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Month: March 2011

Tantalus Vineyards

Tantalus Vineyards is leading the way in sustainable winery and vineyard practices in British Columbia. Their new state of the art winery completed in March 2010 will be the province’s first LEED (Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design) certified winery. The new winery waste water treatment system is also the first of its kind for a BC winery. Known as a Sequencing Batch Reactor, this cutting edge technology allows them to naturally treat the winery process water and domestic sewage with the final outcome clean and safe enough to use in irrigating the vineyard.

They practice sustainable farming in the historic 60 acre vineyard. Rather than forcing outcomes, they strive for balance in the vines and they achieve this by using local organic composts and soil treatments, minimal watering and a 100% hand tended vine canopy. They do not use artificial fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides. Tantalus is proud to be working with their neighbor Arlos Honey Farm. They have 25 Arlos bee hives in the vineyard.

Josef Chromy Wines, Tasmania, Australia

Josef Chromy Wines operates by the doctrine of minimal impact viticulture. Some of the Vineyard/Winery practices include:

  • Practices to minimize soil compaction
  • Buffer Zones that encourage natural predators
  • Maintains a grass “sword” between rows to stop soil erosion
  • The cleanest, most efficient, state of the art winery in the state.
  • A state of the art water purification plant that recycles ALL water to a quality to put back into the vineyard.
  • Grape Marc is processed into cattle feed

Josef Chromy Wines is also the first Tasmanian Winery to employ the new Lean + Green™ wine bottles:

Josef Chromy Introduces New O-i Light Weight Bottles to Tasmania

With the increasing reputation and sales of the Josef Chromy Pepik range of wines and in conjunction with Plasdene Glass-Pak, Jeremy Dineen, Chief Winemaker at Josef Chromy Wines is pleased to announce a Tasmanian first with the 2010 Pepik range of wines bottled in the environmentally friendly Lean+Green® wine bottles.

Australia’s wine industry has received a significant boost with glass container maker O-I’s launch of the substantially lighter weight and more environmentally friendly Lean+Green® range of wine bottles. With weight reductions of between 18% and 28% and retention of the bottle’s premium appearance, this represents one of the largest breakthroughs in wine bottle making in Australia.

The tyranny of distance via the absence of a local manufacturer has long disadvantaged Tasmanian wine producers, along with the added expense of shipping empty containers into the state. For Josef Chromy Wines Lean+Green® wine bottles not only deliver domestic cost savings but increases international competitiveness as export markets become more insistent of producers Environmental and Sustainability credentials.

The new Lean+Green® range of wine bottles has been highly acclaimed in Australia, winning five national awards for both sustainability and design criteria.

Benefits for Tasmania:

840 more bottles packed into a 20ft shipping container; offering a loading increase of 6.25%. (This is particularly advantageous to the Tasmanian wine industry reliant on the manufacture and supply of glass bottles from the mainland); A 20% reduction in energy use to produce the same number of bottles;

An average 12% drop in water usage per container; Brand integrity maintained as the new technology upholds current bottle designs; and A weight reduction per case of wine of 1.5kg or 24000kg for the 2010 production.

O-I Production Benefits:

The substantially lighter weight and more environmentally friendly bottles will save at least 20,000 tonnes of glass packaging a year; Overall water savings of 4720kL or the equivalent of 6.3 Olympic swimming pools a year; A carbon dioxide saving of more than 11,130 tonnes of CO2 per annum – or the equivalent of 4120 less 4- cylinder cars on Australian roads each year*.

Pillitteri Estates Winery

Pillitteri Estates Winery, producer of premium VQA (Vintner Quality Alliance) wines, has become the first Ontario winery to achieve the rigorous Advantage Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) Plus certification from the Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB).

HACCP is a system of quality control for food safety that addresses physical, chemical and biological threats as a means of prevention.  A HACCP program identifies potential food risks of an operation (known as critical points) and provides a means of monitoring, tracking and handling those areas. HACCP was initially developed by NASA and has been adopted as one of the best food-safety systems applied worldwide.

Pillitteri’s Advantage HACCP Plus certification is the highest level of HACCP attainable, requiring additional systems for bio-security and traceability.  This certification ensures customers and partners that Pillitteri is committed to food safety and that it provides a safe and high quality product. Charlie Pillitteri, President of Sales, initiated the program and affirms that “in the scope of today’s global geo-economic environment, HACCP certification is a crucial and necessary element to any successful exporting business.  Although HACCP is not a requirement for the exporting of our wines, it will become increasingly necessary in the future.” Currently, Pillitteri exports to over 20 countries with export sales generating a third of total revenue. Charlie adds “We are proud to be one of only 2 businesses in Ontario to receive Advantage HACCP Plus certification.  We hope to continue in our role of leadership and advancement in our field by investing resources in an accreditation which is not currently mandatory.”

Pillitteri applied to be part of a pilot project through the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). This unique opportunity allowed the winery HACCP team, lead by Winemaster Dr. Marc Bradshaw, along with our consultant, Michelle Harris-Bailey from the Guelph Food Technology Centre (GFTC) to take just under a year to complete the required written programs, conduct training & implementation and to complete a final audit to obtain certification.

Nestled between Lake Ontario and the Niagara Escarpment, Pillitteri Estates Winery has been producing premium vitis vinifera and French hybrid grapes for over fifty-five years on their Niagara-on-the-Lake vineyards.  The family’s philosophy is simple: to produce the finest VQA wines possible from the highest quality grapes grown in Niagara.  This approach has earned Pillitteri Estates over 450 international and domestic medals reflecting the winery’s commitment to producing premium VQA wines. Pillitteri Estates is recognized as the world’s largest estate producer of Icewine and one of the most innovative.

Fontodi, Tuscany, Italy

Fontodi is a certified organic estate which extends over 130 hectares, of which about 70 are planted with vines. The type of agriculture practiced is inspired and guided by the principles of respect of nature and sustainability. The organic methods of agriculture on the estate go beyond simply not spraying chemicals and include being as sustainable as possible and reducing the need for external inputs at all levels of production.

Giovanni Manetti, the winery principal, is president and founding member of the “Unione Viticoltori di Panzano”, which is a free and independent group of 20 wineries working towards advancement in sustainable practices and certifications by introducing organic as a whole concept and not just for every single winery, but as a larger territory.
The group was also instrumental to the birth of SPEVIS, The Experimental Station for Sustainable Viticulture (Stazione Sperimentale per la Viticoltura Sostenibile), a private institution that studies the most effective ecological solutions in viticulture. The project was created in cooperation with wine producers and scientific consultation with prestigious research institutes.
The station coordinates the various vineyards and their actions of defense in the vineyards, helps those wineries that want to convert to organic methods and works closely with the academic world on many researches and experiments that are helpful and aid to increase knowledge about better and more efficient methods and organic farming in viticulture. This project has as objective to make Panzano into the first Italian organic zone.