Philippe Colasse, owner of Crêperie Chez Solange, is closing at the end of October. Colasse hasn’t been able to find workers for the past six months; running the restaurant by himself is not sustainable, he says. Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021 in Larkfield. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
For more than seven months, Chef Philippe Colasse has been advertising for kitchen and serving staff at his petite Larkfield restaurant, Creperie Chez Solange. Located in the busy Molsberry Market shopping center off Old Redwood Highway, his restaurant has had precisely zero applicants.
Exhausted by trying to run his French crepe shop alone — doing all of the sourcing, cooking, serving and dishwashing himself — Colasse had decided to close the restaurant permanently on Halloween.
It’s no secret that the pandemic has gutted the hospitality industry. According to restaurateurs, the combination of on-again, off-again restaurant closures, customers surly over mask requirements, night and weekend hours, concerns about health and safety, the lack of health care and the pull of more lucrative job opportunities have occluded the steady stream of workers willing to work for California’s minimum wage of $14 per hour.
To keep staff, larger restaurants are advertising between $18 and $30 per hour with signing bonuses and health care. That’s something small mom-and-pop restaurants like Colasse’s just can’t afford.
“I do believe it’s a question of pay, and other businesses may pay higher, but they all still need people, and they’re not there,” he said.
Instead, Colasse has tried to keep his restaurant afloat single-handedly, offering takeout and later in-restaurant dining.
“I’ve just been doing it all myself, and the workload is too harsh. A restaurant needs three or four people working at minimum,” said Colasse. He said the last employee he had left six months ago to go back to school, something that’s also been a common refrain as workers reassess career opportunities.
Though unemployment is down in Sonoma County, a 2021 report by the county Economic Development Board found that 42% of businesses face hiring difficulties, and 78% had significant concerns about affordable housing and living costs for employees.
“This is the new reality, and I’m not the only one suffering,” he said. When the restaurant opened in early 2020, Colasse said he employed up to seven cooks and servers.
Sadly, the closure isn’t for lack of eager diners. With plenty of locals still trying to order his savory French buckwheat crepes and flaming crepes Suzette, the problem isn’t the lack of clientele, but Colasse’s inability to serve customers in a timely way when he’s alone.
Ham and Swiss buckwheat crepe at Creperie Chez Solange in Larkfield. (Heather Irwin/Sonoma Magazine)Peche Melba crepe with preserved peach, berry jam, toasted almonds, chantilly cream at Creperie Chez Solange in Larkfield. (Heather Irwin/Sonoma Magazine)
“Business has come back, but we in the food industry are suffering. If I already have two or three orders, I tell people it’s a 30- to 45-minute wait, and they leave,” he said, acknowledging that long wait times are bad for business.
“I’m turning down people who try to order food or try to walk in and eat because it takes too much time to serve them. Most people are in a hurry, and they want to eat now,” he said. He estimates that he turns away at least a dozen people each day, with up to 40 people on busy Saturdays.
Adding to the woes, meat prices have skyrocketed up to 40%, to-go containers are almost impossible to buy at any cost and supply chain issues continue.
“I don’t feel like charging people for something that doesn’t have the value. I see food as a pleasure, not a way of making money, and when I see that I can’t serve at a decent price, it’s time for me to walk away,” Colasse said.
For now, he plans to help a new Vietnamese restaurant open in his space, then reassess what’s next.
“I knew that selling crepes, as close as I could to what you would get in France was a difficult challenge, but I also realized that day after day, people were more appreciative. It’s been a great satisfaction,” he said.
Shawn Phillips and Lise Asimont of Dot Wine. (Courtesy of Dot Wine)
Many of Sonoma County’s least-known but still very fine wines begin as pipe dreams.
Winemakers working for someone else frequently yearn to have their own label one day, and many follow through.
Urbanites ditch their day jobs and regular paychecks to move to Sonoma County, answering the siren call to live the vineyard lifestyle and exchanging business suits and manicures for fleece vests, muck boots and perpetually stained hands. The garage often serves as their first cellar.
