Do we have enough water at Troon Vineyard? The answer at Troon and everywhere on the west coast is no. A resounding no. Even if we did, every farm has the responsibility to use as little of this limited resource as possible.

For now, we have water from our wells, but we are always on the edge of not having enough as we are replanting ten acres of vineyard each year. Young vines need water. Fortunately, the replanting will be completed next year, and for the next several years, as these young blocks mature, they will need less and less water.

Many of our neighbors are not so lucky and have to rely on irrigation districts to provide the water for their crops. In difficult years they can be simply cut off from their water supply if the district finds the water situation too critical.

We aspire to dry farming. After all, it is much easier and less expensive. But the reality of climate change is changing all that. Not only here, but in Europe. Excessive heat stresses vines. Over-stressed vines do not produce great wine.

If you have water available on your farm, there is no sin in using it, only in wasting it or not efficiently preserving what nature gives you.

You start by preserving, and that starts with no-till. Bare ground wastes water. Our climate on the west coast gives us rain only during the winter months — and that cycle is no longer reliable. When it rains, we want to absorb it deeply into our soil instead of having it run off. An additional one percent of organic matter in your soil can retain twenty-thousand gallons per acre on average. If you have some clay in your soil, like we do, even more. Bare soil wastes water.

No-till is nature's answer, but we want to give her some help, and that helping hand comes from technology. Step one: don't water the vines if they don't need water. This is a wine production strategy called deficit irrigation. Your vineyard is exposed to water stress during specific parts of the growing season, which maximizes the efficient use of water and produces larger yields per unit of water applied. You are trying to maximize yields for a reduced amount of water used instead of growing as much as possible using excessive irrigation. Drip irrigation is the ideal method for this strategy.

For this system to work, you must bomb your vines — a pressure bomb (see photo above) that is more properly called a pressure chamber. This takes the guesswork out of irrigation as it precisely measures the water stress each block is experiencing. Wine grape growing is all about stress. You don't want too much or too little, as going too far in either direction will lower the quality of your fruit.

We've also added weather stations that include groundwater sensors so we can exactly know the water content of our soil along with the matric potential. You can never have too much data about water.

These last technological additions were not the first steps in our plan to precisely control water usage. The first step, which started in 2017, was a total redesign and restructuring of our well and irrigation system. Today, computers meticulously distribute the minimum amount of water required for each block.

In the vineyard, head-trained vines predominated as we replanted. These bush-trained vines protect the grape bunches from the sun and shade the under vine area reducing evaporation.

We've tried everything to conserve water, but it will not be enough for us to be totally dry-farmed. Due to climate change, aspirations to farm without any irrigation on the west coast are not realistic. In the summer months, the lush green hills of western Oregon transform into a desert. The once reliable winter rains are now fickle, and our soils hold less water at the beginning of the growing season.

Decades ago, when I moved to Oregon, the mild summers made air conditioning the exception. Now it's the rule. This is the world we live in today. The most important thing is to try to make it a better world, and water is key. Our strategies are all well and good, but you have to have water to save. Sustainability is not enough – we have to make things better.