H A V E Y O U S E E N U S L A T E L Y ?
WE DON'T ADVERTISE. Chances are, you've seen us driving the valley, working in the field, or heard of us directly from one of our clients. Think you caught a glimpse somewhere else? Check out below.
From sheep to smartphones: Napa’s new sustainability playbook
BY BRETT MARSH
From grazing sheep to smartphone-controlled irrigation systems, a recent event in Napa County showcased how old-world farming practices and modern technology are converging to shape the future of sustainable winemaking.
Hosted by Cordero Vineyards at Lost Valley Wines in Napa County’s Wooden Valley, the event Sustainability in Action featured six interactive educational stations, each highlighting a critical pillar of responsible viticulture.
Debra Becker, the owner of Lost Valley Wines, which was founded in 2023 to showcase the wines of the estate, guided attendees to each of the educational and tasting stations scattered across the estate’s sloping property.
Micro-Winery Guild members — Battuello Vineyards, Sciandri Family Vineyards and Elkhorn Peak Cellars — poured their wines while explaining their own vineyards’ sustainable farming practices.
“We come from a long career in sustainability in the built environment,” Becker said of herself and her husband and fellow winemaker Eric Lamb. “And it’s really fun to apply those same kinds of principles to agriculture and winemaking.”
Lost Valley Wines incorporates several pillars in its sustainable farming practices — compost and soil health; water management; solar power and electrification; weed management and rotational grazing; sustainable packaging; small farm advocacy; and supporting female-owned businesses and organizations. The ranch is a Certified California Sustainable Vineyard under the California Sustainable Winegrowers Alliance, and is also a Verified Napa Valley Micro-Producer with the Micro-Winery Guild.
Becker spoke to attendees about Lost Valley Wines’ use of lighter, recycled wine bottles for its vintages, as well as doing away with foil wrappers, which produce extra waste and can also lead to chemicals and metals like aluminum leaking into the wine.
Lost Valley works with Recology, a San Francisco-based sustainable waste management company, to build up healthy vineyard soils on its property through composting organic matter.
Robert Reed, Recology’s public relations manager, demonstrated how the company’s food scrap composting diverts waste from landfills, returns nutrients to vineyard soils, improves drought resilience, sequesters carbon deep in topsoil, and supports pollinator populations that make wine grapes possible.
Reed had come to Lost Valley with his truck, whose bed was piled high with a mound of warm, composted soil, which he urged attendees to touch with their bare hands.
“Can you feel the warmth of that soil?” he said excitedly. “Composting helps make the soil more healthy on farms, so that they can grow more food.”
Reed also called on people to use home composting bins as a “really good deed to help the Earth and all of our families in the long run.”
Recology’s goal is to have cities across the country use more composted soil and encourage their residents to practice composting at home, so long as they line their bins with a paper towel — which eliminates odors — and empty it daily.
In recent years, weed and fire-risk management on vineyard properties has increasingly incorporated the cutest of bovids: sheep and goats.
One family-run company, Napa Pasture Protein, has become one of the leaders in using cover crop grazing to reduce carbon emissions, wildfire risk and weed proliferation, while also improving soil conditions.
“There is so much more to grazing and how it impacts the ground,” said Cori Carlson, the owner of the Capell Valley-based company whose first client in Napa was Lost Valley.
Sheep that graze on vineyard properties do so during the dormant season and early growth periods, before bud break. They are preferred over goats for vineyard grazing because they reduce low-growing weeds and cover crops without harming vines, while goats tend to be more destructive and better suited for woodland areas.
When sheep are brought onto a property, Carlson explained, they apply nitrogen and urea — a natural compound through their collective hoof movement.
“What that does is stimulate the roots to drive down into the soil,” she said.
As they graze, the sheep take the grass that they eat, put it through their rumen — which breaks down tough plant material — and then return those microbes into the soil.
“Those microbes are already broken down into usable nitrogen and urea,” she said. “And that, in turn, changes what is underneath the ground.”
Over the rainy season, water is drawn down even farther than it otherwise would be without that stimulated root growth. This also creates lower soil temperatures and retains moisture during the notoriously dry summer months in the Napa Valley.
Carlson stressed that the health of vines is intrinsically tied to the health of the soil, just like the health of human skin is linked to gut health.
“What we have seen, after multiple passes, is that we have changed the health of the soils so much that the native grasses have started to return,” she said.
