{"id":1809,"date":"2021-04-29T15:03:25","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T15:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1809"},"modified":"2021-04-29T15:35:44","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T15:35:44","slug":"sustainable-sonoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1809","title":{"rendered":"Sustainable Sonoma"},"content":{"rendered":"

Readers of Power Tasting don\u2019t need to be told that Sonoma County in northern California is a mighty nice place to visit.\u00a0 Its size and vineyard diversity make it one of the best places to sample many of California\u2019s finest wines.\u00a0 However, Sonoma\u2019s commitment to sustainability in its vineyards and wineries does offer a different reason to visit there.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The symbol found on bottles of sustainably made Sonoma wines<\/em><\/p>\n

A lot of this is a matter of survival for the winemaking industry in the county.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t newsworthy that northern California suffers from many multi-year droughts. In fact, they are in one right now.\u00a0 If the growers did not pay attention to water and land conservation, it would not be long before the quality of the wines would suffer.\u00a0 And that would be the most positive result.\u00a0 The worst case would be the inability to grow wine grapes at all.<\/p>\n

The trade organization, Sonoma County Winegrowers, is justly proud that 99% of the vineyard acreage, more than 60,000 acres, in the county are independently certified to be sustainable.\u00a0 The group established a goal in 2014 to make Sonoma County the premier sustainable winegrowing region in the world.\u00a0 Their interest was not pure environmentalism.\u00a0 While there are some massive properties there, the majority of vineyards are family owned and operated smallholdings.\u00a0 Accordingly, they are not only preserving a crop but also a way of life.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Look carefully and you can see the hoses dripping water onto the vines.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of Sonoma County Tourism.<\/em><\/p>\n

How does all this make Sonoma County even more of a place to visit?\u00a0 It\u2019s difficult to watch water not<\/em> evaporate or land not<\/em> get parched.\u00a0 We believe that every wine tasting visitor spends at least a little time looking at and admiring row after row of vines<\/a>.\u00a0 Now, when you go to Sonoma County, look a little more closely.\u00a0 Do you see hoses running through the vineyard for drip irrigation?\u00a0 Or maybe nothing to water the vines for those growers who prefer dry farming?\u00a0 In the heat of the middle of the summer, are the canopies over the vines thick with leaves to inhibit evaporation?<\/p>\n

Most of this doesn\u2019t matter to your main purpose: trying wines.\u00a0 But it should matter than it\u2019s a concern for the grower and the vintner.\u00a0 So when you get to the bar, maybe ask a few questions about what that winery is doing in the sustainability effort.\u00a0 You may stir up a bit of controversy.\u00a0 For example, the dry farmers think the irrigators are irresponsible, while the irrigators think the dry farmers are nuts.<\/p>\n

So when we visit, let\u2019s tell them that we appreciate what the Sonoma growers are doing to preserve both winemaking and the local community over the long haul.\u00a0 They are the ones making the investment and we are reaping the benefits.\u00a0 Letting the growers know that you\u2019re grateful may elicit just the kind of personal interaction that makes traveling through Wine Country so rewarding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Readers of Power Tasting don\u2019t need to be told that Sonoma County in northern California is a mighty nice place to visit.\u00a0 Its size and vineyard diversity make it one of the best places to sample many of California\u2019s finest wines.\u00a0 However, Sonoma\u2019s commitment to sustainability in its vineyards and wineries does offer a different … Continue reading Sustainable Sonoma<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1809"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1829,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1809\/revisions\/1829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}