Outdoor Kitchen: Groundstar Vineyard shines a light on regenerative farming—and Vandenberg's "small but mighty" native flower

When the time came for first-time vineyard operator Chiara Shannon to name her new business venture, she simply looked toward the stars.

Not the kind of stars astronomers study, although these ones do neighbor some local rocket launch facilities.

“I sound a little spiritual when I say this, but, … I feel like this is part of the groundstar’s mission to get its story out there,” said Shannon, who co-owns Groundstar Vineyard and Estate with her husband Joseph Brent.

Nestled in the Sta. Rita Hills, the vineyard was named after a rare native plant—smaller in size than a penny—that only a handful of living botanists had ever spotted in the wild before the spring of 2023.

That April, a team of scientists identified a large population of groundstars at Vandenberg Space Force Base, according to the California Native Plant Society.

Shannon, a current and longtime LA resident, learned about the groundstar in the Los Angeles Times when the news from Vandenberg broke. Her first impression of the plant: small but mighty.

“I read about it, and it stuck with me,” said Shannon, who did a trademark investigation before committing to naming her vineyard after the flower.

After finding out it was available, she and her husband went “full steam ahead” with the branding.

“We are definitely in an area where [the groundstar] might have been at one time,” Shannon said. “One longer term dream would be to actually colonize it at the property. I have to figure out who’s guarding the seed bank and go through all of that.”

Shannon and her husband’s 80-acre estate, with 25 of those acres dedicated to existing organic and biodynamically farmed vines, has plenty of room for more agriculture and adding grazing animals in the near future, she said. They’ve owned the site since June 2024.

The couple’s goal for Groundstar, formerly Ampelos Vineyard, is to expand on its previous owners’ legacy in sustainable viticulture by taking the necessary steps to become regenerative organic certified.

“We are keeping with [Ampelos Vineyard’s] organic and biodynamic practices. … What regenerative organic introduces are a few things,” Shannon said. “Soil health is one of the pillars of regenerative organic farming, and a big part of maintaining soil health has to do with tilling the soil.”

With support from Groundstar’s regenerative and biodynamic advisor, Jordan Lonborg, the vineyard recently implemented a tillage reduction of 50 percent.

As a viticulturist, Lonborg previously worked for Paso Robles’ Tablas Creek, and spearheaded the vineyard’s efforts toward becoming regenerative organic certified in 2020. There are currently fewer than 400 farms and ranches around the world that hold this certification, according to the Regenerative Organic Alliance.

Prior to Groundstar’s recent tillage reduction under Lonborg’s guidance, Ampelos Vineyard “had been tilled every year, [in] every row,” according to Shannon.

Credit: COURTESY PHOTO BY KRISTEN M. NELSON ©2023

“When you till, you disrupt the soil, bacteria, and the fungal networks. So the idea behind not doing that is to help promote healthy and stable soils; allow the build-up of soil organic matter and carbon retention in the soil,” she said. “Moving toward reduced tillage, this year, we’re actually only tilling every other row. And within that, we’re leaving every 10th row unmowed. So we’re also mowing less.”

Neither Shannon nor her husband, a full-time attorney, are winemakers themselves, but both are open to the idea of starting their own winery someday through Groundstar. Shannon also has decades of wine industry experience through her roles in retail over the years and as a certified sommelier.

For now, their job at the property is maintaining pinot noir and other grapes’ cultivation and sales to various vintners—some of which carry over from Ampelos Vineyard’s clients, such as Kurt Russell’s GoGi Wines—with a focus on environmental sustainability.

Naming the vineyard after a rare, vulnerable plant that “embodies” nature’s resilience felt fitting, Shannon explained.

“We’re just channeling the spirit of the flower in our work,” she said. “I have been a big advocate for organic and biodynamic wines for a long time in my career as a salesperson. There’s lots of other people that have followed a similar path of being a sommelier or working in hospitality and sales, and then returning to the land. That’s been my path.”

Shannon described Groundstar as the natural next step in her trajectory.

“This is the next thing. Taking everything you’ve learned and trying to apply it in a way that not only furthers conscious and responsible farming for the wine industry,” she said, “but also the best quality grapes that can make the best wines.”