himself. After a few attempts to read his writings, I was quickly cured of any desire to try again. After all, he died in 1925 and most of the agricultural writings I read are more likely to have been written in this century. Agricultural science has evolved a bit in the last 95 years. So, as I pursued biodynamics I relied more on working winegrowers than the writings of a long-dead philosopher, who was not even a farmer. The agricultural lectures, on which biodynamics was based, was a minor part of Steiner’s work. He only participated reluctantly and there were only eight lectures given over ten days. He died the next year.

The two conferences I attended really illuminated these two faces of biodynamics for me - the anthroposophical, “spiritual-science” side and, what I call, practical biodynamics. As I look at biodynamics, I see a framework that clearly has an effect on wine quality. We work within that framework as, at this time, we simply don’t know what parts of that framework work from those that don’t. It is our responsibility to add to this body of knowledge so that the next generation can build on the best practices and discard the worthless ones. To achieve that goal, at Troon Vineyard we are working with academics from Oregon State, the University of Oregon and Linfield College and with Biome Makers to build a database on the transitions in our soils, compost, plants, fermentations and wines as we convert from conventional to biodynamic regenerative agriculture. You can be a biodynamic farmer and not be a follower of Steiner.

For obvious reasons, the media loves to focus on the Steiner side of biodynamics. Let’s face it, it makes better copy than farmers simply seeking the secrets of naturally building the microbiome of their soils. Some writers don’t just focus on the more picturesque parts of the Steiner side of biodynamics, but go on the attack and lump all biodynamic farmers into the anthroposophical basket. A recent article, The problem with biodynamics: myths, quacks and pseudoscience by Joshua Dunning is just the latest in this group. On his site, he notes that he, “holds an undergraduate degree in Economics and Finance and a postgraduate MSc in Supply Chain Management from Aston University. My field of expertise lies in continuous improvement, I have worked for leading discount-supermarket chains, consulted to start-up tech companies, and am now employed by a leading UK automotive manufacturer.” I think we can assume this means he probably is not a farmer. As someone who spends most of his days on a biodynamic farm, I’d like to address some of the points he makes in his article. 

“My somewhat fierce opposition to Steiner and his quackery”  I don’t disagree much here. There is much not to like about Steiner. I would point out that in 1924 there was no shortage of quacks, many of whom were respected medical professionals. I’m no defender of Steiner, but judging people from one hundred years ago by today’s standards is difficult at best. However, Steiner’s racism can’t be ignored.

It seems even more unlikely that held static and unchanged that the proposed process would continue to offer the most effective form of agriculture for many decades to come. Most of what we call biodynamics today was created after Steiner died in 1925, just a year after he gave the lectures. It can be argued that Ehrenfried Pheiffer is the real father of biodynamics and it was his book Bio-Dynamic Farming that launched that concept to the world in 1938. After Pheiffer, there is a long list of people that have contributed to what is today known as biodynamics. Steiner himself would barely recognize biodynamics as practiced on commercial farms today. By the way, he probably never heard the word biodynamics.

“An example being the use of animal byproducts in biodynamics; why is the use of the horn insisted upon? Would a synthetic product be better? Why is this is not tested?” Actually there have been ongoing tests and some have been promising. At this point, the horns have been the most reliable, but it is reasonable to assume that someday they could be replaced by other containers. There is actually pressure from vegans to find alternatives. That said, the idea of a synthetic product runs contrary to the concept of building a natural system. We’re trying to use less plastic, not more. Besides, as the goal of making BP 500 is to collect fungi and bacteria, it is not unreasonable to assume that they would prefer natural materials.

“However, the advocation of pseudoscience erodes public understanding and appreciation for good science, discredits the work of serious scientists and makes it harder to encourage critical thinking.” True, except that biodynamics is now the focus of a lot of research. I would refer you to the scientists studying our vineyard. The fact is that soil microbiome and the mycorrhizal system is the hot topic of modern agri-science. Now that big money is involved, there is great interest in discovering those secrets and due to that, we will know a lot more about biodynamics in the coming decades. 