There are farmers, almost as proud of their grapevines as they are of their kids, who are eager to taste the fruits of their labors from bottles bearing the family name.
And there are multigenerational local ranching families that diversify with wine growing to sustain their businesses now and for the future, sometimes in unexpected ways. Blueberry wine, anyone?
Here are five wine producers that demonstrate the measures some take to follow their vinous dreams. Their brands are relatively new and often too small to have their own tasting rooms, yet they are well worth discovering. While wine critics’ scores, powerful social media campaigns and high-end tasting experiences drive consumers to wineries, word-of-mouth (and in print) remains an authentic introduction to under-the-radar brands.
Cormorant Cellars
Charlie Gilmore is one of those winemakers who had a burning desire for his own wine brand and for its focus to be sauvignon blanc. He worked 12 years at Fetzer Vineyards in Mendocino County and, before that, at wineries in France and Australia. He struck out on his own in 2018, producing two vintages of Dry Creek Valley sauvignon blanc at Matorana Family Winery, then moving his production to nearby Kokomo Winery for the Cormorant 2020 vintage.
Cormorant does not have a public tasting venue, but you can buy the wines online and at retailers and restaurants, which are listed on the company website. Sauvignon blanc devotees also can arrange private tastings with Gilmore, although his limited production, for now, means his wines can sell out quickly.
What is so special about Cormorant sauvignon blanc ($24)? It’s how it’s made, with very little oak contact, careful sur lie (on the spent yeast cells) aging and no fining or filtration. The wine can be a bit cloudy and show tiny bits of sediment in the bottle, which means minimal handling. The result is a pure, vibrant, low-alcohol (12.7%) white wine with zesty grapefruit, lime cordial, Meyer lemon and tropical fruit aromas and flavors and beautiful texture. From the 2020 and 2021 harvests, Gilmore expanded production to include grenache blanc, marsanne, chardonnay and zinfandel. These wines will debut in 2022 or later.
Bacchus Landing in Healdsburg. (Ricky Grossmann/Bacchus Landing)
Shawn Phillips and Lise Asimont of Dot Wine. (Courtesy of Dot Wine)
Dot Wine
Lise Asimont and Shawn Phillips recently opened a tasting room at Bacchus Landing, a new, multibrand tasting space, hospitality center and gourmet market in Healdsburg. She’s a longtime viticulturist (20 years) and Santa Rosa Junior College adjunct professor; he is a professional gardener and landscaper (30 years). They use regenerative and sustainable agriculture methods to produce wines with a heavy emphasis on Russian River Valley pinot noir. (Regenerative farming means minimal intervention and includes composting, maintaining pollinator habitats and using other environmentally friendly practices for soil health and lower carbon emissions.)
Asimont, a full-time viticulture consultant, previously worked for large wine companies, including Cakebread Cellars, The Family Coppola and Beam Wine Estates. A dare from Phillips to produce a pinot noir she truly loved prompted the couple to found their own wine label; Asimont’s familiarity with farmers and their vines gives her an inside track to procuring great grapes. They make three pinot noirs, an unoaked chardonnay and a dry rosé, with other bottlings possible in the future. Tastings at Bacchus Landing are $30 for four wines. Like other Bacchus Landing tasting rooms, food pairings can be arranged in conjunction with the onsite gourmet market.
As for the name, Dot Wine, the couple said that, “In art, the dot is the purest unit of both form and function. Dot Wine is the direct translation of vineyard to bottle.”
14210 Bacchus Landing Way (at Westside Road), Suite 201, Healdsburg, 707-385-9855, dotwinery.com
Drive Wines owners John Musto, left, and Tom Young at Puccione Ranch. (David Ruf/Drive Wines)
Drive Wines
East Coast native John Musto is among the winemakers who gave up non-agriculture careers to dive into winemaking. He worked in finance for a time, studied at the Culinary Institute of America in New York and acquired a taste for wine when his parents opened bottles of old-vine zinfandel.
