Saving Old Vineyards - Economics vs Heritage

[Drew_Goin]

I initially was going to post this article on the “Contra Costa Wine Heritage” thread but, just as with the “Santa Clara & San Benito Wine Heritage” thread, I already have explored the factors leading to large-scale vineyard/agricultural land loss to urbanization (in Oakley and San Jose, respectively).


Metroactive Archives: Sonoma Independent
“Inward Bound: Can Urban Growth Boundaries and the ‘New Urbanism’ Stop the Paving Over of Sonoma County? Should They?”
by Zack Stentz
July 11, 1996


"TEN YEARS AGO, the paving over of Sonoma County looked like a fait accompli. Petaluma’s transition from sleepy agricultural town to bedroom community for Marin County and San Francisco neared completion. Almost overnight, Windsor and Rohnert Park had sprung up like tract-home bookends to the north and south of Santa Rosa, which itself was growing rapidly, gobbling up ranch lands and orchards to the east and west. And plans to widen Highway 101 moved full-speed ahead, bringing with them the possibility of a nearly unbroken chain of suburbia from Petaluma to Cloverdale.

"A decade later, the balance of power between the forces of sprawl and preservation is shifting, with the pace of development and annexation slowing, the Highway 101 widening project delayed indefinitely, and the long-deferred dream of building a commuter rail link to Marin finally moving forward.

"But the hottest flashpoint by far for Sonoma County’s development struggles is the issue of urban growth boundaries, or UGBs, legally binding city ordinances preventing municipalities from expanding outward for a set length of time–20 years in most cases. For supporters, UGBs have the advantage of curbing sprawl and helping a community retain its character. Opponents see them as a way to unfairly hinder economic development.

"…‘The problem with UGBs,’ [Mark Green, executive director of Sonoma County Conservation Action] adds, ‘is that if you don’t have them everywhere in the county, then you’re not solving the problem. It’s like squeezing a water balloon. If you limit growth in Santa Rosa but not in Windsor, then that’s where all the growth will go.’

"Which is why the push for UGBs is being waged in nearly every city in Sonoma County at once, a phenomenon [Krista Shaw, the Bay Area Greenbelt Alliance point woman for Sonoma County and a strong backer of UGBs] says is without precedent in the nation. ‘This is the first time in the United States a movement like this has been pushed countywide,’ she says. 'Portland and other cities in Oregon adopted UGBs in 1970, but in that case it was a mandate from the state Legislature, so each of the cities had to come up with one.

"‘We’ve taken that idea, but are doing it from the grassroots up.’

"One such person is Alan Strahan, the man behind the 550-unit Courtside Village development set to take shape this autumn along Sebastopol Road in west Santa Rosa. ‘I support UGBs,’ he says, 'because I think we need to focus our resources on cleaning up the core areas within cities that are rotting instead of always expanding our borders.

"‘You can’t have a healthy county when you keep building subdivisions on agricultural land but leave other areas like Roseland behind to fester.’

"…As advocated by planners and architects like Berkeley’s Peter Calthorpe, who is helping Sonoma and Marin counties come up with a comprehensive land-use and transportation plan, new urbanism involves focusing developments on pedestrian-oriented downtowns instead of auto-centered malls and big-box stores, mixing residential and commercial properties, and encouraging developers to build alternatives to the single-family house with front and back yards and a garage facing the street.

"If this sounds like a throwback to an almost 19th-century model of a compact, public space­oriented town, that’s because it is. Hence, ‘neo-traditional.’

"Courtside Village in Santa Rosa falls squarely into the neo-traditional category, with its 550 units tucked into 70 acres and centered on a small commercial hub of shops and a community swimming pool. Other amenities include narrow streets, wide, tree-lined sidewalks, and garages in back of the houses.

"‘The houses have porches in front instead of garages,’ Strahan says proudly, ‘which makes it a much more social environment, where you have much more of a sense of community than you get from a street lined with garage doors.’

"So is Strahan trying to encourage community and togetherness among his homebuyers simply out of a sense of altruism? ‘Hell, no!’ he declares. ‘I think these units will ultimately sell better and command better prices than typical suburban houses because many people want that sense of community they feel they’ve lost over the years.’

"Strahan admits, though, that he’s encountered difficulties in selling investors on the neo-traditional concept. 'It’s much more difficult than getting financing for a conventional subdivision, because that’s what banks have financed in the past,’ he explains. ‘It’s like driving by looking through a rear-view mirror.’

"…[Shaw] does admit that things could be worse in Sonoma County. As in some environmentalist-general’s command bunker, a master map of the Bay Area hangs on the wall of her Mendocino Avenue office in downtown Santa Rosa, with the areas most threatened by development highlighted in orange and red. And as one would expect, Sonoma County is marked by a huge crimson swath that cuts up and down along Highway 101 from the north end of Petaluma to the southern outskirts of Cloverdale.

"‘Freeway-based development is the rule in the Bay Area, along the Highway 101 corridor here and all over the place in neighboring Contra Costa County,’ says Shaw, putting the local situation into perspective.

"ONE FACTOR working in Sonoma County’s favor has been the winery explosion of the last two decades. Unlike other regions of the Bay Area, where agriculture is a marginal business at best, the ongoing boom in wine means that, for now at least, many tracts of Sonoma County agricultural lands are more valuable intact as vineyards than carved up into residential subdivisions. ‘Even small tracts of land are viable as vineyards,’ says Shaw.

"But Shaw asserts that a continued winery boom is not a given, and frets over the consequences of a collapse in the county’s wine industry. ‘If and when this boom comes to the end, you’re going to have a lot of landowners in deep financial trouble,’ she says.

"‘And there will be tremendous pressure for them to sell off their land to developers for the quick money.’

"…Green, too, sees Sonoma County as having reached a turning point. ‘Over the next 10 to 15 years, Sonoma County will be making fundamental decisions about what our county will be like for the foreseeable future,’ he says. ‘And if we don’t think carefully about these decisions, then we’ll build out all of the flatlands, agriculture will die on the vine, and we’ll lose that really special quality that makes Sonoma County so appealing to people in the first place.’

