Why regenerative viticulture could be key to fine wine’s future
In an exclusive interview, Joseph Phelps CEO David Pearson tells db why he is leading a shift to regenerative viticulture at the high-end Napa producer to create vines with a productive 100-year lifespan while yielding a story the consumer wants to hear.
The changes are only just starting, and his vision is a powerful one, but should it be successfully realised, Pearson’s model for a sustainable fine wine estate could provide a brilliant blueprint for producers around the world.
To fully understand his persuasive views on how vineyards should be managed, and distribution handled, whatever the fine wine brand, please listen to our podcast with Pearson, which covers everything from the reasons why he joined Joseph Phelps to his thoughts on the wine world’s troubles, and how to solve them.
Notably, during that discussion, he stressed a need to change viticulture for the better, not just to boost biodiversity, but also wine quality, and, in turn, economic viability for a sector of the market under threat – fine wine consumption has declined since a post-Covid surge in demand, and with that fall-off, so too has the amount of money coming in that’s needed to craft age-worthy, delicious drinks.
In other words, Pearson’s changes are designed to ensure the environmental and economic sustainability of Joseph Phelps – an estate under new ownership: it was bought by Moët Hennessy in mid-2022.
While the wine estate is already famous in Napa, well-known as a pioneering fine wine producer during the region’s renaissance in the early 70s, and currently deemed a “jewel in the crown” according to Pearson, he said that he was drawn to the property due to Moet Hennessy’s intention to take Joseph Phelps to an even higher level of quality and reputation.
Joining the estate in June 2023, Pearson already had an illustrious career, particularly as former CEO of great Napa name, Opus One, which he left in 2020 after 16 “glorious” years.
But between leaving Opus One and joining Phelps he had toured France, looking to invest in a producer there, possibly in the Ardèche, and during this period discovered an approach to viticulture which he terms agro-forestry, employing not only a range of plants in the vineyard, but also a permaculture, which means keeping the soils covered and undisturbed at all times.
Indeed, when shown a piece of vineyard soil managed this way, he said he had “an epiphany – there was dark, moist soil, full of earthworms, and it smelled good, and it clumped, and I thought, well, this is different from what we have in Napa.”
As he continued, speaking about traditional approaches more commonly practiced, particularly back in California, it is usual to plant nitrogen fixing legumes between the vines during the winter but then plough them into the soil in time for the summer, leaving the ground bare, “so it turns into dirt, which is the dry, lifeless thing.”
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However, having witnessed an alternative approach, now widely called regenerative agriculture – which you can read more about here – Pearson told db, “I became determined to try and find a place where I could do that kind of farming.”
Then, having been asked to consult to Joseph Phelps in July 2023, he agreed to spend six months back in Napa to “help with the transitional process of the acquisition and setting a strategy.”
More than two years later, Pearson is in a full-time, permanent role heading up the property, because, he says, “the people here were so upbeat about the opportunities that lied ahead, and then I said to myself, we have to do regenerative farming, we have to bring that to Napa,” – a move that he has “well begun”.
Not only that, but he’s learning how to implement the approach from another Moet Hennessy property, which is Château Cheval Blanc, which he described as representing “one of the fullest and best examples of this kind of poly-culture management.”
And in Napa, at Joseph Phelps, Pearson stressed that as he implements the approach, he is studying the impacts.
“We are determined not to take a quick path, but do something that is very grounded in a scientific way,” which has seen Pearson and his team spend that past nine months studying every aspect of the property, from the soil life, humidity, water flows, as well as flora and fauna, to have a base level of measurements from which they can come back to in “five years from now and say, ‘so what’s changing, and are our expectations being fulfilled?’ – not just in a gut sense, but in a measurable direct sense.”
With that done, Pearson is now overseeing the replanting of a few parcels “to create vines that will live 100 productive years” – instead of “replanting every 15-20 years”.
As part of this, he is pioneering an approach that should encourage vine resistance to climatic extremes, particularly drought, by working with a nursery in Washington State to create rootstocks with “one central pivot going down, from which we will have four layers of roots growing out, so we will create a deeper, broader root structure.”
Along with planting those, he’s also “placing fruit trees between every fourth and fifth vine”, while bordering the vineyards with hedging plants and then, after three years of establishing the rootstocks in this diverse and undisturbed environment, “we’re going to do in-field grafting of the varieties we will pick”.
Regenerative approaches are also being employed to existing vineyards, and overall, Pearson sees the move as being part of a long term brand building exercise that’s focused on improving vine health and wine quality but also boosting awareness and image.
“We we can’t just depend on the 50 years of Joe Phelps and his history; we do have to re-earn it, we have to have a compelling vision for the future, and that’s what this farming gives us.”
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