By JW Sharp “Salmon Creek is a very special place.” I can’t help but agree with the voice on the other end of the phone, a voice whose slightly lisping foreign accent betrays her origins in Barcelona, Spain. The voice belongs to Marimar Torres, proprietor/winegrower of Marimar Torres Estate Vineyards. “We’re kind of looking for all the ways we can to improve the creek.” Torres Estates owns 180 acres just downstream from Harmony Union School. Since they purchased the property in 2000, they have planted 12 of it to Pinot Noir, a grape that thrives in the cool coastal climate and sandstone bedrock of the Salmon Creek Valley. They have eight more acres of vineyard still to plant. But grapes aren’t the only thing they have planted. Last year, Occidental-based Prunuske Chatham, Incorporated restored the portion of the creek the meanders through their property (far from the grapes). They planted numerous native species along the creekbed as part of that process. More recently, as we reported last week, Windsor-based Circuit Rider Productions worked with the students of Salmon Creek to expand the natural cover of the creekside even further. “It’s been a long project,” Torres told me. The “project” also includes an excellent equestrian facility in the valley below. At the time it was constructed, there was some concern from the community about the impact that the stables and grapes would have on the environment. “The neighbors gave quite a lot of opposition,” explained Torres. Contrary to expectations, however, the only environmental impact so far has been positive. When Torres planted her first vineyard near Graton in 1986, named for her late father, Don Miguel, she imported not only her family’s winemaking tradition but their grapegrowing methods, as well. That tradition, which includes organic farming methods, is also evident on the Salmon Creek property. That vineyard is named after family matriarch Margarita Riera de Torres. The vines are trained close to the ground on

an open vertical trellis, with four times the plant density as the average California vineyard. Each vine produces less, but the competition with other plants yields grapes with a greater concentration of flavors and better balance. Torres uses no pesticides or herbicides on her grapes, which had been a major concern of her neighbors, for the same reason she uses short trellises: better grapes. “The vineyards are totally organic,” she told me. “The whole idea is to create an ideal balance between the vines and nature. The vineyard will be ecologically healthier , and the grapes a higher quality. That is our long-term reward.” The horses down in the valley help with that. Besides bringing in income from boarding and being fun to ride around the creek (both Marimar and her daughter are avid horsewomen), the horses create a very useful product for growers – manure. By mixing it with the grape pomace (all the stuff that doesn’t make it into the wine – skins, stems, etc.) and then composting it over the winter, a very fine chemical-free fertilizer is created. To round out the recipe, recycled saw dust from the nearby Osmosis Spa is added to the mix, along with straw, cow manure and local apple pomace. Their fields are all weeded by hand, with a cover crop grown over the winter to add vital nutrients to the soil. A clover mat forms a natural barrier to weed growth. Organic practices offer other benefits, as well. Cover crops attract beneficial insects such as ladybugs and spiders, natural predators of harmful pests like leafhoppers and mites. Cover crops can also be introduced selectively, to regulate the vigor of the soil. The whole process is very labor-intensive, but only in the beginning. “Once the compost, cover crops and clover are established,” she said, “things will be easier — and we will have better grapes and better wine.” Organic farming has beneficial consequences for the watershed as a whole. Tilling in the cover crops increases the organic matter in the soil, improving its water retention and diminishing the need for irrigation. Cover crops also help control erosion. The result: less water taken from the ground and clean water flowing into the creek. “It really is a very special vineyard,” Torres said lovingly. “It wasn’t cheap, but we wanted to do it right.”