Our family owned vineyard is born of a desire for a new entrepreneurial project married with a collaborative family adventure! Steve and Autumn Badelt are serial entrepreneurs, both having built and sold companies with unique niche markets. The Badelts have a strong understanding of the changing needs of the environment and believe in the necessity to farm organically and regeneratively both for the health of the planet, and for the production of incredible quality grapes that lead to superior tasting, healthier wines.
The Six has enjoyed significant interest in the project and its fruit . Our exceptional partners have contracted to receive fruit to craft their highest quality wines, with our first full harvest in 2026. Our farmers work in conjunction with the winemakers, managing the vines and terroir to ensure our partners receive exactly what they desire for their programs. If you are interested in purchasing fruit please contact Erin Amaral at erin@pacificoastfarming.com and we will be happy to assist you.
Cabernet Franc
Cabernet Sauvignon
Grenache Noir
Malbec
Mourvedre
Petit Syrah
Petit Verdot
Syrah
Tempranillo
“Just like with anything in life, you will get out what you put in.” — Steven Badelt
The wine industry has proven, using double-blind tastings, that organically farmed fruit makes better wine. What more incentive do we need to farm this way? The customer, the planet, the neighbors (human and animal), and our family all benefit. Our vineyard is all organically farmed, because it just makes sense.
Animals are essential to a regenerative and biodynamic farming model. We use sheep to mow and fertilize the vineyard, planting sheep-friendly cover crop between the vines that not only puts nutrients back into the soil directly for the vineyard without the need for synthetic fertilizers, but also nourishes the sheep. The animals mow the vineyard and process the cover crop into manure that they subsequently spread in convenient little pellets full of nutrients all over the vineyard. The sheep also gently aerate the soil with their hooves and help control weeds detrimental to the vine health.
We have set up owl condos! There are owl boxes placed all over the vineyard to encourage barn owls to move in for natural gopher and squirrel control without harmful poisons. They join their wild cousins, our resident red tail hawks, bald eagles, snakes, great horned, and screech owls in reducing our harmful rodent populations.
We employ a low till philosophy to allow soils to maintain their natural microbiome and water holding capacity. Healthy soil leads to healthier plants and more nutrient uptake into the fruit and ultimately better building blocks for complex and exceptional wines.
A large portion of our land is being intentionally left as untouched forest to encourage wildlife to maintain healthy populations. Synergistic relationships with everything from foxes to the smallest beneficial insects will help the vineyard thrive without the use of pesticides and poisons.
We have recently welcomed our newest residents, thousands of them! Bees are absolutely essential to a healthy planet and we have set up a safe home for them on The Six. These bees will help propagate our cover crops and fruit trees and encourage other beneficial insects while making delicious honey, what a sweet partnership that is!
The infrastructure on a vineyard like this can easily be overlooked. We have worked with local authorities to be certain we have the best water management systems installed on the vineyard to ensure that all of our soil stays in place, and normal water flow into natural creeks and waterways is maintained to support local aquatic life and ecosystems.
Our blocks are set up in a 7ft X 3ft row and vine spacing, and oriented intentionally with worker safety and grape quality in mind. All of the equipment that is used in farming our grapes belongs to the vineyard to encourage the strictest biosecurity. This, along with rigorous testing of the vines pre and post planting, are intentional actions that will ensure the safety of our vines without the use of non-organic chemicals. Grapes will all be handpicked to ensure the best possible fruit quality is delivered to our winemakers.
We are working towards a sustainable energy model in partnership with Veckta. This will include solar energy generation, battery storage, and the eventual use of an EV fleet of farm equipment as technology evolves and allows. We are future proofing The Six to be sure that we can always adhere to the highest standards of sustainability.
