Napa Valley’s Spring Mountain Vineyard takes green seriously, having always practiced sustainable agriculture.
The 225 acres of estate vineyard, scattered over 845 acres of pristine land, in many ways resembles a national park. The natural beauty — the pure mountain streams, groves of virgin redwoods and abundant wildlife — remind Spring Mountain’s owners of their responsibility to protect it.
What exactly does that mean in a mountain vineyard setting such as Spring Mountain’s? The proprietors outline their policies:
– We use no herbicides and no insecticides.
– We release beneficial insects in the vineyard to combat harmful pests. In 2007, we released over 1,000,000 – yes, a million — insects to keep our vineyards healthy and balanced.
– We build scores of bat and bird houses to encourage native species that eat harmful insects in the vineyard.
– We protect — never harm — the deer, wild turkeys, foxes, coyotes and raptors that live here.
– We train our vines using an ancient form called “Vertical Gobelet” in a meter by meter spacing in lieu of cutting erosion-prone terraces into hillsides.
– We sow cover crops like crimson and strawberry clover, barley, brome and fescue on all vineyards and hillsides to control erosion.
– We use sheep, a.k.a. wooly weeders, to eat springtime grasses in the vineyard. Our girls are happy to graze and we are happy with the peaceful nature of their work, the gentle ringing of their bells and the scampering play of newborn lambs.
– We conserve water by capturing winter rains and directing it back into our wells.
– We compost — never burn — all plant material from the vineyard and gardens, including pomace and pruned canes.
– We minimize our footprint in the vineyard by carefully planned equipment passes through the vine rows.
– We follow a “no till” program to preserve precious topsoil and prevent erosion.
