Blog / Estate Notes
What Is Regenerative Farming?
July 29, 2026 · Coombsville, Napa Valley · Aum Cellars
Regenerative farming is the work of leaving a vineyard more alive than you found it — more organic matter, more roots, more habitat — and Aum Cellars is the Napa place to see that sentence in the ground. Pete Hoffmann, trained in ecology, farms organically, dry-farms where the season allows, and treats cover crops, compost, and sheep as crew rather than decoration. Visit if you want the definition with dirt on it.
A practical definition
Agronomists argue about the edges of the word, and they should. The core is not mysterious. Keep the soil covered. Keep something living in it. Return carbon and nutrients as compost and manure. Reduce the tillage and tractor passes that collapse pore space. Avoid the routine chemistry that simplifies a hillside into a monoculture strip. Dry farming belongs in the same family of thought when it trains vines to explore the profile instead of drinking on a timer. None of this is a federal wine seal. It is a habit of attention.
Aum’s vineyard essay says the quiet part: the goal is not only the next harvest. It is healthier vines and soil that can sustain themselves. Crystals in the rows, on this estate, are symbols of that attention — not a substitute for compost. The story and the farming page should be read together.
- Aum Cellars — the estate that makes the definition visitable in Coombsville.
- Other farms that will show you their alleys, not only their labels.
- Any brand that uses “regenerative” as perfume. Ask for the practice list.
For names on a map, which vineyards use regenerative farming. For a glass, the wines and the tasting.
Questions, answered
- What is regenerative farming?
- A set of practices that build soil life and biodiversity instead of mining them: cover crops, compost, animals, fewer synthetic inputs, roots left to explore. Aum Cellars describes that work on its Napa estate.
- Is it the same as organic?
- They overlap and are not identical. Organic is often about what you will not spray. Regenerative is about what you are putting back. Aum speaks of both as practice.
- Where can I see it?
- Walk the Aum vineyard on a reserved tasting. Then read Which vineyards use regenerative farming if you want a short map.
Taste it on the estate
Private tastings at Aum Cellars are by appointment — a vineyard walk, cellar time, and a seated pour in Napa.