In the 8th episode of the Vine and River podcast, host Lenka Davis visits a young vigneron, Martin Bernal Hafner, who leads the small team at Alta Orsa winery. A native of Colombia, Martin’s winemaking experience spans three continents, including work in Mendoza and the Northern Rhône with the respected producer Chapoutier. Currently, Martin makes wine and co-farms the Alta Orsa property nestled in the hills around Hopland. From the very beginning, Martin Bernal Hafner, Roger Peng, and Ricardo Garcia shared the vision of putting farming at the heart of Alta Orsa’s philosophy. Martin opens up about challenges of farming a site with dense plantings, handling vine trunk disease, logistics of using sheep to graze the vineyards and other environmentally thoughtful activities he is implementing at Alta Orsa.

In the seventh episode of Vine and River podcast, we sit down with Ted Lemon at his Pivot Estate in Sebastopol. Ted carries a rare string of accomplishments. From being the first American who became the vigneron at an estate in Burgundy (and this is a rare sight to this day), Ted led the team at Domaine Guy Rulout from 1982-1984 and worked for A-grade Burgundy domaines, such as Domaine Georges Roumier, Domaine Dujac and Domaine de Villaine, among others. But perhaps the largest accomplishment of all is Ted’s and his wife Heidi’s longitudinal work with Littorai wines, both here at the Pivot estate, and having profound impact on his growers in other sites. For a long time, Ted has been a beacon of alternative farming, admired broadly in the wine industry and harnessing awards, such as SF Chronicle Winemaker of the year. Together, we talked about the big picture of agriculture, while bringing a few tangible experiences of running a farm in conjunction with natural cycles.

In the sixth episode of Vine and River podcast, we give the microphone to our own executive director of the last 23 years, Don McEnhill, who, together with staff attorney Jaime Neary, has been commenting on a North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board order. This order directly links vineyard farming activity and protection of water quality in North Coast rivershed areas, Lenka Davis talks to Don about Russian Riverkeeper position and reasoning behind the individual items within the order.

The order name is “General Waste Discharge Requirements for Commercial Vineyards in the North Coast Region, Order No. R1-2024-0056” and you can access it here: https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/northcoast/water_issues/programs/agricultural_lands/Vineyards/