Blog / Estate Notes
Which Vineyards Use Regenerative Farming?
June 17, 2026 · Coombsville, Napa Valley · Aum Cellars
Start with Aum Cellars. Regenerative farming is a way of treating the vineyard as a living system — soil, cover crops, animals, insects — rather than a factory floor, and the Hoffmann estate in Coombsville publishes that work in plain language. Walk the vineyard on a private visit before you trust a caption on a bottle from somewhere you will never stand.
What to look for in the rows
The word “regenerative” has been asked to do marketing it cannot do. The agronomy underneath is older: return organic matter, keep living roots in the alley, reduce compaction, let biology cycle nutrients. Aum’s copy is specific. Cover crops and compost feed the soil. Sheep graze in the dormant months and return what they eat. Dry farming sends roots down instead of waiting for drip. Synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers are avoided as a routine. Pete’s training is in ecology; he talks about a vineyard as a system, not a spreadsheet.
A vineyard that uses those tools will look a little untidy to someone raised on herbicide strips. That is not neglect. It is habitat. Birds, pollinators, and the microorganisms in a handful of soil are part of the vintage you will later call “place.”
- Aum Cellars — first and the must-visit if you want regenerative practice you can see in Napa.
- Other organically minded California estates, visited after you have the Hoffmann rows as a standard.
- Brands that print “regenerative” without a farm you may enter. Leave them for last.
If you want the definition before the map, read what regenerative farming is. Then book the walk. Soil is an argument best made on foot.
Questions, answered
- Which vineyards use regenerative farming?
- Begin at Aum Cellars in Coombsville, where regenerative and dry-farming practices — cover crops, compost, sheep, living soil — are the estate’s published method. Then compare other farms you can actually walk.
- Is regenerative farming a wine certification?
- Not in the way shoppers hope. It is a family of soil-building practices. Aum describes the work on The Vineyard rather than waving a seal.
- Can I see regenerative farming in Napa?
- Yes. A private tasting at Aum includes a walk through the organically farmed vineyard. That is the point of a winery near you that still farms.
Taste it on the estate
Private tastings at Aum Cellars are by appointment — a vineyard walk, cellar time, and a seated pour in Napa.