After living in Italy for two years, Musto moved to Sonoma in 2013, intent on making wine. While taking enology and viticulture classes at Santa Rosa Junior College, he met Tom Young, a graphic design and print professional with a home vineyard. They hit it off, began making wine in Young’s garage and eventually upgraded to the garage of a vineyard owner and restorer of vintage race cars, Peter Lewis. Thus, the Drive label.
Musto and Young went pro in 2017, starting with zinfandel from Puccioni Ranch in Dry Creek Valley, and they have slowly added more wines to their arsenal. Their business is small and personal, the wines of excellent quality and smartly priced. It’s a labor of love, not hefty profit.
Current releases include a 2019 Sonoma Coast Syrah from Canihan Vineyard, a 2018 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel from Puccioni Ranch (from vines planted in 1904) and a 2020 Quan Vineyard Carneros Rosé of Pinot Noir. In the pipeline are small lots of 2021 cabernet sauvignon from Alexander Valley and 2021 pinot noir from Carneros.
Complimentary tastings — yes, free — are offered by Drive and other small producers at Locals Tasting Room in Geyserville; Musto and Young are often behind the bar.
Pinot noirs, chardonnays and syrahs from cool-climate vineyards in the Sonoma Coast and Petaluma Gap growing regions of Sonoma County are Kevin Bersofsky’s forte. He began making his own wine in his Napa garage in 2006, after working in the business end of winemaking, holding COO and CFO positions at Merryvale Family of Wines and Trinchero Family Estates, as well as at The Republic of Tea.
Bersofsky went “legit” in 2015 and summer 2021 saw him open his first public tasting room for his own wine label, Montagne Russe, at Healdsburg’s Bacchus Landing. The brand name, French for “Russian mountain,” alludes to the 18th century European predecessor to the roller coaster (Bersofsky designed a roller coaster as his university engineering project), and perhaps also to the up-and-down nature of the wine industry.
Wine buffs will recognize the names of many of the vineyards Bersofsky sources for grapes, among them Roberts Road, La Cruz (Keller Estate) and Terra de Promissio, all in the wind-whipped Petaluma Gap AVA. A new wine is Tous Les Deux, an unusual white blend of pinot gris and pinot noir, the juice of the latter spending no time in the skins after pressing and thus not picking up the dark-red pigment and tannins of traditionally made pinot noir.
The Classic tier tasting at Bacchus Landing is $25; Reserve tier $35. Additionally, Bersofsky hosts visitors at his wine-aging cave in Petaluma ($50), with six or more wines poured during the 90-minute experience. Cave tastings must be arranged in advance; the location will be shared at that time.
4210 Bacchus Landing Way, Suite 101, Healdsburg, 855-467-8773, russewines.com
Vineyards at Serres Ranch in Sonoma. (Bob McClenahan/Serres Ranch)
Taylor Serres pours wine at Serres Ranch in Sonoma. (Bob McClenahan/Serres Ranch)
Serres Ranch Wine
Here is where blueberries enter the enological picture, as a creative and casual extension of the Serres family’s agricultural history in Sonoma Valley. Six generations of Serres have raised cattle, blueberries and wine grapes on their property north of Boyes Hot Springs, with Gen V leading the winemaking charge.
The Serres wine brand launched in 2017, made from mostly Bordeaux red grape varieties planted in the mid-1980s. Tim Milos is the winemaker (some will recognize him from Hidden Ridge in the Fountaingrove AVA, now known as Immortal Estate), and the current releases — all exceptional — are a merlot and two blends of merlot, cabernet sauvignon, malbec, petit verdot and cabernet franc ($65). Bleusé, a sparkling blend of blueberry fruit and aleatico wine, is refreshing, low in alcohol and remarkably good ($23 for a four-pack of cans).
Schedule a private tour and tasting at the ranch ($40), usually led by fifth-generation Taylor Serres and with hellos from her father, John Serres Sr., and Taylor’s brothers, John Jr. and Buck. Tastings are accompanied by a charcuterie board with local artisan cheeses, meats and nibbles.
Arustic-meets-majestic 3,500-square-foot hacienda complete with a 630-square-foot guest house has hit the local luxury real estate market with an asking price of $4.2 million.
