Does Your Wine Require A Safety Video?
While wine tasting recently in Paso Robles, I became immersed in a conversation that I wish I could have recorded and played for everyone who drinks wine.
The winemaker I was with began talking with the tasting room manager about the fact they had both worked as grape samplers for large wineries. I won’t name the large wineries, but you know them. Think of a couple well-known brands from California whose Cabernet, or Chardonnay, or Sauvignon Blanc you’ve had… yes, that’s them.
Every winemaker samples grapes. Big wineries employ people as grape samplers to determine when to pick the grapes. Because they manage thousands of acres of vines, they employ people whose job is to drive around in the fall and pick grapes from each block of vines to bring back to the lab or do field tests to determine ripeness by various measurements.
Both of these young people had been encouraged by their employers to taste the grapes as well, to develop their palate for ripeness and flavor, which can at times be more important than chemical analysis.
But both of these people had declined to taste the grapes.
Because of what both of their employers sprayed in the vineyards, these former grape samplers had been required to watch safety videos to ensure that they performed their work with informed consent. This is a law and a liability issue. The chemicals we allow to be sprayed on thousands of acres of vineyards are so hazardous that, in California if you want to enter these vineyards, we must first sit you down and explain that you’re taking your health and life in your own hands.
The winemaker and tasting room manager had clearly been freaked out, and performed their jobs with extreme caution and reticence. They were sufficiently concerned to refuse to put the grapes into their mouths… the same grapes we’ve drunk in these brands’ Cabernets, Chardonnays, Sauvignon Blancs, etc.
One of the direct quotes that I remember from the conversation was when the tasting room manager, explaining why she didn’t work as a grape sampler for a second season, said, “… I mean, I want to have kids some day!”
We shouldn’t have to endanger ourselves and future generations to enjoy a glass of wine.
It’s April, and here in Los Angeles I’ll soon give the vines of Crenshaw Cru their first spray of the season. That spray will be Stylet Oil. Stylet Oil is white (food grade) mineral oil, and is allowed in organic farming. I dilute three tablespoons of stylet oil per gallon of water, and two gallons pretty much takes care of Crenshaw Cru in the early season. It is one of the most effective organic treatments against powdery mildew, bunch rot, and several vine-damaging insect pests. It’s also the “most toxic” spray I use… which is to say it has extremely low toxicity, unless you’re a fish.
Robin shows that a vineyard can be a place to romp and play.
Other sprays I use include cinnamon oil diluted in water, sesame oil mixed with fish emulsion diluted in water, compost teas, and micronized sulfur diluted in water. I apply one of these every ten days from just after bud-break until just after veraison, when the anthocyanin build up in the grapes makes them resistant to mildews. I never, ever use herbicides (I actually plant herbs and use herbi-helpers, aka compost teas).
Other than the compost teas, which I spray as a pro-biotic for the winegarden ecosystem, I’d love to not have to spray anything in the ecosystems I care for. The reason I do spray is because I’m growing non-native vitis vinifera vines that have great flavor but don’t have natural resistance to mildew and disease. This year, I’ve started growing some very special, and delicious, hybrid grapevines that have native American genetics and will not need to be sprayed here in CA, and I hope to plant more and more of those.
If you’re considering a backyard vineyard, front yard vineyard, or any kind of vineyard… let me know. I’m available for consultation, installation, and management, and I can tell you more about the benefits of hybrid vines.
And if you just want to drink some wine that doesn’t require a safety video to produce… welcome to Centralas. We think a vineyard can be a place that enhances the health of the world and those who live in it.
Cheers!
Adam