Captain Vineyards is a winery in Moraga, California that is dedicated to sustainability. Many rave about the winery’s bold reds and beautiful views, but their green operations are also causing a commotion amongst viticulturalists, environmentalists, and wine-lovers alike. Their consistent efforts to decrease waste have been acknowledged for eight years by the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District. And everything that is uprooted from the land is returned. This means 100% of organic materials – pruning clippings, grape skins, seeds, and stems – are recycled. In fact, Captain Vineyards is proud that they no longer require a green waste container because of this initiative. Captain Vineyards began dry farming its 3,500 vines in 2007. All water used in the cleaning and...
Every 4-6 weeks, Sal ventures into the cellar for a day or two of TOPPING, you can call it the angels share of our wine. Sal, has to estimate the need of extra wine ready for this monthly action. The wood barrels will allow for a small amount of wine evaporation, enough, to make the need to top off these barrels. It is quite exciting to do, because for sure we will have some extra wines for us to taste at the end of the day!! Sometimes, it does become a job, especially when you are needed else where at the vineyard or grandkids! Temperatures are starting to range into the 70's & that calls for all our 2021 wines,...
The Vineyard has been pruned mid February, the weeds cut, last years shoots shredded. Waiting for bud break of 2022. It has been a very dry & warm February & March. Lucky for us, we harvested as much of the water we can from the December rain pour we had. We used our emptied wine tanks & wine bins to collect the water. As time passed, we had to use some of the wine to water the plants & to let go of it to the vineyard. We anticipate a dry year yet again. the experts are predicting the difficulty growers will face for the 2022 vintage. At Captain Vineyards, many of the activities are done by a...
