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GRAPE GRO WING Grapegrower Interview JOHN WILLIAMS Winegrowing from the roots up By Laurie Daniel ohn Williams, owner-wine- maker at Frog's Leap Winery in the Napa Valley, grew up on a dairy farm in New York and planned to be a dairy farmer himself. But during his dairy science studies at Cornell University, he participated in a work-study program at Taylor Wine Co. "I was immediately captivated by it," he says of the wine. Williams went on to get a graduate de- gree at the University of California, Davis, and worked at wineries in California and New York before founding Frog's Leap with two partners in 1981. He currently farms 250 acres of Napa Valley vineyards, all of which are certified organic. Wines & Vines: Why did you decide to farm organically? John Williams: In the spring of 1988, at the recommendation of Fetzer Vineyards, I asked "Amigo" Bob Cantisano to make a presentation on the principles of organic farming to a small group of Frog's Leap growers. Organic farming, particularly of vineyards, was pretty fringe at the time, and I don't think any of us knew what to expect—especially when Amigo showed up in full "Amigo" regalia, including Birkenstocks and a tie-dyed shirt. The late '80s was a time when a lot of my winemaking colleagues and I were experimenting more aggressively with winemaking techniques outside of our comfort zones: native yeast fermentations, unfiltered wines, extended skin contact, etc.—all things that are commonplace now, but at that time radical. We were looking to take our wines to the next level. By then, I had been a full-charge winemaker for more than 10 years and, for the most part, had acquired the skills to deal with most challenges in the cellar. So, when faced with lack of color or stuck J 40 Wines & Vines nOVeMBeR 2011 CALIFORNIA CALIFORNIA Mendocino Pacific Ocean Santa Rosa Frog's Leap Winery Napa San Francisco NV OR fermentations or persistent sulfide issues, I knew what I had to do. But these "solu- tions" often had a cost in wine quality, and increasingly I was becoming aware that the problems were often associated with the same vineyard block or the same grower. Winemakers often say that "great wines are made in the vineyards," but honestly, I didn't truly believe it. I could fix anything up. I was about to be shown differently. Prior to 1987, Frog's Leap purchased all of its grapes from outside growers. Upon the acquisition of our first vineyard on Rutherford's west side, I was faced with decisions about how to manage those vines that, despite having grown up on a farm and extensive studies at two of our coun- try's best agricultural universities, I was ill-prepared to answer. I didn't really know how to prune. My spray program consist- ed of tying a wet rag around my head and letting the sulfur dust fly. I needed help. Help came first in the form of Frank Leeds. Frank's family had already been farming in Rutherford for two generations before he climbed on his first tractor, and he was deeply schooled in the traditional viticultural techniques that are the under- pinnings of how we now farm the 250 acres under our care. Frank began to teach me that there is no substitute for sound viticultural practice and that many, if not most, of the problems that I was facing in the cellar had their roots in the vineyard. And then the Amigo Bob seminar hap- pened in March 1988. I think most of us were expecting a long recital of what we couldn't do if we wanted to farm organi- cally. We'd have to accept lower yields, higher costs, lots of weeds and greater threat of pests if we wanted to hug trees, right? But what we heard was that the fun- damental principles of organic farming rest in the building of soil health through the reasoned use of cover crops and compost. Healthy, living soils produce healthy, living plants that naturally resist disease. Natural- based soil fertility works to regulate the vigor of the grapevine and naturally con- fers its health and balance to the fruit, and thus the fermenting wine, thereby avoiding many of the problems we would otherwise have to confront in the cellar. Could organic farming combined with sound viticultural practice be the answer to increasing wine quality and avoiding