“If
you want real pleasure in a wine, if you believe that a
wine has a
soul, if you believe in the natural quality of wine and
its dependence
on place, you will be left with the inescapable conclusion,
as have I,
that we need to grow our vines deeply in their soil.”
— John Williams
Believing
that deeply rooted vines produce grapes with greater balanced
flavors that are also reflective of the land, Frog’s
Leap currently dry farms over 200 acres of certified organic
vineyards. As a secondary benefit, the water-saving benefits
of dry-farming fit into our goals to be a sustainable business.
The success of dry-farming relies heavily on the farmer’s
working of the soil through planting of cover crops and
tillage throughout the growing season. This promotes an
environment that increases the soil’s capacity to
hold water and at the same time encourages a healthy, balanced
and complex biological life in the soil’s structure.
This “reservoir” of water and nutrients encourages
deeply rooted vines, which in turn are stronger and more
disease resistant.
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