photos by Mo McFadden & Fred Brander
story published in the Santa Barbara News-Press on 4/29/18
“It’s a
pretty crazy idea,” admits winemaker Fred Brander, “but it’s a neat idea.”
For obvious
reasons, there’s little more that the Montecito community likely wants to do
with mud than to discard it. Dump it somewhere far away.
Mud, along with
boulders and debris, thundered with deadly force through the luxe enclave on
January 9th, and as cleanup and recovery continue, much of it
remains.
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| Fred Brander at his Montecito property, post-mudslide |
Mr. Brander
and his son, Nick, were among those affected that morning, when they became
trapped in their house just off Mountain Drive and along Oak Creek. “A culvert
at the bottom of the road got plugged up with mud, and that made water and
debris go over the road and into our backyard,” he recalls. Crews from
Montecito Fire would rescue them soon after.
There’s an
emotional connection to this property, since it’s a house his parents built in
1983, where they resided until they both passed away in recent years, and where
Mr. Brander has been living ever since. “I have roots to this property,” he
says.
There are
also roots to Fred Brander’s namesake vineyard in Los Olivos, which is home to
the first sauvignon blanc grapes ever planted in Santa Barbara County. His
parents, Erik and Virginia, bought that land in 1974. The Brander Vineyard,
established there in 1977, remains one of the most awarded wine labels in
California today.
And in the
vineyard, that mud suddenly offered opportunity.
“The
disaster of the fires and the food was a really unusual event,” Mr. Brander says,
referring to the Thomas Fire that roared through Santa Barbara in December –
the largest in California history – and the Montecito mudslides that followed
it so quickly.
“All that
debris was unusually high in wood ash.”
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| Crews remove mud and rock from Brander's Montecito property |
Mr. Brander
set himself to study the potential benefits of ash in soil. It’s no secret, he
says, that previous generations regularly used ash to fertilize their vegetable
gardens. “Those veggies got nutrition because wood is high in potassium and
other nutrients and minerals.”
He also
learned that alkaline soils, like the ones that coat the mountains that embrace
Montecito, could benefit acidic soils, like the ones across the Santa Ynez
Valley. “It can increase the pH of the soil to beneficial levels, and that’s a
plus,” he says.
So when
construction companies came to clear the culvert by his house, Mr.
Brander intervened. “’Where are you taking all the mud and rock?’ I asked them.
When they said, ‘Los Alamos,’ I told them I had a place that was a lot closer.”
No less than
60 truckloads made their way to The Brander Vineyard. More than 900 tons in all.
Most of it is rock, actually, which Mr. Brander has earmarked for decorative
landscaping across his 52-acre property. But that mud – that mud's become fertilizer.
After drying
out and going through a sorter and being cleared for toxicity, Montecito mud
has been spread across three acres of cabernet sauvignon vines. “That was the
most labor-intensive part, hand-fertilizing each plant,” he says. Another two acres
of cabernet in the same block are being used as a control, and when harvest
comes around this fall, Mr. Brander will be able to quantify the effects of his
unique peat.
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| A sorter separates ash-rich mud from rock |
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| Ash-rich mud is used to fertilize cabernet vines at The Brander Vineyard |
“When we
pick, we’ll test pH and acid and sugar to see if there’s a difference,” says
the winemaker. “But we should be able to track progress during the growing
season, within weeks even, if the leaves start to look healthier, greener.”
Mr. Brander
believes that this may be the first time wood ash has ever been used as
vineyard fertilizer, at least to this extent. The grapevines they’re nourishing
were planted 10 years ago and generate fruit for Brander’s award-winning
reserve cabernet program. “So we’ll make a good quality wine either way,” he
says.
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| Mr. Brander is keeping a close eye on his vines |
And when
that wine is made and released sometime in late 2019, it’ll become a tribute to
victims of the Montecito mudslides. The commemorative wine, with proceeds
tagged for relief efforts, will even feature a label specially designed by “a
top artist from Oaxaca” that Mr. Brander commissioned just last week.
“We all want
to do something good to bring awareness and to help the community heal,” adds
Fred Brander. “So it’s important to see that something good can come out of a bad situation. Even here, there can be a silver
lining."
So good to read about a good way to use all that disastrous debris... I'll drink to that! With a Brander wine of course.
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