In this world of limited resources and a demanding marketplace focused on having more of everything, it seems that much of what we do as a world is destined to be a flash in the pan. Thus for many people out there, the concept of sustainable agriculture, or sustainable anything for that matter, is simply a dream. But is it really impossible?

It has always been our philosophy at Madroña, passed down by my parents, to limit the impact of our farming on the environment around us. This has included leaving prime ag land for deer corridors through the vineyards, as well as trees and forest around for wildlife. We try to share the land with those who also live off the land!

As the success of the winery has permitted, we have strived to get closer and closer to zero impact on our world as a whole. This year, we will be installing a 36KW solar system to provide all the electricity our winery could possibly use and more. In fact, we will be generating electricity for PG&E (for which hopefully someday they’ll start paying us), pumped back into the system for others to use. Less coal and oil burned for making electricity! Add to this that all new equipment for the winery is electric, and hopefully we have lessened the impact of our business on the environment.

In addition, we are now recycling all of our winery wastewater. Through a system of drip irrigation and spreading it through the vineyards in a tractor, we may be saving up to 25,000 gallons of water for irrigation alone. And we even have plans for watering new landscaping with some of this wastewater.

We have jumped fully into encouraging raptors to control our healthy gopher population. Having never been very successful with poisoning the little varmints (mostly because we don’t like to use poison), we have installed a series of raptor perches and 16 owl boxes through the vineyards to invite more natural predation. Did you know that one barn owl will eat more than 150 gophers a year?

Lastly, with new cover crops being planted to provide needed nitrogen and to free nutrients for our vines, we should be able to limit the addition of fertilizers to the soil. Having used mostly turkey and chicken compost in the past, this change is more of a step towards sustainability rather than away from negative impacts on the environment. But isn’t that what it’s all about?

Realistically, we’ll never be able to produce our own bottles, corks or capsules, but that doesn’t mean we should limit what we can do. Who knows. Maybe our Prius gas-electric hybrid will become the winery delivery vehicle.