"In contrast to Mason’s rust-belt-on-the-­Russian-River prediction, Green invokes another specter certain to send a chill down the spine of a Northern Californian. ‘Remember,’ he warns, ‘the Santa Clara Valley used to be a beautiful agricultural region bordering a large urban area. And once upon a time, so was the San Fernando Valley.’…".



I do not live in Sonoma County, nor am I familiar with the specific outcomes immediately linked with the above article.

However, there are a handful of situations posed herein that echo my concerns with the loss of community identity within historic viticultural areas:

· the factors determining whether (and when) Urban Growth Boundaries are necessary in a given point in time;

· the urgency posed by transportation (interstate, railway, etc) route construction plans, devised above city-level concerns;

· the struggle of utilizing “Neo-Tradtional” designs in residential/commercial areas to strengthen/promote sense of community;

· preserving agricultural plots as cultural signposts/marks of community identity;

· implementing grassroots campaigns in city/county-level planning efforts;

· balancing environmental and commercial concerns (!)


I encourage you to read the newspaper article in its entirety, as it’s author painted the complexities of urban growth much more effectively than I could in an attempt to summarize the situation.

[Drew_Goin]

SF Gate
“Old-Vine Farmers Wonder, What Would Dad Think?”
by W Blake Gray
January 18, 2012


"…Gamba’s father, Agostino Gamba, emigrated from a fifth-generation grape- growing family in Italy to California in the 1940s. He met Cesare Barbieri, who planted the vineyard in 1900 and was looking for a buyer.

"‘My dad didn’t have any money, so Cesare said he’d carry him,’ Gamba says. ‘My dad farmed it all year and paid him little by little whenever he sold the grapes. Cesare ended up working with him, side by side in the vineyard.’

"Gamba, who grew up on the property, expected to do the same with his father, but Agostino died when Gus was 17.

"‘My father and I were going to do a winemaking project together when I finally became a man,’ Gamba says. ‘When my dad died, I struggled for a long time. I went to UC Santa Barbara for a while to see if I could clear my head and make my way in a world without a dad, which is kind of tough.’

"…‘We had a harvest coming up and I came home,’ he says. ‘I have two sisters, but they weren’t interested in farming. But it’s a shame to see old vines torn out. They’re like old libraries. You don’t get rid of a library just because people aren’t going there as much.’

"…The Gamba grapes had always been sold to other wineries. When Gus finally released a wine labeled Gamba Vineyards and Winery in 2000, ‘My mother started crying,’ he says. ‘When I think about my dad, it gives me strength. I feel my dad’s spirit.’

"Peter Fanucchi, 42, tells a similar story of his vineyard, which is not far from Gamba’s. Fanucchi’s vineyard was planted in 1906 and bought by his family in 1972.

"‘My dad was going to pull out the Zinfandel,’ Fanucchi says. ‘When he died in 1984, that’s what everybody was saying to do. No one was that interested in Zinfandel. I retrained the vines up. Over the last 20 years, I’ve retrained it. We sold it for nine years for White Zinfandel. When I told people I wanted to sell it for red, people said, “You can’t grow Zinfandel in Russian River. We only want Dry Creek (Valley).”’

"Fanucchi Vineyards is a one-man operation. In 1994, he started making his own wine. He says his goal is to showcase the fruit he works so hard to coax from the vines.

“‘I balance all the vines on an individual basis. Some of the vines can be balanced by leaving more clusters,’ he says. ‘Sometimes I think about things logically, and sometimes I do things on instinct.’…”.

[Drew_Goin]

Bedrock Wine Company recently offered a new single-vineyard Zinfandel from Lodi called “Noma Vineyard”. The name of the site seemed familiar to me. After a little bit of research, it turns out that this old-vine planting deserves a mention on this thread…


From the Bedrock Wine Company website:

"2019 ‘Noma Vineyard’ Zinfandel

“This small lot comes from a very old, own-rooted vineyard that was about to be abandoned and turned into warehouses on the east side of Lodi. When we found out that plans for the warehouses had been delayed, we asked the owners if we could farm it until their plans changed again. In 2019, the small vineyard cropped at 0.4 tons per acre and made one of the darkest, densest Zinfandels I have ever seen from Lodi. What really amazed us, though, was how the vineyard retained natural acidity and brightness that leavened all of the fruit weight. We have no idea if we will ever be able to make this wine again, but it was simply too good not to capture its glory. Though only a few miles from Kirschenmann and Katushas’, and on similar soils, this is a different Beelzebub altogether.”

The Drunken Cyclist blog
“Lodi Friday: Into the Vineyards, Part 1”
by
July 10, 2015

“…we visited several century old vineyards, starting with the Noma Vineyard (part of the Mokelumne River Sub-Appellation), on the East side of Lodi, where we met Tim Holdener owner and winemaker at Macchia Wines. Dry farmed by second-generation Lodi farmer (which certainly makes him a ‘newcomer’) Leland Noma, the 100-year-old vines produce ‘really intense clusters of fruit’ according to Tim. The vines are on their own rootstock since the soil is predominantly sand–the phylloxera louse that has destroyed nearly all vinifera root stocks cannot survive in sandy soil–but the vines only produce a little more than a ton per acre (which is usually not economically viable for Zin). The challenge for the vineyard? It is in an industrial region of Lodi (you can see a bordering warehouse in the photo) and Tim fears that the land might soon become more valuable as industry space and the vineyard will get ripped out. For now? Tim (who started as a home winemaker because the thought of making wine he found romantic–although found it much less so since he started doing it full-time) crafts two wines from the vineyard including a Noma Vineyard Zinfandel for the Lodi Native program (more on that in a couple of weeks)…”.



