Enter: The One Block Challenge
Gamify everything! Regenerate your soul! I mean, soil. But also soul.
I was trying to think of clever titles to draw you in when I realized how similar these two terms are:
Generative AI
Regenerative Ag
Only three little letters off!
What if we could replace all the talk about the former with discussion on the latter?! I want to live in THAT world.
A couple of weeks ago, I did, and it was everything my little parched and denuded soul — I mean soil! — needed. But also soul. Soil and soul: Both of them so desperately in need of regeneration right now. I don’t think I’m alone in the sentiment here.
You might remember the 1,800 pages of notes I took for you during this past spring’s Napa RISE Climate and Wine Symposium. Whoa Nelly.
During that symposium, someone mentioned the Regenerative Viticulture Foundation’s brand-new One Block Challenge™ (1BC), which had just launched in Paso Robles. At the time, a dare was made: Could Napa be the next wine region to join the 1BC?
I was giddy and loved it already: Gamify everything! Bring on the fun! Home court, baby! I just… wasn’t entirely sure what the RVF or the 1BC were. So many acronyms, so little time.
I forgot about it for a few months, did some ogling of shirtless dads in Beaujolais, mused about Ludacris and the hedonism vs. industry of wine, etc. You know, the yoozh.
And then, last month, I was invited to Opus One and the Bedrock Vineyard for a Napa Green two-part Growing Regenerative Viticulture event to get serious and learn more. Surrounded by soil nerds and vineyard managers — fully out of my element, like a fish out of water — here is what I learned:
The 1BC is a community-focused — Gah! COMMUNITY! My favorite!! Everything is better with friends! — opportunity to trial regenerative farming practices in just one block of your vineyard. Across a single wine region, a group of growers commit to each farming one particular block of their vineyards regeneratively for one full year. You can pick any block, any size, any space you like. Then you simply compare data and observations from that block against the rest of your vineyard. In theory, if the regenerative block has better data at the end… it wins! You should probably convert everything.
Two critical (and brilliant) components of the 1BC stood out to me:
The data comparison (obviously), so you can objectively tell if anything works while also logging your costs.
The community aspect, so you can lean on, learn from, discuss with, and problem-solve alongside your peers who are going through the same thing at the same time in the same general place (your wine region).
Challenge: ACCEPTED. Napa is officially launching the 1BC right here, right now (“🎶watching the world wake up from history🎶”)!
YOU GUYS. It is very very very very hard for me to put into words how adamantly and ardently and furiously frantically I believe that regenerative viticulture could be a bellwether for regenerative LIFFFFEEEE in all senses of that word for our floundering-sputtering-flailing-like-a-toddler-on-a-tantrum world right now. I have not felt so evangelical about something in a long-ass time — and, trust me, I can get pretty evangelical about a lot of things! (ASK ME ABOUT BEANS.)
The soil is such a freakishly blatant and tangible analogy for all of us right now, and I don’t even think you can call it an analogy because it’s, like, LITERALLY OUR WORLD. We are made of dirt, and we return to dirt! Same same! We need to regenerate the soil in order to ultimately regenerate our souls!
Okay, I might have eaten a handful of sour candy earlier and need to calm down so I don’t lose you, but I hope you’re getting my point. Regenerative viticulture is where it’s at, where it all starts as well as where it ends, the piece we’ve been missing, the part that could pull us through. The keycard to resiliency.
I only took nine pages of typed notes (single-space, 11-point Calibri font) and four of hand-written-in-the-vineyard ones at the Growing Regenerative Viticulture events, but I decided not to share them all with you all at once this time (however if you want them, please don’t hesitate to reach out, I’ll absolutely let you copy!). Instead, I’m going to release a few shorter, educational pieces consecutively in the coming weeks, so that all this crucial info hopefully feels a bit more digestible and actionable.
My goals with these write-ups are to:
Introduce the basic ideas behind regenerative farming for folks who might not know anything about it yet. I know I have readers who are deep in the wine industry as well as those who are just curious drinkers, so I want to usher you all in! Can I pour you a glass?
Encourage everyone reading who has even one finger in viticulture or farming to participate in the One Block Challenge.
Outline the practices required for participants in the One Block Challenge, and point to the resources and community available to support you.
Challenge anyone who doesn’t have any real hands in viticulture to consider how they could ask and advocate for more regeneratively farmed products in their lives. I am more convicted than ever that THIS — consumer sovereignty — is the most critical piece to more regenerative practices being adopted and to our whole world truly, well… regenerating.
Okay. More soon. Now I’m off to make a pot of beans. I’ll be pairing them tonight with a bottle of Matthiasson Cabernet Franc, which all fits, since Steve Matthiasson is the first one who ever taught me anything about regenerative farming and remains one of my greatest heroes. I am so thankful to him and to all y’all birds, bees, fungi and fellow wine-lovers out there reading along and co-conspiring on this resiliency effort.
More information on the 1BC, along with all of the slides and recordings from Napa Green’s Growing Regenerative Viticulture Day I at Opus One can be found here: https://napagreen.org/event_posts/growing-regenerative-viticulture/
Anna Brittain of Napa Green and Caine Thompson of the Regenerative Viticulture Foundation will be walking through the 1BC step-by-step during two virtual Zoom info sessions next week! If you want to learn more, go sign up for one of the dates (same content at both):
December 9, 9-10am PST — Register Here
December 11, 9-10am PST — Register Here
P.S. beans are amazing.
As a granddaughter of two farming families this spoke to my soul (and soil 😉)