Wine
Medlock Ames Leverages Progressive Winemaking To Showcase Alexander Valley’s Micro-Terroirs
September 26, 2023
Long wine-soaked dinners with college friends, swapping tall tales and sharing big dreams. Dinners like this can shape and sometimes even define the arc of urbane 20-somethings’ lives. But it’s rare indeed for folks to actually take action and walk the walk of their big talk.
But that’s just what happened after Ames Morison and Chris Medlock James—best friends from Tulane University—had just such a night in New York City in 1998.
“We didn’t know that much about wine 27 years ago, but we really loved learning about it and trying to identify what flavors we could find in it, stumping each other with oddball varieties,” Morison recalls. “One night we went out to dinner and we had a little wine. We thought, you know, we could do this. We should move to California and make wine.”
With every subsequent glass, Morison says, “it just seemed like a better and better idea.”
When they woke up and the fog lifted, they still thought quitting their jobs and moving to California to pursue their winemaking dreams was a “great idea.”
Morison enrolled in a winemaking course at University of California Davis, and the pair began seriously scouting land for sale. After seeing 100 properties and either dismissing them for financial or viticultural reasons, he says they “just kind of stumbled on this place. Right away, it just grabbed us.” That place is Bell Mountain Ranch.
Bell Mountain Magic Beckons
“Something about it just made us realize that we’d found our home,” Morison recalls.
Bell Mountain Ranch is perched on the southernmost tip of Alexander Valley. It encompasses 338 acres, 44 of which are planted with vines. The slopes are steep, with growing conditions that are analogous to Bordeaux. The Ranch also features 650 olive trees, an orchard, a vegetable garden, and a flower garden. The vast majority of the land is wild—a rich and biodiverse panoply of oak trees, wildflowers, insects, and bees. Vineyards like Bell Mountain Ranch that are surrounded by biodiverse landscapes tend to have healthier soils, and can naturally combat the pests and diseases that threaten more conventional vineyard landscapes. This lower pest pressure also makes eschewing chemicals much easier—if you have hawks, falcons and a cover crop “managing” the pests and weeds, there’s less of a need to intervene with pesticides, herbicides and fungicides.
Ames and Chris committed themselves to progressive sustainability well before organic growing and general ecological responsibility gained as much visibility as it has today.
Morison grew up on a farm, learning a lot about the industry from his father. “He wasn’t an organic farmer by philosophy, but just sort of defacto that was the way he did it.” Prior to his move to New York, Morison also spent time in the Peace Corps in Guatemala, where he saw “firsthand this incredible reverence that people had for their land.”
But, they were using pesticides at the same time—a dichotomy that he struggled with. He knew that one day he was going to get into farming, which he wanted to do in an organic way. And so emerged their founding ethos.
Right away, that meant farming organically and building a wildlife corridor that cuts through their vineyards and helps lead animals through their property, and into the safety of an adjacent 3,000-acre wildlife sanctuary called Pepperwood Preserve.
When they purchased the Ranch in 1998, most of the vineyards had been planted with Merlot, and many of these had been neglected. They knew they’d eventually have to replant, Morison says, but at the time, Merlot was selling well.
“After a year and a half of fermenting, aging in barrel and bottle, we were ready to start selling,” Morison says. “And right to the week that I was gearing up, trying to figure out how to sell the wine, this movie called ‘Sideways’ came out, and it just trashed Merlot. Overnight, Merlot sales just evaporated, and it was the only wine we had.”
Known as “The Sideways Effect”, the Merlot crash reshaped California wine, ruining some businesses, while elevating others. (For those who haven’t seen Sideways, the main character Miles spends much of the film lauding Pinot Noir and deriding Merlot; shortly afterward, Merlot sales tanked, and the finger-pointing began).
For Medlock Ames, it was the wake-up call they didn’t want—but perhaps needed.
“It was a rude awakening into the world of wine sales,” Morison says. “But it really taught me about how to not just sell the wine on the merits of the way it tasted, but to really give a story and explain it.”
Instead of taking the easy way out, the team dug in. They planted new grapes—including Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, and Sauvignon Blanc—and built a winery to show their facility to local and visiting wine lovers, connect with them, converse with them, and share their story their way. Opened in 2004, the Medlock Ames winery embodies their winegrowing and winemaking philosophy of organic and regenerative farming in the vineyard, with minimal intervention in the cellar.
The winery is functional and elegant, with caves dug into the ground to maximize natural insulation (cellar temperature is between 55°F–65°F), solar arrays that supply electricity, and an array of creative experiences, like their Immersive Sound Experience.
Organic and regenerative farming aren’t just buzzwords for Medlock Ames. In 2006, the year of their 25th anniversary, the winery converted to certified organic. Going organic has significantly reduced the need to irrigate—for every additional 1% of organic matter in the soil, they can store an additional 25,000 gallons of water per acre. They’ve not only reduced their energy cost by adding solar arrays, they’ve also reduced their water usage by composting, adding native flowering plants, reducing tillage, and even adding grazing sheep to the vineyard. With their practices dialed in, the winery has reduced its water usage by 10%. Organic matter also makes a large impact on their water usage.
The life of farmers—which winemakers, deep down, truly are—is shaped not just by the whims of the market, but by the whims of Mother Nature.
Changing Weather Leads to Regenerative Farming
In 2019, the Kincade Fire devastated the wildland around Bell Mountain Ranch, and damaged the vineyard too.
“It swept through here and burned a lot of our vineyard, and thousands of trees surrounding the property,” Morison says. “It was an epiphany. I started to do a lot of research on different types of farming, and tried to understand what impact we’re having on the world, what impact the world is having on us.”
After concluding that the fires were likely caused by climate change, Morison focused in on regenerative farming—recognized for its ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and boost farm health, while also emphasizing worker rights and committing to paying a living wage. And some of the vineyard team has been with them for more than 22 years.
Farming organically from the very beginning, Morison and the Medlock Ames team have always prioritized soil health and biodiversity. After the fires, he began learning how regenerative farming helps mitigate climate change and enhance productivity and profitability.
In April of 2023, Medlock Ames was certified Regenerative by the Regenerative Organic Alliance, the first winery in Sonoma—and one of the first in the world—to earn the designation. By implementing regenerative farming practices, Medlock Ames has reduced their greenhouse gas emissions and eliminated fertilizers and pesticides.
Their commitment to sustainability isn’t just about creating an output of high quality, organic wines. It’s also about creating an environment built on respect for the land, the local wildlife, and the people involved in their winemaking. The winemakers and owners aren’t the only ones in the decision-making process—the vineyard team is involved, too, giving a voice to those that know the land most intimately.
Ultimately, Medlock Ames’ intentionality and focus on organic farming and sustainability is expressed in each glass, meant for you and other wine lovers who want to drink wine with a purpose.
Ready to sample Medlock Ames’ distinct rendition of eco-justice? We’ve got you covered.
Medlock Ames Fifty Tons Cabernet Sauvignon, 2019: A boldly spiced wine with raspberry custard and pie crust aromas. Dark dense berry fruits, black currant, plum, and cocoa powder fill the palate. This is a pure expression of Cabernet Sauvignon with dry smooth tannins that extend all over the mouthfeel. A youthful fruity Cabernet with long aging potential.
Medlock Ames The Flag Cabernet Sauvignon, 2019: The inaugural 2019 vintage of The Flag offers powerful aromas of blackberry, coffee bean, and cocoa powder with supporting notes of fresh herbs, walnut, and lavender. On the palate, the wine provides a dense juicy core surrounded by silky, velvety tannins and shows flavors of currant and fennel, followed by a long, lingering impression of concentrated wild berries.
