More and more California winemakers and winery owners are consciously focusing on growing grapes and making wines in ways that benefit the environment rather than damage it further. I profiled many of these producers in my recent book The World in a Wineglass, along with others working in similar ways around the world. But every day the ranks seem to increase. 

For wine lovers interested in tracking down these bottles, one handy tip is to look on a wine’s back label for a logo from one of the major certification programs like CCOF (California Certified Organic Farming), Demeter (biodynamic farming), or R.O.C. (regenerative organic certified).

There are also many other, regional sustainability certifications – for instance, Oregon Tilth,  Napa Green, Lodi Rules — though their requirements for certification can vary dramatically. Regardless, the 15 wineries here are fighting the good fight for our planet, and making stellar wines as they do.

NV Sans Wine Co. Poor Ranch Vineyard Carbonic Carignan ($8/375ml can)

This vivacious, faintly tingly Carignan, made using fruit from vines planted in 1943, deserves to be chilled down; it’s a no-brainer for the summer, or really anytime you want a brisk, refreshing red. And yes, it comes in a can. Skeptics may scoff, but the Sans wines — there are a number — are remarkably good, and, as of 2022, all of the fruit for them is certified organic. The winemaking also takes place at an organic facility using effectively no sulfur.

“It’s tough, as you can imagine, to try and build our production but also to have enough certified organic fruit to buy,” say co-owner Gina Schober. “Especially given frost, fires, droughts, and so on. But that’s what we’re trying to do.”

2022 Bonterra Estate Collection Cabernet Sauvignon ($23)

In 2023, Bonterra became the largest Regenerative Organic Certified winery in the world by a good measure, with 960 acres of vineyards. “What attracted me to Bonterra was that it was organic and biodynamic, but at a $12 price point,” says Joseph Brinkley, Bonterra’s director of organic and biodynamic vineyards.

“Nothing against yachts, but I’d like for people to enjoy the wines who don’t own yachts,” he says. “So we scale by working within the estate and then sourcing from organic growers around the state. And every bottle we make is CCOF organic certified.” For Bonterra, that amounts to 7,200,000 bottles, give or take.

This juicy, dark-fruited red, which indeed does not require you to be a yacht-owner to afford, is a great introduction to Bonterra’s wines.

2021 Forlorn Hope Queen of the Sierra Red ($24)

Matthew Rorick makes a host of unclassifiable but wonderful wines from his 75-acre vineyard in the Sierra Foothills, the lineup changing every year. But one regular is his fresh, red-fruited Queen of the Sierra red. It is, he says, “a picture of the whole property in a given year.”  Basically, the blend changes a little each year to reflect the vintage, but it typically involves Barbera, Trousseau Noir, Graciano, Zinfandel, and Mondeuse.

Rorick farms organically, but notes that, in his steep, rocky vineyard, this isn’t easy. To give one example, he mentions star thistle, a tenacious, invasive weed. “Roundup is literally the only thing that can tackle it. Or goats,” he says. “Unfortunately, goats like to eat vines too. But do I want to drink wines where the soil has been treated with glyphosate? Or do I just want to suck up the cost and weed by hand?”

Farming organically won out, even with the greater expense. “I’m going to work this way even if it means I go out of business. It’s out of respect for the land, a concern for the way we live on the planet, and, you know, just being worried about what we put in our bodies.”

2021 Grgich Hills Winery & Vineyards Napa Valley Fumé Blanc ($36)

This white from Grgich Hills is reliably one of Napa Valley’s best Sauvignon Blancs, lightly green-peppery, with bright citrus-melon flavors and subtle oak notes. Vineyard director and winemaker Ivo Jeramaz says, “At one point, I realized that the magic of a wine is never in the winery; it’s always in the vineyard. Immediately I tried to learn how to grow the best possible grapes. So in 2000 we stopped using any fertilizers or Roundup, and by 2003 were certified fully organic.”