Those native grasses are what holds the soil structure together, drawing moisture in, which strengthens the landscape’s resilience to fire.
Rebecca Sciandri Griffin, of Sciandri Family Vineyards, shared her family farm’s minimal-intervention growing philosophy — “We let the vines find the natural water sources” — which incorporates traditional field blending that doesn’t rely on a single crop in a single vineyard.
Sciandri Griffin also described the farm as “fish-friendly,” which she defined as putting nothing in the dirt that would end up in the water and disturb the fish population, or the animals that use that as their water source.
Sciandri Family Vineyards’ proximity to wild, uncultivated nature is both a blessing and challenge, she said. Deer, coyotes, snakes and cats can be found here, but also perennial pests like rodents.
To address this, the farm encourages owls to nest on the property, part of a growing practice of applying what Sciandri Griffin called “Mother Nature’s natural pest control.” That’s where the vineyard's use of owl boxes comes in.
Owls, she said, help with rodent control, and owl boxes provide them with shelter to house newborn chicks.
“They are our form of farmworker housing,” she joked.
Flowmeters, tanks, reservoirs and generators are essential infrastructure on any vineyard. However, they require a bit more sophisticated technology in order to be more efficient and sustainable.
Kelsey Terry, an automation programmer and specialist with Drop Point Automation, explained the company designs custom precision irrigation systems as she stood against the backdrop of Cordero Vineyards’ own version aligned with its rows of vines.
“The main focus (of the system) is using the water that you have most efficiently,” said Terry.
Since 2018, Drop Point Automation has installed irrigation systems in vineyards, olive farms and apple orchards across Napa and Sonoma counties. Cordero Vineyards’ system was installed in April 2025.
Each of Drop Point Automation’s irrigation systems can do anything from monitoring flowmeters, weather stations, and temperature and humidity sensors to controlling irrigation valves, generators and water well pump motors, all remotely from a smartphone app or desktop platform.
“This really helps with irrigation management,” Terry said.
Eric Lamb said that he and Becker were pleased with their new system, both from an economic and environmental standpoint.
For 13 years, Cordero Vineyards had relied on a valve operator to drive to the ranch, turn on the valves, drive to another site, and then return later to turn off the valves.
“You can imagine the precision of that is not too good,” he said drolly.
Hosted by Cordero Vineyards at Lost Valley Wines in Napa County’s Wooden Valley, the event Sustainability in Action featured six interactive educational stations, each highlighting a critical pillar of responsible viticulture.
Debra Becker, the owner of Lost Valley Wines, which was founded in 2023 to showcase the wines of the estate, guided attendees to each of the educational and tasting stations scattered across the estate’s sloping property.
Micro-Winery Guild members — Battuello Vineyards, Sciandri Family Vineyards and Elkhorn Peak Cellars — poured their wines while explaining their own vineyards’ sustainable farming practices.
“We come from a long career in sustainability in the built environment,” Becker said of herself and her husband and fellow winemaker Eric Lamb. “And it’s really fun to apply those same kinds of principles to agriculture and winemaking.”
Lost Valley Wines incorporates several pillars in its sustainable farming practices — compost and soil health; water management; solar power and electrification; weed management and rotational grazing; sustainable packaging; small farm advocacy; and supporting female-owned businesses and organizations. The ranch is a Certified California Sustainable Vineyard under the California Sustainable Winegrowers Alliance, and is also a Verified Napa Valley Micro-Producer with the Micro-Winery Guild.
Becker spoke to attendees about Lost Valley Wines’ use of lighter, recycled wine bottles for its vintages, as well as doing away with foil wrappers, which produce extra waste and can also lead to chemicals and metals like aluminum leaking into the wine.
Lost Valley works with Recology, a San Francisco-based sustainable waste management company, to build up healthy vineyard soils on its property through composting organic matter.
Robert Reed, Recology’s public relations manager, demonstrated how the company’s food scrap composting diverts waste from landfills, returns nutrients to vineyard soils, improves drought resilience, sequesters carbon deep in topsoil, and supports pollinator populations that make wine grapes possible.
Reed had come to Lost Valley with his truck, whose bed was piled high with a mound of warm, composted soil, which he urged attendees to touch with their bare hands.
“Can you feel the warmth of that soil?” he said excitedly. “Composting helps make the soil more healthy on farms, so that they can grow more food.”
