Down to Earth

It was a rough morning for Braiden Albrecht, the 30-year-old winemaker at Mayacamas, when we first met on the estate. A fancy dinner at the French Laundry the night before was taking its toll in the form of a red-wine hangover. His brother, Ian, was already armed with big bottles of pink coconut water and locally made kombucha.

While it may be easy to write them off as stereotypical millennials, my trip to Napa Valley and the wider Northern California region showed me a new generation of producers with the drive to make the wine and spirits industry a more sustainable place—and embracing every bit of hard labour that comes with it. The move towards “organic everything” sounds faddish, but it was obvious to me that these young people were ready to get their hands dirty, literally,