12 Wineries with Sustainability Practices Worth Toasting this Earth Month
By Vintner Project April 2023
"This small, Willamette Valley winery’s sustainability efforts touch all aspects of their business. Vineyard manager Rachel Rose works with Buzz Seeds in Philomath, Oregon to source organic and diverse cover crops for the LIVE certified vineyard in the Willamette Valley. Where other vineyard managers might cultivate, Rose chooses not to till to promote decreased soil erosion and retention of organic matter in the soil. Further, Rose doesn’t just consider pollinators; the winery also features rock piles for snakes and houses for owls to help mitigate vineyard pests. In the winery, Rose utilizes steam cleaning and sanitation, a chemical free technique that conserves water. Wines are bottled in domestically produced glass, and in 2016 Bryn Mawr transitioned to eco-glass bottles, which use 25% less glass than standard wine bottles. They stopped using tin capsules in 2020, and wines are sealed with DIAM corks, because screw caps are not recyclable in many areas. Bryn Mawr is trialing DIAM’s new Origine line, which utilizes beeswax and plant-derived polyols to seal the corks, eliminating the use of glue."