Benizger Family Winery - keeping it green

by Maggie Bernat Smith

After the Green Music Fest that took place this past weekend right outside Noble Grape, we thought featuring a 'green' winery here would be appropriate today.

At Benziger, they are about 3 things: family, great wine and healthy vineyards. For more than thirty years they've searched Sonoma County for the most distinctive and expressive vineyard sites. Once found, they tended these properties using certified Biodynamic, organic and sustainable farming methods. The result is a portfolio of authentic and memorable wines.

Benziger Family Winery likes to think their wines have character and conscience. This means that they're not only great in the glass, they're grown in a way that's good for the environment, too. Every wine in their portfolio carries a third party certification of green farming practices. Whether the vineyard is certified sustainable, organic or Biodynamic, it's carefully tended with the most eco-responsible methods available. They don't just farm this way because they think caring for the land is the right thing to do, it also happens to be the best way to make distinctive, authentic wines.

All four of their estate vineyards are Demeter-certified Biodynamic. Biodynamics is the highest level of organic farming. Developed in the 1920's, Biodynamics views the vineyard as a single organism. With this approach, eliminating synthetic chemicals is just the beginning. Biodynamics goes further, encouraging biodiversity, a closed nutrient system, the use of homeopathic teas and a close personal connection to the land. They began transitioning their home ranch on Sonoma Mountain in the mid-nineties. Instead of bagged fertilizer, weed killer and pesticides they rely on composting, natural predator-prey relationships, cover crops, and the animals that live on thier estate, to keep their vineyard healthy and balanced. There are no silver bullets in Biodynamic winegrowing. When you eliminate all the artificial crutches, you learn to trust your instincts and to trust nature’s ability and capacity to make a great wine and it shows.

Noble Grape loves Benziger winery for not only their wines, but for their pioneering in organic and biodynamic farming and recycling methods. When The Noble Grape business plan was being drawn, 'green' was definitely in the plans. They used Colori paint, recycle, they use the green-ware cups which are made from corn and biodegrade easily, energy efficient lights, their 6 bottle tote are reusable bags are made from recyclable material. Noble Grape is proud to carry Benziger's wines including their Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon, all certified sustainable. Take a bottle home and see if you can taste the earth in the wine!