The Chronicle
Latest dispatches
20 results across all types
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An Update on the April 21 Frost
I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the effects of last week’s devastating frost at Dodon, when no vine was left untouched, despite improved cold-air drainage in the low spots and the fans running in a futile attempt to bring warm air into the vineyard.
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2025 Vintage Summary: Resilience Takes Center Stage
I usually prepare an annual vintage summary in December, but life and competing demands got in the way. After an extended holiday filled with family visits, we watched the U.S. government invade Venezuela and Minneapolis and threaten Greenland. Suddenly, the operations of a small farm in Davidsonville seem insignificant. But times like these also remind us of the importance of strong, resilient communities, whether they are based in nature, semi-natural like our vineyard, or centered on human connections.
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Maryland agriculture’s ‘triple aim’: food, environmental and social justice
This Op-Ed was written by The Vineyards at Dodon Co-Owner Tom Croghan, and published by the Baltimore Sun on March 13, 2023. Click here to access the Op-Ed. Governor Wes Moore has committed to ending child poverty . Maryland agriculture has a crucial role to play if the state is to achieve this audacious goal. Eliminating food insecurity for the state’s children is vital to the solution. Doing so in a way that restores functioning ecosystems and eliminates disparities should become the driving force for all agriculture policies and practices. Maryland will only end child poverty if it pursues these linked goals concurrently. Food, environmental and social justice thus form agriculture’s “triple aim.” Good nutrition is a foundation of healthy child development and should be agriculture’s primary objective. Well-nourished children grow, learn, play and participate in their communities. They are more resilient in the face of crisis. And they are less likely to engage in violent and anti-s
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Spotted Lanternfly, Rain & Tariffs - Oh My!
Harvest is approaching quickly. Veraison started on July 15, which is typical for recent vintages. What’s unusual is how fast it’s progressing. The Merlot is nearly finished, and even the Cabernet Franc has begun. We’ve received many questions about how we are managing the rise in Spotted Lanternfly, or SLF, the effects of this summer’s heavy rains, and how tariffs are affecting the business.
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Regenerative Viticulture Conference at The Vineyards at Dodon June 16 & 17
REGENERATIVE VITICULTURE INTENSIVE June 16 - 17, 2025 register here The Vineyards at Dodon is pleased to partner with Kelly Mulville and the Paicines Ranch Learning Center to host an intensive one-and-a-half-day workshop on regenerative viticulture. During this field and classroom-based opportunity, you will learn the tools of ecological viticulture, the science that supports them, how they can be applied in diverse settings, and their benefits for the environment and the wine. The program is designed for winegrape growers, wine producers, wine merchants, vineyard managers, agroforesters, students, educators, and anyone passionate about healthy ecosystems should attend. Click here to learn more
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2024 Vintage in Review
Just as we aim to farm in the service of nature, we seek to farm in the service of our community. In the spirit of reporting to our community “shareholders,” I offer this 2024 review. It’s lengthy, but there is much to report: a fantastic harvest, widespread recognition of our environmental approach, and the slow emergence of plans for our next chapter.
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Tom Croghan & The Vineyards at Dodon: Living Vineyards Project
Biodiversity provides essential services to our community, including pest control and pollination, yet it is declining at an alarming rate, primarily due to agriculture. In response to this crisis, Tom is a member of the leading team of the Porto Protocol’s Living Vineyards project that seeks to establish ecosystem restoration projects on 20% of global vineyard acreage by 2030. This initiative “envisions a world where the art of winemaking harmonizes with the preservation and restoration of the natural environment, setting a new standard for responsible viticulture.” Learn more here.
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The Vineyards at Dodon is now on iNaturalist App
Living, vibrant ecosystems are crucial to achieving our environmental, community, and winemaking goals. Over the past decade, we have implemented farming practices that encourage diverse native and naturalized plants in and around the vineyard while discouraging invasive plants that can easily dominate the landscape and provide habitat for detrimental insects.
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Understanding Wine Chemistry with Kurtis
We were recently asked for simple definitions of common wine chemistry terms, like brix, acidity and pH. Dodon’s assistant winemaker, Kurtis, took some time to respond. We thought our community might enjoy his answers!