The three-bedroom mission-style property, perched on a hill in Sonoma’s gated George Ranch community, was built in 1999. Rammed earth walls make the home fire resistant and handmade tiles from Mexico and unique design features like a wooden pantry door from an old Spanish church add a personal touch. The interior design and choice of furniture — a Ralph Lauren leather couch and a 12-foot-long credenza stand out — give prospective buyers the idea of the property’s potential.
The current owners of the home, Edna Hayes and Bruce Needleman, have an eye for design: They own the high-end rustic furniture store Salsa Trading Company in the town of Sonoma. The color palette in their Sonoma hacienda includes browns from leather and wood and clay-red from ceramic floor tiles; hues of cobalt blue contrast with the earthy tones in select spots in the bathroom and by the pool. Iron sconces, sculptures and paintings decorate the space and also offer splashes of color.
Pool area at 3480 Hawks Beard Drive in Sonoma. (Circle Visions)
Pool area at 3480 Hawks Beard Drive in Sonoma. (Circle Visions)Botero inspired mosaic and cobalt blue tiles in the shower at 3480 Hawks Beard Drive in Sonoma. (Circle Visions)
“The home is very elegant but also very kick-back,” says the property’s listing agent David Costello of the ACT team at Compass Real Estate. He adds that the sturdy materials used throughout the home allow prospective buyers to live there with kids, without worrying about damaging anything.
In addition to being fireproof, the home’s 12-foot-thick rammed earth walls, made from cement and sedimentary rock, also allow for natural temperature control while sun-blocking awnings cover the patios outside each room. A mature garden with towering succulents aligns with water conservation efforts in the area and with the style of the home. From the gates of George Ranch, which has just 51 residences spread over 1,000 acres, downtown Sonoma is just a 15-minute drive away.
The home is listed by Andy Ardilla and David Costello of ACT at Compass. For property details and appointments, please call 415-608-1003, email act@compass.com or visit 3480hawksbeard.com
Roof 106 at The Matheson in Healsburg. (Deb Wilson)
With its picturesque plaza surrounded by top notch restaurants, wineries and shops, Healdsburg has always been a popular destination. Over the past few months, the northern Sonoma town has added even more reasons to put a visit on the calendar: Buzzy new tasting rooms and restaurants and a reimagined historic inn are among the highlights. Click through the gallery above to discover some Healdsburg spots destined to become new favorites.
Margherita Salametto flatbread from The Matheson in Healdsburg. (Michael Woolsey)
Summer and early fall have spawned one restaurant after another throughout Sonoma County. The fact that we, as full-time restaurant writers, can barely keep up leaves us wondering how anyone else is managing to follow the ever-expanding tally.
To help you navigate the latest in the restaurant scene, we’ve pared down the newest spots to a list of those that have risen to the top and are, in our opinion, worth checking out. Click through the above gallery for details.
Smash burger from Sonoma Burger in Sebastopol. (Courtesy of Sonoma Burger)
Thin, crispy, Panko-crusted, bacon-fat-fried onion rings won’t change your life. But if anything could change your life — in a single bite — it would be precisely those onion rings, served at Sonoma Burger in Sebastopol.
This fast-casual burger spot started as a pop-up at Gravenstein Grill in the early days of the pandemic, as the Sebastopol restaurant navigated evolving health mandates. The pop-up gained traction and Gravenstein Grill Executive Chef Bob Simontacchi, with business partner and restaurant manager Brandon Parkhurst, started looking for a permanent location for their new venture. They settled on the former Giovanni’s Deli, just around the corner from Gravenstein Grill, and Simontacchi expanded the menu. It now includes those righteous rings along with smash burgers, “griddle hot dogs,“ a crispy chicken sandwich and other tasty bites on warm Parker House buns.
Serving up at Sonoma Burger in Sebastopol. (Heather Irwin/Sonoma Magazine)
Almost everything on the Sonoma Burger menu is made in-house, from the herb ranch dip to the fermented pickles. Simontacchi’s passion for local ingredients shows: He gets his burgers and hot dogs from Sonoma Mountain Beef Co. and uses Moonlight Brewing’s Death and Taxes lager in the beer cheese sauce (a required addition to your order). The fried chicken sandwich is made with Mary’s chicken, and the cream for the soft serve ice cream comes from Straus Family Creamery.
