One of the perks offered by ASA is a specialized pre-conference tour emphasizing some topics relevant to sociology. And so it was that I spent yesterday traipsing through 3 vineyards in Sonoma County-- each known for using biodynamic agricultural farming practices. What is biodynamic wine farming, you ask? It's farming without using pesticides or herbicides or fertilizer. In other words, it's organic and sustainable. The vineyard owners use nothing that can change the soil or otherwise change the ecosystem it farms on.
Our first tour and tasting was at Benziger Winery where I fell in love with sustainable wine farming and immediately ordered 6 bottles to be shipped home! It was fun to taste the grapes right from the vine and note things like the color of the grape and the texture of its skin...
That's why we could pick grapes straight from the vine and taste them!
Next it was a stop at Hamel Wineries- a relatively new endeavor and a small winery. I fell in love with their Rose which had a Grenache grape (it's so fun to name drop with a little bit of knowledge !) and a beautiful color! Had several bottles of it shipped home also.
Last, we stopped at GunlachBundschau and after I tasted two of their whites, even while sloshing and spitting all day-- I was done tasting wines! Hard to believe but true!
Most of these wineries are about 30-40 acres, and as we were told on the tour, it takes a large fortune to make a small fortune in this business. Most of these wineries are family owned, and don't make much money but do this truly for the love of it. It also helps to keep the land in the family.
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