Broughton Quarterly - Summer 2008 - (Page 28) (clockwise from below) green harvest at ampelos vineyard, where a relatively cool appellation provides ideal conditions for growing pinot noir and syrah; at the doors of demetria Estate; checking the refractometer, used to measure the sugar levels in grapes prior to harvest; a tour group on the move. be one of six that Sustainable Vine currently visits, including the syrah masters at Beckmen Vineyards; the certified organic growers at Presidio Winery; and the Provencal-themed Sunstone Winery, surrounded by one of the largest organic vineyards in Santa Barbara County. But most tours start at the Demetria Estate, a biodynamic vineyard and winery hidden on winding back roads and open by appointment only. Run by the charismatic John Zahoudanis, whose Greek heritage lives in his accent and zest for life, Demetria went biodynamic in 2005 and immediately noticed a positive change in their Rhonebased varietals. (They also make pinot noir and chardonnay sourced from other vineyards.) Zahoudanis, who chats with wine-sipping visitors in their kitchen before showing them into the tank room, is an ardent believer in the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian who invented biodynamic agriculture in the 1920s by treating farms as complete, self-sufficient organisms. Biodynamic praise (and Greek influence) also comes a few minutes down the road from the Santa Rita Hills appellation, where a former corporate businessman named Peter Work owns the ubereco Ampelos Cellars (ampelos means vine in Greek). Work, who’s Danish and runs Ampelos with his American wife, Rebecca, and son, Don, gives a hands-on tour of his vineyard, where irrigation 28 Broughton Quarterly Summer 2008
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.