By James Knight Some may scoff at it, many admire it, others aspire to it. But tenets of organic ag: they spray herbicides, and employ syn- just what does “sustainable winegrowing” look like? Biody- thetic products against powdery mildew. “We were on track to namic vineyards have their charismatic, if slightly creepy cow being organic for a while, and chose not to be,” Hailey explains. horns. Organic vineyards are easy to spot: they’re the ones They considered the tradeoffs. “Some of the organic sprays, with the weeds. But a sustainable winery may look just like you have to use twice as often the synthetic one. We want the one next door, spawning suspicion that the term is a bit reduce the amount of tractor passes which create emissions of a ploy. You’ve got to look closer, and you may need a good and compact the vineyard soil. So, that was a tradeoff that we guide. Hailey Trefethen is a good guide. made.” Inside the Trefethen Vineyards cellar, underneath massive For wine-mad newcomers, Napa is a dream fulfilled. For suc- beams laid in place in 1886, here’s a set of aerial photographs. cessive generations, it’s about growing up in someone else’s One shows the declining property as it appeared when Hailey’s dream. Like farm kids of decades past—albeit Napa farm kids— grandfather purchased it in 1968, the other, the thriving, green they feel the pull of the city. In Hailey’s case, she couldn’t have corduroy patchwork of the 440-acre picked more far-away, vibrant desti- vineyard as it appears today. “There’s nations, like Buenos Aires and Costa a lot more going on here than just Rica. grapes,” assures Hailey, the 26-year- old scion of this third-generation Yet when her mother needed her help family outfit. Things that can’t be seen chairing the 2009 Napa Valley Wine from a mile high. She suggests a walk Auction, she was pulled back into the in the vineyard. fold, vowing, “Only until June, then I’m out of here!” June rolled around, You’ve heard of Trefethen? They’re big and she set another deadline. Then in Japan. They’re also well distributed another. “I just never left. I was really in Europe, despite the stink-eye they happy.” got from the French when their 1976 Chardonnay earned “Best Chardonnay Ava tails Hailey as she strolls past a in the World” at the 1979 Gault Millau solar panel array and enters a garden. World Wine Olympics in Paris. And While Hailey pulls a fat blackberry they’ve just garnered one more award: the 2012 International from the vine, Ava goes for a dip in the pool. “My grandmother Award of Excellence in Sustainable Winegrowing award by the planted everything here. Grandaddy had the vineyard, and Botanical Research Institute of Texas. Nanna had in here.” Bees buzz among the herbs, peach, apple, quince and orange trees, while corn, pumpkin, squash, water- BRIT, founded in 1987, is a fast friend of the wine business melon and chile peppers ripen nearby. Employees get to take a through its association with the T.V. Munson organization of bag of produce home at the end of the day, but that’s not the Denison, Texas. In the 1800s, horticulturist Munson provided only perk. They also get the same health care that Hailey does. grape growers with rootstocks resistant to phylloxera, the root pest that made a lunch out of Napa vineyards after returning “It was weird for me growing up,” Hailey says, “when I’d meet from a tour of Europe, hungry for more. Today, BRIT is an inter- people and they didn’t know what their parents did.” She grew national plant research center, focused on conservation. up filling in coloring books in her parents’ office, above the atmospheric barrel room of the wood-timbered, gravity-fed Hailey traipses into the vineyard, a wire-haired dog named Ava winery. Laughing that she’s a member of “the cursed third never far from her side. She points out the attractions. “We’ve generation,” Hailey is a member of a small club. “Sure, I didn’t created habitats on the property: bluebird boxes, owl boxes— realize I was going to come back so soon, but it’s been fun.” we also have bat boxes.” Passing a scattering of owl pellets— gopher horror show—Hailey is delighted. “Two thousand, five- What’s a sustainable winery look like? So far, we’ve seen owl hundred gophers are consumed in a year by Mom, Dad and the boxes. Check. Cover crops, sunflowers, and solar panels. Check, two owlets they typically have.” check, and check. We only need to look to Hailey Trefethen to 6 Aside from tweeting bluebirds, Trefethen diverges from the success, as it’s passed from one generation to the next.see what is perhaps the key factor to this winery’s sustained
NVLife_NovDec_2012
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