It’s an idyllic scene on a sunny winter’s day at Tablas Creek, in Paso Robles, California. Sheep graze a cover crop of grass between the vines, watched over by their flock guardians, yawning Spanish Mastiffs. The 100 sheep collectively fertilise the vineyard with over 200kg of manure each day. Tablas are certified biodynamic – they use only sulphur and compost tea against mildew – but do not till their soil.
This is a prime example of regenerative viticulture – the new challenger to organic and biodynamic methods. Indeed in 2020, Tablas Creek became the first winery in the world to be certified as such under the Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) scheme. Since then, some 340 winemakers have visited to learn from them, such is the interest in this new approach.
Nevertheless, some partisans for regenerative farming are setting their sights higher. ‘If regenerative agriculture is going to save the world, it can’t be a boutique thing producing $80 wines,’ says Caine Thompson, at O’Neill Group’s Robert Hall winery in Paso Robles.
Trials on a grand scale
So Thompson is trying to prove that regenerative viticulture can be scaled up at O’Neill, the ninth-biggest US wine producer: it farms 800 acres (324 ha) of its own estates and buys in fruit grown on another 15,000 (6,070 ha). The New Zealander has been running an ambitious field trial, comparing results from 43 acres (17.4 ha) farmed regeneratively to five acres farmed conventionally.
O’Neill have seen marked improvements in soil carbon, nitrogen and organic matter, better water-holding capacity and CO₂ absorption rates, and lower canopy temperatures. Yields were up slightly. Equally important for scaling up, overall costs were little different: the cost per tonne of fruit was slightly higher for the regenerative blocks – though those costs did not include labour.
‘The trial was so we could show we were doing it ourselves before asking our growers to do regenerative viticulture’ says Thompson.
Major trials run jointly by Jackson Family Wines and the University of California, Davis are reaching similar conclusions on soil health. Alexandra Everson, Jackson’s sustainability analyst, adds that a study with Davis on the economics of regenerative viticulture is expected to show that if a producer is already transitioning to organic, going regenerative adds little additional cost.
The need to be certified organic could be prove a sticking point
But this highlights a sticking point: one of the biggest barriers to regenerative agriculture being more widely adopted is producers needing to be certified organic first. To date, almost all of the producers certified regenerative were already either organic or biodynamic – and indeed have to be to get ROC approval.
That makes a big difference practically for farmers, since it takes a three-year conversion period to get certified organic, during which yields are generally lower than previously. Thompson warns that ‘the three-year conversion period to organics is really tough for producers. Wineries can’t afford to pay growers the premium on organic grapes in the current economic climate.’
there is no internationally accepted standard for ‘regenerative agriculture
There remain problems of definition too: there is no internationally accepted standard for ‘regenerative agriculture’. Indeed there are now four different certification schemes: ROC (the biggest internationally), Regenified, the Regenerative Viticultural Alliance (created by Miguel Torres Jr), and A Greener World. Neither Regenified nor Regenerative Viticultural Alliance require prior conversion to organic.
‘I’ve changed my view on being organic first,’ says Stephen Cronk, co-owner of Maison Mirabeau in Provence and a trustee of the non-profit Regenerative Viticulture Foundation. ‘You should be able to go regenerative without going organic – we need to meet farmers where they’re at.’
Tablas Creek’s Jason Haas agrees: ‘I have mixed feelings [about going organic first.] At best it should be a transition – but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other advantages to regenerative viticulture. It’s not as absolute or prescriptive as organics.’
This position also reflects criticisms of inconsistencies in organic regimes. The biggest point of contention is that organics allow copper sulphate spray against mildews, which can damage soil. They also make no reference to social sustainability, for instance the welfare of winery workers.
Organic farming emphasises inputs… Regenerative agriculture, by contrast, is about outputs…
Organic farming emphasises inputs – for instance what farmers are allowed to spray on crops – rather than outputs. Regenerative agriculture, by contrast, is about outputs: as Cronk asks, ‘does it matter how I get there if my outcomes are all leading in the right direction?’
Cronk has been experimenting at Mirabeau and now has all four regenerative certifications. ‘I wanted to see what’s best for my growers, not just for me,’ he says. While Mirabeau’s own reserve wines have ROC certification – to date, the only such property in France – Cronk is now converting six of their growers to regenerative farming, with the goal of all of Mirabeau’s Côtes de Provence rosés being made from regenerative-certified grapes by 2028.
Says Cronk: ‘I’m convinced there’s a way to make regenerative viticulture work at scale. Otherwise there’s a danger that it will just be a niche within a niche.’
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