Wineries embrace worms in the fight to conserve water
Laura Díaz Muñoz, winemaker and general manager at Ehlers Estate in Napa Valley, is passionate about worms. They factor deeply into the notable focus on sustainability at Ehlers, a 130-year-old, certified-organic, family-owned property. It all begins with water. … Spread across five acres at the sprawling Parlier, California, facility of O’Neill Vineyards, what appear to be 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools are in fact sunken beds filled with worms. BioFiltro’s largest winery system to date, unveiled in September 2020, it’s capable of processing more than a million gallons of wastewater a day, and up to 80 million gallons a year.