Lodi Wine Commission Blog
“Premier Grower Leland Noma Says ‘It’s a Great Time to be a Farmer in Lodi’”
by Randy Caparoso
February 28, 2012


"…Curious about what goes on in the head of such a persistent grower, we sat down in early February to chat with Mr. Noma. Despite being your typically reticent,
soft spoken farmer, he opened up enough to provide fascinating insights into the world of Lodi grape growing – past, present, and maybe future. In the words of Leland Noma:

"…'We lease the 15 acre old vine Zinfandel vineyard next to Oak Ridge Winery from Rudy Maggio, of one of Lodi’s old-time winegrowing families, who at one point thought about pulling it up. In the old days it was called Pope Ranch, but in his single vineyard wines Tim Holdener has been calling it Noma Ranch. Whatever you call it, it’s not a high yielding vineyard. I usually break even, but recently it’s probably better described as my “loss leader” – in 2010 we got only about 17 tons, and in 2011 less than 12 tons.

"‘Where Dart Container is now (on the other side of the vineyard from Oak Ridge, where foodservice packaging products are processed), it used to be all Tokay vines, which were removed in the early eighties. Thanks goodness, most of the Pope Ranch Zinfandel was left in the ground; although easy access to water has been cut off, and so the vineyard has been dry farmed the past twenty or so years.’

"…'Transitioning to Zinfandel was a natural thing to do because, like Tokay, Zinfandel is perfect for Lodi’s moderate climate and sandy soil. You couldn’t get the proper color, for instance, growing Tokay in Fresno, and it would be too cold in Watsonville. It’s the same for Zinfandel, and practically all wine grapes: in Lodi, the soil is rich enough that you can get just the right amount of color and flavor.

"‘I’m even luckier to work on the east side of Lodi, where the sand is so sandy that water goes straight down, whereas in parts of the west side the water table is higher, and the soils can get mucky or hard when it’s wet. So it’s easier for us to get our equipment into vineyards when it’s raining, either early in the season or in October, when we don’t want the rain at all and we’re scrambling to get the grapes in before they rot.’

“…‘The 2006 Macchia Noma Ranch Zinfandel won “Best of State” in the California State Fair, and it was a pretty big wine. Winemaker styles have definitely changed over the years. In the eighties we used to pick grapes around 23° Brix (i.e. a measurement of grape sugars), and we were practically done with harvest by end of September. In the nineties, it crept up to 24°, and these days they’re asking for anywhere from 24° to 26°, and it’s taking ‘til the end of October to get everything in. Sugars can be even higher than that because, here on the east side, grapes can ripen very quickly in these deep, sandy soils.’…”


Lodi Wine Commission Blog
“Lodi’s Single-Vineyard Wines”
by Randy Caparoso
August 20, 2018


"…Noma Ranch Zinfandel:

"Steadily shrinking, own-rooted, spur pruned Zinfandel (less than half of the 15-acre size it was just 5 years ago) planted during the first decade of the 1900s; south of Victor Rd./Hwy. 12 E., across E. Pine St. from Lodi Memorial Park & Cemetery.

"Unusually small (for Lodi), 2-3-ft. high vines, dry farmed for over a century and trained in the classic goblet style; yielding largely fist-sized, tiny berried clusters rarely adding up to more than 1 ton per acre.

“Farmed by Leland Noma and bottled exclusively by Macchia Wines under their ‘Outrageous’ label; traditionally a big (around 16% alcohol), concentrated style of Zinfandel with unusually high acid/tannin balance resulting from extreme skin-to-juice ratios…”.

[Brent_S]

1 ton per acre. Ya. Hard to make a living with those yields and I can see how the land is worth more as an industrial development site, although it pains me to say that.

[JDavisRoby]

SF Gate
“Old-Vine Farmers Wonder, What Would Dad Think?”
by W Blake Gray
January 18, 2012


"…Gamba’s father, Agostino Gamba, emigrated from a fifth-generation grape- growing family in Italy to California in the 1940s. He met Cesare Barbieri, who planted the vineyard in 1900 and was looking for a buyer.

"‘My dad didn’t have any money, so Cesare said he’d carry him,’ Gamba says. ‘My dad farmed it all year and paid him little by little whenever he sold the grapes. Cesare ended up working with him, side by side in the vineyard.’

"Gamba, who grew up on the property, expected to do the same with his father, but Agostino died when Gus was 17.

"‘My father and I were going to do a winemaking project together when I finally became a man,’ Gamba says. ‘When my dad died, I struggled for a long time. I went to UC Santa Barbara for a while to see if I could clear my head and make my way in a world without a dad, which is kind of tough.’

"…‘We had a harvest coming up and I came home,’ he says. ‘I have two sisters, but they weren’t interested in farming. But it’s a shame to see old vines torn out. They’re like old libraries. You don’t get rid of a library just because people aren’t going there as much.’

"…The Gamba grapes had always been sold to other wineries. When Gus finally released a wine labeled Gamba Vineyards and Winery in 2000, ‘My mother started crying,’ he says. ‘When I think about my dad, it gives me strength. I feel my dad’s spirit.’

"Peter Fanucchi, 42, tells a similar story of his vineyard, which is not far from Gamba’s. Fanucchi’s vineyard was planted in 1906 and bought by his family in 1972.

"‘My dad was going to pull out the Zinfandel,’ Fanucchi says. ‘When he died in 1984, that’s what everybody was saying to do. No one was that interested in Zinfandel. I retrained the vines up. Over the last 20 years, I’ve retrained it. We sold it for nine years for White Zinfandel. When I told people I wanted to sell it for red, people said, “You can’t grow Zinfandel in Russian River. We only want Dry Creek (Valley).”’

"Fanucchi Vineyards is a one-man operation. In 1994, he started making his own wine. He says his goal is to showcase the fruit he works so hard to coax from the vines.

“‘I balance all the vines on an individual basis. Some of the vines can be balanced by leaving more clusters,’ he says. ‘Sometimes I think about things logically, and sometimes I do things on instinct.’…”.

I visited Gamba in 2017. Met Gus and took a tour of the oldest blocks in the vineyard. Great story and wonderful person. We don’t drink as much Zinfandel as we once did but I still have a few cases of the Gamba wine that I expect to enjoy over the next few years.

