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For those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, Happy Harvest, Merry Samhain, and a Celebratory Equinox to you all wherever you are. This episode is about Magic, the cunning arts that have been practiced for millennia in most cultures. Even if you have clear and strongly held thoughts about Magic, I think it’s important to consider for a moment the space between those thoughts. You don’t have to let go of healthy doubts to admit that any thoughts contained within words, like the ideas of this sentence, are quite limited… threads of logic spun across vast oceans of truth. Our net of language may catch fish, but can it catch the sea? Enlightenment, I’ve heard it said, is the space between thoughts. The practices of Magic are as old as agriculture. And I think we can find something to hold onto in that word “agriculture” or “viticulture,” even as we follow my guest for this episode into realms that are unfamiliar to some of us, myself included. The root of “culture” in viticulture or agriculture is the same root of the word “cult.” It implies both turning or tending the soil, and worshiping, honoring, and caring for it. The same proto-Indo-European root gives us the words “inhabitant” and “servant.” And so we have embedded deep in the roots of our language a reminder that what we do as farmers, as winegrowers - the material work of caring for the soil-plant communities to which we belong – is simultaneously a spiritual rite of worship, of love, for this land, and that this land is our home and our role in relation to it is not to manage it but to serve it. This understanding asks us to re-imagine, in a way that is both literally and figuratively radical, the kinds of perspectives and relationships that have come out of the reductive, materialistic approach to science. My guest for this episode, Todd Elliott, wrote a book to help us with this re-imagining. I see the approach he offers - the cunning approach, the use of Magic - as a way to help us re-imagine our relationship to the community of life as one guided by the ecological intimacy, the devoted dependence, and the deeply rooted love that is our true and ancient relationship with a world teeming with sentience. Whether you believe in Magic or not, I think Todd and his book, The Cunning Farmer: Agrarian Magical Practices, Mythology, and Folklore, can help us approach our interaction with our local ecology, our land, our community, with more curiosity, more care, and deeper connection. And those are all urgently needed things. And re-engaging with our land, re-immersing ourselves in the wild and mysterious communities of life that surround us, may bring a bit of magic back into our wines and our lives. And that may be what actually saves us. Enjoy! Another great book: Wine Liberated This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com In 2020, Spain experienced one of the worst downy mildew outbreaks in modern history. The conditions were perfect, or perfectly horrible, for downy mildew to spread rapidly. Some producers lost 100% of their crop, even after spraying 15 or more times with fungicides. Albet i Noya already had been growing a block of resistant hybrid varieties in 2020, so…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com What if the multi-year contraction in wine sales is a good thing? So much press and media attention has been given to the causes for the ongoing decline in wine sales, and are we at the bottom, and why aren’t millennials or gen Z drinking, or why they are but we mis-read the data (as if these designations represent real people in any meaningful way), an…

A prejudice-free re-telling of the evolutionary history, as well as the redacted wine history, of the world’s most popular grape. This is a free episode, but Beyond Organic Wine can’t exist without your support. Please subscribe to support. Thank you! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com/subscribe

Katya, Domaine de Cassagnas - Vivan! Co-op founding member I’m incredibly inspired by this episode for multiple reasons. First, this is about a positive action, a proactive solution, to some of the wine’s biggest issues right now. Secondly, this solution embodies the values I want to promote, increase, and spread in wine, while de-funding the parts of wine that don’t need to continue. This episode answers the questions of how do we increase wine sales for small, beyond organic wine producers? How do we increase profit on every sale of wine they make while also increasing and helping to stabilize their sales? How do we connect drinkers with the people and stories behind the wine that they buy? How do we make it easy to find wine that represents our values? This solution answers all of these questions. The third reason I’m inspired by this episode is because my guest, Gregory Kinsman-Chauvet, is an entrepreneur who is clearly motivated by mission rather than by money, as you’ll hear. Greg is one of the members of the Vivan! Co-op and he is helping to create this online hub for small organic, biodynamic, and natural wine producers to sell directly to consumers without the middleman taking half of the sale price. We started with the overview of what the Vivan Co-op does, and as I began to realize how important this was, I began to consider how I would apply this to the US, since Vivan is exclusively local to Europe. So I began asking details, and then I let the recording continue as we talked about a few other fun topics, so there are some funny surprises toward the end. So have fun and enjoy! This Substack is entirely listener & reader reader-supported. Please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Thanks! Raf, Karma Village - Vivan! Co-op member This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com This episode is first interview with a New Zealand winemaker, and I’m glad to finally be taking us all on a journey to one of the most beautiful and special wine areas on earth, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the sub region of Central Otago, and the sub-sub region of Gibbston. This is Pinot Noir country, and one of the precious few areas on earth where a co…

