Part 2 of a 4 part series on our trip to Hilliard Bruce in the Sta. Rita Hills in Santa Barbara County.

On Sustainability

The vineyard is SIP Certified as Sustainable.  For several years they farmed “organically” but John wanted to move past this and address the efficient use of water and electricity.  SIP Certification addresses a broader goal of sustainability including water conservation, pest management, energy efficiency, habitat conservation, economic stability as well as human resources.

Power

The property is solar powered by 35 Kilowatts of solar panels that provide at least 80% of the power needed.

Water

They hired a bioreclaimation company for industrial sites to create a 6 acre reservoir.  The reservoir holds 1.5 million gallons of water and originally had a v-8 car engine to power the pumps.  In 2011 this was put to good use preventing frost damage that year in April.  Spraying all 21 acres with the water raises the temperature above freezing keeping the vines from being damaged.  In addition the reservoir is also used for irrigation.  The reservoir sits on a hill top so much of the irrigation is gravity flow.  There are 1500 square feet of floating islands in the middle of the pond, made of recycled water bottles.  This island with it’s plants filters out heavy metals and excess nutrients from the water.  The water is then conditioned so that when it goes into the irrigation lines there is not alkaline bicarbonate build-up which can cause clogs and keep the lines from irrigating evenly.  They also have cutting edge computer telemetry to monitor the vines for when they need water.  They use drip, double drip and overhead sprinklers for watering. And the trickle down effect is measured in, so….the vines at the bottom of the hill don’t have as much coming out of the drip as the top of the hill, because the excess water from above will be already trickling down to them.  Brilliant!

Composting

The Static Aeration compost building is pretty amazing.  The compost is aerated from below to get the micro-organisms going faster.  This compost is made from Horse Manure from their stables with Arabian horses that they raise.  The building has a blower system underneath to inject air into the compost from below.  They use the manure for the 20 Arabian horses to create compost in 30 days without turning the pile!  The entire compost needs of the vineyard are taken care of internally from this compost building.

Tomorrow We will get into their amazing canopy management and talk about the wines.