“It is advised that particular preparations are stirred for an hour in order to not only dissolves the substances but ‘more importantly, release the dynamic forces” We also make compost tea, a well-proven agricultural tool. To make that compost tea, you brew it for 24 hours with active aeration that encourages the microbiological life before application. Stirring BD 500 for one hour does exactly the same thing. One side of the biodynamic community may focus on “forces” but the other side is focused on microbiology. We also believe this releases dynamic forces, but those forces are fungi and bacteria.

“It’s difficult to find reliable estimates of the financial costs of converting to biodynamic, even trickier is establishing the cost variation between working organic and biodynamic.” Actually, the organic part is far more expensive than the biodynamic part. The biggest expense is the farm equipment - mechanical weed control, etc., but that is also required for organics. Compost tea brewers are expensive, but are not part of the biodynamic system. Compost is very expensive and time-consuming, but that too is part of organics. The actual biodynamic preparations are very inexpensive to produce. You have to be organic to be biodynamic, so the additional cost and time to be biodynamic are not significant. 

“However, there were no differences in several other variables measured, including pH, cation exchange capacity, moisture content, and ammonium, potassium, and phosphate levels. In contrast, researchers found that biodynamic preparations reduced both compost pile temperature and nitrate concentration.” The main difference between standard compost and biodynamic is that the biodynamic process does have lower pile temperatures. In fact, biodynamic compost is not considered compost by the USDA for this reason. The lower temperatures create the conditions for more robust microbiology in the compost, which would be reduced by the higher temperatures. The faulty thinking here is that the compost is used as a fertilizer, which is not its primary function. The goal of biodynamic compost and BP 500 for that matter, is to rebuild soil microbiome. It is primarily a probiotic, not a fertilizer. Vines do not require nutrient-rich soils. With a well established mycorrhizal community, they can easily extract all of their requirements without additional fertilizers.

“No differences were found in weed control using preparations 500– 508 or in cover, species richness, diversity, and evenness of weed species” Weed control? The preparations have nothing to do with weed control. Weed control is attained by mechanical methods and cover crop management.

“Addition of biodynamic preparations not only increases labour and materials costs but also widens the ecological footprint of the practice because of higher machinery use for applying the preparations.” As pointed out above, the actual costs of biodynamics over organics are minimal. As we are able to apply the biodynamic preparations 500 and 501 (the only BP preparations directly applied in the vineyard) using a small ATV and sprayer instead of a tractor it actually reduces tractor passes, soil compaction, and our carbon footprint. We can further reduce tractor passes by including barrel compost teas with our powdery mildew sprays. 

“On a total of 8 pages in Demeter’s biodynamic certification document, the regulator makes reference to cosmic influence and rhythm.” The American Demeter certification recommends trying to follow these rhythms - if possible. While it may be possible in your garden at home, it is not on a large commercial farm. In our view, the cycles of the moon are more a timepiece than a cosmic influence. These were the tools that ancient farmers had and they used the moon as a clock in the sky based on successes and failures that they had in the past. Perhaps there is a small edge to be gained here so, if possible, we’ll pick those days. If there is any chance of making better wine, no matter how small, we’re willing to give it a shot. Practically, it is impossible to run a 100-acre farm based on the moon and stars. If something has to get done we do it, no matter where the moon or planets are in the sky. There is only one body in the sky that totally guides our work - the Sun.

Mr. Dunning was inspired to write his article by his participation in a webinar panel. As useful as these events and conferences can be, I would suggest he spend some time on a commercial farm actually practicing biodynamics. He may well find that the actual practices don’t always line up well with the myths. 

I agree that there are many ideas that have crept into biodynamics over the decades that strain credulity and science. Indeed, pseudo-science and quackery are issues that I believe have held back the adoption of the many aspects of biodynamics worth investigating. Certainly, Steiner and devotion to him as a spiritual leader is also holding back biodynamics. The fact is that Steiner was anti-alcohol and the first vineyards that started farming biodynamically in Europe were rejected by the biodynamic community and for that reason formed their own organization - Biodyvin. I often think that may also become necessary in the United States.

Biodynamics is a process, not dogma. It is a search to find the natural systems that make your farm unique. Each individual farm has to find its own way. The structure of biodynamics is just a starting place. The ultimate expression of biodynamics is when you develop the ideal system for your farm. That system may not contain elements of what is known as biodynamics today and will almost certainly include your own discoveries. I have always considered attaining our Demeter Biodynamic® certification as the beginning, not the finish line. Perhaps certification itself is something you eventually go beyond as you discover your own answers.