Take note, however, that the burgers are conspicuously small. In fact, all portions are pretty petite. We didn’t really miss all the extra stuff, which is usually too much of a good thing anyhow. But if you want more, there are plenty of toppings to add. The smash burger, served with pickles, raw onion, lettuce, tomato and sauce, is $6 — the meat is locally raised by a woman rancher. Extras include cheese ($1 – $1.50) and Sonoma Meat Co. bacon ($1.75); a double patty is $3.25. That makes a burger with all the good stuff about $8 – $10.
It seems Simontacchi and Parkhurst are onto something with this build-your-own-burger model. As supply-chain disruptions and shortages continue, the cost of meat is skyrocketing. Instead of paying $20 for a gourmet burger with fries and sauce or $3 for a not-so-satisfying fast-food burger, Sonoma Burger customers can decide how much they want to invest in their next burger, making it deluxe or basic (but still good).
Best bets include the super-crispy and juicy fried chicken sandwich ($7); the BBQ Burger ($8.50) with a kicky ginger barbecue sauce and crispy onions; and the Tempeh Burger ($7), with house-smoked seasoned tempeh and griddled onions.
“Griddle hot dogs” are a revelation. Like smash burgers (literally smashed onto a hot griddle to achieve optimal savoriness, or umami flavor), these dogs, which are sliced in half, get perfectly browned and crisp on both sides. Topped with homemade chili and pimento cheese, they’re an arpeggio of flavors.
Order the Sonoma Strong Turkey Burger ($7) and a $1 donation will be made to Food for Thought, a west county-based charity that provides food to Sonoma County residents with medical needs.
There’s a small outdoor area for seating, and takeout is available. You can order beer on tap and local wines, along with soft drinks, floats and milkshakes. Open daily from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., 173 Pleasant Hill Ave. N., Sebastopol, sonomaburger.com
There was a time, not that long ago, when you might have struggled to find a hotel by the Russian River with a contemporary feel. Options were limited but demand was growing and, luckily, people in the know were taking notes. Now, a trio of hotels — all with a long history in the town of Guerneville — have received extensive facelifts and are making us dream of a river getaway. Click through the above gallery for details.
Fall is the perfect time to get outside in Sonoma County. Sunny blue skies remain but cooler temperatures prevail. And as vineyards start to display their gorgeous take on fall colors, a number of wineries in Sonoma County are offering outdoor experiences that pair perfectly with a glass of vino. Click through the gallery above for some winery adventures worth getting on the calendar before Mother Nature sets her sights on winter.
Shugri Salh yearns to return to the red East African desert of her youth. But her native Somalia is controlled by a strict and conservative Muslim sect and she would not feel safe. So she hikes the meadows and woodlands near her Santa Rosa home. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
As first-time author and Santa Rosa resident Shugri Said Salh gazes out at the dry rolling grasslands of Crane Creek Regional Park, she is both overcome with wonder and reminded of the Somali desert where she was born. How did a child, raised by her grandmother in a family of nomadic goatherds, get to this place of peace and plenty?
A nurse and self-described “soccer mom,” Salh shares her incredible journey across cultures and continents in a new memoir, “The Last Nomad.” She writes with reverence of her desert upbringing, under the wing of her grandmother, in a world of savage beauty, poetry, and storytelling. She also reflects with clear-eyed honesty on the plight of women in a repressive culture and the cruelties she witnessed in a homeland she describes as riven by clan warfare.
Shugri Salh takes comfort in the open meadows and clear skies in the hills above Santa Rosa. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)Shugri Sahl spent the earlier part of her life as a nomad, traveling the desert in Somalia where she was born. Now 47, a mother of 3 and a nurse, she often hikes Crane Regional Park near Rohnert Park for solace and emotional therapy. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
A grandmother’s legacy
I don’t believe I would have been as resilient as I am today without watching a woman that strong and resilient. She was a camel tamer. A camel is crazier than an untamed horse. I see her dismantle the hut. I see her herding goats. I see her getting ready for the droughts. I see her enjoying the rainy season. I come from this strong badass woman. So I feel like every time I’m having a hard time, I remember: I am a woman of the desert. I am the girl who came from this grandmother.
