CHANDON Rooted in Sustainability Panel Celebrates Regenerative Agriculture, Highlights Efforts

Following its recognition for excellence in environmental work with the Green Medal Award, Domaine CHANDON California held an interactive, “Rooted in Sustainability” panel on April 11, discussing the winery’s work with regenerative agriculture and kicking off its Earth Day weekend celebration.

The panel was held outside under a group of oak trees, reflecting the winery’s 3:1 replanting policy for biodiversity restoration and oak plantings; since 2023, the winery has planted 1,500 oaks. Panelists included CHANDON Viticulturist Margarita Postoronca, Napa Green Executive Director Anna Brittain, Spottswoode’s Global Sales and Environmental Manager Molly Sheppard and Janna Olson, founder and coach, Regenerative Vines Consulting. 

CHANDON, part of the LVMH family of wines and luxury goods, has long been a proponent of sustainable and environmentally-friendly farming practices and has several related certifications, including Fish Friendly Farming and Napa Green Vineyard and Napa Green Winery certified, just to name a few.

In kicking off the panel, Postoronca asked audience members to raise their hand if they’ve thought about regenerative farming in the context of what’s happening in the ground below their feet. Several people raised their hands. 

“I do want to acknowledge that everybody here should really raise a glass to themselves because the latest study across the United States indicating how many of us even have heard the term regenerative agriculture was just released two weeks ago,” Olson said. “And we are up from a whopping 4% of our population in 2023, to 6.8% right now, so you’re in a very unique percentile. And of course, we’re in California—innovation oriented.”

While the average American may not be as familiar with regenerative farming concepts, more and more wineries in California and Napa are taking up regenerative ag practices as well as sustainable initiatives. According to Napa Green, 40% of California certified sustainable wineries are Napa County wineries. Additionally, when driving down Silverado Trail or Highway 29, one may notice the bevy of Napa Green Vineyard and Napa Green Winery-certified wineries. Other regions such as Paso Robles are also embracing regenerative farming with the One Block Challenge where vintners are encouraged to trial regenerative farming on one vineyard block (don’t miss the May issue of WineBusiness Monthly where ‘Trials & Troubleshoots’ feature author Bryan Avila provides details on the process and the results of the pilot One Block Challenge at Robert Hall Winery led by Caine Thompson of O’Neill Vintners & Distillers). 

The Principles of Regenerative Ag

In a nutshell, the basic principles of regenerative farming practices include keeping soils covers with cover crops to retain moisture and prevent erosion, minimizing soil disturbance, maintaining living roots, maximizing plant diversity and integrating livestock to help with soil health and nutrients and weed control.

In other words, “It’s about building a healthy ecosystem in our soils to feed the future and creating a system that works with nature, but not against it,” Postoronca said.

Brittain likened building a healthy soil ecosystem to building a strong human immune system that can better defend against foreign invaders like diseases or other threats like extreme heat.

To improve soil health the winery has implemented composting, cover cropping and sheep grazing.

To bolster biodiversity, CHANDON has planted 8.9 hectares (around 21.99 acres) of green hedge throughout its vineyards, installed owl, bat and blue jay boxes to attract beneficial predators, established bee boxes to facilitate the pollination of wild flora, and planted oak trees throughout. 

Conserving water is also a top priority for the winery with automated irrigation tech in use and real-time moisture monitoring on 257 vineyard acres as well as the use of drought-tolerant rootstocks. In addition, according to the Green Medal Awards announcement published April 4, “over 80% of the water used in their vineyards is recycled, ensuring efficiency without compromising vine health.”

In helping reduce its carbon emissions, the winery has achieved a 10% emissions reduction by developing lightweight glass for sparkling wine from 900g to 835g per bottle, a significant achievement considering how difficult it is to lightweight glass destined for bubbles programs when sturdier, heavier glass is typically necessary.

They’ve also installed solar panels over the years, producing an average of 1,340 MWh per year, have switched to a fleet of electric tractors and company cars, and added charging stations. 

Waste reduction has also been a goal and to help achieve that, CHANDON recycles its corks which find a second life as home insulation. Label webbing is recycled into new resources and a pallet sharing program ensures that  shipping pallets are re-purposed instead of heading to landfill. Crown caps and bidules are also separated in order to be recycled, and kitchen waste is fed to the property chickens or composted for maximum use. 

For all these comprehensive efforts, CHANDON received the Green Medal’s Environment Award, which is given to the vineyard or winery that best demonstrates excellence in environmental stewardship.

Spottswoode has also been a leader in sustainability and was also a Green Medal Award winner this year, getting recognized for its leadership in sustainability with the Leader Award. This honor is awarded to a winery/vineyard that excels in the three E’S of sustainability: Environmentally sound, socially Equitable and Economically viable practices.

During the panel, Postoronca asked Sheppard of Spottswoode what are some key practices that she’s seen in the valley when it comes to sustainable and or regenerative farming.
She cited the use of animals and cover cropping. 

“We’re seeing it everywhere,” she said. “You’ll drive down 29 and see mustard, you’ll see flowers, you’ll see a lot of beautiful growth, and we’re starting to shift that paradigm of what beauty is. I think a lot of people historically might have thought of beauty as… very manicured systems, and now it’s just this really beautiful acceptance of what nature looks like, and it’s not perfect. It should be a little messy and it should be a little overgrown, and that means beauty.”

To learn more about regenerative viticulture, click here. To learn more about all the Green Medal winners, click here.

In the aforementioned Green Medal Awards announcement, Allison Jordan, executive director of the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance, said of the Green Medal winners, “As the California Green Medal enters its second decade, this year’s winners exemplify leadership and innovation in sustainable winegrowing.”