There are many mysteries about how the microbiome of the soil works in harmony with plants. The science here is still young and much is not understood. To me, biodynamics honors those things we do not yet understand. Because we are still learning, it is not productive to label all things not understood as some sort of voodoo. We should be humbled by our ignorance and find joy in what we learn about nature as it is in that knowledge that we will find answers to so many of today’s issues. Some, but not all of those answers can be found in biodynamics.

I believe in elementals. They are the fungi and bacteria that make our soils live.            

Fun in the Cellar, Fun in the Bottle - Piquette!

It was fun!

Browsing through my RSS feeds one morning I spotted an article about a type of wine called piquette. What was that? The article was about a piquette being produced by the biodynamic Wild Ark Farm in New York’s Hudson Valley. This, I thought to myself, looks like fun. I forwarded the article to Troon Vineyard’s winemaker, Nate Wall, with a simple note saying exactly that, “this looks like fun!” 

Nate obviously agreed as here we are one year later releasing our own 2019 Troon Vineyard Piquette!. I’m sure you’re asking the same question I had, “what is piquette?”

Only in recent history has wine become an elite product requiring certified sommeliers to guide you through encyclopedic wine lists. In the past, wine grapes were just another agricultural crop that required lots of sweat and delivered little reward. Farmers couldn’t (and still can’t) afford to waste anything. Winemakers would press off their best juice to use for wines they would sell, then re-hydrate the remaining pomace, add some sugar or honey, let it soak, and then ferment that for a daily quaff for their workers and themselves. Light in alcohol and lightly sparkling, piquette was frugal farmer fizz. Piquette is anything but a “serious” wine.

The trick here was that none of us had ever tasted a piquette. That’s a very odd experience as normally we would have tasted dozens of wines made by other producers as we tried to deeply understand a variety or blend before we launched off on our own project. Not this time. Nate put together a plan and off we went. 

That plan was to use the pomace from our whole-cluster pressed white grapes (marsanne and vermentino) and red grapes (tinta roriz, primitivo, tannat) destined for rosé. We also used pomace and juice from another new Troon Vineyard sparkling wine, Pét tanNat, a pét nat made from 100% estate tannat. A relatively small amount of water was added to the pomace that remained in the press and was allowed to soak overnight. Without any additions, we naturally achieved an alcohol of 10.5% - obviously, there was plenty of juice left in the press. Then the pomace was pressed again and the juice was collected in a stainless steel tank, where a native yeast fermentation easily started. When a small amount of sugar still remained in the fermenting juice, we quickly bottled it under crown caps to complete its fermentation in the bottle. What makes this tricky is that you have to bottle this type of sparkling wine right in the middle of harvest - a time of year that is already busy enough! On the day the wine is ready to be bottled, it has to be done right now, tomorrow will be too late. When fermentation completed we did a light disgorgement, only removing the heaviest lees so there is a light haze remaining. As you would expect from the red grape skins, there is a tannic edge to the bright, fruity flavors of our Piquette!, which is very different from our soon to be released pét tanNat. For me, it reminds me of some crazy combination of a fresh peach juice Bellini, cider and Cava - sparkling, bright fresh and fun.

Our 2019 Piquette!, Estate, Applegate Valley was fun to make and is equally fun to drink. What fun is that!

Please watch this video as Troon Vineyard winemaker Nate Wall describes how we made this wine:

Weed Slayer

UPDATE: Since I wrote this in February of 2020, Weed Slayer has been banned by USDA Organic and Demeter Biodynamic® Certifications for containing prohibited ingredients and is now the subject of lawsuits.

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I can’t forget when I first saw the results after we applied a new organic herbicide based on clove oil and molasses called Weed Slayer. Put very simply; it worked too well. It worked like Roundup but smelled like allspice.

In the past, products that were approved to use on a certified organic farm never caused any worry about being too effective. Many barely worked at all. But those days are changing, and the effectiveness of organic vineyard applications is now quite impressive. I tend to worry if an organic product is almost as effective as the chemical options, as there may be something to worry about. Chaos theory is a real thing. There is always the chance that these newly approved organic products are good at one thing, but they are also doing damage in some way we never imagined. 

