From Napa to Mendocino
The Organic Journey of Long Meadow Ranch
by Shana Clarke
I knew this wouldn’t be an ordinary vineyard tour when Stéphane Vivier, winemaker for Long Meadow Ranch’s Anderson Valley Estate, enthusiastically ushered me into an ATV. Far from the usual leisurely stroll through the vines that’s often part of a winery visit, there was a lot of ground to cover on Long Meadow Ranch’s expansive Mendocino County property.
Sustainability has always been at the forefront of Long Meadow Ranch’s ethos. Started 30 years ago by Ted and Laddie Hall, the business remains a family affair, with son Chris now in a leadership role. The Halls first purchased land in the Napa Valley’s Mayacamas Mountains, a former vineyard and ranch that had been neglected since prohibition in the 1920s. It has now been restored to vineyards and a working family farm, exclusively employing organic farming methods. Several years after the original purchase, the family planted additional vineyards in Rutherford, a warmer valley floor counterpoint to the cool Mayacamas mountain sites.
“When my parents first started the winery, they didn’t want the Ranch to start and end with wine,” said Chris. Instead, their vision was to incorporate a working family farm and allow the different elements to operate together holistically. Chickens eat fruits and vegetables that aren’t sold at the farmers markets or cooked in their restaurant and, in turn, their manure goes into compost for fertilizers. Bees pollinate the vineyards and are also a source of honey. Horses and cattle graze the fields and contribute to this ecosystem the family refers to as “full-circle farming.”
The Halls’ work and mission is on display at Farmstead, their always-packed St. Helena restaurant and neighboring cafe, where fresh produce, along with grass-fed beef and lamb, are sourced directly from the ranch. Steps away, the nearby general store is stocked with pantry essentials and provisions produced on the ranch. The tasting bar within the shop doesn’t just offer wine flights. Various olive oils produced from 150-year-old groves—revealed during the resurrection of the Mayacamas site—can also be tasted and compared.
Long Meadow Ranch is somewhat of an anomaly in Napa’s monoculture- dominant wine industry. In 2015, the family ventured to another part of the state—Mendocino County, which the Halls believe is the top region in California for growing Burgundian grape varietals—with the acquisition of 70 acres of Anderson Valley vineyards planted to Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Gris.
One of the first changes the Halls implemented was a conversion to organic farming. According to Joseph Hardin, the Director of Agricultural Operations who managed the vineyard’s move towards organic, “a lot of conversions are simple but take time.” Switching to organic treatments instead of synthetic fertilizers was a top priority, and they started incorporating compost in their annual fertilization plans.
“A major focus is how you manage the strip right underneath the vine row,” he said. “As organic farmers, we have to be a little more creative, so we instead utilize mechanized methods for managing the delicate vineyard floor.”
It’s not just below the vines that matters; canopy management, such as pruning, also plays a vital role during a grape’s development. “Again, it’s all about timing, and if you’re diligent and paying attention to what a vine needs at what time, you can proactively mitigate problems without the use of conventional methods,” says Hardin. After the standard three-year transitionary period, the vineyard was certified organic in 2018 by CCOF.
In Anderson Valley, cooler-climate grapes provide a counterpoint to Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, and other Bordeaux varietals that thrive in Napa’s terroir, and the Hall family wanted to bring an expert perspective to these valued vines. Vivier, a Burgundy native, was the ideal winemaker. His enology and viticultural training at Université de Bourgogne, and his stints at wineries in both Burgundy and around the globe meant he could marry knowledge of Burgundy’s famous grapes with winemaking skills garnered from younger wine cultures like New Zealand.
Vivier’s passion for the Anderson Valley site was evident as we whizzed around the property. Periodically, he slammed on the ATV’s brakes, nearly jumping out before we came to a full stop, to point out the idiosyncrasies of the vineyard, such as the curious bunches with both white and red grapes, which are evidently natural mutations within the Pinot family.
“I am the interpreter. I am trying to tell the story about what is going on here through the wine,” he said. That means paying attention to the nuances in soil parcels. Long Meadow Ranch goes one step further than vineyard-designate wines by bottling select wines based on soil micro-sites. We tasted Chardonnay berries from Feliz’s gravelly loam soils, then we bit into Pinot Noir fruit from the dense Perry Gulch and Pinoli sites—both different densities of loamy soils—and marveled at the variances in flavor.
Back in the tasting room at The Madrones in Philo, the Anderson Valley vineyards are on full display. Here, the concept of full-circle farming becomes tangible. Many of the pantry items sourced from the Ranch line the shelves, such as honey from those aforementioned bees, organic extra virgin olive oil from the historic groves, as well as succulent seasonal jams made from estate-grown fruit.
Of course, the wines are the focal point here. I thought back to the characteristics of the grapes we tasted from the micro-sites and marveled at how clearly my experience in the vineyards showed the same distinctive qualities in the bottle. The wines truly showed their sense of place, also known as terroir, and are a testament to how “full-circle” organic farming can truly elevate what is in the glass.
Long Meadow Ranch Tasting Room
Open Thursday through Monday 10:30am–5pm
Located at The Madrones, 9000 Hwy 128, Philo, CA
Phone: (707) 963-4555 | longmeadowranch.com
Shana Clarke is a freelance wine, sake, and travel journalist.
