Working in partnership with humans, nature, and livestock to increase biodiversity and rangeland ecosystem health.
Overview
Paicines Ranch's innovative rangeland and livestock program represents a model of regenerative agriculture in action across their 7,600-acre property in San Benito County, California. Through careful integration of livestock and land management, the program demonstrates how agricultural production can work in harmony with natural ecosystems while producing high-quality food products.
Key management approaches:
- Planned grazing systems that mimic natural herd movements
- Integration of livestock with organic forage production
- Innovative sheep grazing in polyculture vineyards
- Careful monitoring of soil health and biodiversity
- Organic certification and Audubon certification across all rangeland operations
How it Works:
CANOPY
High up on the trellis system, the lush vine leaves and fruit are mostly out of reach for grazing sheep. The thick canopy keeps the vineyard cooler on hot days, reduces frost damage on cool nights, and provides partial shade for sheep, grapes, people, and wildlife.
TALL VINES
Growing the vines taller allows sheep to do our work while they get to do what they love - browse suckers and shoot tips. The higher trellis system also allows easier access in all directions under the wires for sheep and people–which also makes it easier on the bodies of those humans tending to and harvesting the grapes!
SHEEP
The sheep are our partners in creating a healthy ecosystem in the vineyard. They cycle nutrients, browse suckers and shoot tips, which reduces the need for outside fertilizer inputs, tractors and manual labor, and provides an additional source of profit. Plus they’re fun to work with!
Unlike traditional vineyards, our system is designed so that the sheep can graze at anytime of the year -- even during the growing season.
FRUIT
The wine grapes from our initial harvests are proving to be nutrient dense while producing higher yields. Their quality has inspired us to reduce or eliminate the need for outside inputs and chemicals.
VINEYARD FLOOR
Living plants and mulch covers the vineyard floor soil throughout the year, keeping the ground cool and moist, thus improving habitat for soil life. The diverse plant cover provides grazing forage, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, habit and food for insects, birds, and rodents.
All these benefits without tillage.
VINEYARD SOIL
Through key soil health principles – keeping the soil covered, keeping living plants and roots, growing biodiversity, eliminating tillage, and integrating the sheep in the vineyard, the soil life is continuously improving and flourishing with a high capacity to capture and hold water.
Some words from our friends...
[The ideal version of our vineyard] "would enable grazing during spring and summer to better control summer grasses and incorporate organic nitrogen inputs nearly year-round. It would need a large off-farm grazing area for the rest of the year. Paicines Ranch in California is pretty close to perfect." [read Regenerative Viticulture Q&A here]
– Dudley Brown, Inkwell Wine - McLaren Vale Australia
"The early results are encouraging. I tasted an assyrtiko and a verdejo during a visit to Paicines earlier this year and found both to be fresh, energetic and deeply textured. The assyrtiko in particular was striking, reminiscent of the stony citrus and herbal flavors of a wine from Santorini but kissed by a little California sun." [article here]
– Eric Asimov, wine critic, New York Times
"I was incredibly impressed to see what my friends at Paicines Ranch have achieved as far as bringing real vibrancy to the site they are farming. The seamless integration of livestock in their vineyard is not just an abstract biodynamic principle, but the center piece of their effort." [@RandallGrahm]
– Randall Grahm, Bonny Doon Vineyard
"Kelly has been obtaining impressive results by merging his experience in viticulture with his understanding of Allan Savory’s holistic grazing management techniques. His approach to extended-season vineyard livestock grazing and other ecological practices continue to capture an audience of vineyard managers around the globe." [podcast here]
– John Kempf, Advancing Eco Agriculture & Regenerative Agriculture Podcast
The People Who Make It Happen
The Paicines Ranch Vineyard takes a village of passionate people working together to create abundance. From the initial vision and design of the vineyard to the daily reciprocal relationship with the land, from composting, seeding, grazing with cows and sheep, monitoring our efforts, building and maintaining the structure and facilities, capturing rain and sunlight, hosting tours, events, wine tastings, and walks... we see the vineyard as a place where all of our collaborative teamwork comes together in a great adventure!
Here are some of these folks, who invest their energy and love daily into the vineyard:
Monitoring for Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the learned result of millions of years of evolution, life’s direct response to shifting environmental conditions on Earth. As climate change accelerates, biodiversity is key to our resilience. Rather than simplify our agroecosystems by excluding wildlife and spraying pesticides or herbicides, we choose to farm with nature. For this reason we are collecting data on the populations of plants, birds, insects and soil microbes that inhabit the vineyard and play a critical role as vital pieces of a complex agroecological system. Insects, for example, are not only pollinators but also predators of pests, decomposers of waste and the foundation of many wild food chains - providing fertility, organic matter inputs and water holding capacity to our soils.
The following information highlights our findings, from the ground up, as we seek to demonstrate this ecologically aligned approach to managing vineyards:
Soil Organic Matter - Between 2014 and 2021, soil organic matter (SOM) percentage has increased 66% (from 1.5% to 2.5% SOM on average) in the topsoil -- between the soil surface and 1.3 feet (40cm) to 2 feet (60cm) deep. This benefits water retention, atmospheric carbon sequestration and helps to support the foundation of a healthy ecosystem.
Soil Microbes - Soil microbial communities have become more complex and diverse, resulting in 10% more bacterial and fungal species than in neighboring conventional vineyards.
Plants - Over 35 plant species grow in the understory of the vineyard, providing diverse resources and habitat both below- and above-ground.
Insects - Insect abundance is over five times greater than a neighboring conventional vineyard, according to a 2021 study. Beneficial predator and parasitoid insects were two to three times more abundant than in the conventional vineyard, while pests like herbivorous and sap-sucking insects were at the same levels without the use of pesticides.
Birds - Over 60 bird species visit the Paicines Ranch vineyard, including bald eagles, prairie falcons and endangered tricolored blackbirds. The latter were regularly foraging in the vineyard in spring 2022 to feed their nesting chicks.
Angela Osborne | A Tribute to Grace
"Angela Osborne moved to California in 2006, with the dream of making Grenache. Originally from New Zealand, where the climate is believed too cool for Grenache, she chose the abundant sunshine of Santa Barbara County to make her first wine. Named after her Grandmother, A Tribute to Grace Wine Company was founded in 2007, and is based in Los Alamos, CA. Winemaking focuses entirely on Grenache, with eight single-vineyard offerings, a Rosé of Grenache and a SBC blend."
We can't wait to try Angela's first release of wine made with Paicines Ranch grapes!
🍇 Angela is using Pacines Ranch Grenache.
Tara Gomez & Mireia Taribo | Camins 2 Dreams
"Camins 2 Dreams represents the routes and paths we have followed to achieve our dreams. C2D was founded in 2017 by Tara Gomez and Mireia Taribo, who are a team of two winemakers. Their philosophy is to make hand-crafted, terroir-driven wines that are fermented with natural yeast and use minimal intervention in the winery, with only minimum amounts of S02 at bottling. Their wines are unfined and unfiltered. They believe that wine is made in the vineyard and they source fruit from vineyards that share the same values of respect for the land and their workers. They work exclusively with organic, biodynamic, and regenerative vineyards."
We can't wait to try their first release of wine made with Paicines Ranch grapes!
🍇 Tara and Mireia are using Pacines Ranch Mencía and Carignan.