Jeramaz started using biodynamic practices in 2003, and Grgich was certified regenerative organic in 2023. “We have to be good stewards,” he says. “We have to help create a good habitat. And I’m optimistic, because young people look at how you treat your workers, how you treat the earth—they’re going to rise and demand change. Because if they don’t, we’re all going to be extinct in a 100 years.”

2022 Beckmen Vineyards Purisima Mountain Vineyard Viognier ($40)

This is one of the unusual Central Coast Viogniers that manages to express the variety’s peach-and-honeysuckle flavors and full-bodied texture without shading over into over-ripeness; there’s a clean line of acidity that keeps everything in check. Winemaker Steve Beckmen was an early adopter of biodynamics in California’s Central Coast, switching his 125-acre Purisima Mountain Vineyard in Ballard Canyon to the practice in 2002.

He was attracted to the approach, he says, because of “the idea of having a coherent system, instead of just reacting to everything, which seemed like what we were doing then as farmers. I also had newborn children, and we were living on the vineyard property—still do—and I didn’t want them exposed to systemic chemicals or anything. Same for my workers and crew.”

2022 Tablas Creek Vineyard Côtes de Tablas ($40)

Paso Robles’ Tablas Creek, under the leadership of proprietor Jason Haas, was certified organic in 2003 and started using biodynamic practices in 2010. In 2020, it became the first Regenerative Organic Certified winery in the world, utilizing practices such as no-till cover crops including sweet pea (which helps increase nitrogen in the soil), purple vetch (to keep erosion down), oats (for biomass), daikon radishes (which act as soil aerators); running a flock of 300 sheep on the property to produce manure (which fertilizes); and using fallen logs from the nearby forest to create biochar, which is then spread in the vineyard (“essentially, it’s a natural form of charcoal made by a different method than decomposition,” Haas says. “It keeps carbon in the soil, and also helps the soil hold more water, aerates it, and so on.”) 

He adds, “A big piece of what differentiates regenerative agriculture is that you use natural processes to mimic what would happen in a wild ecosystem. And also, the less stuff you put on your soil from outside, the more the wines from it are going to taste like your own place.” That’s true across the board for the Tablas wines; for one example, check out this spicy, rub y-hued Grenache blend.

2022 Melville Estate Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir ($44)

Crisp blue and red berry flavors and rose-petal accents define this Central Coast Pinot Noir. It’s sourced from all 22 blocks planted on Melville’s estate vineyard, and winemaker Chad Melville says, “It’s probably the most challenging, but also the most rewarding because of all those components.” The farming here is certified organic, and has been for many years.

Lately Chad Melville has also been more and more focused on soil life: “We take soil samples twice a year and leaf samples twice a year, and it’s like looking in the refrigerator to see what’s there; you can see what the vine is taking from the refrigerator,” Melville says. “You can see all these micro and macro nutrients that go into the vine — or don’t, because with conventional farming they’re locked up. Everyone’s had that experience where you bite into a peach and it’s soft, and there’s sweetness, but there’s no flavor. We now think the flavor comes from those micro- and macro-nutrients.”

2023 Scar of the Sea Bassi Vineyard Pinot Noir ($46)

Winemaker Mikey Giugni (and his wife/fellow winemaker Gina Giugni, who makes excellent wine under her Lady of the Sunshine label) were fortunate to be able to purchase the organic Bassi vineyard in San Luis Obispo in 2024, from which they’d been sourcing fruit for several years.

Mikey says, “Bassi was in its 2nd year of conversion to Biodynamics through Demeter when we bought it — we’d been farming it since Spring of 2023 — and we’ll complete the certification process this year.” That’s characteristic of the couple’s approach wherever they farm: biodynamic principles, native cover crops, chicken tractors for both pest control and manure, zero chemical inputs, and following moon cycles. As Gina says, “It’s fun being part of a tradition that goes back thousands of years.”

2019 Long Meadow Ranch Anderson Valley Pinot Noir ($50)

The Hall family’s certified-organic Long Meadow Ranch in Napa Valley doesn’t just grow grapes; they also nurture 200 varieties of heirloom fruits and vegetables, olive trees, heritage-breed chickens, and more. Much of the produce gets served at their excellent Farmstead restaurant in St. Helena; there’s also a farmer’s market on the restaurant grounds selling their produce and goods from other purveyors every Friday, November through April. Their Anderson Valley property may not be quite as diverse — it’s devoted to vines — but it does produce excellent Pinot Noir, as this complex red shows.