[Adam_Frisch]

Over the 3-4 years I’ve taken fruit from mainly Lodi, prices have rally skyrocketed. Like everywhere else, I suppose. Vineyards, land, real estate - used to be it was kinda cheap there, but not anymore. Which is not good for the old vineyards - means the delta between what they can bring in and what developers can pay increases.

[Drew_Goin]

Almost 14 years ago, the City of Antioch’s “Evangelho Vineyard” was subject to an eminent domain claim that resulted in the uprooting of +1,000 ancient-growth vines. :



East Bay Times
“Vineyard is More than Land to Grower”
by Simon Read
June 9, 2007

"ANTIOCH — Think of wine, and your thoughts may drift to Napa or France’s Rhone Valley. Few would consider Antioch the point of origin for bottles of renowned Mourvèdre, Carignane or Zinfandel. But walking through his vineyard off East 18th Street, wine grape grower Frank Evangelho would beg to differ.

"His family has worked the soil there since 1938.

“‘I have a strong emotional connection to this land and these vines,’ he said, standing among vines planted in 1890. ‘These vines are like people. I know them all individually. Some are weaker and need more help, while others are strong and don’t require as much attention.’

"For Evangelho, the vineyard is more than a large plot of land or a business: It’s a piece of Antioch’s living history and a strong connection to his past.

“'I’ve been farming this land since I was 9 years old,” he said. ‘I learned from my father.’

"Manuel Evangelho came from ‘the old country’ — the Azore Islands, west of Portugal — in 1923 when he was 15 years old. He took a job tending grapes at a monastery in Los Gatos before moving to Antioch during the Depression.

"‘He worked several jobs here before he started farming the vineyard,’ Evangelho said. ‘He met my mother, who graduated from high school in Antioch in 1933. My family goes back in this region to the beginning of the century.’

"Evangelho’s own memories of growing up in Antioch are dominated by his time spent on the vineyard. The vast majority of what he has learned about caring for vines comes from his father.

"…‘When I was 4, I got lost in the vineyard,’ Evangelho said. ‘It was August, and the vines had grown really big — I was gone for hours. My father eventually found me crying beneath a Zinfandel vine. My blood, sweat and tears are in this soil.’

"Alison Green Doran, winemaker at Napa’s Jade Mountain Winery, has worked with Evangelho since 2002 and says his commitment to the winemaking craft is ‘fierce.’

“‘He’s very passionate about what he does,’ Doran said. ‘He’s a long-term grower and wants to keep doing it. He’s done a brilliant job maintaining that vineyard and ensuring a consistency in quality from vine to vine. We’ve been able to get some great wines from him. It takes a lot of care and attention to do what he does. I’ve seen eight-year-old vineyards that don’t look nearly as good as Frank’s.’

"…Evangelho said there’s a lot of satisfaction to be had in his line of work.

"‘The harvest is a wonderful time, when you see the fruit come off. Also, being with the winemakers and watching the wine come to fruition. Wine is something that’s alive. You start off with the grapes on the vine and finish with a wine that matures in the bottle. Having the fullness of a really excellent wine and just watching the whole process from beginning to end is very satisfying.’

"What Evangelho doesn’t find satisfying is a construction project that is requiring the city to churn up some of his land.

"Evangelho says Antioch isn’t fairly compensating him for the anticipated loss of some of the land — and the vines growing there — as part of a sewer-extension project.

"City officials have countered, saying steps have been taken to ensure Evangelho is properly compensated for any loss of production or damage to his land. Last week, Evangelho said, construction crews tore out more than 1,000 vines.

"The sewer line, which will be laid along the northern edge of the property, is the first phase of the Sakurai Street project, a planned business park and loop road that will run along Vineyard Drive, parallel the railroad tracks and loop back to East 18th.

“‘I feel a lot of grief,’ Evangelho said. ‘These vines are a privilege to farm and care for, and it hurts to see this happening. There’s a lot of emotion there because of the connection they have to my father. It’s deplorable.’

"…According to documents Jenny provided, Evangelho is being offered about $32,000 by the city for his parcel of land. It’s an amount, Evangelho said, that’s far below fair-market value.

"…Phil Harrington, Antioch’s director of capital improvements, said he doesn’t know the exact number of vines removed.

“He’s got roughly 470,000 square feet on his land,’ Harrington said. ‘We took about 22,000 square feet of vines — that’s less than 5 percent on his property. We’ve done everything we can to minimize the impact on his land…’."



East Bay Times
“Vineyard Owner Says Antioch Undervaluing His Land, Crop”
by Simon Read
August 15, 2016

"ANTIOCH — Longtime Antioch wine grape grower Frank Evangelho says the city isn’t fairly compensating him for the land — and the vines growing there — that he’ll lose when a sewer extension project gets under way later this week.

"…Local governments can seize property but must pay just compensation to the property owner, said Jenny, an expert on eminent domain. If a property owner turns down the offer, the government can take the owner to court and forcibly evict them from the land.

“‘That’s basically what’s happening here,’ Jenny said.

"…The vineyard, located on the corner of East 18th Street and Vineyard Drive, was planted in 1890 and has been farmed by the Evangelhos since the 1930s. The sewer line, which will be put in along the northern edge of the property, is the first phase of the Sakurai Street project, a planned business park and loop road that will run along Vineyard, parallel the railroad tracks and loop back to East 18th.

"Phil Harrington, Antioch’s director of capital improvements, said the city has placed a 30-foot easement on Evangelho’s property for the laying of the pipeline.

“‘If damage occurs outside the easement, we’ll compensate him per vine,’ Harrington said. ‘We are not planning to go in and bulldoze 60 extra feet to add easement to the sewer. That’s not what the city is allowing to happen.’

"Once the pipeline is down, Harrington said, the area will be an improved location for commercial and industrial projects.

"Evangelho, however, said he is not happy.

“…Evangelho said he would at least like to see the project delayed until September to allow him time to harvest his current crop.