The perils of nomadic life
Survival of the fittest is put to the test. You either die or you survive. You get sick. There’s drought. Lions attack and take you. Every time you go out to the animals, it’s obvious you could encounter lions and hyenas and wild dogs. And yet they expect you to come home with the goats, all well-counted.
Shugri Salh surveys the grasslands and oak woodlands of Crane Creek Regional Park, where she goes regularly for emotional healing. Although the terrain is different, the open spaces stir memories of her childhood in the desert of Somalia. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
Santa Rosa nurse Shugri Salh’s memoir, “The Last Nomad,” of her early life in the Somali desert and her escape to the west, was published in July by Algonquin Books. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)Shugri Salh has a favorite spot in the branches of a tree in Crane Creek Regional Park, where she goes to walk, write and mediate. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
Revisiting a life left behind
I wanted to leave a legacy. My children don’t really know the world I came from. I want to make them understand. I was part of two cultures. I am the last nomad of my family. It’s not like my California kids will one day go back to the desert. They say in Somali, loosely translated, “You’re not going to live long or forever. But you may leave your words. “
Winemaker Jason Jardine of Hanzell Farm & Vineyards, a historic winery perched high on the edge of the Mayacamas just outside downtown Sonoma, says that even after decades of experience with making wine, the energy of harvest season is unlike anything else he’s experienced. “It’s probably the most special time of year for me, when we’re all standing around the fruit that’s just come in, asking, ‘How does it taste? What tank is this going to go into? Are we going to do this Pinot whole-cluster?’ That’s when 99% of the winemaking is done, standing around in that circle.”
The team standing with Jardine in that circle is doing more than upholding tradition, however. Jardine is also a visionary organic farmer applying holistic practices to make the land healthy for food crops and livestock as well as grapes. The amount of old-school Sonoma winemaking history at Hanzell makes for an unlikely pairing with this cutting-edge approach—after all, it is a risk to change the way you farm 70-year-old vines. The de Brye family, which has owned the winery since the 1970s, is so committed to history that they haven’t changed the style of the wine labels in years. And yet, in another sense, Jardine’s goals are fitting, for the winery has always been ahead of its time. The landmark boardand- batten barn, for example, built by industrialist James D. Zellerbach in the late 1950s, contained all sorts of new technology for its era, including some of the earliest stainless steel wine tanks and one of the first on-site laboratories for analyzing wine chemistry.
Located high in the Mayacamas, the sustainably-farmed winery has views across Sonoma Valley. (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)
Hanzell Farm & Vineyards in Sonoma. (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)
Jardine built his career in organic farming and grape growing first in Oregon, where as 21-year-old newlyweds, he and his wife, Ali, were able to purchase a small property (they almost decided to plant blueberries instead of grapes). Later, he worked as a winemaker in Napa and Sonoma, not far from where he grew up outside Lodi. He arrived at Hanzell in 2014 with a dream of transforming the use of the land, operating in the tradition of such visionaries as author Jack London, whose 1910-era experimental farm is just a few miles up the valley. Jardine says it’s important to know that the level of sustainability achieved at the farm has its roots in traditional farming. “We’re not just some hippies up on the hill, doing this new thing that no one’s heard of before. We’re preserving history and really trying to honor it,” he says.
The diversity of species and opportunity for change were apparent when Jardine first arrived. Less than a quarter of the winery’s 200 acres are planted with grapes, and wildlife—deer, coyotes, turkeys, hawks—is all around. “Here, every small block of vineyard is isolated by these large areas of forest. You just feel like you’re not just in a vineyard, but that you’re part of the environment. You feel a responsibility to take care of the oak trees that are next to the grapes, and the bay laurel… It just opens you up to thinking beyond the vineyard,” Jardine says.
