At Clos du Val, regenerative farming begins most visibly with a flock of sheep. Each winter, while the vines on Hirondelle Estate appear dormant, they work their way down our rows in the Stags Leap District, grazing the cover crop and leaving it behind as fertilizer, doing work that elsewhere requires a tractor.
Stewardship is our guiding principle, and no single practice can capture it. It’s apparent in how we care for the land, manage our water, run our winery, and plan for the future. Every decision is made with intention. Our goal isn’t just to craft great wines today, it’s to ensure that our land will thrive for generations to come.
We like to say that our best vintages haven’t yet been bottled, and that belief shapes every season in the vineyard. Sustainable and regenerative farming are terms used loosely across the wine world, as is organic, so below is what each means on our estate, day to day.
What Does Regenerative Farming Mean in a Napa Vineyard?
Regenerative farming sets out to improve the land over time rather than simply avoid harming it, and first and foremost, that means soil health. The surest way to build healthy soil is biological diversity: a wide range of plants growing above ground and a living community of microbes, fungi, and insects at work below it. In a vineyard, that diversity strengthens the soil’s structure and its capacity to hold water, so the farm relies less and less on inputs brought in from outside. Its working rules are few. Disturb the soil as little as possible, keep it covered, keep living roots in it through the year, and let animals back into the system.
The three words most often used about responsible farming describe different things. Sustainable describes a farm that keeps its impact in check. Organic describes what a farm refuses to use, chiefly synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. Regenerative asks a broader question: whether the land is thriving and growing healthier each year, with the farm working in tandem with nature rather than against it. We see it as the best path for us because it is the only one of the three built to keep raising the health of the vineyard year over year. They are not rivals. We lead with regenerative farming, hold to organic principles alongside it, and carry sustainability through everything beyond the vineyard, from how we use water and energy to how we package our wines.
It all starts below our roots and our boots. To better understand our soil structure and its needs, we dug soil pits across Hirondelle. The results guided which Bordeaux varieties we planted, and where. A regenerative approach builds on that knowledge rather than working against it, on the understanding that when the system thrives from the microbial level up, the vines follow, and the fruit carries the site with clarity and precision.
How Regenerative Farming Shows Up on Our Estate
Sheep are light enough that the soil beneath them stays loose, which matters on a vineyard floor that would otherwise be compacted by frequent tractor passes. Grazing animals among vines is an old practice, and over the last century machinery largely replaced it, trading the health of the soil for speed and short-term savings. Our viticulturist sees its return as something to plan around for the long term, not a seasonal novelty.
Beneath the flock, the soil is left alone as much as we can manage. We practice no-till farming, which protects the soil’s structure and lets carbon accumulate rather than escape each time the ground is turned. Cover crops keep the surface shaded and living roots in the ground through the winter; in a wet year like 2023, the mustard bloom lit the rows yellow from end to end. We follow organic principles throughout the vineyard, with no synthetic pesticides or herbicides.
Biodiversity runs through the rows as well as around them. Every sixth row in the vineyard is kept as an insectary, and together with the pollinator gardens at the estate’s edges, these plantings give bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects a place to live, helping keep pest pressure in balance naturally. Near the tasting pavilion, a pollinator meadow now lines the path out from Hirondelle House, and a wetland planting has brought a small pond on the southern edge of the property back to life. Guests walk through the meadow on their way to a glass, which seems right to us, since the landscape and the vineyard are one ecosystem.
How We Manage Water in the Vineyard
We no longer water by the clock. We water by the vine’s needs, block by block, and only as much as each block requires.
The first saving happens in the soil itself. Ground that is covered, rich in organic matter, and left untilled holds rainfall longer, so the healthier our soil becomes, the less irrigation the vines ask of us through a dry Napa summer. The second comes from precision. Sensors in the vineyard track soil moisture, the water the canopy loses to heat and wind, and signs of stress in the vines themselves. Our farming team weighs that data against the forecast and the stage of the season, then sets how much water each block should receive.
Delivering exactly that amount used to mean a person walking the rows to open and close valves by hand, with little way to confirm what had actually flowed. Since 2023 we have worked with Lumo, whose solar-powered smart valves open, close, and measure the water reaching each block across 79 acres of our vineyards, and report back in real time. The change lets us run shorter, more frequent irrigation sets, water through the night when a heat wave is on its way, and learn about a leak as soon as it starts, none of which a timer could do. Careful timing gives us better fruit and a lighter draw on a resource the whole valley shares.
