Welcome to Barbara Thomas Wines


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How we farm...

We have an eco-friendly farming philosophy, so we use only natural farming methods in the vineyard. We carefully choose only certified organic sprays, and we never use systemic herbicides or pesticides.

Our vineyard is dry-farmed, which means that we don’t irrigate the vines. There are two primary reasons for this. One is that we believe that richer, more expressive fruit is produced by vines that send their roots deep into the earth in search of water. Secondly, we believe that water, along with other precious resources, should be conserved whenever possible.

We are actively working to improve our vineyard soils, and composting is an important part of this effort. We prepare organic compost on site by shredding and mixing 55 tons of manure from a neighboring organic dairy farm with 5 tons of organic hay from a nearby historic farm, constantly inoculating the pile with biodynamic compost starter as we build. This compost is a rich source of nutritive organic matter that is then disced into the vineyard during the off season.

Our vines are pruned and harvested by hand, and meticulously thinned to levels that encourage exceptional quality and don’t abuse the plants.

Through the continued use of healthy compost, elemental preparations, compost teas, and other natural vineyard management methods, we expect to continue to see our soil, vines and fruit improve and evolve season by season, vintage to vintage.