My guests for this episode are Kelly Allen and Andrew Napier of Artemisia Farm in Virginia. They are hybrid grape growers, and winemakers, aromatized wine makers, makers of wine made with native American fruits besides grapes, writers and publishers, wine faire organizers, farmers who do a regular CSA, foragers, and passionate entrepreneurs.
But more than that they are incredibly thoughtful about everything they do, and they are really enjoyable to talk to, which never hurts.
Now, one important thing that is worth mentioning. Kelly and Andrew use lots of wild fruits and ingredients, as well as some permaculture farmed fruits – so things that are far beyond organic – and they use some other farmed fruits that are farmed organically though not certified. But they don’t farm their hybrid grapes organically. This is an intentional choice they make because they believe it is the more ecological choice in their context. Virginia, for those who aren’t familiar, is a subtropical climate that also has cold winters. Their growing season is hot, sticky, humid, and wet… and the perfect conditions for every grape fungal and insect pest. In these conditions, many people in Virginia are growing vinifera. To do this often takes weekly applications of chemical sprays, as many as 15-25 conventional sprays in a growing season. That is frankly insane and is tantamount to poisoning our environment. But Organic sprays, which are less effective, often need to be applied at least as frequently in Virginia – that is weekly - even when using resistant hybrid grapes, which means a lot of substance buildup and compaction and fossil fuel use. Meanwhile Kelly and Andrew can spray their hybrids once per month and are learning how to manage the vineyard so they can do even less. I’m not saying what’s right or wrong here, I’m saying that if you are trying to grow grapes in the most ecological way in this context, I think an organic label doesn’t give you enough information and there are likely compromises to any path you take. However, Kelly and Andrew and I all agree that growing vinifera in Virginia is not only foolish, it’s irresponsible, and we aren’t afraid to piss some people off by saying that.
This conversation is information rich!
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Sponsors:
https://paicineslearning.org/events/regenerative-winegrowing-workshop/
Brian McClintic - Rethinking Wine, Letting Nature Lead
Drew Herman - Microbial Democracy for a Healthy Vineyard & World
Michael Juergens - Developing Bhutan’s First Ever Wine
Tim Graham - Local & Wild Fruit with Left Bank Ciders
Greg La Follette - How Wine Is Made In The Vineyard
Brady Shepherd - Mortgage Banker for Vineyard Real Estate
Bardos Cider - Gleaning Fruit From Abandoned Orchards
Gabriela Fontanesi - Vineyard Worker & Force of Nature
Organic Sucks & Natural Wine Will Save The World
Jack Sporer - Fres.co Wine and Magnolia Wine Services
Darek Trowbridge - Old World Winery, Soil Carbon Management Co., & Pastoral Winemaking
Jerry Eisterhold & Jean-Louis Horvilleur - TerraVox, American Native Wine Grapes in Missouri
Ian Thorsen-McCarthy
Jason Kesselring - The Only Vitis Riparia Vineyard in the World
Martha Stoumen - How To Make Natural Wine
Stephen Hagen and Andrew Smith - Antiquum Farm & Grazing-Based Viticulture
Christopher Renfro - The Two Eighty Project
Is The Cost of Organic or Biodynamic Certification Worth It?
Martin Bernal-Hafner - Alta Orsa
Sandor Katz - The Art Of Wild Fermentation
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