“…‘The grapes are already forming — they’re already a quarter of an inch,’ he said. ‘I have a connection to the vines and am very upset. It would be nice to have a stay of execution and let these old vines bear the fruit we’ve worked all year to get.’

“Jenny said a delay is not going to happen…”.


Today, Bedrock Wine Company owns and farms the vines that once belonged to the Evangehlo family. Pacific Gas & Electric leases the remaining 2/3 of the vineyard to Bedrock, as the vines growing under power lines have been under the utility company’s control since 1955.


*** EDIT ***


Contra Costa Historical Society image (#17625) depicting a trench being dug through a vineyard for the construction of a gas line:

“Digging a Trench for PG&E Company Gas Line Through a Vineyard”

“Near Oakley Road / Live Oak Road: Cleveland Model 125 Trenching machine digging 2.5 ft wide by 5ft deep trench for gas line, rear view of trenching machine. Photo Ref: CC-665-CV. Delta Division, Contra Costa Canal”


Contra Costa Historical Society website:
https://www.cocohistory.org/

CCHS Photo Archives:
Collections at Contra Costa County Historical Society

[Drew_Goin]

Chris Cottrell of Bedrock Wine Company was interviewed on a ZOOM event posted on the DRINK Raleigh Facebook page.

He discussed the different economic pressures experienced by old-vine plantings in various regions around California (skip to 5:00 on the video):[/url]


DRINK Raleigh
Chris Cottrell Interview, Part 1
February 4, 2021

Redirecting...

[Drew_Goin]

Nowadays, many Californian winemakers and growers are looking to the antipodes for guidance in mitigating smoke taint issues. Numerous studies have been conducted following years of Australian wildfires, generating a trove of knowledge that could save West Coast vintners time and effort.

Farmers of France (and Australia) have experienced vine-pull schemes, often involving misguided policies, that sought to boost overall wine quality and improve performance on the world market. Old vineyards, regardless of where they grow, frequently struggle to deliver sufficient returns on their meager yields.


Wine Terroirs
“The Deep Roots of Old Vines”
by
January 28, 2015

"…These primes d’arrachage (uprooting subsidies) are indeed doing a lot af damage across France and also in other wine regions of Europe. This mindless and shortsighted policy is officially motivated as a way to counter wine overproduction, but the result is that the uprooted parcels are often the one that are old with low yields (the qualitative ones, in short) and the replanting vineyards will be uninteresting clones of generic varietals, which means that the overall quality of the wine production will be lowered.

"…Speaking of the subsidized uprooting, Languedoc has been champion for years, but I’m afraid (I hope I’m wrong) that the best parcels (the small parcels on slopes or in remote locations unfit for tractors and combines) were taken out first by convenience and that much of what remains in place is not really fit for quality wine.

"…Languedoc is interesting to study when thinking to uprooting subsidies because it is the region that got such a large surface of vineyards erased over the years, but what you read on these great parcels being uprooted by growers to survive could be depicting growers from other regions as well. When you 1old-vines_roots_vine4_detailsell your grapes to the coop or the négoce, you’re paid by the volume and not by the quality of your grapes, growers often struggle to make ends meet as the money they get for their grapes is low and their operating costs are dangerously close. Yet, the consumer could make this change if he wasn’t chasing the lowest bottle price in the supermarkets.

"…The European program that manages these uprootings is named the OCM vin, for Organisation Commune du Marché Vitivinicole. The Cour des Comptes, which is a European-level court of auditors in charge of checking how the tax-payer’s money is spent, stated a couple years ago (source - in French) that this policy of subsidized uprooting was off the mark and had perverted effects on the restructuration of the vineyards. The article says the total amount of these subsidies is 1 billion € for the permanent grubbing in the 2008-2011 campaign and 4,2 billion € for the restructuration of vineyards (read : grubbing with replanting). According to the article, the Cour-des-Comptes report also says that in spite of being intended to reduce the wine excess production, these subsidies actually translated into more wine, something which anyone with a bit of common sense would understand without being paid big salaries for months by a European administration : it’s been years that vignerons on the ground know and say that the parcels that are uprooted are the old ones with low yields and the replanted clones are of the high-yields type (even the rootstocks are highly productive)."




Enotropy blog
“When the South is Confused”
by Jean-Emmanuel Simond
July 4, 2007

"…But when we pull up old vines that are often very qualitative, often from misunderstood grape varieties such as Carignan, it is the soul of a region that we gradually let go, even when we replant the inevitable Syrah, Viognier or Merlot, these gravedigger grape varieties of Languedoc and Catalan identity.

"There are so many reasons to encourage the courageous who preserve this endangered heritage: by drinking their pleasurable wines, by cellaring wines which age in harmony, by rediscovering the breed of the best wines of this region…

“Some names? Barral, Gauby, Olivier Jullien, Pierre Quinonero (dom. De la Garance), Maxime Magnon in Corbières, Cyril Fhal (Clos du Rouge Gorge), Izarn (Borie la Vitarèle), Jérôme Bertrand, Alain Chabanon, Pierre Clavel, and others. They are the ones who carry the colors of the true south today; it is their wines that consumers should seek out, to discover the true flavors of these wonderful terroirs.”


Although no government-backed vine-pull program exists in the US, other economic pressures sufficiently incentive the destruction of ancient vineyards.

France, Australia, and other nations have demonstrated that small, quality-conscious wine producers can establish rewarding relationships with owners of old-vine plantings. Indeed, many American wineries have practiced the same approach for decades. Time will tell which historic vineyards survive.

[Drew_Goin]

The following 2017 coverage from ABC 10 News addresses the widespread loss of old Zinfandel vineyards in the Lodi/Sacramento area. Kevin Philips of Michael David Winery joins reporter Liz Kreutz to explain why many area grape-growers uproot and replant their ancient vineyards.


Jeremy Flint YouTube video
“Old Vine Zin 11PM LNT PKG…”
September 27, 2017

OLD VINE ZIN 11PM LNT PKG 09-22-17

“ABC 10’s Liz Kretuz [sic] headed to Lodi, CA, to see is [sic] the Old Vine Zinfandel crops are going away.”