What Does Napa Green Certified Mean?
Napa Green is Napa Valley’s own sustainability certification, a nonprofit program verified by independent third-party audits. It runs on two tracks, one for vineyard land and one for wineries, and our winery is Napa Green Certified. The certification covers the winery and its operations rather than the vineyard, where organic certification is our next step.
The program grew out of the early 2000s, when vintners, grape growers, Napa County, and conservation groups came together to protect the valley’s watersheds. The first land certification followed in 2004 and the first winery certification in 2008. To earn the winery certification today, a winery puts in place more than a hundred measures covering energy and water efficiency, waste prevention, and climate action, and brings its employees into the work. In 2021 Napa Green revised its standards to give climate action, regenerative farming, and social equity a central place, which is where our own priorities already sat.
We value the certification as an outside check on our winery, audited against a standard the whole valley shares and renewed on a schedule. Still, we don’t measure our success in checklists. Napa Green sets a baseline for how we make wine. The farming described above, and the organic certification still ahead, is how we hold the vineyard to a higher one.
Stewardship in the Cellar and in the Bottle
The care we bring to the vineyard carries through the cellar door. We are always looking for ways to use less water and energy, send less to waste, and learn from what we have done before, and some of the changes are visible from the tasting room.
Our by-the-glass pours come from kegs, not opened bottles. It is a small decision with a long tail: no cork, no capsule, and no bottle to be made, shipped, and recycled for every glass poured at Hirondelle House.
Packaging is where a winery’s footprint quietly accumulates, so we treat it as part of stewardship rather than an afterthought. We’ve transitioned to bottles that weigh 30 percent less, which cuts the emissions of shipping our wine without any compromise to the wine inside. We are phasing out foil capsules, which serve no purpose once a bottle is opened. And we keep reassessing the materials we use for shipping and marketing, one choice at a time.
What Comes Next
We are working toward organic certification, which will formalize practices already at work across Hirondelle. Certification will not change how we farm. It will put an independent name to it, the way Napa Green does for the winery.
There is no finish line beyond that. Soil built up over a decade can be lost in a careless season, and a farm that stops improving has already begun to slip, so the work carries on from vintage to vintage. More than fifty years after Bernard Portet chose this ground, the Goelet family still farms it with the next generation in view.
"We are shepherds of nature, vigilant in our stewardship and invisible in our imprint."
– Olav Goelet, Third-Generation Owner
The clearest way to understand that work is to taste it. Visit us on the Silverado Trail, walk out past the pollinator meadow, and pour a glass of our Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, grown on the soil described here.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is regenerative farming in a vineyard?
Regenerative farming is an approach that aims to improve soil health, biodiversity, and water-holding capacity over time while reducing off-farm inputs. Its core practices are minimal soil disturbance, year-round ground cover, living roots, and grazing animals.
What is the difference between sustainable, organic, and regenerative farming?
Sustainable farming limits a farm’s impact, and organic farming excludes synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. Regenerative farming sets out to leave the land measurably healthier each year. A vineyard can follow all three, as Clos du Val does.
What does Napa Green Certified mean?
Napa Green is a nonprofit sustainability certification for Napa Valley vineyards and wineries, verified by independent audit. Certified wineries implement more than a hundred measures for energy and water efficiency, waste prevention, and climate action.
What makes a Napa winery sustainable?
A sustainable Napa winery limits its use of water and energy and its output of waste, and many demonstrate it through Napa Green, the valley’s independently audited certification. Some go further with regenerative farming, which aims to improve the land rather than only protect it. Clos du Val’s winery is Napa Green Certified, and its vineyards are farmed regeneratively, by organic principles.
Is Clos du Val organic?
Not yet certified. Clos du Val farms by organic principles, using no synthetic pesticides or herbicides, and is working toward organic certification. Its winery in the Stags Leap District is Napa Green Certified; its vineyards are not part of that certification.
Why do vineyards use sheep?
Sheep graze cover crops between the vine rows, fertilize the soil as they go, and replace many tractor passes without compacting the ground. At Clos du Val they graze Hirondelle Estate during the dormant season.
Does regenerative farming change how a wine tastes?
No single practice can be traced to a flavor in the glass. Our view is that balanced, living soils produce balanced vines, and balanced vines give fruit that expresses its site with more clarity, which in the Stags Leap District means the structure and freshness that let a Napa Cabernet age well.