The Great Data Debate: Does It Pay to Farm Organically?

For decades, growers and vintners have been divided on the issue of whether organic farming is worth the cost, and even the cost itself is often a matter of conjecture. Little attention has been paid to what actual producers report, leading to heated and opinionated debates on the topic.

At Napa Green’s breakthrough event, The Economics of Organic Viticulture, the group brought together an impressive array of vineyard managers and vintners from major brands to talk about the economic facts of growing organic vines. The panel was illuminating for the diversity of sites, the wide number of varieties grown, yield data and other factors. Presenters included:

• Brad Kurtz, vineyard manager at family-owned sparkling wine giant Gloria Ferrer in Sonoma’s Carneros (331 acres) (they make Cava in Spain and own Freixenet S.A.) Gloria Ferrer sells 60,000 cases of wine from the Sonoma vines and is in the final stages of organic certification (a multiyear process).

• Jesse Apgar, director of operations at Enterprise Vineyards (led by Phil Coturri), an all-organic vineyard management company which farms in Sonoma and Napa (600 acres, including Kamen, Lasseter, Mayacamas, Oakville Ranch, Stone Edge and many more). The company has been farming organically (certified) for more than 40 years.

• Rebekah Wineburg, winemaker at Quintessa in Rutherford, certified organic in 2020 (160 acres).

• Bernat Sort Costa, regenerative organic research manager at family-owned Grgich Hills Estates, which farms five sites in Napa ranging from the Carneros to Calistoga (365 acres) under regenerative organic certification. It was first certified organic in 2006.

Better Yields? It Depends on Cultural Practices
At Grgich Hills, an evangelist for regenerative organic farming, Sort Costa reported the family-owned winery spends $11,000 per acre to farm, far less than the Napa average of $14,800, a savings of $3,800 or 25%.

Their cost data was collected by their accounting firm, Brotemarkle Davis & Co. LLP, aggregated from other Napa wineries the firm works with.

Grgich Hills also presented data on its yields, showing steady increases since 2019. From 2019 to 2022, the years in which data was available, their Chardonnay yield significantly outperformed Napa’s Chardonnay average.

In an interview with Grape & Wine, Sort Costa attributed that to their change to increased fertility when they switched to regenerative organic farming, integrating sheep into the vines during the dormant season and going no-till.

“We found in warmer, dryer years that with more organic matter in the soil, the vines are better able to retain water and become more consistent and resilient,” he said.

Caine Thompson noted similar yield increases in a regenerative organic study conducted at Robert Hall Winery in Paso Robles after adopting regenerative practices.

German researchers comparing conventional, organic and biodynamic Riesling vineyards in a Geisenheim University research study also reported yields in organic and biodynamic vineyards were higher than conventional in hot and dry years. The biological approaches also resulted in higher fruit quality, their study said.

Vineyard Longevity and Depreciation
Do organic vines last longer? Many organic vintners report they do and cite that as a major financial benefit.

The average Napa vine age is 25 years, Sort Costa said, compared to Grgich Hills, where the vines average 35 years of age.

“Our depreciation costs are lower than half [of 150+ Napa peers] on average,” he said, quoting $1,300 in depreciation versus $3,800 for Napa peers.

Quintessa’s Wineburg said metrics for an estate are different than for a grower. “The real metric is not cost per acre; it’s the number of tons that actually make it into the blend.

“There are huge benefits in terms of resilience in each of the vines,” she continued. “Replanting a vineyard is the biggest cost, the most expensive thing that you can do. So, if we can keep these vines in the ground for another 10 or 15 years, that’s wonderful from a cost perspective.

“From a quality, consistency and depth of flavor perspective, it’s even more important because vines only really come to express their terroir when they’re mature. They come into that balance, and when they are in that balance, they are more resilient. So, we do believe in building farming for resilience.”

Dramatic Improvements in Wine Quality
The biggest plus for many was the improvement in grape quality. “We’ve seen the quality as we transition from conventional to organic,” said Kurtz (the Robert Hall study found similar results.)

Enterprise Vineyards’ grown grapes (from Oakville Ranch, for example) that have received 100-point scores in its first year of regenerative organic farming include Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’s 2021 Cask 23.

“As far as farming costs go [at Gloria Ferrer], we’ve actually held our farming costs fairly steady across the last five to six years, even with the increase in the cost of inputs,” said Kurtz.

Despite increased costs for weed control, he added, “Our farming costs have actually gone down slightly.”

At the same time, quality has improved.

“The quality of the wines has elevated every year, with tons of intensity on the palate,” he said, as the Napa Green event attendees tasted the 2021 Gloria Ferrer Royal Cuvee, a sparkling rosé. “Really long finish. Great midpalate, great mouth coat… It’s something we’re really proud of that we’re able to do this and still produce an extremely high-quality product… at a relatively affordable price point on the wholesale market.”

Elsewhere in California
While the vineyards featured in the Napa Green event are farmed for high priced wines, how are organic growers in lower priced regions faring?

Craig Ledbetter of Vino Farms in Lodi has 900 acres either certified organic or in transition and plans to convert more.

“I do believe it is an emerging market, and I want to be at the forefront of that,” he said in an interview with Grape & Wine. His costs range in the neighborhood of $4,500 an acre, depending on the type of harvest and administrative and hauling costs.

“Organic can be very similar in pricing because you’re not using some of those more expensive chemicals and because you’re not using some chemicals at all,” Ledbetter said. You’re using a lot of sulfur, and you’re not putting on a lot of sprays, and sprays can be more expensive over time.”

North Coast veteran vineyard manager Dave Koball (newly of KoballVit.com) has farmed for a wide variety of sustainable, organic or biodynamic clients. He said comparison is difficult.

“It all depends on site characteristics and bottle price,” Koball said. “At the end of the day, I just think that as an organic grower, you have to be in the vineyard more, and this leads to quality improvements.

“You must be ahead of the pests, preventing issues, not working behind the pests to eradicate them as you would in a conventional setting,” he added. “This is done through using all your tools (cultural practices, irrigation, crop load balance, fertility, encouraging diversity, etc.) holistically and synergistically. This leads to vines that are in balance with their soil, environment and crop load, which gives optimal fruit quality.”

That can be an economic benefit, Kurtz said, when it comes to selling fruit.

“We have a lot of neighbors that have a lot of fruit that was not harvested this year, and we were able to move more tons. I can guarantee you we were able to move more tons this year than we would have if we were not farming organically, and the price that we got for those was significantly higher than what everyone else was getting in our area.

“I think that is a very easy [return on investment] versus dropping your fruit on the ground. We’re selling it… that is a very easy equation. And if we were not farming organically, we would not have sold this fruit. Every single person we sold fruit to this year bought fruit from us because we were farming organically, and they were seeking out organically farmed fruit. And they may not be putting it on the bottle, but they are conscious of organic farming, and they understand organic farming produces better wines.”