Bryan Babcock, Disciplined Winegrower Pt. 2
Ξ October 18th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ A Day at a Time, Interviews, Technology, Wine History, Winemakers, Wineries |
Here is given the second and final part of my interview with Bryan Babcock. In the post below you will read his opinions on a wide variety of subjects. From his take on environmentalism, climate change, and an extensive meditation irrigation, he never fails to be interesting and a challenge to the status quo. While one may not agree with him on some specifics, there is no doubting a lively intellect is at work. He is curious about the world, no small thing in a increasingly commodified culture where the ‘life of the mind’ struggles for breathing room.
Part 2:
Admin I recently had a conversation with Bob Mullen of Woodside Vineyards and I asked him whether it might be helpful to push for sub-AVAs within the Santa Cruz Mtns AVA, what, with our abundance of micro-climates. He counciled strongly against it arguing that it would dilute the ‘brand’, confuse the public. But we also know that in Paso Robles they are currently in the throws of a big to-do over sub-AVAs that, I for one hope, may come on-line in the next few years, sub-AVAs that will actually advance the ‘brand’. What ought to be the bottom line for the division of an AVA into subs?
BB Freedom. Freedom should be the bottom line.
That’s a great answer!
BB That’s the short answer to that question. Now, after that, I think that AVAs ought to be organized based on what they are, what exists, what’s different, and then what the causality is, the micro-climate, wind, the topography, the geology, the geography, all these different things that make the specific area what it is; and if it is unique and isolated, something that can be captured conceptually and designated, whether that designation is in the form of a law, by the ATF, for example, and then an American Viticultural Area or AVA, or whether it’s just a kind of a loosely held notion driven by the media and the producers. I think that, though I know Santa Cruz, maybe they’re just not one on them. I for one look at Paso Robles and I think the west side is so dramatically different from the east that there probably should be at least two different appellations.
I’ve got a good buddy that’s growing some of what’s arguably region 1 Pinot Noir out by the Coast, around York Valley, but because he’s from Paso Robles he gets associated with 50,000 acres of region 4 Cabernet. Maybe there’s a good opportunity for a different appellations there. And I think York Mountain is an appellation, it seems to me.
I’m not opposed to these things especially if they help to delineate and clarify information for the consumer I think they can be good.
But I don’t like the idea that the government is in control of these things. I guess if you want to have a territorial label that the government would uphold and protect, I guess that’s fine. But the last thing I’m interested in is the government telling us what varieties we can and cannot grow, how much we can plant, how we gotta farm, etcetera, etcetera.
I’m leery of anything that has to do with associating government which has the monopoly on the initiation of force when it should otherwise be free enterprise and free market play. So as long as the government can stand aside as much as possible then I think it should be ‘anything goes’. I’m all for laissez-faire.
As far as ‘green practices’ are concerned, do you think winegrowers are unfairly singled out to be especially pure of heart? It seems that hardly a day goes by when yet another green initiative is heaped upon the wine industry. When was the last time a cucumber grower was so put upon?
BB Well, I don’t know, maybe because we’re in the industry we feel it more… I mean, have you talked to a cucumber grower lately?
More and more are organic, that’s for sure.
BB Well, there you go. So before you hold that premise I’d talk to the cucumber growers. My guess is that they’re being attacked just like anyone else. I mean, the automobile manufacturers are being attacked and clothing manufacturers, you name it. We’re about to have a carbon cap; it’s ubiquitous now in our culture. I don’t think it’s just winegrowers. I think, if anything, winegrowers, because we farm a species, vinifera, which has the capability of living 50 to 100 years, growers are more interested in a healthy vineyard. It’s much more of a long term proposition and a long term outlook.
I do think alot of it is overblown. I think alot of it has kinda been forced upon us by environmentalism which I hold as an irrational philosophy. If you look at environmentalism for what it is philosophically then it’s not very rational. Nobody wants dirty water and dirty air. I mean, come on! And there are alot of people on the earth, we have to figure out ways to live with one another. And there are finite resources. But of [environmental] mysticism, when you try to derive politics and policy from that alot of times it gets very bizarre.
I for one have been interested in farming in a way I feel is wholesome. Any business, any responsible business owner, regardless of what they do, whether they’re a farmer or not, they should be accountable for and responsible to being wholesome and having a relative degree of safety. I don’t think your products should hurt people or kill people. I don’t think anybody out there is his right mind as a consumer wants to be hurt or killed because of your product.
The whole emphasis on sustainability, on the one hand it’s good, it makes sense, but on the other it’s a little awkward because I’ve yet to meet a winegrower who just went out and killed his vineyard. I’ve never met such a winegrower. I’ve met people who farm different ways, some of them are not as responsible, some of them use way more chemicals than they need to. But for the most part the farming community in general, viticulture or anything else, it’s a very hard working, very responsible community.