In the past, certified organic products always seemed to have friendly names...Regalia, Prevont, Clean, BioLink, and so on. Weed Slayer is not a nice name, but it certainly does what its name suggests. A natural plant-based herbicide derived from eugenol, an essential oil of clove, and molasses. How bad can that be? Theoretically, not at all, but you can’t help but worry. One thing for sure, if you apply it at the right time, it works.

Now Weed Slayer is on the fast track as the miracle weed control product for organic agriculture, I can’t but help to be concerned as there is so much we do not know when it comes to the living system of our soils. Everything we introduce is bound to have outcomes that we cannot predict - chaos theory. My concern is that a product that kills weeds (note that weeds are simply plants that grow where we do not want them) so effectively could be very well having an equally devastating impact on the fungi that make our soils live. I have no proof of this, but the microbiome of soil is a very delicate system that is easily disrupted. 

The question we should be asking is, what is so wrong with a few weeds? The solution is not Weed Slayer or finding something even better. The answer is learning to live with weeds. With proper farming, you no longer have weeds, just a cover crop that you have designed. No-till is the best form of weed control in a vineyard because you end up with no weeds. Once the plants surrounding your vines are there because you want them there - magically, the weeds are all gone. 

But nothing happens magically in agriculture. You have to work and plan over the years to achieve your goals. At Troon Vineyard, we are moving towards no-till as quickly as we can. The major impediment we face in moving to no-till is that our older blocks suffer from the Red Blotch virus. While there is yet no absolute proof of the vector that spreads this virus, the leading suspects are leafhoppers. Practicing a full no-till system in the infected blocks could encourage the leafhopper population. We need to take precautions not to spread the virus into our new blocks. So while aggressively working towards no-till in the newly planted blocks, we have to practice a modified approach in the existing blocks. That includes only tilling every other row and mowing. While working this hybrid system, Weed Slayer becomes a necessary evil, but certainly a far lesser evil than Roundup.

It just a few years, we will achieve our goal of no-till agriculture for the entire farm. In my view, the foundation of practicing biodynamics is the regeneration of the natural microbiome of your soils. No-till is the natural partner to biodynamic farming as few things are more disruptive to the mycorrhizal community in your soil than tillage. On top of that is carbon sequestration that no-till farms support. This alone is reason enough to transition your farm to no-till.

It is fascinating to watch how agricultural science is moving towards biodynamics, not away from it. Soil scientists are now focused on the microbiome. Articles on fungi are everywhere. Huge corporate farms profess to be practicing regenerative agriculture, though this is more lip service for marketing reasons. Wineries feel compelled to become “sustainably certified” so they can get a green-sounding logo on their label due to market pressures. The double impacts of academics and market pressure are forcing more-and-more producers to adopt greener methods. But this is not enough, and it is moving too slowly. You are not practicing regenerative agriculture unless you give up chemicals (Roundup being the most famous of these, there are many others), feed your soils via compost, and are working towards no-till. 

For us, using Weed Slayer is temporary. A means to achieve a larger goal. Even something that sounds as benign as clove oil and molasses, and is permitted under CCOF Organic certification, may have a negative effect on everything else that we have been working to achieve. It takes years to rebuild the mycorrhizal communities in your soil, and using anything that can disrupt that is a risk. I am very uncomfortable taking this risk, but the threat from the virus is also a reality. Finding the proper balance is a struggle. 

I am not picking on Weed Slayer here, it is a product produced by people trying to find a safe alternative to Roundup. Certainly, that is a worthwhile endeavor. My point is that all inputs can have unintended consequences. Less is more when it comes to farming. The fewer products we use the better.

Regenerative agriculture is not a goal you achieve, but an ongoing and never-ending process to work in harmony with nature. As we will never know all the secrets that nature is hiding from us, we can only strive to learn what the plants are trying so hard to tell us. We need to learn their language more than they need to learn ours. 

