As we’ve been peeling back the curtain across our expanded property at Antica Terra—including the new Amity Barrel Hall and forthcoming Table in the Trees—we’ve realized there are so many other stories to tell.
The purpose of Beauty School has always been to investigate what it means when we say that we trade only in beauty. And part of that requires the awareness that our work goes way beyond the act of winemaking. Or in other words, making our wine in the best, most beautiful way we possibly can requires widening our perspectives, listening carefully, and learning from the cues this land continually offers us.
This post marks the first in a new, ongoing series of dispatches from the land—the field recordings we’re transcribing, the subtleties we are attuned to, the shifts that remind us that all of this is bigger than us.
At the front is Madeleine Rowan-Davis, Antica Terra’s VP of Polyculture. Madeleine’s title refers to our highest goal, which is to turn away from monoculture and embrace that we are just one of a contextual chorus of perspectives. Our role is one of stewardship, with Madeleine responsible for farming our wine grapes to ensure they are the most exquisite expression of what this land can cultivate. Equally important is her role in shepherding the grapes in harmony with the other crops growing on the property, with wildlife, and our community.
From Eugene, OR, Madeleine grew up volunteering with the U.S. Forest Service, studying bat behavior and ecology before earning a degree in Biological Science…and a minor in music performance on cello (!) Later, she’d go on to study viticulture at UC Davis, investigating vine water relations on complex slopes in the Priorat wine region of Spain. After returning to the West Coast, Madeleine worked as a viticulturist in the North Coast of California for over a decade before joining us in Oregon. Here, we’re so privileged to have her expertise at the helm of building integrated systems across our land—where permaculture, viticulture, animal husbandry, and forest ecology all come together.
To pass her the mic directly:
“In the short term, I am focused on learning our property as it is now. I have found over the years that learning goes much faster once you have a framework established in which to hold information…I have also been seeking partners who will aid us in this journey, meeting with local non-profit organizations and government agencies who can bring unique specializations and perspectives to our oak savanna project, our farm garden, and even our grazing programs.
The property inspires a lot of ideas, but more than anything in this first season, I am striving to be present with what the vineyard is now and not allow myself to force a particular vision into place before I fully appreciate what this land requires. The goal is to make small shifts over time to continuously improve on our current practices, and to establish points of reference we can use to measure our success.”
From here, this series will be dedicated to Madeleine’s ongoing reports—chronicling for our collective memory, and beginning with a blazing hot July heatwave to keep us on our toes.
Notes from the Land — Week of July 8
In many ways, this year has followed the sort of seasonal patterns that I recollect being common when I was a child.
Grapevine phenological development is pretty much on par with historical averages as well, meaning that bud break historically falls about April 20, and while it showed signs of starting earlier, that's pretty much what happened across the property. Bloom is typically about 60-65 days later, and our average bloom date for the property was June 18. What is really funny, is that I can't actually remember the last time we faced a "normal" year. Mother Nature has a beautiful way of keeping us humble.
This spring season was damp and predictably unpredictable until the 4th of July, when suddenly the temperatures sky-rocketed and led us into several days over 100 degrees. The extremes feel perhaps a little more extreme than historical, but that is something we have become prepared to expect over the past several years of extreme weather events.
This one, I hope, is not severe enough to be problematic: The vines still have available soil moisture in all but the shallowest and rockiest spots, and we are running spot irrigation and hand-watering the young plants, which are not yet established. There’s a lot to learn and take away from this surprising, endless adaptability.
— Madeleine Rowan-Davis
A Reading:
“One of our responsibilities as human people is to find ways to enter into reciprocity with the more-than-human world. We can do it through gratitude, through ceremony, through land stewardship, science, art, and in everyday acts of practical reverence.”
— Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants