DINWIDDIE COUNTY, Va. — Ashton Creek Vineyard in Dinwiddie has become the first regenerative certified vineyard in Virginia — and one of only two on the East Coast — after trading diesel mowers for sheep.
Alan Thibault, owner of Ashton Creek Vineyard & Riverside Vines, started with 10 sheep in the spring of 2020. The herd has since grown to 85, with a goal of reaching 100.
The shift to sheep was driven by rising farming costs and a desire to improve soil quality without expensive chemical inputs.
"Why don't we trade in our one big diesel mower for a hundred little tiny grass powered mowers," Thibault said.
The results have been significant. Thibault said organic matter in the soil has increased by 400% over the last five years, and the amount of carbon in the soil has doubled.
"Adding the sheep really forced us to buy into all the other practices. So diversifying our Cover Crops, cutting out Insecticides or really just 'Cides' in general because we wanted them to come into the Vineyards to Eat," Thibault said.
The vineyard has cut outside costs by nearly 60%.
"Our outside costs have gone down by almost 60 percent. When especially you look at Fungicides, Insecticides, Herbicides, and Fertilizer. We've been able to cut the Majority of those out, which has really helped our bottom line," Thibault said.
The sheep are carefully managed around the vines. Thibault said the animals love grape leaves and are rotated through one-acre blocks at a time during what he calls "gate time."
"The goal is to really for them to clean out all these leaves so all the Clusters get as much air as they can," Thibault said.
The vineyard grows several varieties, including Traminette, which Thibault said is used in some of their flagship wines.
"Right here in this block we have Traminette, it makes some of our Flagship Wines in our Oak Aged Traminette and then also our Willies White, which is a Real Fan Favorite," Thibault said.
Thibault said the quality of the wine has improved alongside the health of the soil.
"I think our wines are more expressive than they've ever been. So we're really getting a true sense of place in our wines, you can really taste our terroir as they say," Thibault said.
The vineyard was also recently named by Vine Fair as one of the top 30 red blends in the country. And despite the accolades, bottle prices have remained stable.
"We've been able to maintain our Bottle Price and a lot of it is because of this as well," Thibault said.
Ashton Creek also operates a farm-to-table restaurant serving fresh lamb. Thibault said the sheep's diet makes for better-tasting meat.
"I think they taste sweeter because they have a really beautiful buffet to forage on. They're a lot healthier. They do snag a grape every now and then, so they're getting a little extra sugar built into the meat as well," Thibault said.
With the success of the sheep program, Thibault is now introducing pigs to the vineyard to help with grazing and aerating the soil.
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