My guests for this episode are Marta and Cristina of the the Porto Protocol, which is both a resource hub and community promoting climate action for the global wine ecosystem. Because of the emphasis on community that Marta highlights in this conversation, I recorded a special introduction for it. Here’s the text of it: Glyphosate, the main active component in RoundUp, has been considered to be safe because it acts on the shikimate pathway, and the shikimate pathway is not found in mammals. And since we humans are mammals, glyphosate was deemed virtually harmless to us. But what is a human being? Are we individual organisms? What is a grapevine? What is a tree? Who am I in relation to the world around me? Am I independent of it or completely and utterly dependent on it? The fascinating thing about glyphosate is that it has forced us to realize that we are not individual organisms. We are consortiums of myriad and diverse organisms working as a community. We have more micro-organisms in and on us than there are cells that make up our body. Even the mitochondria, that live inside the cells of our bodies are, in a way, little microbial entities with their own needs and characteristics separate from ours… whoever “We” are. As it turns out, bacteria, fungi, archaea, protozoa, and many other forms of microbial life all have the shikimate pathway, and “we” – this community of life to which we attach our human identities – need all of those other lives to be able to live and thrive. So when we use a substance like glyphosate, and saturate our world with it, and eat it, and drink it with almost every bite of food and sip of wine… what does that do to community of life that we call ourselves? When I use glyphosate I dissolve the foundation of “me.” And so glyphosate has shown us how to use the reductive perspective of science to sell corporate, political agendas. It has shown us how to monetize the omissions of faux-objectivity in an interdependent world. It has shown us how to profit off the ignorance implicit in a disconnected world-view that we bless with peer reviewed studies. The questions we don’t ask about these substances that are being sold to us to make our lives easier are the loopholes of our own dissolution. So when I talk about the soil-plant community (rather than referring to individual “plants”), when I talk about grapevines and trees as community builders, when I use the term “community of life” instead of that human-alienated term “nature,” it’s because this shift in perspective is at the root of the cultural revolution that we need to be able to see what’s happening clearly and make real change that will finally enable us to re-envision and stop the insanity of what we’ve been doing to our community in the name of agriculture. The return to a community perspective is not some feel-good phrasing. It is the revolution. In this episode with Marta and Cristina of the Porto Protocol, Marta talks about how the community aspect, the engagement, the sharing and collaborating, is the most valuable resource of all the resources the Porto Protocol has to offer. I hope what I’ve just said makes this resonate even more deeply as you listen. I hope you boycott glyphosate and all herbicides from wine. I hope you exercise extreme skepticism about anything that promotes reductive thinking, hyper-individualism, and disconnection. I hope you see yourself as a host and steward of legions of lives and begin to ask what it means to be human if being human depends on the survival of all of the lives of this world. A special thanks to Lindsay Valdez for connecting me with Marta and Cristina, and for boldly asking great questions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com My guest for this incredible episode is Michael Cook. Michael is the Viticulture Program Specialist for the 55 counties of North Texas with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. His primary function is to provide educational support for the nearly 120 commercial regional vineyards, which grow vinifera, hybrids, and muscadines, by providing workshops,…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com My guest for this episode is Eric Mayer of Napachar, and this episode is all about biochar. After Eric earned a PhD in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University he went looking for a more immediate way to alleviate the climate crisis. When he learned about biochar’s potential for rapidly scalable carbon sequestration and the simple technologies…

My guest for this episode is Pierre Muller. Pierre is an agroforestry consultant and owner of AGECO in Catalonia with a wide range of experience and projects in multiple contexts, and this episode digs into some of my favorite topics and the subjects that I’m personally exploring on the WineForest Farm in New York. Vitiforestry, Agroforestry with Vines, polycultures, married vines and why we don’t like the term “married vines,” agroecology, incorporating permaculture design in wine landscapes, thinking of our wine farms as mosaics, creating alternatives to monoculture by creating communities of collaboration and cooperation, and building some of the most powerful solutions to climate change… and beginning to understand that the secret to those solutions is that we build them first in our minds. Pierre also gives definitions and a metric for evaluating the differences between conventional, sustainable, and regenerative, and they are the best definitions I’ve heard. This is one of the most exciting and inspiring discussions I’ve had with someone working and thinking at the cutting edge of ecological winegrowing. Pierre’s Handbooks and Guides (most available for free): https://www.ecoag.org/en/guides PDF of all the Scientists, Authors, Reference Materials, Books, etc. mentioned in the episode This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com I want to say a very special thank you to everyone who subscribes and supports Beyond Organic Wine. There has been a surge of support since I called for a boycott of wines grown with herbicide, and that was honestly the last thing I expected and it means a lot to me. “Venenum in Auro Bibitur” My guest for this episode is the brilliant Pauline Vicard who…

