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win N E M Ak in g WI e m a KING shrouded in fog from the Pacific Ocean until 11 a.m. "The slope on the top vineyard (Twisty Ridge) gets maximum sun all day long, and it needs it." Rodgers says the planting density at Domaine Lois Louise is about 2,500 vines per acre, and a relief valve is installed every 50 feet of the irrigation system to control pressure buildup. A weather monitor created by Adcon delivers information to the Rodgers' home in Woodside. Between the vineyard climate, planting choices and farming practices (Rodgers calls for cluster thinning when yields approach the 2 tons per acre mark), Domaine Lois Louise produces just 1 ton of fruit per acre, resulting in what Rodgers calls "an intensely concentrated wine." California hippies. But Valeta Rodgers tells Wines & Vines she has been leading an experiment in Biodynamic growing for the past five years. "We do the whole thing, we do the moon calendar," she says, "and we've seen no difference at all." In fact, Rodgers adds that in order to see the results from a product approved for Biodynamic use, she has to use a lot more of it than a product deemed fit for sustainable vineyards. like a cable car: At the top of the vineyard the tractor is hooked to cables that pull it up and down the rows as well as around corners. A driver sits on top and controls the machine using a joystick. Winery design When TJ Rodgers first started making wine, he crushed and stored his wine at Woodside Vineyards in nearby Menlo Park, Calif. But after purchasing Domaine Lois Louise, he knew that trucking grapes to a flatlands winery would be awkward and expensive. For three years, Rodgers spent three hours every Saturday and Sunday designing the winery. He solicited the advice of architects and professors, contractors and even a 1950s textbook written in Russian. In the end, he got what he wanted: a gravity-flow winery with three separate caves: one for crush and fermentation, another for barrel aging and a third for bottling and case storage. The winemaker calculated the width of the first tunnel by determining the space necessary to accommodate two fermentors side by side. Much of the floor area goes unused now (production currently stands "Fifteen years straight, 40 fermentations a year, without a bad fermentation with native yeast." Sustainable, organic and Biodynamic With the Rodgers' backgrounds in the high-tech sector (Valeta was a senior SRAM design engineer before taking over day-to-day operations at the winery), Clos de la Tech seems an unlikely candidate for vineyard practices that some would consider the domain of Northern —TJ Rodgers A foray into customization Standing atop the ridge that overlooks Domaine Lois Louise, farming and harvesting the steep, closely spaced rows below appears daunting if not impossible. There is a 966-foot climb in elevation at the site, combined with a side slope of around 25°. Nano tractors can be unstable at such steep inclines, causing them to tip over, TJ Rodgers says. He worked with Clemens GmbH to design a multi-row tractor that would fit the narrow rows at Domaine Lois Louise. The result functions Paul Sakuma Photography Each utility station is outfitted with cool and warm water, compressed air, argon and electricity. TJ Rodgers' company Cypress Semiconductor designed and donated 152 fermentation units like the one at far right for the teaching winery at the University of California, Davis. This year Clos de la Tech will use the technology in its own fermentors. Win es & Vin es NOV EM b er 20 13 29