I’ve resisted putting this page up for years because it’s so built into the way I operate that I feel these things are just the way to do things if you care about our world. I’m not going to get political. That’s just way too toxic these days. The words “organic”, “Orange wine”, “sustainable”, and “bio-dynamic” are all touted in various ways to buff up a winery’s credibility. Some actually do care about these things and some just want the latest fad credibility to tout. I make no judgements.
From the winery’s inception I have focused on having the lightest touch needed to produce the highest quality wines. That means I have learned things, and in some cases unlearned things. I am always open to changes that 1. Lighten my footprint on the world and 2. Help me make better wine.
Here are some of the things I’ve done.
- I have ALWAYS used the lightest bottles available, made as close to the winery as I can find. Heavy bottles do not mean the wine inside is higher quality. Heavy bottles are just stupidly inefficient in a host of ways.
- I use American made glass bottles. I prefer keeping manufacturing jobs in America. It just seems crazy to me that I’d have empty glass bottles shipped from ½ way around the world just to save a few cents per bottle, and all the fuel needed to get them to me is wasteful.
- I no longer use capsules on my bottles. The lead capsules end up in landfills just to leach lead into the ground water. The alternative plastic capsules are even worse. They serve no purpose except for appearance.
- I use real cork to seal my bottles. Either natural or composite.
- The real corks are 100% tested and certified TCA free (TCA is a mold that causes a wine to be “corked” or spoiled when it comes in contact with the wine).
- The composite corks are made from cork dust that is cleaned of any trace of TCA.
- Real cork is made from the bark of the cork oak. These forests are home to Europe’s most endangered species and these forests are raised in a very lightly touched manner. The bark comes off the trees every 9 years and in between left alone to regenerate. You can call this “green”, “sustainable”, “carbon-positive”, choose your badge. Plus, who doesn’t love to pop a cork when opening a bottle of wine? 😊
- My grapes all come from vineyards that have been certified “Sustainable”. I sourced from them because they grow the best grapes on Red Mountain. Maybe this attention to detail is one reason they are the best. I’m happy they too take this stuff seriously.
- I use the minimum amount of sulfur in wine making that is necessary for making great wines. I’ve tasted lots of “no added sulfur” and “sulfur free” wines. They aren’t very good. The few that were decent didn’t age well and needed to be consumed early. In my experience so far, the best I can say about this is that I’m open to a sulfur free alternative that will enable me to make great wines. Until that comes along, I’ll continue using minimal sulfur as needed.