Exploring the Regenerative Ag Toolbox for Viticulture

Greg Pennyroyal

Organization:

Wilson Creek Winery, California

Greg Pennyroyal’s focus is on the relationship between healthy ecosystems, and healthy communities. He is following a family tradition of medicinal plant farming from his mother, a traditionally trained herbalist in Norway, to his current position as Vineyard Manager of Wilson Creek Winery and Professor of Viticulture at Mount San Jacinto College in Temecula. He is the founder of the Small Winegrowers Association and is developing a regenerative curriculum at Mt San Jacinto College.

Previous experience as manager of Trout Lake Farm, medicinal herb farm, Director of Botanical Research at Leiner Health, a researcher with the National Institutes of Health, 10 years on the United States Pharmacopeial Convention Board developing medicinal plant standards and work with the Global Institute for Tibetan Medicine has reinforced an evolving respect for the power of science coupled with the wisdom of nature in allowing a positive future that wants to emerge.

Steve Diver

Organization:

University of Kentucky, Lexington

Steve Diver is the Farm Superintendent at the Horticulture Research Farm, University of Kentucky. He earned BS and MS degrees in horticulture at Oklahoma State University. He has worked as an Extension Horticulturist, farm manager, and soils consultant over the last 40 years, including 18 years as an agriculture specialist with ATTRA, the national sustainable agriculture information center funded by USDA. He conducted the first biodynamic agriculture consultancies for USAID in Russia and India and served on the NOSB Compost Tea Task Force.

Steve has lectured and published widely on soil health, soil biology, composting systems, compost teas and microbial inoculants, biofertilizers, and alternative farming systems from organic farming to regenerative ag. The UKY Horticulture Research Farms hosts the Viticulture & Enology Program, which explores grape varieties and trellising systems adapted to Kentucky.

Hilary Graves

Organization:

Booker Vineyard, California

Hilary Graves is a winegrower, winemaker and viticulture educator with more than 20 years of field experience on California’s Central Coast.

Hilary graduated from high school in Hawaii and studied business at CSU Fresno. While her father hailed from a Central Valley farming family, she never planned to pursue agriculture—but, in time, her true calling came clear. After earning a master’s degree in library and information science, she returned to CSU Fresno to serve as the academic librarian in the university’s Viticulture and Enology Research Center. It was here that Hilary’s interest in viticulture was awakened, prompting her to pursue master’s studies in Crop Science and ultimately a career in wine and viticulture.

After studying Crop Science at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Hilary taught viticulture at Cal Poly for four years under Dr. Keith Patterson. She also started her own business in 2002, planting a vineyard and making wine under the Mighty Nimble brand. She later started a vineyard management company and grew fruit for, among others, Booker Vineyard’s Farmer- Winemaker Eric Jensen. Hilary and Eric formed a strong connection, and she ultimately joined Booker Vineyard as Vineyard & Grower Relations Manager in 2020.