ABC 10 News
“Are Lodi’s Old Vine Zins Going Extinct?”
by Liz Kreutz
September 22, 2017

"…Several grape growers in the area have recently found themselves forced to replace the old vines with new mechanized ones – leaving some, like Kevin Phillips, worried that Lodi’s most well-known wine could go extinct.

"‘The problem with this kind of planting now is there’s no means for mechanization,’ Phillips, the VP of operations at Lodi’s Michael David Winery, told ABC10 about old vineyards which produce Old Vine Zins. ‘So, everything that happens on this vine needs to happen by hand.’

"Picking grapes by hand requires more labor and Phillips explained that a labor shortage has made it harder to find people to do that.

"…In addition, labor costs have gone up and Zinfandel sales have gone down.

"…The confluence of forces, Phillips said, has made it difficult for grape growers to maintain the old vines.

“Throughout Lodi, old vine vineyards – some of which are nearly 100 years old – are being bulldozed down. Piles of fully functioning vines are being piled up and burned…”.


https://mobile.twitter.com/ABCLiz/status/911057908002988032


Michael David Winery website:

Michael David Winery - Over 150 Years of Family Farming in the Making

[Adam_Frisch]

It’s very sad that this is happening all over, but especially in Lodi with it’s long history of old vines. I do hope some can hold out just a tad bit longer, because I think Zinfandel sales are about to change for the better. And with more and more “heavy hitters” in Lodi, like Tegan and Morgan, this will help raise the region.
Also, Lodi is now producing more of the modern style of Zins, so that will also help change perceptions.

A case study of how bad it has been: I myself took a little Zin last year from Lauchland vineyard in the smallest AVA, Jahant. Steve had at that point not sold his Zin crop for about 3 years in a row and was almost thinking of tearing it out. I committed to a bit more this year and I hope he’ll hang on to them for a little longer. The Zin fields across his were machine harvested and went to Gallo for $200/ton on contract. Nobody can survive in farming for that. Year after the vineyard across was torn out.

Zin is America’s grape and we all know that it can soar to the highest heights when done right. That association between US winemaking and Zin is actually a great strength to have and I think the we can grow Zin internationally in the future. I mean, if you want to buy a great Zin as a French person, what’s the first country that comes to mind? America. That’s an invaluable connection to have in the minds of consumers already in place. Now we just need to build upon it.

Funny thing is I wasn’t interested in Zin either in the beginning. It was a bit too “normal” for me at the time. Not until I read the book about the history of Zin and heard Carole Meredith’s rediscoveries and DNA tracing, did it click for me. It was almost an emotional grip it took on me and I realized that beside Mission, this is the grape of this land. Add the very old Lodi Zin vineyards where I can get good access to interesting sites, and it was inevitable that I had to move towards Zinfandel. I’m hoping to add a few more sites in the coming years.

[Rich_Brown]

It’s very sad that this is happening all over, but especially in Lodi with it’s long history of old vines. I do hope some can hold out just a tad bit longer, because I think Zinfandel sales are about to change for the better. And with more and more “heavy hitters” in Lodi, like Tegan and Morgan, this will help raise the region.
Also, Lodi is now producing more of the modern style of Zins, so that will also help change perceptions.

A case study of how bad it has been: I myself took a little Zin last year from Lauchland vineyard in the smallest AVA, Jahant. Steve had at that point not sold his Zin crop for about 3 years in a row and was almost thinking of tearing it out. I committed to a bit more this year and I hope he’ll hang on to them for a little longer. The Zin fields across his were machine harvested and went to Gallo for $200/ton on contract. Nobody can survive in farming for that. Year after the vineyard across was also torn out.

Zin is America’s grape and we all know that it can soar to the highest heights when done right. That association between US winemaking and Zin is actually a great strength to have and I think the we can grow Zin internationally in the future. I mean, if you want to buy a great Zin as a French person, what’s the first country that comes to mind? America. That’s an invaluable connection to have in the minds of consumers already in place. Now we just need to build upon it.

Funny thing is I wasn’t interested in Zin either in the beginning. It was a bit too “normal” for me at the time. Not until I read the book about the history of Zin and heard Carole Meredith’s rediscoveries and DNA tracing, did it click for me. It was almost an emotional grip it took on me and I realized that beside Mission, this is the grape of this land. Add the very old Lodi Zin vineyards where I can get good access to interesting sites, and it was inevitable that I had to move towards Zinfandel. I’m hoping to add a few more sites in the coming years.

Zinfandel is my favorite variety and I agree that the history of the grape really adds to the intrigue. Its nice to see that you’ve come around to it Adam, as i remember you starting a few less favorable threads around Zin when you were newer to the board. Or maybe that was just to test the waters a bit on peeps perception of the variety since you were considering making a zin yourself, which would make sense

[Drew_Goin]

If the vineyard owners are moseying up to the table with the $$$s necessary to rent [or, God forbid, actually own] big iron diesel rigs like that, then there’s no reason whatsoever that the ancient vines couldn’t be simply TRANSPLANTED to new soil.

…There’s no reason we couldn’t have an Old Vines Rescue Network, organized so that the owners could inform us when the vines were to be ripped out, and we could arrive with our pickup trucks, and load as many vines as we could haul, and take them home, and transplant them to our backyards…

When I originally read this comment, my thoughts first turned to the “Walnut Meadows Vineyard” in Contra Costa County. In 2010, the City of Oakley hired local farmer and vineyard manager Alan Lucchesi to transplant 2,2000 own-rooted, century-old Alicante Bouschet vines from the old DuPont site to the “Legless Lizards Parcel”, between the BNSF railroad tracks and Walnut Meadows Dr.

The vines still produce grapes in their new home - now known as the “Walnut Meadows Vyd”. Cline Cellars buys the fruit each year.

