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Sustainability Matters

A collection of 74 posts

2020: The Year Climate Change Got Real for American Wine

As I write this, I'm staring out at a dim, yellow landscape, the indistinct sunlight filtered through a thick layer of atmospheric smoke. I have a sweatshirt on because the day has never really warmed up here in town. We had a couple of days this past week,

Introducing Regenerative Organic Certified™ (ROC™): Farming Like the World Depends on It

Introducing Regenerative Organic Certified™ (ROC™): Farming Like the World Depends on It

By Jordan Lonborg In February of 2019, Tablas Creek was approached by Elizabeth Whitlow (Executive Director of the Regenerative Organic Alliance) to see if we would like to take part in a pilot program of a new approach to farming called Regenerative Organic. It was clear from the organizations behind

Sustainability Matters: We ditched the plastic water bottle. And so should you.

By Leslie Castillo [Editor's Note: With this blog, we're launching a the new blog series "Sustainability Matters", written by Leslie Castillo. In addition to her responsibilities as a team lead in the tasting room, she is our point person on a major waste-reduction initiative

A New Winery Wastewater Wetlands Area

Back in 2005, the state of California passed a law requiring wineries to treat their wastewater rather than releasing it to a normal septic system. This made a lot of sense to us because the lees and other winery by-products can be acidic enough that they impact the normal microbial

A massive honey harvest from our new Langstroth hives means... a great vintage?

By Jordan Lonborg. Photos by Nathan Stuart. Could a prolific honey bee year be indicative of a stellar wine grape vintage? I think so!! Keeping bees in Paso Robles is no easy task. Years of drought, cold winters, and extreme heat are a just a few of the many factors

A lighter wine bottle revisited, 10 years and 1,370,000 pounds of glass later

Almost exactly nine years ago, I posted a blog called Introducing a Greener Wine Bottle, in which I shared our decision to move our flagship wines from a heavier bottle to a lighter one. Today, we're bottling our 2017 Esprit de Tablas in a (slightly updated) version of

Compost: Momma Nature’s Gift (A Step by Step Guide)

By Jordan Lonborg Biodynamics has lots of facets, including applications of minerals, planting of flora, integration of fauna, and even reacting to celestial stimuli. But one of its most important components is one of the oldest, and one of the most practical for the home organic gardener. What is this

Consumers don't really understand the difference between Organic and Biodynamic

Neil, Jordan, Gustavo and I spent last weekend representing Tablas Creek at the International Biodynamic Wine Conference, up in the beautiful San Francisco Presidio. San Francisco was putting on a show, with gorgeous cool, sunny spring weather, and the view of the Golden Gate Bridge out the Golden Gate Club&

Co-Branding with Patagonia: Modern Stewards of the Land

By Linnea Frazier He strolls into my office, bright and bushy-eyed with his dilapidated Yeti in hand, no doubt on his fourth or fifth cup considering he’s been up with the sun. His stained brown Carhartts do little to hide the evidence of our lambing season that is currently

Our Skeptic's Embrace of Biodynamics

Back in 2010, I had the pleasure of listening to John Williams from Frog’s Leap Winery speak at the Yosemite Vintners Holidays. Although the focus of his talk was on how underrated “off” vintages are with some age (or, if you prefer, how the tendencies which lead most writers