Reed also called on people to use home composting bins as a “really good deed to help the Earth and all of our families in the long run.”
Recology’s goal is to have cities across the country use more composted soil and encourage their residents to practice composting at home, so long as they line their bins with a paper towel — which eliminates odors — and empty it daily.
In recent years, weed and fire-risk management on vineyard properties has increasingly incorporated the cutest of bovids: sheep and goats.
One family-run company, Napa Pasture Protein, has become one of the leaders in using cover crop grazing to reduce carbon emissions, wildfire risk and weed proliferation, while also improving soil conditions.
“There is so much more to grazing and how it impacts the ground,” said Cori Carlson, the owner of the Capell Valley-based company whose first client in Napa was Lost Valley.
Sheep that graze on vineyard properties do so during the dormant season and early growth periods, before bud break. They are preferred over goats for vineyard grazing because they reduce low-growing weeds and cover crops without harming vines, while goats tend to be more destructive and better suited for woodland areas.
When sheep are brought onto a property, Carlson explained, they apply nitrogen and urea — a natural compound through their collective hoof movement.
“What that does is stimulate the roots to drive down into the soil,” she said.
As they graze, the sheep take the grass that they eat, put it through their rumen — which breaks down tough plant material — and then return those microbes into the soil.
“Those microbes are already broken down into usable nitrogen and urea,” she said. “And that, in turn, changes what is underneath the ground.”
Over the rainy season, water is drawn down even farther than it otherwise would be without that stimulated root growth. This also creates lower soil temperatures and retains moisture during the notoriously dry summer months in the Napa Valley.
Carlson stressed that the health of vines is intrinsically tied to the health of the soil, just like the health of human skin is linked to gut health.
“What we have seen, after multiple passes, is that we have changed the health of the soils so much that the native grasses have started to return,” she said.
Those native grasses are what holds the soil structure together, drawing moisture in, which strengthens the landscape’s resilience to fire.
Rebecca Sciandri Griffin, of Sciandri Family Vineyards, shared her family farm’s minimal-intervention growing philosophy — “We let the vines find the natural water sources” — which incorporates traditional field blending that doesn’t rely on a single crop in a single vineyard.
Sciandri Griffin also described the farm as “fish-friendly,” which she defined as putting nothing in the dirt that would end up in the water and disturb the fish population, or the animals that use that as their water source.
Sciandri Family Vineyards’ proximity to wild, uncultivated nature is both a blessing and challenge, she said. Deer, coyotes, snakes and cats can be found here, but also perennial pests like rodents.
To address this, the farm encourages owls to nest on the property, part of a growing practice of applying what Sciandri Griffin called “Mother Nature’s natural pest control.” That’s where the vineyard's use of owl boxes comes in.
Owls, she said, help with rodent control, and owl boxes provide them with shelter to house newborn chicks.
“They are our form of farmworker housing,” she joked.
Flowmeters, tanks, reservoirs and generators are essential infrastructure on any vineyard. However, they require a bit more sophisticated technology in order to be more efficient and sustainable.
Kelsey Terry, an automation programmer and specialist with Drop Point Automation, explained the company designs custom precision irrigation systems as she stood against the backdrop of Cordero Vineyards’ own version aligned with its rows of vines.
“The main focus (of the system) is using the water that you have most efficiently,” said Terry.
Since 2018, Drop Point Automation has installed irrigation systems in vineyards, olive farms and apple orchards across Napa and Sonoma counties. Cordero Vineyards’ system was installed in April 2025.
Each of Drop Point Automation’s irrigation systems can do anything from monitoring flowmeters, weather stations, and temperature and humidity sensors to controlling irrigation valves, generators and water well pump motors, all remotely from a smartphone app or desktop platform.
“This really helps with irrigation management,” Terry said.
Eric Lamb said that he and Becker were pleased with their new system, both from an economic and environmental standpoint.
For 13 years, Cordero Vineyards had relied on a valve operator to drive to the ranch, turn on the valves, drive to another site, and then return later to turn off the valves.
“You can imagine the precision of that is not too good,” he said drolly.
People gather to learn about sustainable farming at Lost Valley Winery on Tuesday, April 7. Credit - Nick Otto
Active System User, Roy Chapin, Proprietor of 4 Winds Winery - October, 2024
Questions with a Client
What do you see as the most valuable feature or benefit of the solutions irrigation management provides?
