Organic Grapes, Organic Wine

In just eight years, Robert Sinskey’s vineyards grew from 15 to 100 acres. But the expansion masked a problem: Sinskey’s vineyards were in decline. The fruit just wasn’t ripening, and he suspected it was related to the soil, which looked fractured and bare. “We felt something had to be wrong with the basic practices of modern farming,” he says.

Sinskey switched to organic farming in 1990, slowly phasing out synthetic herbicides on his grapes until 2001 when he became a certified organic grower. His productive vineyards now cover 200 acres on six different properties. But while every grape in his Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Merlot wines are organic, not a single bottle carries the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s green-and-white “USDA organic” label.