Another Beginning - Vintage 2020

Just last week, the vineyard was buried in snow, and the vines were slumbering in the coldness of days with little sunshine. Today the sun was shining, and there was a hint of spring in the air as January released its frigid grip on the Applegate Valley. But now the cycle that came to a close with harvest 2019 begins again, and the vines are about to awaken for their labors in vintage 2020. Looking over the snow in the vineyard and the white peaks of the Siskiyou Mountains surrounding us, I cannot help but feel optimistic about this upcoming vintage. Now, after years of effort, the rewards of Biodynamics are showing in our vines and our wines.

At Troon, it is not only the start of another of Mother Nature’s cycles but the addition of new layers of nuance as we expand and develop our practice of biodynamics each year. From pruning to picking, a vintage year at Troon Vineyard follows several tracks: biodynamics, organics, and Mother Nature’s. Of course, these all overlap in many ways, but in others, while complimentary, often they don’t. Weaving between threats and disease to craft positive, pro-active strategies in the vineyard is a daily conundrum. Biodynamics demands planning.

When it comes to most environmental threats, we are lucky, and I have to admit we don’t face many of the insect and weather threats that most farmers live with every year. The Applegate Valley is a wonderful place to grow things, and we don’t have many of those issues. Warm, dry summers combined with cold, but not bitter winters make this valley an ideal spot not only for vines but for many other crops. I remember when our biodynamic consultant, Andrew Beedy, first visited Troon Vineyard and told us this was the perfect place to farm biodynamically. No matter the crop, if you can’t farm those plants organically on a commercial scale, you probably should not be growing that crop there.

We are now deep into our replanting program, and this year we'll be farming almost as many newly planted vines as mature vines. That means two diverse farming strategies, one for our new healthy vines and another for our older vines, which are living with many diseases.

There are three primary reasons for the decision to completely replant our vineyard. First was the Red Blotch Virus, which was present in every block. That virus, combined with the resulting range of fungal trunk diseases were relentlessly squeezing the life out of the vines. Second, these issues were exacerbated by years of conventional farming that had devastated the microbiome of the soil, further weakening the vines. Third, many of the varieties planted were just not ideal for this site and climate. Three strikes and you’re out.

The Applegate Valley is such an ideal place to grow vines, it makes it even sadder that we have to replant these vines. If they had been appropriately selected and farmed, they would have lasted many decades. That is exactly what we hope for the vines we are planting now. Fifty or more years would mean that we had done our job well.

However, as Eric Idle sang, “Always look on the bright side of life.” This replanting project gives us the chance to do things right. The right vines in the right places planted the right way. The potential of healthy vines farmed properly on such an ideal site fuels that optimism I feel as we approach vintage 2020. Considering the excellent wine quality we have been able to achieve with fruit from these weakened vines, it is with exceptional excitement and confidence that I look forward to the wines these new healthy vines grown on healthy soils will give us as they mature.

Our replanting plan means that we are removing and planting ten acres of vines each year. Last year was the first ten, and now we’re getting ready for another ten, so we’ll have twenty acres of young vines in the ground by this summer. In 2019 we planted mourvèdre, syrah, marsanne, roussanne, grenache, tannat, and malbec. This year carignan, vermentino, and more syrah, grenache, and mourvèdre. This replanting program will continue through 2023 when the entire estate has been replanted with a diverse range of southern French varieties.

In the meantime, our wearied old vines are giving their best as they try to hold out a few more harvests. While biodynamics is a long-term strategy, it has also saved us in the short-term as it has breathed new life into these vines. We are doing everything in the biodynamic and organic playbook to bring life to the soils around them and to assist them in taking in that nutrition. We can only hope this will make their last years more comfortable after years of stress. After all, a vine is not happy unless it is ripening grapes. They certainly look happier as they are producing more and better fruit each vintage.

Happy soils make happy vines, that ripen happy grapes, that make happy wines, that make people happy. That is the definition of biodynamics.

Wine Kaleidoscope

You see them standing in the wine department aisle at a large grocery store or major liquor store with bewildered faces facing a bewildering selection of labels. There is a kaleidoscope of bottles with bright colors, gold medals and cute labels. How in the world can they choose - at least choose well?

In the Chardonnay section alone, there are dozens of different labels in the ten to twenty dollar price range. Certainly, you must become a wine expert if you are to choose correctly from among that wall of labels trying to get your attention, right? Fortunately, the answer is no you don’t.

