The Start
It all began with an innocent tasting room visit. During a Sonoma wine trip in the Fall of 2007, my wife & I scoured our trusty directory looking for interesting destinations. Having visited the Sonoma and Russian River Valley areas many times in the past, we had seen our share of wineries, and already a few days into our latest visit were anxious for something new. Intrigued by ‘green’ wines, we decided to make Healdsburg’s Quivira Vineyards, a small family-owned winery in Sonoma County’s Dry Creek Valley, a stop on our next day’s tour.
Once at the Tasting Room (where we ran into another couple from our native Ohio), the tasting room manager patiently explained Quivira’s philosophy of using biodynamic farming techniques, and described in detail exactly how the winery is 100% organic. Taking their commitment to the environment a step further than most of their peers, Quivira gets bonus eco-points for having also invested in solar energy to supply the winery’s electrical needs. Somewhere Al Gore is smiling.
Satisfied with our new knowledge, we didn’t just leave Quivira with an appreciation of an environmentally-friendly winemaker (hey, this was a wine vacation after all, not an educational trip!). We also walked away with a bottle of Quivira’s 2005 Sauvignon Blanc, from the estate’s Fig Tree Vineyard, a crisp, citrus-rich white from a vineyard aptly named due to the location of a nearby, majestic old fig tree.