Have you noticed any elements of climate change in your vineyards?
BB I do think the most recent vintages have been warmer than when I first started in the business. And it seems like through the growing season it’s been warmer and through part of the harvest season in the Fall, it felt a little cooler. Now, is it because of global warming? I don’t know. Is it because of Man? I really don’t know. I can’t tell you that. Some scientists will tell you “yes”, some will tell you “no”. We know the Earth has gone through temperature fluctuations for thousands of years… ice ages. Am I feeling the results of global warming? It’s hard for me to say. But the vintages do feel a little warmer. The last ten years have felt warmer than I remember them being the first ten years.
This year was interesting. There just wasn’t as much June gloom, there wasn’t as much of a strong inversion layer that we usually see starting in April and extending alot of times through July and into August. This year there was an inversion layer that would burn off a little earlier, by nine o’clock the sun would be out. It just does feel a little warmer.
Have you taken an interest in international markets?
BB A little. We’ve done a little in the UK, we’ve been looking at the Pacific Rim.
On your blog or website it is mentioned that one of your labels is a painting of yours. Do you paint?
BB No! (laughs) The label I think you’re talking about was from my days in college. I got a liberal arts education, and part of that is you gotta take an art class, and so I call that ‘paint or flunk’.
(laughs) I see.
BB So rather than flunk I painted this stuff, and, you know, it hangs on the wall until sooner or later you end up doing something with it. And it did well because it’s abstract, which I’m certainly not a devoteé of, but because I didn’t know how to paint that’s what I did. I had no talent whatsoever so what else do you do but paint a blur or smear? Then, low and behold, ten years after school you find that the culture likes that kind of stuff! And you put it on a wine label.
I’ve had a similar experience!
BB Yeah.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
BB Just a conclusion of the irrigation discussion. After the bore-hole irrigation, that’s during verasion, we put on two to three inches, hopefully within 48 hours after we pick. Those two irrigations seem to unite with one another to set a perfect sequence for the planting of the legumes. You get the legumes planted right now, or the end of October, then they come into full flower before a very important point which is the frost season, because you want to have your cover crop mowed out before the frost season. The reason for that is after bud break, on really cold nights, you want the cold air to be able to drain out of the vineyard, off of the vineyard floor. If you have a full stand of legumes in March, legumes chest high, across the entire field that has a tendency to push the cold up off of the ground, up into the canopy area of the vine where the tender shoots are. And the tender shoots can get burned, frozen, and then they die. With the cover crop mowed, it’s out of the way. Then the cold air can stay on the floor of the vineyard and drain out. Cold air is like water. It’s heavy because it’s cold, more dense, so it tends to want to fall to the lowest point, just like water. With a full stand of cover, even on a hillside, it makes it much more difficult for that air to drain off.
The important connection is that while you have to mow your cover, while you’re compelled to mow your cover, if it’s a legume crop, you don’t want to mow it before full flower. When legumes are in full flower that’s when they’ve come to full biomass, that’s when they’ve fixed the maximum amount of nitrogen in their roots. That’s why you plant legumes, for nitrogen fixing. If you can mow in full flower before the frost then you’re in business. Plus you get a nice thatch when you mow, which is good for keeping the dust down, it helps minimize erosion damage. The frost season may have started but you may not have ended the rainy season. A nice thatch on the ground is good. So you get the full effect of the legumes as far as them being a fertilizer source, a green manure. Mowing before full flower will not get the full effect. To avoid mowing before full flower in frost season you gotta get you legumes planted early enough. The only way to make legumes grow early enough is to have enough water in the field right at harvest.
What we’ve found is that if we do a bore hole irrigation at verasion that down under the soil, between the vines and in the middle of the rows, there is still a relative amount of moisture, as opposed to a completely drip-irrigated system where the only moisture is under the dripper, the hydration sphere under the dripper. And then if you put on two or three more inches right after you pick then the two waterings, the first put on 60, 70, 80 days prior, the two waterings unite and the legumes grow. The legumes take off! And they take off better than if we’d only watered at harvest. That may just be wishful thinking. I haven’t done the science or read scientific studies on the matter, but it makes sense.
We have run into situations, especially with Pinot, where we might put on two inches the night we pick thinking, “Ok, let’s get ready to drill in our cover, plant our legumes”, and we plant the legumes, but because it’s the Fall and it’s still hot, you got Santa Ana conditions, 10 days later it’s dry again. The surface dries out. So what I’m finding is that bore hole irrigation at verasion and at harvest really makes the ground in the middle perfect for farming legumes.
What was just kind of a crazy idea ten years ago has turned out to be a pretty interesting approach overall.
Well, thank you very, very much.
BB Thanks, Ken. Nice working with you.
Admin
