Every vineyard has a portion of the property that is non-productive, but are there ways to maximize the benefits of this land? Fintan du Fresne, General Manager and Winemaker for both Chamisal Vineyards and Maine Wines and Christian Rodriguez, Assistant Vineyard Manager at Chamisal Vineyards found the answer to this question with a Miyawaki Mini-forest. Conceived by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, these mini-forests can take be d...

Vineyard development begins with the soil. Steve Vierra, Director of Vineyard Operation at Derby Wine Estates and Certified Professional Soil Scientist, has developed many vineyards since the 1990s and always begins with a site evaluation to determine what is actually plantable. This includes a deep dive into all aspects of the prospective vineyard including climate, rain fall, aspect, slope, rootstock, soil types, and best varieti...

The introductory voice and producer of this podcast, Beth Vukmanic, joined Jaime Lewis of CONSUMED in the much-awaited season nine. The CONSUMED podcast stokes candid conversation about life and flavor, ten episodes at a time. Jaime interviews eaters, drinkers, thinkers and makers across California and especially at its heart, the Central Coast. And, this past year, CONSUMED hit the top 40 podcasts about food and wine in the United...

There is no doubt that water is a precious resource, particularly in drought prone regions like California. It is very important for growers to measure soil moisture and there are a bevy of technological devices available to utilize. From soil moisture probes to pressure bombs, these tools are helpful but, they only provide data on once specific area at a time and many are time consuming to use.

Today, there is a lot of free satell...

Using sheep to graze vineyards has many benefits including lowering the carbon footprint, fewer tractor passes, and reduced herbicide use. Kelsey Brewer, Ph.D. Candidate at the University of California at Davis has been researching how these living lawnmowers impact nutrient and energy flows in the eco system.

When tractors were replaced by sheep, the research team found that vineyards had 1.3 times more organic matter and nitrogen...

What, bury charcoal in the vineyard? Biochar is a specialized form of charcoal made from waste woody biomass at high temperature in the absence of oxygen. We know soil organic matter is important for the health of any crop. It turns out the use of charwood (biochar) goes back to ancient civilizations and it can be found naturally in soils from fire events.

Doug Beck, Science Officer at Monterey Pacific in Monterey California, recen...

Higher education is important to many students but paying for college can be challenging. The Vineyard Team Educational Scholarship helps college students whose parents work in members' vineyards and wineries achieve their dreams.

The Smiths of Saxum and James Berry Vineyard, know that our people are vital to sustainability. Justin Smith tells the story of Juan Nevarez, a person instrumental in their wine business for over thre...

In 2008 the oversupply of Sauvignon Blanc coupled with the financial crisis lead to trialing shaking to remove berries in New Zealand for the very first time. A few years later, the New Zealand Winegrowers Society funded a three-year grant to test the impacts of shaking on dropping fruit, wine quality, and botrytis. Mark Allen of Allen Vineyard Advisory explains that because shaking the vine four to six weeks after fruit set does c...

The 2020 pandemic showed many brands how social media can be an important means of communication. Heather Daenitz of Craft & Cluster helps wines brands tell their grape to glass story with photography and social media. Keeping up with latest trends and algorithms can be challenging. At the end of the day, Instagram wants to keep people on the platform as long as possible. If you have good content the algorithm will show your po...

The small Priorat region in Spain has a fascinating history dating back to the Moors in the 8th century, to the birth of its wine production for a local monastery in the 1100s to the near complete devastation of its vineyards by phylloxera in the late 19th century. Replanting began in earnest in the 1950s and top reviews by Robert Parker in the 2000 helped solidify this area as a top wine region in Spain.

Local Perinet Winemaker An...

The resource concentration hypothesis looks at how the advent of modern agriculture as monoculture created an environment where pests can grow faster because their resource, the crop, is more prevalent. Biodiversity is fundamental for pest management and Daniel Paredes, Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California Davis, in the department of Wildlife Fish and Conservation Biology, is studying how sustaining natural habitat a...

While grape production does not require extensive water use and the majority of vineyards in the Pacific North West are drip irrigated, drought conditions in recent years have led growers to seek more efficiencies to reduce water use. Pete Jacoby, Professor of Crops and Soil Sciences at Washington State University knows that in a traditional drip irrigated vineyard, water is lost through evaporation plus plants loose about 90 perce...

Once a vineyard manger has found disease there is often not much to be done, they are merely mitigating loss. The Lab at Cornell has launched several grape disease sensing technology projects to study early detection and how to use that information. Leading the research is Katie Gold, assistant professor of plant pathology and plant microbe-biology at Cornell AgriTech. The programs utilize imaging spectroscopy (also known as hypers...

Wildfires and COVID impacted legislation as much as they impacted wine production this year. Lauren Noland-Hajik, Attorney and Lobbyist at Soares & Conway coves some of the major changes seen in 2020 and what is coming up in 2021. The March shutdown of the legislature due to COVID resulted in the handing off of power from the legislature off to governor to make executive orders. This is a scenario that has not been seen in a lo...

In 1972 Paul Kalemkiarian’s father purchased a liquor store and began featuring two of his top wine picks each month. Customers, appreciative of the direction in wine selection, would ask to have wine shipped to them and the Wine of the Month Club was born. The intent of the club remains the same, to help customers select a good wine for the value, not to sell any wine. After sampling over 100,000 wines, Paul knows you need to tast...

In mid-April 2020, the grape market saw its highest bulk inventory at 23 million gallons. By November that quantity had reduced significantly to 8.5 million gallons. Audra Cooper, Central Coast Grape Broker and Partner at Turrentine Brokerage explains how the grape market has been on a roller coaster throughout 2020. At the beginning of the year, most varieties and regions in California were in drastic oversupply. The onset of COVI...

The Spotted Lanternfly (SLF) is the newest agricultural invasive species in the United States. Originally from Asia, this insect feeds on plant sap from a broad range of hosts. Dr. Heather Leach, Extension Associate at the Department of Entomology at Penn State University is focused on researching this insect and educating the public on how to manage the pest. Although it appears that SLF has been in the United States for some year...

Today, 40% of the California wine industry does not have a Farm Advisor. Four industry veterans discuss retirements and recruitment for UC Cooperative Extension. Larry Bettiga, long time UCCE Farm Advisor Monterey County, discusses how reduction in staff looks from the perspective of a Farm Advisor. Chris Storm, Viticulturist of Vino Farms covers his experience with Farm Advisors and their import to the industry to assist smaller g...

Leading expert Dr. Andrew Landers of Cornell University discusses his more than thirty years of research and development on pesticide sprayer technology to reduce pesticide use through accurate, efficient delivery of the product to the plant.