"The most valuable feature I believe with regards to the irrigation management system that it provides, is that, it's really the real-time information. I mean, that is really crucial. And to be able to do things on the fly. You know, for example, like if we have... all the sudden we see the weather starts to change, and we're starting to, you know, they might have been forecasting maybe weather in the high 90s, and then all of the sudden it jumps the day of, to like maybe we get a notification that the weather is going to change and go up to 102. Again, then that enables us to immediately make those changes on the fly with regards to the irrigation scheduling system, so that we can then go ahead, within, you know, 10 minutes and change, you know, the irrigation. We can put in more, a heavier set with regards to irrigation, and hours that we want to do for a specific block, or tail back with regards to other vineyard blocks as well.
The other thing that we've seen with regards to the irrigation management system is how we manage our misters, and that's again, tied in with the weather. So, we have overhead misters in the in the system and they're tied in with regards to our secondary irrigation system. And so, based on again, the weather, the heat, we can either turn on or turn off those misters throughout the day and basically keep the overall ambient temperature within the vineyard as cool as possible."
The other thing that we've seen with regards to the irrigation management system is how we manage our misters, and that's again, tied in with the weather. So, we have overhead misters in the in the system and they're tied in with regards to our secondary irrigation system. And so, based on again, the weather, the heat, we can either turn on or turn off those misters throughout the day and basically keep the overall ambient temperature within the vineyard as cool as possible."
|
|
How often are you checking your soil moisture data and does the information help implement better water practices?
"I check the soil moisture data on a daily basis. I usually check it in the morning and the evening, sometimes throughout the day, definitely before or after an irrigation. In addition, I will curate all the soil moisture data and charts, and I'll send them out to all of our team members. So, within our vineyard management, our winemaking team, and our vineyard consultant. And that I'll put forth in an email as we're trying to set up our schedule for the next week. So, then we have that data and we can see where, where the soil moisture is, how the soil moisture is doing for each of the vineyard blocks, and that's basically you know kind of how I set that up, but I'm looking at it on almost a day-to-day basis."
|
|
What benefits do you see in your daily operations with weather monitoring, and do you notice a difference in having real-time access to this data?
"100%, using weather monitoring data is crucial for us. Like I said, either for frost issues or for extreme heat, we're constantly taking a look at the weather information. Sometimes I feel like I'm a meteorologist or a weatherman, the amount of information that I'm gathering. But it's really crucial.
And what we found too is a lot of the areas we're collecting weather data, even though our vineyard is only three and a half acres, we have two temperature gauges in each of the different vineyard blocks. So, we have two, four, six, eight... eight different temperature gauges throughout our vineyard because it can change dramatically. Just with regards to the heat, we can see Block 1 can be hotter earlier in the day than Block 3. And so we're going to have to adjust with regards to irrigation or the misters that we're using for that vineyard block."
And what we found too is a lot of the areas we're collecting weather data, even though our vineyard is only three and a half acres, we have two temperature gauges in each of the different vineyard blocks. So, we have two, four, six, eight... eight different temperature gauges throughout our vineyard because it can change dramatically. Just with regards to the heat, we can see Block 1 can be hotter earlier in the day than Block 3. And so we're going to have to adjust with regards to irrigation or the misters that we're using for that vineyard block."
|
|
What advice would you give to other farmers considering automated irrigation solutions with Drop Point Automation?
"My advice would be use it. Use it, don't be afraid of it. The more data, the more information you have, the better, the better, the more quick you you can handle these type of situations. So having that, you know, the weather, the weather data and weather information is crucial in irrigation systems and just being able to know when to irrigate, how long to irrigate and at what capacity. So, for us having that data is incredibly important, and I would say if you don't have it, you're definitely... you're definitely working behind an eight ball at that point. You know, you really need to have this information, and be able to adjust and be able to modify your system based on what's happening because the weather systems now are changing; they're getting much more dramatic. And we're seeing much more swings with regards to the weather that we're encountering during a normal growing season."
Instagram - est. 2024
Follow along for updates and field installations
Napa Valley Grapegrowers - April 26, 2023
Sustainable Vineyard Practices
KEYNOTE SPEAKER, JON TERRY
Jon Terry (far left) as a featured speaker for Napa Valley Grapegrowers Sustainable Vineyard Practices event on Wednesday, April 23. His presentation addressed attendees about future vineyard development, design considerations, and planning for vineyard automation.