A tale of two vineyards dealing with drought
TEMPLETON, Calif. — This is a story of two wine producers in the Paso Robles region. They are different in size, background and intent, yet they have important elements in common, starting with a commitment to the land and to creating diverse, sustainable ecosystems. One is thriving, the other struggling to survive.
When Phillip Hart bought 42 acres here 20 years ago on a set of steep, knobby hillsides, it seemed like a fine place to put a vineyard. Cool marine winds blew in from the Pacific through gaps in the Santa Lucia Mountains to the west, which kept the air circulating and discouraged the sorts of insect and fungal threats that would harm grapevines.
Hart had grown up on a farm in Wales, and though he had gone into the carpet business in Southern California, he had a vision of farming and making wine. This spot, south of the town of Paso Robles, rang true.
He knew he wanted to farm biodynamically and without irrigation, so he set about preparing the land. By 2005, he had planted 17 acres with an iconoclastic mixture of French, Spanish and Italian grapes, along with olive and fruit trees.
Hart named the place Ambyth Estate, after the Welsh word for “forever.”
In 2010, Ambyth harvested 2 tons of grapes per acre. That’s not a high yield compared with the 4 tons an acre a qualityminded vineyard might expect on the Napa Valley floor, or with the 8 to 10 tons an industrial vineyard would farm with chemical fertilizers and other treatments. But for an uncompromising farmer on a hillside vineyard, 2 tons an acre was enough.
The future looked bright. And the wines were terrific,
produced as idealistically as the vineyard was farmed, without any additions, not even sulfur dioxide, a stabilizer, used almost universally except by the most resolutely natural producers. Most of the whites are macerated with their skins, as with orange or amber wines, producing textured, lightly tannic wines that are fresh, lively and pure. The reds are elegant, earthy and subtle.
The only problem has been, Ambyth cannot make enough wine.
“We were hoping for at least 10 years of good production,” said Hart’s son Gelert Hart, who, with his wife, Robyn Hart, now oversees Ambyth. “But 2 tons turned out to be a pinnacle.”
A late frost came in the spring of 2011, just after the vines had budded, killing half the crop. That happens in agriculture.
The next year wasn’t bad, but then in 2013 came the beginning of a prolonged drought, which, except for a two-year interruption in
2016 and ’17, has more or less been the norm ever since.
The nadir came in 2015, with a yield of just 300 pounds an acre, less than a tenth the size of 2010’s crop.
For the Harts, the drought, and the increasingly hot summers, have become an existential challenge. With some changes in pruning techniques, the yields are now just under 1 ton an acre, and the wines are still exciting. But Gelert Hart wonders daily, he said, whether Ambyth can sustain itself into the future.
Twenty miles west, another idealistic estate, Tablas Creek Vineyard, has had a very different experience. Like Ambyth, Tablas farms biodynamically. In 2020, it became the country’s first vineyard to receive a regenerative organic certification, which requires meeting standards in encouraging soil health, and in promoting animal welfare and farmworker fairness.
It’s far bigger than Ambyth, with six times
the vineyard. It has a guest center, a parking lot and a professional hospitality staff.
Tablas Creek, too, makes superb wines, though more conventional than Ambyth’s, primarily blends and varietal wines made from 16 Southern Rhône grapes.
Unlike Ambyth, Tablas began with a serious plan. The owners are a partnership of two families with long experience in wine. The Perrin family in the Southern Rhône Valley of France had been the proprietors of Château de Beaucastel, a venerated Châteauneuf-du-pape estate, for generations. The Haas family in the U.S. had a successful wine import company, Vineyard Brands.
In the mid-1980s, the families decided to look together for property in California to grow Rhône grape varieties. After a long search, they settled on a 120-acre site west of the town of Paso Robles, just 12 miles from the Pacific.
Planting did not begin
until 2003, as the vines, imported from Beaucastel had to pass through quarantine in the U.S. When they put in their first vineyard, said Jason Haas, general manager, they tried to plant as densely as at Beaucastel, with far more vines per acre than was typical in old California vineyards that were dry-farmed.
But in Paso Robles, the rain patterns are different than in the Rhône. Tablas Creek might have a similar annual rainfall, but it mostly comes in the winter rather than spread through the year. The densely planted vines competed in the summer for the small amount of water in the ground. Many were lost.
These vines had to be irrigated, though Haas said Tablas tries to irrigate in a way that encourages roots to grow deeply rather than stay at the surface.
“We irrigate once or twice a summer for 12 hours, rather than two hours every two weeks,” Haas said. “It’s kind of conscious root training.”
Since that initial vineyard went in, Tablas has continued to add to it. The newer vineyards are planted far less densely, 380 to 640 vines to the acre rather than 1,600 to 1,800, which permits farming without irrigation once the vines are established. Today, 30% of Tablas is dry-farmed, Haas said, with a goal of 50% as planting continues.
Why is dry farming important?
“For two reasons,” said Neil Collins, executive winemaker and vineyard manager. “First, the fewer the inputs, the better to make wines of place, which is our goal. Second, because it’s more responsible.”
When it comes to dry farming, Tablas has a significant advantage over Ambyth: It is in part of the Paso Robles region that averages 25 to 28 inches of rain per year, twice what Ambyth has been getting to the east.
Even as the drought persists, Haas said, Tablas is able to harvest 2 tons an acre in its dry-farmed blocks, along with 3 to 3 ½ in the areas that require irrigation. He agrees with Hart that the dry-farmed vines are healthier, and noted they require less labor.
“They’re more self-regulating,” he said. “You don’t have to do a lot of the stuff you do in irrigated vineyards. It’s less expensive, lower intervention, and the quality of the grapes and the health of the vines are really good.”
Climate change and its ramifications, like the drought and the threat of fires, are problems at Tablas just as they are all over the West.
As of yet, though, the threat is not immediate. Tablas can focus on other issues, like defending the vines from gophers, putting in enough solar panels to provide 100% of its energy needs, and protecting its 300 sheep from mountain lions and other predators.