The reality is that although all those labels look like different wines they are all more-or-less the same wine. In fact, despite having different labels, some of them are actually exactly the same wine, all coming from the same massive tanks with labels simply changed to fill production orders from the marketing department. The vast majority of wines on the shelves at larger stores are produced by gigantic producers whose only goal is to produce a standardized product that market research tells them the largest percentage of consumers will like. They use the same methods as large soft drink and snack producers to identify the flavors that the mass market wants. Once that profile is defined they use every technology, additive, and manipulation that science can conjure up to achieve that flavor profile bottle-after-bottle, year-after-year. Obviously, these wines do not fit the romantic image of the vigneron working in the vineyards and making their wines with their own hands. 

These are not wines, but simply beverage alcohol. Just another alcohol delivery system on par with vodka and light beer. Just pick a bottle, you can’t go wrong, but you also have no chance of going right.

Wines made by people with a love of the land instead of market research exist and you can even find some of them in the big chain stores. They are there, but they’re hiding on the fringes of the wine department. Don’t look for them in floor stacks and end-caps. They’re also waiting for you on the back pages of your favorite restaurant wine lists. These wines hiding in plain sight offer some of the top bargains in the market today. Bringing these wines to dinner parties or selecting them when you order in a restaurant will quickly earn you the reputation of being a wine expert.

For years, people were consumed with consuming the wines with the highest “points” and discovering the absolutely perfect food and wine match. Things are fortunately changing. Today, wine in cans is a hot new trend and “natural” wine bars are popping up across the country selling wines from all sorts of obscure grape varieties. The wine for the people revolution is happening now. This wine revolution is no longer a fringe movement.

How can you identify these wines?

• Find a good merchant

  • Always the surest route to finding the best wine for your money.

• Avoid famous varieties and wine regions

  • Big name wines from big name regions are often rip-offs. When faced with the choice between a $50 Cabernet or a $50 Syrah, you’re probably choosing between an average Cabernet and an exceptional Syrah.

• Look for regenerative agriculture: Biodynamic or Organic

  • Sustainable? All too often a sham that allows Roundup and other nasty stuff. I remember finding a product called Venom being used when I arrived at Troon. Obviously, I killed that right away. By the way, it kills bees. All of them. However, the “sustainable” certification was fine with that product. Farmers with Biodynamic and Organic certifications are putting in extra effort and the results show in the wines.

• Moderate alcohol

  • Wine is not a martini. If you simply want an alcohol delivery system pick an efficient one. Moderate alcohol levels are signs of precision harvesting and a more moderate climate. Both are keys to elegant, balanced wines.

• Avoid big, heavy bottles and look for wines with no capsules

  • The bigger and heavier the bottle, the less profound the wine inside. Only those with inferiority complexes need those monstrous bottles - that goes for both the maker and consumer. Why continue to screw up the planet for cosmetics that have nothing to do with wine quality?

Industrial wines create a kaleidoscope of labels, but the myriad textures, aromas and flavors that come from wines of the soil create a kaleidoscope of experiences in the bottle and the glass. Good wine comes from a farm, not from a marketing strategy.

I’ve lived in both hemispheres of this wine world. I helped build a wine company in Chicago built on soulful wines and then economics, for a brief period, dragged me into the corporate world of wines. There is nothing these two worlds have in common - including the wines they both create. Natural wines are crafted, while industrial wines are fabricated.

Put a little effort into choosing the wines you are drinking. When your efforts combine with the efforts of the winemakers - that’s where the magic is to be found.

My Cellar is Filled with Friends

I’ve seen some amazing wine cellars - dazzling collections of bottles. I too have a wine cellar, but it’s not filled with bottles - it’s filled with friends.

My favorite wines are all from people that have meant something in my life. When I was younger I chased labels like everyone else, always seeking the latest and greatest. Now, decades later, I want to hear the voices of far-away friends when I swirl their wines in my glass. Memories are mixed into each wine. 

Wine is a living beverage crafted by people full of life. It is that energy that makes wine more compelling to me. Perhaps this feeling is what led me to biodynamics as the essence of practicing biodynamics is weaving the power of life into agriculture - into wine. Vibrant wines, wines that live and speak of the people and the soil that made them.