On July 22, 2026, Adam L. Huss of the Beyond Organic Wine podcast and Substack, with the support and cooperation of dozens of other wineries, wine sales professionals, and wine educators around the world, has announced a global boycott of all wines produced from vineyards that use herbicides, including glyphosate (RoundUp). # boycottherbicidewine #boycottglyphosatewine Huss states: “Herbicides are not necessary to grow wine. In fact, by degrading soil health they decrease the potential quality of wine. It’s time we start defining ‘great wine’ in a way that includes the most important aspect of its greatness: how it was grown. There is no excuse for using herbicides in viticulture that can rationalize the harm they cause to human and environmental health. We drink wine to add beauty to our lives, and herbicides only create ugliness.” Beyond Organic Wine is entirely listener & reader-supported. Please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Thank you. Inspired by the story and activism of a fellow winemaker living with cancer, Nick Dugmore of Stoke Wines in Australia, as well as the recent executive order by US president Donald Trump to increase glyphosate production, and the US Supreme Court decision which further removes the power of people to protect themselves from the potential harms of glyphosate, Huss announced the boycott to call attention to the pervasive use of herbicides in winegrowing, and to generate a groundswell of support and education aimed at peer-pressuring wine producers, wine sellers, wine reviewers, and wine drinkers to stop supporting the use of herbicides in wine. “Karen MacNeil has taken a very public stance in opposition to the use of unnecessarily heavy glass wine bottles. She and others have decided that there isn’t any good excuse for using these heavy bottles, and the resulting harm from the increased CO2 footprint is significant enough to take action. So she has publicly refused to review wines sent to her in heavy bottles. This is really important, and I and many others support this whole-heartedly. We are at the same point in history when it comes to the use of herbicide in the growing of grapes,” Huss says. “I’ve found that many people who love wine already have this boycott in place in their personal lives. Now we all need to take a very public stance against the use of these unnecessary chemicals in the production of wine because the harm to wine quality, human health, and the greater community of life far outweighs any perceived benefits.” Glyphosate (packaged and sold as Roundup by Bayer/Monsanto) is the most used pesticide on earth, and because of that it will inevitably become the “poster child” of the boycott, Huss says. But there are many other herbicides: Atrazine, Trifluralin, Pendimethalin, Glufosinate, 2-4D, Dicamba, among others. Though some of these are not used in wine production, due to the fact that they kill vines on contact, the boycott is against all herbicides in wine. “The question I’ve gotten the most since the announcement of the boycott is ‘How do I know if a wine was made from vineyards that use glyphosate?’,” Huss says. “It takes some work, but it’s important we do this work, and there are some short-cuts. First, if a wine or its vineyards are certified Organic, Biodynamic, or Regenerative Organic, you can rest assured that no glyphosate or chemical herbicides were used to grow the wine. Unfortunately, most other ‘sustainability’ certifications for vineyards allow the use of glyphosate and other herbicides (Napa Green is a notable exception as of 2026). Secondly, if a wine doesn’t have one of these certifications that prohibit herbicides, ask them directly. Literally call them and ask them if they use herbicides. Some other rules of thumb: if their website only talks vaguely about their farming practices and refers to them as sustainable without getting into details, that’s a red flag. Also, look at the winery website for photos of the vineyards. If there aren’t any, that’s suspect, and if there are photos and there is bare or mostly bare dirt under the vines, especially if it’s a neat strip of bare dirt next to strips of grass growing between the rows, that’s a huge red flag. They could be tilling under vine, but most often they’re spraying glyphosate. If a winery website has no mention of their farming at all, that’s a red flag. And lastly, as a rule of thumb, if you’re buying wine in a grocery store and it doesn’t have organic, biodynamic, or regenerative organic certification, and you don’t have time to investigate further, you can assume they used herbicides. Its use is the unfortunate default for industrial wine production.” How you can get involved: 1. Spread the word – Post about your participation in the boycott on your social media, websites, newsletters. Talk about it in your restaurants and put it on wine lists. Put a sign announcing the boycott on the door of your wine shop or winery. Announce it on the invitation to your wine tasting. Do your own press release to local press about your participation in the boycott. Be clever and have fun with this. Go viral. 2. Take action – Enact a zero tolerance policy toward glyphosate in wine. Quit the wine clubs you belong to if the wineries use herbicides. Don’t buy wine that you aren’t sure was made without herbicides (if you don’t know, you can assume it was made with glyphosate), stop serving wine made with glyphosate at meals and in restaurants, at wine tastings and fundraisers. Stop selling wine made with herbicides in your shops, bars, restaurants. Stop reviewing and recommending wines made with herbicides in your magazines, social media, and other publications and media. Do this publicly and loudly. Ask your local wine shop to start a “No herbicides section” and help them determine the wines that should go into it. Let people know that the use of glyphosate in wine is inexcusable and should be eliminated. #boycottherbicidewine #boycottglyphosatewine Beyond Organic Wine cannot exist without you. Please consider subscribing. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com/subscribe