Wine Berserkers: “Romick’s Vine Transplant Picture Book”
December 11, 2015


However, in re-reading official documents related to the preservation the 14-acre “José Vineyard” (aka “Dutch Slough Vyd”, aka “Emerson Vyd”, aka “Lucchesi Vyd”), I was struck by an assertion made by Mr Matt Cline of Three Wine Company:

“…It is the age of the vines, the unique micro-climate, and Delhi Sandy Loam soil that make the vineyard itself world class and it is the ability to continue making the wine from this vineyard which provides the proof that this model [dry-farming]works. It is the ‘age of the roots’ and not the exposed part of the vine that makes this vineyard special. The talk of transplanting these vines is not only impractical, irreparable ecological damage will occur to this incredible upland habitat.”

Ultimately, the own-rooted “Lucchesi Vineyard” was saved from destruction and left to peacefully coexist alongside native plants and wildlife of the Dutch Slough Salt Marsh Restoration Project.

In truth, I am not certain whether the uprooting and transplantation of grapevines leads to “irreparable ecological damage”. However, I can believe Mr Cline’s declaration that the laborious process of transplanting vines would be “impractical”, or at least a pain-in-the-@$$.


It has been 10 years since Oakley’s vineyard transplantation project. I often wonder if similar efforts have been undertaken elsewhere.


Agricultural Natural Resources Trust YouTube video:
“City of Oakley Agricultural Conservation & Viticulture Program”
June 21, 2013

City of Oakley Agricultural Conservation & Viticulture Program

[Drew_Goin]

While perusing the Turley website, I encountered a tidbit about the Historic Vineyard Society’s mission that was new to me:


Turley Cellars website
“Old Vines Zinfandel:
What Constitutes an ‘Old Vine?’”

“…By adopting much of the criteria for consideration as a United States National Historic Landmark, the goal of HVS is to achieve legal protection for these (agri)cultural vineyard sites as historic landmarks.”


I found the above statement very interesting, as the HVS website’s “About” page does not explicitly make this assertion:

"Established in 2011, HVS (Historic Vineyard Society) is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to the preservation of California’s historic vineyards. HVS’s mission is accomplished through education on the very special nature of these historical treasures. We operate with no salaried staff and virtually no overhead. Your tax-deductible donation to the Historic Vineyard Society supports historic vineyards through education, research and vineyard-related events. Help keep these precious vines in the ground!’


Later, I discovered that, in 2012, an ancient French vineyard was certified as a historic monument by the local government - an honor previously reserved for buildings and the like.


UK Daily Mail
"Vineyard that Survived the Great French Wine Blight Becomes First Living Thing to be Classified as Historic Monument"
by Helen Lawson
Aug 12, 2012

"A French vineyard has become the first living thing to be classified as a historic monument by authorities.

"The vines at the Pédebernade family vineyard in the Gers region of south-west France are believed to be at least 190 years old.

"They have 20 different types of grape, including seven varieties of the fruit that are unknown to the rest of the world.

“The resilient Pédebernade vines survived the Great French Wine Blight, an epidemic that wiped out vineyards across the continent caused by the sap-sucking phylloxera louse in the late 19th century.”

"Dominique Paillarse, head of the Gers region cultural affairs department, told The Sunday Telegraph: ‘We usually classify churches and buildings rather than living things. But when we visited the vineyard we were so impressed we said “Let’s do it – it’s worth it.”’

"The site was listed for its ‘exceptional character and cultivation methods’.

“The Gers government prefect’s office said the vineyard, in the village of Sarragachies, represented a ‘remarkable example of biodiversity and genetic heritage…as well as ancestral cultivation methods that died out with the phylloxera crisis’ and paid tribute to the ‘passionate’ family for preserving a piece of French history.”


As I understand it, no agricultural site has been conferred similar protection or honors in the US.

Am I mistaken? Has a governing body in the United States ever done something similar?


Historic Vineyard Society website:
https://historicvineyardsociety.org/

[Drew_Goin]

…In 2010, the City of Oakley hired local farmer and vineyard manager Alan Lucchesi to transplant 2,2000 own-rooted, century-old Alicante Bouschet vines from the old DuPont site to the “Legless Lizards Parcel”, between the BNSF railroad tracks and Walnut Meadows Dr.

It has been 10 years since Oakley’s vineyard transplantation project. I often wonder if similar efforts have been undertaken elsewhere…

I have identified another parcel of Californian vines that were uprooted, moved, and replanted successfully. Portola Vineyards is home to almost 300 Cabernet vines that were transplanted about 50 years ago.


"Los Trancos Vineyard:

"Oldest vineyard in Portola Valley with a total of 673 vines.
294 Cabernet Sauvignon transplanted in 1961 due to Highway 280 construction.*

“An additional 218 Cabernet Sauvignon, 85 Merlot, 54 Cabernet Franc, and 22 Petite Verdot planted in 1990. Fog licking at the heels of this sunny vineyard results in potent, complex flavors and aromas that last for many years.”


The “Viticulture” page of the Portola Vineyards website states:

“…Our estate vineyard sits just on the border between the two appellations. The land across the street is in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, and our property is considered Santa Clara Valley. We’re proud to keep Santa Clara Valley’s winemaking heritage alive in a small way.”

Almanac News
“Portola Valley: Gathering a community among the vines”
by Renee Batter
July 10, 2012


In Menlo
“Father and Daughter Produce Premium Pinot Noir Wine at Portola Vineyards”
by Linda Hubbard
August 16, 2013


Portola Vineyards website:
https://portolavineyards.com/

Map Image: “San Francisco and Vicinty, Shell map” (1956)
https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/workspace/handleMediaPlayer?lunaMediaId=RUMSEY~8~1~212274~5500327

• Despite looking for corroborating info on the existence of transplanted vines on the internet, no other source details this claim

[Drew_Goin]

For the time being, it appears that no one strategy is sufficient in preserving historically significant grape varieties or old-growth plantings.

If compelled to choose what approach will prove most effective, I would stand with the Historic Vineyard Society. The individuals behind its establishment and members who support its projects are incredibly passionate and may wisely discern feasible measures to combat the loss of America’s grape-growing sites.