There are so many memories that pulling the corks on these bottles releases. Wines without those emotions seem somewhat academic to me now. Delightful to be sure, but intellectual exercises as compared to passionate ones. The emotional connection to wine given to me by all of these memories is what I want to express in our wines at Troon. A winemaker’s wines should be filled with the dreams of other winemakers that have gone before them. Winemaking should be a quest for to transfer the life energy of the vineyard into the wine. The world is full of technically proficient winemakers and there is a need for industrial wines. However, there is still a niche left for soulful winemaking. It will always be a niche, but it is in this niche that memorable wines are found.

The wine is no longer enough. I want to remember a face and a voice, recall a conversation, a walk through their vineyard, remember a special dinner and on and on. Fortunately for me, after many years in the wine business, that list is long.

Now when I taste an exciting new wine, the first thing I want to do is meet the winemaker and walk in the vineyard. It is only there you can discover the more profound meaning to be found in wines full of life. That life comes equally from the vineyard and from the people that grew the fruit and made the wine. The total of a wine’s energy comes from all of these things. Perhaps this should be the definition of natural wine. 

Of course, there is the other side of this. Wines that come from mistreated farms made by people that care more about trends than character always leave a bad taste in my mouth, no matter how expensive or famous they are. 

Most people can never have these experiences. I know I am more than lucky to have met so many wonderful winemakers and walked in so many true terroirs. But there is the next best thing. This is where fine wine writers make a difference. I’m not talking about wine critics here. Nothing can steal life from a wine's story more than point scores. A great wine writer’s words made you feel like you know the winemaker and walked in the vineyard. If you choose well in what you read, you too will have a cellar full of friends. 

Time to open a bottle for dinner. I wonder which one of my friends will be joining me tonight?

The Troon Vineyard 2019 Harvest Photo Album

Cheers to Harvest 2019

Winemaker Nate Wall and assistant winemaker Cary Willeford passing out Champagne to celebrate the arrival of the first grapes of vintage 2019.

Picking Malbec

Early morning harvest of Malbec destined to become part of Cuvée Pyrénées.

Harvest Compost

We build our new biodynamic compost during harvest as pomace from the press is added to each pile. We produce over 300 tons a year from a blend of organic manure from our next-door neighbor, Noble Dairy, combined with our own biodynamically farmed pomace and hay.

Piquette!

Winemaker Nate Wall stacks freshly bottled Troon Vineyard Piquette! It will finish fermentation in the bottle and be released this coming spring. New bubbles for spring!

Hand Bottling

Our Piquette is a mélange of varieties, made from the pomace of our white and rosé wines, which included marsanne, roussanne, viognier, tinta roriz and primitivo. The pomace is soaked overnight in water, then pressed and fermented in stainless steel. It is bottled when there is just enough sugar left to ferment in the bottle and naturally create a unique sparkling wine. Here harvest intern Jessica and assistant winemaker Cary fill new bottles of Piquette!

Bottle Fermented

Piquette is all about fun. A low alcohol, effervescent summer quaff. After a few months in the bottle, it will be ready for release.

Dawn Harvest

Vineyard manager Jason Cole and crew harvesting zinfandel as dawn breaks over the Siskiyou mountains.

Pét tanNat

Another first at Troon Vineyard this harvest was the production of a Pét Nat or pétillant naturel . Another Pét Nat may not be news, but one made from 100% Tannat in Southern Oregon certainly is something new. Here winemaker Nate Wall hand fills bottles of Pét tanNat.

Méthode Ancestrale

Using this ancient method for producing sparkling wine, our Pét tanNat will ferment in the bottle and then will be released next spring.

Preparing to Pick

In the predawn light, Troon crew member Alberto puts picking bins in place.

Amphora Amber

Yet another first at Troon Vineyard this vintage was the addition of three new amphorae, which will be used to make orange wines. Here individual vermentino grapes are hand-sorted into an amphora.

Amber Vermentino

An amphora is filled with whole-berry vermentino. The wine will ferment and age on the skins for about eight months.

Siskiyou Sunrise

Picking begins at first light as the sun breaks over the Siskiyou Mountains on a cold, cloudy October morning.

Portrait of Tannat

A ripe bunch of tannat about to be picked.

Click here to see the entire Troon Vineyard Harvest Photo Gallery