Blog / How We Make Wine
Which Vineyards Use Regenerative Farming?
June 17, 2026 · Coombsville, Napa Valley · Aum Cellars
There is no official map of regenerative vineyards, and “regenerative” is not a wine sticker you can trust from the aisle. It is a family of soil-building practices that change with rainfall, frost, and what the ground will actually grow. What regenerative farming is owns the definition. This page is the practical one: what to look for, why a dry Napa hillside does not look like a wetter coast, and how Aum Cellars’ Coombsville estate and related sites fit.
What should you look for in the rows?
Living cover between the vines. Compost or animals returning organic matter. Fewer herbicide strips. Roots asked to explore. A grower who can name the work. Aum’s published list is cover crops, compost, winter sheep, dry farming, and avoiding synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers as a routine. Pete’s training is in ecology; he talks about a vineyard as a living system, not a spreadsheet. A hillside that uses those tools often looks a little untidy. That is habitat, not neglect — birds, pollinators, and the biology in a handful of soil are part of the vintage you will later call place.
Why does the same word look different by climate?
A wet coastal site and a dry Napa hillside are not the same farm. Cover-crop species, how long sheep stay, and whether you can withhold irrigation all follow water and frost. Regenerative agriculture that copies a textbook from somewhere else is just another label. The Hoffmann pages treat Coombsville, Atlas Peak, Calistoga, and Mt. George as different ecosystems — soils, elevation, exposure — rather than one recipe. That is the geographic fact that matters here: regenerative practice is local, or it is marketing.
How does Aum fit on that map?
Hoffmann Family Winery pours as Aum Cellars on Monticello Road. The estate is organically farmed, with regenerative and dry-farming practices aimed at healthier soil, biodiversity, and deeper-rooted vines — and a longer view than the next harvest. You will not get a directory of other California addresses from this page. You will get a farm whose method is written down, and that you can see on the ground.
See how those practices show up at Aum. The definition lives next door. The rows are the map.
Questions, answered
- Which vineyards use regenerative farming?
- There is no official directory. Look for farms that can name the work — cover crops, compost, animals, living soil — and that you can actually walk. Aum Cellars in Coombsville publishes those practices on The Vineyard.
- Is regenerative farming a wine certification?
- Not in the way shoppers hope. It is a family of soil-building practices that change with climate and site. Aum describes the work rather than waving a seal.
- Why don’t regenerative vineyards all look the same?
- Rainfall, frost, soil, and whether you can withhold irrigation all change the toolkit. Pete treats Coombsville, Atlas Peak, Calistoga, and Mt. George as different ecosystems, not one recipe.
Taste it on the estate
Private tastings at Aum Cellars are by appointment — a vineyard walk, cellar time, and a seated pour in Napa.