New Biodynamic Farming Uses Insects To Protect Vines

Some Sonoma Vineyards are using new methods to control harmful pests.  After years of pesticide use, wine growers are cultivating beneficial insects such as lady bugs to attack aphids and other bugs that may harm their valuable vines.  Wineries like Benziger Family Vineyards in Glen Ellen pioneered this approach.  The winery even has special gardens that grow plants to attract such bugs called insectaries.  You can visit their insectary on your wine tour when you visit the winery.

This biodynamic farming approach differs from traditional organic farming by limiting the use of organic compounds like sulfur and soaping oils which have a general killing effect that destroys the bad and the good insects.  Biodynamic wineries seek to create a more sustainable program and to encourage natural predators to flourish.

With the focus on our dwindling bee population, such farming methods are a welcome change from the overuse of pesticides and fertilizers.  Benziger Family Vineyards uses innovative methods including water capture for vineyard use, biodynamic farming, and the use of beneficial insects for pest control.

Bugs In Your Wine?
As wineries seek to increase the bug population outside, controlling insects within the winery is always a priority.  Whether the grapes are harvested by hand or machine, caterpillars, larvae, spiders, and even bees find their way into the crushers.  Of course the fermenting process kills any living organisms, but a few bugs in the wine (or a few bug parts) is a fact of wine making.

Wine makers tell us that the amounts are trivial, a few grams per thousands of gallons of wine, so you'll never have to worry about straining out bug parts from your award-winning Cabernet.