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GRAPE GRO WING it's always advisable to be the healthiest person in the room. Organic farming is not about not using chemicals, it's about building fundamental soil and vine health so as to diminish the need for chemicals. It is true that many products are prohibited for use by an organic grower, but I can honestly say that never once in more than 20 years of farming organi- cally have we found ourselves without the tools needed to bring in the crop clean and healthy. Meanwhile, new products are being developed, certified and brought into distribution on a regular basis that make the jobs of all growers—not just or- ganic growers—easier. The bio-fungicides (Sonata for powdery mildew and Ser- enade for Botrytis, for example) that were unavailable a few years ago are extremely useful today. And a whole new class of these products is out there ready for certification. The advent of more people farming organically will, no doubt, bring a higher demand for new products. W&V: You're dry farming your vine- yards. Why? What have the challenges and the benefits been? Williams: Frog's Leap dry farms all 250 acres, comprised of seven differ- ent ranches under our control. When establishing a vineyard, we do not install irrigation systems. We may hand-water the developing rootstock once or perhaps twice in its first year, but then the vines are on their own. One might be tempted to believe that this is a radical construct or that somehow we are blessed with extraordinary sites, but the truth is that easily 90% of the Napa Valley vineyard sites neither need, nor benefit from, irriga- tion. We know this because for more than 100 years that's how grapes were grown here. All the great and fundamental wines that established the reputation of the Napa Valley, every one was from a dry- farmed vineyard. Drip irrigation was first introduced in 1975 in Carneros but did not become widely accepted, particularly up-valley, until a decade later. I personally think history will show that the introduc- tion of drip was the primary cause for the phylloxera crisis of the late '80s and early '90s. AxR roots that had been firmly established deep in the soil now sensed that ready water was available near the surface and, upon coming up to meet the water, put their roots in harm's way. Other V. rupestris stock like St. George exposed to later season water became over-vigorous and fell out of favor as V. Westbridge Agricultural Products Specializing in Organic and Sustainable Programs ORGANIC ® Contains Auxiliary Soil and Plant Substances ® riparian stocks more easily controlled by irrigation regimes took over. We believe that not only are irrigation systems in most Napa Valley vineyards un- necessary, wasteful and costly, but indeed they have been detrimental to wine quality and a primary contributor to a changing Organic farming is "about building fundamental soil and vine health so as to diminish the need for chemicals." —John Williams, Frog's Leap wine style characterized by lower natural acidities, higher pHs, much higher alco- hol contents and a greater adaptation of winemaking intervention. The routine ap- plication of drip irrigation will inevitably lead to smaller rooting zones closer to the surface and eventually to a growing regime not dissimilar to hydroponically grow- ing. We all know the difference between a tomato grown in the deep soil of our sum- mer garden and one grown in a mixture of fertilizer and water. Could it be that green flavors, lack of color and inability to develop deep, satisfying flavors at what used to be normal Brix ranges of 22°-23.5° are some how related to the fact that we have grapevines with root zones the size of basketballs living on a "Coke and candy bar diet" of fertilizer and water applied weekly until the day they are picked? Dry farming is not just not adding • Liquid N-P-K fertilizers • Micronutrient fertilizers • Spray adjuvants & Insect repellants • Soil & plant amendments Call today to discover the benefits of our complete line of nutritional programs. 1260 Avenida Chelsea • Vista, CA 92081 (800) 876-2767 • www.westbridge.com 42 Wines & Vines nOVeMBeR 2011 water. It is a system of building soil water-holding capacity, trapping the winter rain in the soil and then wicking that moisture up by cultivation, only to have it trapped by a thin layer of tightly compact- ed soil at the surface. It is admittedly labor- and fuel-intensive, but placed in an overall view of ecological balance, it easily wins the day. Properly done, it loosens and aerates the soil and aids in the living soil organism. Walking on a properly dry- farmed vineyard is like walking on a mattress. It is, we believe, essential to the production of truly great wine. A resident of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Laurie Daniel has been a journalist for more than 25 years. She has been writing about wine for publications for nearly 15 years and has been a Wines & Vines contributor since 2006.