How can farmers and winemakers mitigate against possible disasters imposed by fire, drought, pests, weather?

The climate crisis and increased heat globally has changed weather patterns; the seemingly ceaseless and dependable summer coastal California fog is less dependable. The ever present threat of Pierce’s and other disease vectors is worse with the stress of global warming. Increased intense heat in the vineyards along with drought conditions further threaten grape vines.

One answer to these myriad problems? Hybrid grapes farmed in experimental ways like what Adam Tolmach is doing at The Ojai Vineyard with vines from UC Davis planted in 2017.

Background: A pioneer in Santa Barbara County wine, Adam Tolmach began making wine with purchased fruit well over 40 years ago. In 1981, he planted vines in Ojai on property his grandfather bought in 1933, and where Tolmach grew up playing in the creek.  Tolmach embraces organic and biodynamic practices; most of the fruit purchased is farmed organically but not certified. Minimal intervention and native yeasts express place. “I’m interested in organic because I’m interested in not poisoning the land and poisoning the people,” Adam told me in 2020. His wife Helen manages the operation, and his brother helps with the farm. 

• The Ojai Vineyard original vineyard planted in 1981 along Creek Road was so devastated by Pierce’s Disease that Tolmach took out all the vines in 1995.
• Pierce’s doesn’t like cooler climates. After several years of mild winters and drought, it’s moving north.
• In 2017 with new resistant grape varieties, he planted 1800 hybridized cuttings from UC Davis. “Returning to my roots with the vineyard again,” Adam told me in a 2022 interview.
• The December 2017 Thomas Fire threatened the property; a friend of mine lived nearby and lost everything in the fire.
• In 2018, a rogue heat wave hit the region but the young Pierce disease resistant vines survived and thrived.
• In 2019, a damp year where powdery mildew impacted other area vineyards, these vines suffered little and produced their first crop.
• In 2020, Sue and I opened a “shiner” to be some of the first people in the world to taste this wine. Read about the new vintage below.
• Three weeks ago, I asked Adam about visiting the vineyard for spring photos, but he said there wasn’t much to see yet.
• Today, while other vines have budded out and are already flowering, the hybrid grapes are still mostly dormant which protects them from unseasonably cold weather, high winds, and other early season threats.

“Here every year is different and the wines taste different because of that,” said Adam in a 2020 interview referring to Southern California, and then specifically to Ojai.  “Here we obviously are going to have more hot days but there are grape varieties that do well.” And grapes will always ripen here.

Generally coastal Santa Barbara and Ventura have mild climates with occasional heat spikes and cool nights. But this winter has been WET with twice as much annual rainfall, and many cold nights, even this weekend in mid-April snow will fall in the mountains above Ojai.

Even with typically dry, warm summers, a cool influence from the Pacific makes it important as a winemaker to react to the weather as opposed to following a formula, said Adam.  The aesthetic pursuit for Adam has been to find subtle delicacy in a climate that is in essence quite warm and hot especially at the time of harvest.

In the experimental vineyard, they adapted further to changing climate and increased heat concerns by planting a high trellis with vines close together to create a high canopy for shade so the vines have less exposure to morning and afternoon sun.

“It makes a huge difference,” said Adam.

While some wineries plant vines further apart so there is less competition for moisture, the method Adam employs keeps the vines and the soil between the rows cooler. The canopy provides indirect, even, sun exposure, and is also more efficient with water. Other interventions include

• Trimming clusters
• Trimming the canopy
• Selecting the shoots for even spacing

While “there is the desire to maximize the yields” Adam’s strategy is to minimize yields to get intensity. However, said Adam, “You have to make a living” which means finding a balance between quality and price.  The new hybrid vineyard is farmed organically and does not use any synthetic pesticides or herbicides.

UC Davis’s Andy Walker took over 20 years to develop the new grape varieties resistant to Pierce’s disease now planted on 1.2 acres with 1800 of hybridized (not genetically modified) cuttings. The resulting five hybrids contain 3% of a grape native to Arizona, Vitus arizonica that resists Pierce’s.

Two reds and two whites are now at The Ojai Vineyard estate. One of the whites is more like a Sauvignon Blanc, while the other reminds Adam more of chardonnay. One of the white wine grapes is a hybrid of:

• 62.5 percent Cabernet Sauvignon
• 12.5 percent Carignane
• 12.5 percent Chardonnay

That’s mostly what we would think of as red wine grapes! And yet the red wine wine grape is a hybrid of mostly grapes usually in white wines:

• 50 percent Sylvaner
• 12.5 percent Cabernet Sauvignon
• 12.5 percent Carignane
• 12.5 percent Chardonnay

While you’d think this would be the grape that’s more like Sauvignon Blanc, according to this article, this is a “red wine grape… dark red purple color, complex fruit with herbs and earth, plum, big wine, dense, rich middle, tannic yet balanced.” Read more in this article on The Ojai Vineyard website.

Unique and new yes, but not that different from what’s out there naturally, said Adam in 2020.  

Once again Adam Tolmach and The Ojai Vineyard is a pioneering influence: he made his name showing what Santa Barbara grapes can do, and today, it’s also wines made from hybrid grapes. Check them out below– they’re perfect for Earth Month and California Sustainable Wine Month!

Read more about hybrid grapes grown around the world from the World Wine Travel group of wine writers. Curious about hybrid grapes in general? Read Jeff’s invite post on foodwineclick for more background about hybrids.

• Camilla at Culinary Cam shares “A Taste of the Mid-West: Double-Decker Butter Burgers & A Multi-County Marquette from Wisconsin + Fun House Potatoes from Minnesota”
• Terri at Our Good Life shares “Missouri’s Most Popular Hybrid: the Norton”
• David at Cooking Chat shares “Exploring Marquette Wine Pairings”
• Robin at Crushed Grape Chronicles shares “Marcel Zanolari and PiWi Grapes in the Valtellina Valley”
• Linda at My Full Wine Glass shares “Vidal ice wine brings back memories of NY Finger Lakes”
• Martin at ENOFYLZ Wine Blog shares “A Taste of Mad Marvlus Wines”
• Wendy at A Day in the Life on the Farm shares “Enjoying the Hybrid Wines of Old Mission Peninsula”
• Jeff at Food Wine Click! shares “Marquessa – a Marquette Hybrid Appellation”

The Ojai Vineyard Hybrid Wines

• 2022 The Ojai Vineyard Estate White, Ventura County
• 2021 The Ojai Vineyard Paseante Noir, Ventura County

Menu: Fusion Tacos

• Chicken mole
• Sauteed shrimp
• Sue says just add items to the taco bar that you might not necessarily have on a traditional taco such as mango, chopped proscuitto, roasted butter salted spiced pumpkin, basket ricotta.