Matt Johnson Ph.D. is a wildlife ecologist, ornithologist, agroecologist, and a professor in the Department of Wildlife at Cal Poly Humboldt in Northern California. This episode looks at the amazing solutions and incredible benefits that winegrowers can incentivize by actively welcoming songbirds and owls onto wine landscapes… as well as the beautifully rich and wonderful world that can result from opening yourself to relationships with the more than human members of your world. Resource links: Matt’s pdf presentation, with data, charts, visuals, and mind blowing info of all kinds. Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat (book) Rambunctious Garden (book) Wild Souls (book) Wesley The Owl (book) Death In The Vineyard, Part 1 - Sympathy for Vole d’Mort This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com I’ve been trying to make some strong arguments on Beyond Organic Wine for why California needs hybrid grapes, really why everyone needs them, and this episode has given me another one. California wine is becoming anachronistic. It’s becoming a relic of a past era, outdated, falling behind. Part of why this is so is because it is relatively easy to grow …

The objective of this episode is to get vital information out to winegrowers everywhere about Pierce’s Disease, or Xylella fastidiosa (and you’ll get a whole lot more as well). Pierce’s Disease/Xylella fastidiosa isn’t a new concern for many winegrowers, but it has recently hit the news in a way that has whipped up a frenzy of new attention in California… and much of that attention is misguided, will actually cause more harm, and will incentivize the spread of Pierce’s Disease. So Drew and I recorded this conversation to serve as a resource for California especially, but also for the world… as Pierce’s Disease was found in Europe over 10 years ago, and it will likely spread globally. And it can kill vineyards. If you haven’t listened to it, I also recently released a short episode called “Is Pierce’s Disease the New Phylloxera?” This Substack is entirely reader-supported. This is a free episode because of the urgency of the issues discussed. If you’d like to keep important information like this avaialable for everyone in wine, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. In this conversation with Drew Herman, Viticulturist at Barbour Vineyard Management in Napa and Sonoma, we do a comprehensive examination of the issues surrounding and related to Pierce’s Disease, and in doing so we cover topics that apply to everything related to growing wine. Even if you don’t have to worry about Pierce’s Disease where you are, this conversation has a huge amount of information that will be relevant to everyone in wine. We dig into bacteriophages, the difference between tolerance and resistance. how pd/xf affects a vine and how the vine reacts to it, what causes it and facilitates its spread, why aren’t our vines able to deal with it and what about our vines or the way that we grow them makes them so sexy and attractive to sap sucking insects? And the real reasons the news is vilifying “immigrant” bugs. We also find out about how our nutritional mistakes and practices can help or harm plants and dial insect predation up and down, why sap analysis and foliar feeding are potentially especially important for vines on rootstock, why rootstock affects your wine pH, the importance of the timing of nutrition, how trellising incentivizes vegetative growth and billables and insect predation, the importance of sex and the need to breed new grapes and crowdsource breeding... because this is bigger than institutions. We also reveal the once in a lifetime opportunity that is available for a brave CA Winery… maybe it could be you? Resources mentioned in this episode: Wine Liberated: The Ecological Revolution and the Vintners Inspiring Change Is Pierce’s Disease the New Phylloxera? Genetic Analysis of North American Vitis Species Related to Pierce’s Disease Annie Bruno PD/Xf Thesis Cost Analysis of PD/Xf to California Research into the effectiveness of XylPhi-PD Bacteriophage inoculation This Substack is entirely reader-supported. To get access to all posts and support Beyond Organic Wine, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Thank you! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beyondorganicwine.substack.com/subscribe