SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
WILLIAMSON SUSTAINABLE VINEYARDS
We Live Where We Farm
Caring for the vineyard begins with caring for everything around it.
Our family, children and grandchildren are surrounded by our vineyards. We drink the wine, eat fruit and vegetables grown on the property and draw water from our wells.
Protecting this land is not a marketing position. It is an unequivocal life choice.
A LONG-TERM RESPONSIBILITY
The Vineyard Must Outlive the Vintage
Growing wine grapes is a long-term undertaking. A vineyard cannot be separated from its soil, water, wildlife or the people who tend it. Every farming decision becomes part of that larger system.
Our responsibility is to produce exceptional fruit while protecting the natural resources that make the vineyard possible in the first place.
Sustainability is not one farming technique. It is the discipline of considering what every decision leaves behind.
INDEPENDENTLY CERTIFIED
Good Intentions Need Measurable Standards
Our practices are supported by recognized, third-party sustainability programs.
Certified Sustainable
Williamson was an early participant in California’s sustainable winegrowing movement because many of the required practices were already part of the way we farmed.
The California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance provides a disciplined framework for evaluating environmental responsibility, vineyard management and continuous improvement.
Fish Friendly Farming
Fish Friendly Farming takes a whole-property approach to soil, water, habitat and vineyard management.
Independent agency review provides meaningful confirmation that conservation plans protect water quality and the surrounding watershed.
In 2014, Sonoma County Winegrowers challenged the region to become the nation’s first fully certified sustainable winegrowing region. Williamson was ready because sustainability was already part of our daily vineyard work.
LIFE BENEATH THE VINES
Understanding the Vineyard Soil
Healthy vineyard soil is not inert dirt. It is a living community of microorganisms interacting with roots, moisture, minerals and organic matter.
Working with Biome Makers, we have used DNA-sequencing technology to examine the diversity and balance of microbial communities in our vineyard soils.
This information gives us another way to evaluate soil health, recognize biological imbalances and make better-informed farming decisions before a problem becomes visible above ground.
DIVERSITY BETWEEN THE ROWS
Cover Crops Build Better Soil
Grapevines remain in place for many years, so we cannot rotate the principal crop as other farmers might.
Instead, we plant seasonal cover crops between the vineyard rows.
These plants help limit erosion, return organic matter to the soil, support biological diversity and compete naturally with unwanted weeds.
When their work is done, they return to the soil and become part of the vineyard’s next growing season.
FEEDING THE VINES
Add Only What Is Needed.
It is easy to apply fertilizer. It is more useful to understand what the vine and soil actually need.
Periodic soil analysis measures available nutrients, while annual petiole analysis examines plant tissue to show what the vines are successfully taking up.
Together, these measurements help us return appropriate, naturally occurring nutritional elements to the vineyard rather than relying on routine applications of commercial fertilizer.
WORKING WITH THE VINEYARD
Natural Pest Management
We combine mechanical and biological controls to manage vineyard pests while minimizing the need for chemical intervention.
The vineyard already has capable workers. Some simply happen to have wings.
Bluebirds
Nesting boxes encourage bluebirds to make their homes among the vines, where their appetite for insects provides natural help with vineyard pest management.
Owls and Raptors
Owl boxes and hawk roosts encourage natural predators that help control mice, gophers, voles and birds that can damage ripening grapes.
THE ENTIRE SYSTEM
Water Connects Us to Our Neighbors
Farming property beside a creek or river carries a responsibility to downstream neighbors and to the wildlife sharing that water.
Salmon and trout are sensitive to changes in water temperature, clarity, flow and aquatic food systems. Their presence—or disappearance—can reveal much about the health of the watershed.
Fish Friendly Farming helps us consider the entire property: vineyard rows, roads, creek banks, drainage, erosion, habitat and water quality. It is farming viewed as one connected system, because that is precisely what it is.
FROM VINEYARD TO TABLE
The Work Continues in the Glass
Sustainable farming is not separate from wine quality. Healthy vines, balanced soils and carefully managed water give us better fruit and a clearer expression of place.
That fruit becomes wine made for food, conversation and the pleasure of gathering around a table. The vineyard is where the relationship begins. The glass is where it becomes visible.