In Napa, a Winery Solves a Sustainability Issue in a Most Unusual Way

Granite. Great for your kitchen countertops when it’s large, solid rock, but not so great for growing grapes when that large solid rock is still in the ground. Let that igneous rock decompose over thousands and thousands of years and become smaller bits of the soil, and the granite helps create well-draining conditions that vine roots must push past and go deep into the earth to find water and nutrients. In the wine grape world, this is a positive. 

The deeper the roots, the more resistant the vines become to extreme conditions such as water stress and extreme temperatures. Granite may also affect the complexity of a wine grown in granite-rich soil, offering some minerality and acidity.

Despite its positive attributes, historically, granite has not been used to amend vineyards. It’s simply not practical to dig up granite soils in one place and haul them to a vineyard in another. But what if a winery excavates granite soils for a project and has to haul the soil away anyway? Would it be smart to use it to amend its vineyards?

Napa’s Baldacci Family Vineyards is finding out.

It’s All About Sustainability

Thomas and Brenda Baldacci founded Baldacci Family Vineyards in 1998. 

“There were vineyards here and there was an active winery permit, but there was not commercial wine being made,” says their son Michael Baldacci, now the estate’s winemaker. He doesn’t know if the previous owners took sustainability into consideration, but since the family took stewardship of the land, sustainability increasingly became a priority. 

“When we got into the vineyard and business, what captured my dad and eventually captured me was that you’re always looking at 100 years,” he says. “When it comes to sustainability, I think that we have this beautiful piece of land growing beautiful grapes and making beautiful wines. I think it’s our duty to farm this vineyard and holistically approach the land the best we can.” 

When he started working at the family winery in 2012, Baldacci learned more about the various practices they could employ in the vineyards and the winery. In 2021, that led to deciding what to do with the excavated soil from the expanded wine cave, but before that, the winery was already taking steps to sustain the property for the next 100 years. The winery’s estate vineyards in Stags Leap District and Calistoga are now certified California Certified Organic Farmers standards. 

There’s also a focus on recycling throughout the winery and correctly composting biomass from harvest to put back into the vineyards. But, biomass isn’t the only thing that can go into the vineyard. Granite soils from the excavation have gone into a 4-acre block on the property, and Baldacci is unaware of any other vineyard where something similar has happened.

Moving Soil From Here to There

“Originally we had a cave built in 2001,” says Baldacci. “From 2001 to 2021 it was just for barrel storage. In 2021 we completed the expansion of the cave and now the winery facility is in there as well.”  

With the winery’s focus on sustainability, the decision of what to do with the excavated material was made with careful consideration. For a winery that continuously looks at how light it can go with its bottles to make the transport of wine more sustainable, the idea of having trucks haul away tons and tons of earth did not sit well.

Baldacci knew he had a block that he wanted to replant, and that’s when the winery’s viticulturist Garrett Buckland had an idea—put the excavated soil into the block before replanting.

“There were going to be amendments made. We were going to be ripping it, turning over the soil, and with the material that was coming out of it, we didn’t think there would be anything adverse [by adding the excavated soil] that could happen,” Baldacci says. 

Baldacci doesn’t know exactly how many trucks were kept off the road by transferring that excavated soil to a vineyard and other places on the property instead of having it hauled away But moving the soil to a vineyard on property rather than having outside trucks take it away certainly led to less fuel used, less pollution in the air, and less wear and tear on the roads. 

But How Are the Grapes?

Baldacci does not have hard facts on what the amendment did to the soil, but he feels the young vines in the 4-acre amended vineyard matured very quickly, faster than he’s seen before.

“I have some vines on the property that are 12 or 13 years old and I still get caught calling them the young vines because they’re still inching their way along. Whereas Block 1, where all this material was put, those vines have produced way more than I would have thought by this time,” he says.

The quality, he believes, is also further along and the grapes have “more depth” than he would expect for such young vines. Baldacci acknowledges this is just “early, anecdotal evidence” of what the amended soils can do, but he’s pleased with what he’s seen. The new vines went into the ground in 2019.  They didn’t produce enough until this year’s harvest to go into wine. There are now two tanks of the Block 1 grapes from the 2024 vintage—mostly Cabernet Sauvignon with a little Cabernet Franc and Merlot—in the cellar right now. 

His early thoughts on the first wine made from the soils amended in this non-traditional way?

“It’s beautiful,” he says.