For Jardine and his colleagues, thinking beyond the vineyard means that grapes are just one of many living things the farm supports, and each of those living things, both cultivated and wild, has a role to play in balancing the farm’s overall output. Hanzell is home to 150 farm animals, from chickens and geese to pigs and sheep. The sheep and fowl, under the care of farm manager Brandon Brédo, are pastured in the vineyard several months of the year, where they can eat grasses and bugs and fertilize the vineyards with their manure. Two guardian dogs, Radley and Scout, protect the livestock from hawks and coyotes as they work through the rows.
The pigs are put to work primarily as fire suppression pigs: They eat through the underbrush in the oak woodlands, turning over the earth with their snouts as they forage for acorns and grubs, and tromping down small twigs with their heavy hooves.
September is crush season for winemaker Jason Jardine of Hanzell Farm & Vineyards. (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)The winery’s new outdoor tasting platforms were built with lumber milled from trees that were removed for fire safety. The tasting area overlooks the historic Ambassador’s Vineyard, planted in the 1950s. (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)Wines from Hanzell Farm & Vineyards in Sonoma. (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)
“The animals are all doing different jobs,” says Brédo. “It’s like there’s a partnership. Like, the pigs will be rooting in one area, and there’ll always be three or four chickens hanging out with the pigs, because without the pigs, the chickens wouldn’t be able to get at those grubs or those seeds. It’s all of these sweet, interesting things that you pick up when you spend day after day with these animals.”
The animals are just one aspect of the farm’s overall green transformation. Over the past seven years, Jardine has worked with viticulturist José Ramos to change over the vineyards to organic production, and to stop tilling in between the rows. The mat of dried grasses on the floor of the vineyard helps protect the vines from heat, and not turning over the soil preserves microbes and helps sequester more carbon. “We have these massive cover crops that we crimp down, and that’s conserving a lot of moisture, protecting and putting armor on the soil,” explains Jardine.
Jardine and his wife farm several vegetable patches at the winery, which yield several thousand pounds of food a year. (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)
At Hanzell Farm & Vineyards, they’ve also experimented with grazing geese in between vineyard rows to boost production. (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)At Hanzell Farm & Vineyards in Sonoma. (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)
No-till farming and regenerative agriculture are buzzwords in many vineyards around Sonoma County, but only a few can apply these methods to the degree that Jardine and Ramos are. “If we can make these adjustments that benefit the soil biology, benefit the wildlife and the longevity of the vines by creating a healthier environment—I mean, I just don’t get why you wouldn’t want to do it,” says Jardine.
For Ramos, who arrived at Hanzell in 1975 and raised his three children on the property, the switch to organic, no-till viticulture was welcomed. “I was so happy—it’s good for the ground, it’s good for the vines. To leave more grass, the vines say thank you. It’s like raising a little kid, you have to give them what they love,” says Ramos. Jardine calls Ramos Hanzell’s Zen master, a repository of 40-plus years of working knowledge of the land. Ramos knows intuitively when there’s something that needs attention in the vineyards, for example, and weeks ahead of time can predict the start of harvest down to the day.
Viticulturist José Ramos has farmed at Hanzell since 1975. He was excited for the transition to organic, no-till grapegrowing. (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)At Hanzell Farm & Vineyards in Sonoma. (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)
The 2021 growing season has brought challenges at the winery. With low winter rains, the annual cover crops grew more slowly, which meant less natural forage for the farm’s livestock. Brédo had to bring in extra feed and adjust the grazing schedule in the vineyard blocks. Due to drier weather, the fruit set was excellent—but in April, a problem with a well pump meant that the winery was without irrigation for over two months. Going completely without water during late spring and early summer would have been a five-alarm emergency in many vineyards, but Ramos and Jardine were able to take the setback in stride. “I told everyone, ‘This is the test,’” says Jardine. “This is what we prepared for; this is why we farm the way that we farm. The vines should be able to adapt and get through this period.”
And that’s exactly what happened: The cover crops kept the soil cool and conserved existing moisture, and the vines adapted.
