Regenerative Organics in Action: Grazing Sheep

At Bonterra Organic Estates, our approach to regenerative organic farming encompasses three key pillars: improving soil health, upholding animal welfare, and empowering workers. Through a coordinated mix of regenerative practices—planting cover crops, integrating animals into the farm, planting beneficial, insect-friendly plants to curb pests, promoting biodiversity, conserving nearly 50 percent of our land in its natural state, and ensuring workers are treated fairly—we aim to revitalize our land and communities.

In 2021, all of Bonterra’s estate vineyards became Regenerative Organic Certified®, verifying our longtime practices of enhancing soil health, animal fairness, and worker well-being. Among the various animals contributing to biodiversity on our ranches, we are particularly fond of the sheep that make their home among our vines each winter. While the vines rest in dormancy, we bring flocks of sheep into our estate vineyards in Mendocino County to graze. We’re so dedicated to these sheep that we’ve even adjusted our drip irrigation systems to allow sheep to pass underneath vine rows without issue! Our incredible Estate Collection wines and our high scoring Single Vineyard wines are all sourced from grapes grown in these special vineyards that provide a home for sheep during the winter every year.

These friendly sheep meander through our ranches, grazing on cover crops and under-vine weeds, which allows us to keep herbicides away from our vines. This approach also helps us reduce fuel usage and carbon emissions by avoiding tractor passes. Importantly, our beloved sheep bring added fertility to the soil, which is a core tenet of regenerative farming—healthy, vital soils teeming with life. 

Once our vines experience bud break, typically in early April, the ravenous sheep are relocated before they have a chance to munch on new vine growth. This winter we’ll be sharing photos and videos of our beloved sheep on Bonterra’s social media accounts, so we invite you to check in and see what these furry friends are up to!

All of our wines are made with 100% certified organic grapes.

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