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Steve Gliessman and Roberta Jaffe own Condor’s Hope Vineyard at the foot of the Sierra Madre Mountains, where they dry-farm wine grapes without irrigation, relying on the rains.

“In terms of water used per serving, rice can be pretty good. Lots of crops use a lot of water, and in most of California, you can’t dry-farm everything.”

The reverse engineering is because farmers are adopting old methods — farming without chemicals, using landrace seeds, thinking about issues of sustainability and seed security — and trying to either dry-farm or farm with very little irrigation. 

“Irrigated vines have roots that live in the top 20 or 30 inches of soil. Dry-farm vines can have root systems as deep as 20 to 30 feet,” Bucklin says.

“I wouldn’t dry-farm unless it was worth it, if I didn’t think it made better wine,” Bucklin says.