Our Farming Philosophy

A focus on sustainability and ecology through regenerative agriculture

Spring in Vermont is a time of life-giving warmth and color—a clear, compelling reminder of the importance of natural beauty on the human condition. Spring is also a time to act. To act upon lessons learned from the previous season, upon new farming plans formulated in the winter, and toward long term goals for the vineyard and the environment as a whole.

As stewards of this land, we place great emphasis on strengthening the natural world, using our knowledge and vitality to preserve its beauty and resilience. The tenants of regenerative agriculture are central to our practices in the vineyard, especially those that protect the soil and encourage biodiversity.

“The major distinguishing factor of the regenerative farming philosophy is the emphasis on restoration, which translates to a hyper-focus on topsoil and cover crops. By increasing biodiversity, improving the water cycle, enhancing the ecosystem, and supporting biosequestration, the regenerative farm strengthens the health of its own soil and increases the earth’s resilience to climate change.”

You’ll hear lots more about our farming philosophy in the future, but check out what we’re doing in the vineyard this spring to work toward our goals.

Last week we added three new members to our vineyard crew! Pruson, Foxy, and Wobbles are two month old Shropshire lambs from our neighbors at Werner Tree Farm. They’ll be hanging out with us this spring, grazing the vineyard floor, aerating the soil, and leaving behind some fertilizer.

Shropshires, once the most widespread sheep breed in Vermont, fell out of favor in the mid-20th century but are now making a comeback because of their use in regenerative agriculture. Their unique distaste for new shoots growing on woody plants makes them perfect for rotational grazing in both vineyards and tree farms, allowing farmers to maintain beneficial cover crops without the disruptive and damaging use of herbicide or tillage.

We also managed to get three new bat houses installed in the vineyard with a goal to grow our bat colony on the farm. Grape berry moth is a very real threat to our crop every year, and most farmers spray insecticide to help control populations and limit damage. Bats eat massive amounts of insects and we’re hoping that if we give them a nice place to sleep, they’ll help us protect our crop without using insecticides.

Ecological farming FTW!

Winter at the Vineyard

New Year, New Vine

Snow has blanketed the vineyard and so far it’s been a beautiful, vintage Vermont winter. The sustained cold weather means the vines are now fully dormant, quietly recovering from the last growing season and eagerly preparing for the next. Dormancy also means that it’s time for one our favorite vineyard tasks of the year: pruning.

Pruning is like pressing a vine’s reset button, shedding the wood that laboriously produced last year’s harvest and making room for new growth. We may remove up to 90% of the vine’s wood every year, each cut strategically placed to maximize the plant’s potential and longevity. Nothing we do in the vineyard has a bigger, more lasting impact on the vine’s ability to fully and sustainably ripen fruit than pruning.

It’s not a glamorous process - maneuvering pruners with hands incapacitated by bulky gloves, unwrapping impossibly strong tendrils, and trying to avoid getting whipped in the frozen face by a rogue cane - but each vine is a unique and fascinating puzzle.

Without foliage to block our view, we can clearly see the vine’s structure and the clues it left us from the growing season. These clues - the length and thickness of a cane, the presence of a scar or stretch mark, the spacing between buds - help us decide what to cut away and what to retain. In this way, we can affect the shape of the vine, improve its immune system by redirecting sap flow away from damaged or diseased wood, encourage growth of a new trunk, and balance its vegetative (shoots, leaves, etc.) and reproductive (grapes!) potential.

Pruning is cold, hard work but its methodical nature and the quiet of winter make it a time for reflection, sharing stories, planning, catching up on podcasts, and discovering new music. The tracks in the snow remind us of the wildlife that share this land with us. And we stand in reverence of the vines, masters of regeneration and resilience.

Harvest Wrap Up

Time for the vineyard managers to rest and the winemakers to get to work. Oh, wait…

That’s a wrap on Harvest 2024 and what a beautiful vintage it was! The month of September delivered fantastic weather with very little rainfall and lots of sun, giving us the freedom to pick each variety at peak ripeness. The vineyard produced 17 tons of grapes with big sugars and bigger flavors, all of which is now fermenting away in the winery, well on its way to becoming the next bottles of Lincoln Peak wine.

The wines have a lot left to reveal as they continue to develop, but so far the quality in tank and barrel is looking excellent. These wines are like our children, so it’s impossible to pick a favorite, but we are especially excited about two very different expressions of La Crescent, a rich and textured Frontenac Blanc, and a few different lots of Marquette already aging away beautifully in barrel. We can’t wait to share these wines with you next year!

With the first frost at the vineyard last week, the vines have dropped their leaves and will soon begin their long, well-deserved sleep. It was a whirlwind of a growing season - simultaneously seeming to drag on and fly by - but we feel so fortunate to have been graced with a great vintage in our first year farming the vineyard. We are endlessly grateful to this community, our volunteers, and our family and friends for supporting us throughout the year. It’s good to be back home in Vermont.

Harvest Begins

The 2024 harvest has officially begun, with our earliest ripening variety, Adalmiina, coming off the vines on the last day of August. She's now happily fermenting away in the winery as we impatiently wait for the rest of the fruit to tell us when it's ready. Mother Nature hit the pause button on ripening last weekend with cool temperatures and a shot of rain, reminding us that fall is coming soon...but not yet! We're back to perfect conditions in the vineyard and it looks like it'll stay that way for a while. It's the home stretch of the growing season and we expect to be picking fruit in earnest over the next few weeks before all of our attention moves into the winery to focus on processing and fermentation. It's a magical time of year and we can't wait to make some wine.