How sustainable is Californian wine?
Campbell Mattinson travels to California to see if its wine industry has improved its sustainability game.
IN APRIL 2025 I spent five days travelling from Los Angeles to San Francisco – following California’s Central Coast regions – to look at ongoing efforts to make the California wine industry more sustainable. This was a trip about the long game rather than, so much, about the here and now. The route we took included: Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria Valley, Los Alamos, Paso Robles, Santa Lucia Highlands, Monterey, San Benito County and then out of San Francisco. I’d never visited the US before. I didn’t know what to expect. From the first day of the trip I found myself quite dramatically inspired; by the end of it I was moved, such was the profound impression made by the lands we moved through, and the people we encountered. This 10-minute film (above) gives some idea of the what, the how, and of the impact of this trip.
This film includes, among other things:
A visit to DAOU, America’s “fastest growing luxury brand” at the time.
DAOU is in the process of full organic certification. It, for example, drops insects over its vineyard, by drone, each Spring, to combat pests by natural predators rather than by chemicals.
A finding that “natural solutions are often good for business”.
A visit to J. Lohr, which makes “the largest volume wine in the US to carry the Certified Sustainable sticker”.
J. Lohr is one of the largest wine producers in the US. 84% of its energy demands are met by on-site solar.
Massive solar panel farm at the J Lohr (San Luis Obispo County) winery in Paso Robles. PHOTO: Campbell Mattinson.
A visit to the Tablas Creek winery.
Tablas Creek is a 270-acre property. It has been certified organic for over 20 years.
Tablas Creek (almost) halved the weight of the bottles that it uses, from 893 grams to 467 grams. And has subsequently reduced its bottle weight further, to 400 grams. More.
Tablas Creek now serves its wines, at the cellar door, from keg rather than from bottles (whenever it can), to minimise wastage.
A tractor works down a row at the Tablas Creek vineyard on a bright sunny day. PHOTO: Campbell Mattinson.
A visit to Dierberg and Star Lane, home to extensive “sustainably certified” vineyards.
A visit to Fess Parker. This business has instituted a staff profit-share program. “For a winery to be sustainable, the business itself needs to be sustainable.” Staff retention and engagement has improved markedly as a result.
A visit to the Bien Nacido vineyard. Among other things, Bien Nacido is using “UVC blue light”, attached to robots, to combat mildew (rather than spraying).
Expansive view of the Bien Nacido Vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley. PHOTO: Campbell Mattinson.
A visit to the Scheid winery, which runs 4000 acres of vineyard – all run organically. Scheid is not just carbon neutral; it is carbon negative, on a massive scale.
A visit to the Chamisal vineyard. Here, sheep run through the vineyard. Owl boxes are installed throughout the vineyard. “Natural predators” and solutions prevail.
A visit to the remarkable Pisoni winery and vineyard. At Pisoni, an entire (substantial) hillside has been planted to an “insect garden”, as a way to promote/provoke/encourage a healthy local ecosystem.
A visit to Paicines Ranch. The vines are trained at “head height” here, so that sheep can control weeds all year around (if the vines were trained low, they would eat the vine leaves).
Paicines Ranch is 550 acres in size. It’s entirely organic. It’s a designated birding hotspot. It grows grapes that are “wild with flavour”.
