The Hum of the Vineyard:
The Small Choir Behind Pisoni Vineyard’s Ecosystem
A single honeybee emerges from a shimmering hive at Pisoni Vineyards. A few seconds later, its black-striped body vanishes into the blue air. Cruising past at fifteen to twenty miles per hour—twice as fast as most marathon runners—this small form is too quick for the eye to follow. But find her again a few minutes later, buzzing her way unerringly into a stand of brilliant crimson clover flowers blooming under the leafy canopy of the vines in spring and summer.
The movements of bees struck the poet Emily Dickinson as so indefatigable and regular she imagined their vibrations as a miniature railroad: “Trains of Cars on Tracks of Plush.” A century later, landscape architect Elizabeth Lawrence suggested no less lyrically that “The hum of bees is the voice of the garden.” Pisoni’s insectary itself seems to host a choir, once its plants bloom and the bees move among them. The rows between the vines the Pisonis have planted in a cover crop of Blando Brome, Merced Rye, and Dundale Peas sing in the same way once the rose and crimson clovers interspersed in the mix begin to flower.
At Pisoni, it is Mark, Pisoni’s vineyard manager, and Jazmin Lopez, Pisoni’s special projects manager, who orchestrate the buzz of the bees in these spectacular vineyards in the Santa Lucia Highlands.
The small but mighty insects help Mark and Jazmin pollinate the cover crops sown between the vines. In turn, cover crop helps keep vineyard soil healthy. The roots of cover crop, which grow quickly and widely, work in tandem with grapevine roots to stave off erosion by holding onto the rocky, loamy soil characteristic of the Santa Lucia Highlands’ steep, rugged terrain. Cover crop foliage plays a protective part as well, offering the vines an initial barrier from weathering and rain.
Such hive-pollinated plants also improve soil health by releasing carbon and nitrates, nutrients that help an abundance of microorganisms thrive in the soil. Their teeming, lively movement adds to the richness of the earth. While bees sing above the soil, this lively orchestra of organisms works beneath soil’s surface. The work of cover crop in sustaining soil’s microorganisms—plants pollinated by bees—improves what is called soil “tilth”: the physical characteristics of the soil, including the stability of its soil particles, its rate of aeration, its moisture content and its drainage.
The cover crop the Pisoni family chose features a host of species. “By putting a blend of seed varieties out, we’re bringing out different traits in the soil,” Jazmin explains. An expert farmer who grew up on the land his family has stewarded for generations, Mark is particularly attuned to the needs of its soil. He selected Blando Brome grass because it grows easily and quickly establishes itself, and Merced Rye, in addition, because it creates biomass. The clovers he and the team sow along with Dundale Peas add needed nitrogen.
“We continue to move away from monoculture,” Mark notes. “Instead of barren earth, we sow the rows with grasses that harbor a diversity of beneficial insects, which together with the plants create an environment rich in microbes. Earthworms tunnel through the soil, bringing in oxygen, draining water, and creating space for plant roots. Wildflowers benefit in turn, and the cycle repeats itself.” Fruit trees pollinated by the local honeybees play a part in terroir, too, Jeff, the family’s vintner and Mark’s brother, notes. The forty fruit trees Mark has planted augment plant diversity. In addition to benefiting the vineyard, the crops from these trees form part of the Harvest Share Program the Pisoni family offers interested workers and which provides them with fresh produce each month. Bees, cover crop, trees, and the people who live on and among them: all play their part in the land’s rich ecosystem.
Along with fresh fruit, the entire team enjoys the honey the bees produce—between seven and ten gallons harvested annually. Just like wine, the taste of honey changes according to the local terroir. In spring, the hills and mountains close by are covered in the flowers of black sage. This year, Jazmin is hoping Pisoni obtains the rare, almost clear honeybees produce when they visit this plant.
In their turn, Mark and Jazmin seek to further the local ecosystem by offering shelter to the dancing honeybees on Pisoni land and the county more widely. Adorned with paintings of local flora, the neon-yellow hives offer bees a refuge. In late spring and early summer, when bees become too numerous in a colony, a large number may leave to establish a new hive. Swarms often end up in neighboring trees—sometimes even in homes. Ten to a dozen times each spring, Mark and Jazmin get called out as bee busters to hives that would otherwise face extermination. “People are thrilled to see us. We’ve climbed up ladders and pulled swarms from trees,” Mark comments.
The two are also seen as bee ambassadors. Often, they bring the bees back to the apiary at Pisoni. But they also give swarms to others in the industry. “For me, it’s really encouraging to watch others get inspired. A nearby vegetable farm in starting an apiary now, thanks to us,” Jazmin notes.
Meanwhile, the honeybee that found her way into crimson clover is returning to Pisoni’s own apiary. The direction and distance of her outbound journey was danced out by worker bees who noted the sun’s alignment and detected the sky’s polarization pattern with their UV vision. Coming home, this honeybee is laden with pollen and moving several miles an hour slower than before. Soon, she’ll add her treasure to the intricate comb whose cells, made from beeswax, sport a pattern of colors as diverse as the plants from which they come.
Pisoni Vineyards from Below: 
Forever Farmers: Sustainability at Pisoni Vineyards 
Pisoni Family Vineyards are Recipients