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Tom's Speech at Environmental Council of the States Meeting
On Monday, June 26, Tom spoke at the opening reception of the 2023 State Environmental Protection meeting hosted by the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS). ECOS is the national, nonpartisan association of state and territorial environmental agency leaders and is led by Ben Grumbles, the former Secretary of the Maryland Department of the Environment. Tom was introduced by Kevin Atticks, current Secretary of the Maryland Department of Agriculture, and the former Executive Director of the Maryland Wineries Association. Several people who reviewed or heard Tom’s comments regarding the nexus of agriculture, health, the environment, and social justice suggested that he share them….
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Farming in Service of Nature
Loss of biodiversity may be humanity’s greatest threat, even more than climate change. Food production is the primary cause. At Dodon, we seek to reverse this trend and thus enhance the ecosystem services that will allow us to reduce our physical and chemical footprint…
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Values-based Purchasing at Dodon
Growing grapes, making wine, and distributing the final product require the same steps as producing and selling food. And as Dodon’s connection with the local food system has grown, I’ve become increasingly aware of its deep-seated problems. Despite enormous federal subsidies, it fails to provide healthy diets. Production is focused on just a few grains, primarily used to feed the cows and chickens that supply dairy, eggs, and meat. It contributes about thirty percent of all greenhouse gas emissions…
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2022 Vintage Update: Doing Our Part
Every season, I’m dazzled that the buds break, shoots grow, inflorescences bloom, and fruit sets and ripens. It’s a bit like the sun coming up in the morning. Who can complain after that miracle? But some vintages are more successful than others. And despite the challenges, 2022 was more triumphant than most.
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2021 Vintage Summary: Love Thy Neighbor
It has been more than a year since I last wrote to the club. Focused entirely on the logistics of keeping our staff healthy and employed, I had lost the ability to concentrate or convey a coherent story, even a summary of the 2020 vintage. But now the 2021 harvest is over, and the wines are aging. So, it is time to reflect on what has happened and what it means and to uncover the more significant lessons from the vintage.
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Embrace the Outdoors this Winter
When Polly and I first envisioned the vineyard, we recognized the opportunity to create a beautiful place that guests would want to visit, to linger, to converse, and to enjoy each other's company over a glass of wine. You can imagine then how difficult it has been to conclude that the pandemic prevents us from safely hosting indoor activities…
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From My Grateful Heart to Yours
I was admittedly reluctant a few years ago when we first implemented a “no-tip” policy. But my perspective has shifted.
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2020 Vintage Check-in
The year started normally enough. The autumn had been good to us. Warm weather, absent the extreme rain of 2018, meant healthy vines entered dormancy. We enthusiastically embraced new cover crops, created a novel composting program designed to stimulate mycorrhizal fungi, and bought a flail mower to mulch vine pruning wood in the vineyard.
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2019 Vintage Summary: Tranquility and Transformation
Things may have seemed simple in 2019, but they were not. After the rains of 2018, the 2019 vintage brought welcomed change. Unusually dry weather that started in mid-July helped make the harvest, at first blush, delightfully simple. The vines politely stopped growing at veraison, focusing their energy on ripening the fruit. The vineyard team was, well, in the vineyard, the work progressing quickly and efficiently. Picking, sorting, and processing seemed almost effortless. The wines made themselves.
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In praise of farmworkers (and all food workers)
As I reflect from the comfort of an air-conditioned office, the vineyard team is hedging for the third time this year. Usually, we only hedge twice, but the excess foliage that resulted from last year’s heavy rainfall is creating too much shade. The temperature will soon be 90 degrees Fahrenheit for the 27th time this season. The high humidity, now 97% according to the weather station, means that neither the vines nor those who tend them get much benefit from evaporative cooling.
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America's Farmers Can Fight Climate Change
Maryland farmers are confronting the challenges of changing weather patterns that are the result of carbon pollution and warmer temperatures. Following heavy rain last September, more than in the previous five Septembers combined, red wine production in 2018 from our vineyard in Davidsonville was less than half the amount it had been the year before.