Caring for a vineyard takes more than just tending the vines, irrigation system, trellis wires etc. Taking care of a vineyard also means taking care of what's around it.
Will Drayton is the director of sustainability and technical viticulture at Beaulieu Vineyard and for Treasury Wine Estates. Now 43, Drayton has been with BV for 16 years, over which time he seen drastic changes made in the vineyards, from tweaking row direction to the introduction of cover crops, all in an effort to mitigate summer heat and drought conditions that are now the norm in Napa Valley. In the BV10 vineyard parcel that sits alongside a tributary to the Napa River, even more work has been required.
With the river clogged by invasive flora species and its banks steeply carved by winter floodwaters, Drayton and the team at BV are trying to help the river return to form by shaping the banks with gentler slopes to mitigate floodwater erosion and removing those invasive flora species that can harbor bacteria for potentially fatal vine maladies. It’s a multiyear process being performed in conjunction with Napa County and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Early results are positive, as the vineyard no longer floods as severely as it has in the recent past, while the aquifer is getting a regular recharge by having the water move through more slowly, so that it can be absorbed into the ground instead of rushing through to the San Pablo Bay. But you don't have to take my word for it: Drayton brought us down to the river to tell us all about it …
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