Not every old vineyard be saved, yet other steps can be taken to honor viticultural traditions. Thacher Winery, like others before them, has embarked on developing a new vineyard composed of a diverse collection of vine material sourced from heritage plantings.

From Thacher Winery’s Facebook post on August 24, 2020:

"Sampling this morning from the Field Blend Block at our ‘Killer Canyon Vineyard’. This is the first year we’re getting a crop off of this diverse, head-trained planting! It looks like it might be our first red wine of the year!!!

“The block is planted to primarily old California grape varieties: Mourtaou, Mondeuse Noir, Négrette, Trousseau Noir, Mencia, Valdiguié, Grand Noir, Péloursin, Mission, Traminer, Orange Muscat.”

Thacher Winery website:

Westside Paso Robles Winery - Family Owned and Operated

[Drew_Goin]

On the “California’s Great Old Zinfandel Vineyards” thread, I posted information about Jancis Robinson’s 2021 Wine Writing Contest, which solicited essays from the public on old vineyards from across the globe.

Jancis Robinson website:
“WWC21: Guide to Our Old-Vines Competition Entries”
by Tamlyn Currin
July 26, 2021

This overview of the Wine Writing Competition includes links to 74 old vineyard profiles!


2021’s writing contest topic coincided with the first Old Vines Conference. The homepage for this new event contains a fair number of links to articles and databases related to the celebration and preservation of ancient grape-growing sites.


Old Vines Conference website:
https://www.oldvines.org/

Old Vines Conference Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/ouroldvines/

Old Vines Conference channel YouTube page:
https://youtube.com/channel/UCDnkZgL0lD9ukhdO4YuJkAQ

[Drew_Goin]

… It has been 10 years since Oakley’s vineyard transplantation project. I often wonder if similar efforts have been undertaken elsewhere…

I have identified another parcel of Californian vines that were uprooted, moved, and replanted successfully. Portola Vineyards is home to almost 300 Cabernet vines that were transplanted about 50 years ago.

"Los Trancos Vineyard:
"Oldest vineyard in Portola Valley with a total of 673 vines.
294 Cabernet Sauvignon transplanted in 1961 due to Highway 280 construction.…

In 2006, Langmeil Winery transplanted 140-year-old Barossa Valley Shiraz vines to spare them from destruction. Their new home is called the “Orphan Bank”.

I was delighted to read of another successful transplantation effort, led by James Lindner of Langmeil Winery, in an entry on Sarah Ahmed’s The Wine Detective blog. A video summarizing the 18-month-long project was embedded in the article:

Yappy YouTube video:
“Langmeil Orphan Bank Vineyard Transplant”
September 22, 2008
https://youtu.be/PA2KqLPAVWs

Langmeil Winery
“The Orphan Bank Shiraz Story”
March 7, 2016

“Destined for destruction to make way for housing, ten rows of 140 year old Shiraz vines were rescued by Langmeil and transplanted, thus preserving part of the Barossa heritage. These orphans are not without relatives. They share a common ancestory with the ‘1843 Freedom Vineyard’, having been planted in the 1800’s on what was then the same allotment: Section 36, Hundred of Moorooroo. 146 years later, the winery was able to reunite the flock and bring them home…”.


Wine Spectator
“Old Barossa Vines Moved to New Vineyard”
by Tyler Stelzer
February 20, 2008

"…The transplanting operation got underway in 2006, after the vineyard owner sold the land. ‘We tried to convince the owners not to sell the vineyard,’ explained Langmeil sales and marketing manager James Lindner. ‘We tried everything - even tried to get them drunk—but it just didn’t work! We looked at those 140-year-old vines and thought, “We can’t just burn them all on the fire.” So we asked if we could move the vines to a fertile patch on the banks of the North Para River,’ he explained. The new site is approximately 800 meters from the old one.

"…Langmeil founder Carl Lindner used a custom-built spade digger on the back of a tractor, designed to break off the taproot and dig out the vine. Taking a large root ball with it, the same machine replanted each vine in the new site.




"…Linder is trying to remain realistic. ‘We understand that we can’t recreate the full benefits of the vines’ age, and it will take some years for them to come into balance and for the roots to fully develop,’ he explained. ‘It might even take 10 or 15 years before the fruit is of sufficient quality for our Orphan Bank Shiraz.’ As the roots establish themselves over the next few years, Lindner postulates that there might be more seasonal variation in the fruit than usual.

“…‘We’ve now set up a reliable system of transplanting so there is a proven option for people,’ Lindner pointed out. ‘If it inspires others to give it a go, then it’s a bloody good thing. If you can do it here, you can do it anywhere in the world. But only ever as a last resort - we fought hard to keep the vines in the ground in the first place.’”


CountryStyle
“Family Trees”
by Virginia Imhoff
November 1, 2017



Some important points can be gathered from this project. Old-vine plantings perform best in their original locations. Transplanting vines requires the separation of each plant’s rootball from all lateral roots.

According to Lindner, vines that are replanted will need to regrow decades’ worth of lost root tissue. Therefore, transplanted old vines will behave much like younger ones, remaining more susceptible to changes in weather and water availability.


Langmeil Winery website:
https://www.langmeilwinery.com.au/

[Jeff_M1]

I’ve been to Langmeil and brought home some Orphan Bank bottles. This was really cool to see in the vineyard. The wine is also VERY good.

[John_Morris]

"…Langmeil founder Carl Lindner used a custom-built spade digger on the back of a tractor, designed to break off the taproot and dig out the vine. Taking a large root ball with it, the same machine replanted each vine in the new site.

… Some important points can be gathered from this project. Old-vine plantings perform best in their original locations. Transplanting vines requires the separation of each plant’s rootball from all lateral roots.

According to Lindner, vines that are replanted will need to regrow decades’ worth of lost root tissue. Therefore, transplanted old vines will behave much like younger ones, remaining more susceptible to changes in weather and water availability.[/b]

If you lose the old root structure, what’s the advantage? Are old vines somehow better than young ones, even without their roots?