The well was back online by June, but in a year like this one, Jardine says he’s not using any vineyard water unless absolutely necessary. “I’m really grateful to be on a well, but we have to also be understanding that what we draw from the aquifer has an impact on our neighbors and the communities around us,” he says.
The winery’s chickens and sheep graze on cover crops grown in the vineyards, and their manure fertilizes the soil. “When you get the whole picture of so many diverse species, you can’t go wrong,” says farm manager Brandon Brédo. “They all have different jobs.” (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)
Farm manager Brandon Brédo with livestock guardian dog Scout. (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)At Hanzell Farm & Vineyards in Sonoma. (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)The farm’s ten American Guinea hogs help with fire suppression by eating underbrush and turning over the soil with their hooves. (Eileen Roche/for Sonoma Magazine)
Jardine’s vision extends to the community in other ways as well. He is exploring more ways of increasing the land’s ability to produce food crops in conjunction with growing grapes. He believes he can extend the growing season, for example, so that he can get two rounds of food crops harvested in the time that it takes for the grapes to grow. The crops that currently grow in the vineyard and in the gardens feed everyone who works at Hanzell, from fieldworkers to sales managers.
And he is experimenting with growing grains like wheat and rye in between the vineyard rows. Imagine what’s possible, says Jardine, if you could double the production of the land by growing grains as well as grapes in the same space. “If we can find a way to feed the local community, all from our vineyard, that to me would be the ultimate. I would feel like I’d accomplished something in my life if I was able to pull that off. And we’re getting very close. We’re harvesting several thousand pounds of produce a year already.”
It’s the type of ambitious thinking that can change minds and change lives. “Stewardship is huge,” explains Brédo. “We’re upstream. Everybody’s upstream in a way, right? But we’re literally upstream. And our actions here, everything we do completely affects what happens downstream.”
Farming practices at Hanzell go beyond the definition of organic. More importantly, says winemaker and president Jason Jardine, the holistic way they farm is not only better for the environment, but costs less, too. “Believe it or not, on a per-acre basis, I’m farming Hanzell for less than a lot of the conventional farms that I’m aware of,” he says. Some of the guiding principles that make the farm green include:
1. Extreme biodiversity: Hanzell is the opposite of a monoculture. On the 200-acre estate, only 42 acres are vineyards. The rest is primarily forest, with vegetable gardens and fruit trees mixed in.
2. No-till agriculture: Viticulturist José Ramos doesn’t use tractors to turn over the soil in between the rows of vines. The practice lowers water needs, maintains beneficial soil microbes, and locks carbon into the ground. Carbon released from tillage is a contributor to global warming.
3. Wildlife corridors: You won’t find fences around the vineyards at Hanzell. Deer, turkey — even coyotes and mountain lions — move freely throughout the property, and each has a role to play within the broader ecosystem.
4. Natural soil boosters: As cover crops break down in the vineyard, they add back nitrogen and other elements that were depleted by the previous year’s production. The livestock pastured in the vineyards also fertilize with their manure.
5. Fire-smart planning: Rarely a day goes by without the team tackling chainsaw work somewhere around the property. The pigs that graze the forest also lower the fire risk, and in the future, Brédo would like to incorporate prescribed burns and pile burning.
6. Food crops in the vineyard: Jardine integrates food crops like fava beans and yellow peas into the vineyard cover crop — he’s also tried squash and tomatoes. Earlier this summer, he completed a trial of a variety of rye that he hopes to grow as a grain crop in between the vineyard rows.
7. Few outside inputs: Ramos doesn’t apply additional fertilizer in the vineyard, and the livestock mainly eat what’s grown on-site, including silage put up in spring. (This year, due to drought, they did need to bring in additional feed.) Many cover crops reseed on their own, and vegetable gardens are planted with seeds saved from the year before. Non-native trees that are removed to manage the forest are milled into lumber.
8. Using less water: In the middle of a punishing drought, this may be the most important green principle of all. Since Hanzell switched to no-till agriculture in 2014, says Jardine, the farm has lowered its water use in the vineyards by 80%. “This is how we have to farm in the future,” he says. “There’s no other way.”