2022 Drew Faîte de Mer Farm “Field Selections” Pinot Noir ($80)

The idea behind winemaker Jason Drew’s Faîte de Mer bottling is “more or less to express our whole vineyard,” he says. (He makes several other Pinots from individual, smallerl sections.) In 2022, the wine is vivid with black raspberry fruit and a truffle note that Drew notes is characteristic of the site. The property that he and his wife Molly farm was a certified organic apple farm in 2004 when they bought it, which made it easy to continue those practices. “It’s safe to say our place has been organic for at least 25 years,” he says. 

The Drews also make wine from eight acres of vineyard here, and from several other high-altitude vineyards in the Mendocino Ridge and Anderson Valley AVAs, all of which are well worth acquiring. “I like that our wines don’t just shout fruit, fruit, fruit,” he says, regarding his approach. “You get the ocean breeze, the coolness, that saline intensity in them.”

2020 Jada Jersey Girl Syrah ($70)

This powerful, intriguingly gamey red from Paso Robles uses grapes from Jada’s estate vineyards, which have been farmed organically since 2014, and certified organic through CCOF since 2022. The vines are located in Paso’s Willow Creek District, a cooler section of the area only 17 miles from the Pacific, which gives the wine a focus and tension that warmer parts of Paso don’t always supply; winemaker Nate Hall also uses small percentages of Viognier and Graciano harvested on the same day as the Syrah to add aromatic complexity and richness.

2020 Medlock Ames Bell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon ($70)

Medlock Ames was founded in 1998 by friends Chris Medlock James and Ames Morison, and today the winery’s 338-acre Bell Mountain Ranch in Sonoma County’s Alexander Valley  is a polycultural farm with organically farmed grapes, 650 olive trees, an orchard, a market garden, and plenty of native oaks and wildflowers.

It also produces excellent wines, among them this robust Cabernet, full of blue- and red-fruit flavors and light herbal notes; a touch of Petit Verdot (4%) adds intensity to both its color and aroma. The winery also has seven solar arrays throughout the property to reduce any reliance on the standard electric grid.

2022 Blue Farm Anne Katherina Vineyard Carneros Pinot Noir ($85)

This layered, polished Pinot blends fruit from Anne Moller-Racke entire, certified organic vineyard, which is planted in sections to four different clones of Pinot Noir. “I know this vineyard so well because I live here,” she says, “but it also remains a mystery. And I love that.”

Moller-Racke was born and raised in Germany, but she has made her home in Sonoma County for over forty years, after arriving in 1981 to work with California wine legend André Tchelistchef in the last years of his life. In 2001, she co-founded The Donum Estate and was largely responsible for bringing those wines to their current level of acclaim (she left in 2019). At the same time, she planted seven acres of vineyard behind her house outside the town of Sonoma, which was the genesis of Blue Farm, where she continues to live and work today.

2021 Spottswoode Estate Cabernet Sauvignon ($285)

If you want to know why Napa Valley became so famous for Cabernet Sauvignon, drink this wine. Layered and rich, powerful and elegant at once, it’s able to age for decades in a cellar; it’s one of the Valley’s benchmarks, and for good reason. Spottswoode was also the first organically farmed vineyard in Napa Valley, converting in 1985, and is now certified biodynamic as well.

Other environmentally-positive strategies used here include native cover crops, insectaries, apiaries, and bird-boxes; lighter and/or electric ATVs for use in the vineyard; and improved water-waste management (water use has been reduced by over half during the years).

Finally, the Novak family, who own the winery, donate 1% of Spottswoode’s gross revenue to the 1% for the Planet, which supports a range of environmental causes. As Beth Weber Novak’s, Spottswoode’s president and CEO has said, “Our goal is to inspire the change as well as be the change.”