After 7 years, this SLO County winery successfully grew prized black truffles
A winery in Templeton has successfully unlocked the mystery of growing black truffles after a seven-year journey yielded a small quantity of the valuable fungi last month.
The Farrell family purchased a 200-acre property with the aim of planting a vineyard but knew they wanted to go a step beyond wine to cultivate a full farm-to-table experience.
“Anyone can make wine. How do you differentiate yourself?” Caelesta Wines and Vineyard co-owner Brian Farrell Jr. asked. “And what is something that ties into the brand and what we want to do and what we actually enjoy? And that’s where we fell into the black truffle thing.”
Farrell Jr. said his mother is the family chef and has a longtime love for black truffles. She was the person in the family who drove the truffle venture forward.
The family’s appreciation for the fungi coupled with their commitment to sustainable farming made growing the black périgord truffles a natural but complicated choice.
How Caelesta Vineyard grew its black truffles
Black truffles — scientific name Tuber melanosporum — are extremely difficult to grow outside of Europe.
The Farrell family knew they needed help and hired Pierre Sourza, a French truffle propagation expert, to guide them through the process.
The first step was to test to soil pH and moisture levels to determine if growing truffles on the 10-acre slope was a viable option, Farrell Jr. said.
The area of the vineyard the family targeted for the truffle orchard was sloped with good drainage, and the soil pH and moisture levels checked out. So the family planted about 2,200 holly oak trees they inoculated so the truffles would grow, he said.
In the meantime, the family trimmed the holly oaks to keep the tree 2 meters tall, as is standard in truffle farming.
They took root samples and tested soil pH and moisture levels. The family farm established a weather station at the vineyard to keep track of soil moisture levels and water usage — a labor-intensive process that has paid off, Farrell Jr. said.
Unlike other crops, truffles are fairly drought tolerant and don’t require a lot of extra water, he said. The first four to six inches of soil need to stay moist, but they don’t want to drown the holly oak tree roots, either.
When it came to cultivating the truffles, the family followed Sourza’s guidance and did their truffle farming by the book.
“I almost feel like it’s like wine, where it’s a little bit of a mixture of art and science where you don’t want to over-science it,” he said.
It’s also a little bit of luck. Many farmers will do everything right but still not get any black truffles, he said.
In 2017, some of the truffle trees began to brûlée — meaning the soil at the base of the tree changed and will no longer sustain other organic compounds, according to a news release about the truffle orchard.
While a brûlée indicates a black truffle could emerge, it’s not a guarantee and could take years for one to grow, Farrell Jr. said.
The truffle expert, Pierre Sourza, was certain for the past three or four years the family would see results, he said.
“I was really skeptical,” Farrell Jr. said. “I was still skeptical of until last winter.”
The proof of concept came last year when the family discovered a tiny number of black truffles, indicating that they could grow on the property.
“It really took having a truffle in my hand to make me feel that,” Farrell Jr. said.
Typically once some black truffles grow, more black truffles will propagate, he said.
The family was hopeful that the 2022 harvest would yield more truffles, and it did.
So far, the family has collected about one pound of black truffles, but all signs point to more black truffles in the ground. The goal is to harvest a few pounds of black truffles this year, Farrell Jr. said.
The Farrell family hopes to grow a commercial yield of black truffles
The goal for the Farrell family is to grow enough black truffles to break even on their investment and share their bounty with high-end local restaurants.
Black truffles are expensive. Wholesale, they fetch about $750 a pound and at retail, $1,000 per pound, he said.
Typically, black truffles are imported from Europe, though some are grown in Washington state. By the time the delicacy hits the plate, it’s traveled many miles and some of its characteristic pungency is lost.
The Farrell family feels supplying local restaurants freshly farmed, locally grown black truffles, could add something special to an already burgeoning North County restaurant scene, Farrell Jr. said.
“I took them out of the ground that morning, clean them with cold water and a toothbrush and they’re on a plate that night,” he said.
Once the yield is substantial enough, the family farm plans to distribute the truffles to restaurants such as Six Test Kitchen in Paso Robles and other existing partners to bring the locally grown delicacy from the farm straight to Central Coast tables.
The truffle hunt at Caelesta Vineyard
Currently the Farrell family only has enough black truffles to share with its wine club members.
On Feb. 11 and 12, about 40 wine club members came to the property at the Templeton AVA gap for a truffle hunt, followed by a pizza and wine pairing at the tasting room.
The truffle hunt involves a truffle dog from Washington state, Lolo, coming to the property to sniff out the truffles, Farrell Jr. said.
Trained truffle dogs are able to detect the aroma of dimethyl sulphide, a compound found in truffles, according to a research article abstract.
Truffles typically grow about 4 to six6inches below the surface of the soil, Farrell Jr. said.
Once Lolo identifies where a black truffle might be growing, the tree is marked with pink tape. The dog knows not to get too carried away with her digging so as to risk damaging the truffle or tree.
After indicating which holly oak trees may be host to the elusive black truffle, a person will come and gingerly move the soil, searching the earth by sight and smell, looking for evidence of the fungi.
The smell of a black truffle is distinctly earthy and almost has a terroir element, Farrell Jr. said.
Terrior is a French wine-making term that means the wine, or in this case, truffle, carries with it a “sense of place” reminiscent of where it is grown. Some of the factors contributing to terrior include soil, climate, terrain and tradition, according to the Wine Folly website.
The truffles and wine at Caelesta Vineyard are intended to evoke the terrior of the Central Coast.
Although the vineyard business is starting to grow, Farrell Jr. wants community members to know that they plan to stay true to their commitment to organic and sustainable farming practices.
“We’re trying to be very responsible, sustainable and keep it (in the) family and small,” he said.
Reassuring neighbors that the truffle and vineyard vines are farmed with water conservation in mind has been an unexpected part of his job, he said.
Truffles are a fairly drought-resistant product and they use dry farming practices at their vineyard, he said.
This story was originally published February 15, 2022 at 5:05 AM.
