	Press Releases
	News Articles
	Video & Radio
	Press Kit
	News Response
	CSWA Compilation

Web Resources

Workshop Calendar

About CSWA

"The CSWA has been a tremendous benefit to the California winegrowing community."

Steve Schafer

CSWA Board Member - Madera Winegrower

Home > CSWA News >

News Articles

February 8, 2010	Wines & Vines, California Wineries Get Certified
January 15, 2010	Suite 101, California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance: Third-Party Certification Program Launched
January 14, 2010	Decanter, First California-wide sustainability certification programme launched
January 13, 2010	Press Democrat, Wine industry sets standards for sustainability
January 13, 2010	Wine Business, California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance Announces New Certification Program for Wineries and Vineyards
January 13, 2010	Associated Press, Red, white or green? Calif. wine choices expand
January 13, 2010	Wine Spectator, California Wine Industry Establishes New Green Certification
October 8, 2009	Planetshifter.com, An Interview About the California Sustainable Winegrowing Program
May 28, 2009	The following letter was sent to the National Geographic Editor in response to the May 2009 article on the "Toll of Wine."
August 27, 2008	San Francisco Chronicle, "Winemakers cultivate earth-friendly practices, from ground to glass"
June 2, 2008	Wines and Vines, "Sustainability Goes to Market: Two new tools lead consumers and merchants to greener wines"
April 18, 2008	San Francisco Chronicle, "Bugging out: Beyond pesticides - vintners who see insects as vineyard helpers"
January 21, 2008	North Bay Business Journal, "Wine industry moves aggressively on carbon footprint: Wineries, trade groups developing protocols to reduce gas emmissions"
December 11, 2007	Wines & Vines, "Sonoma Growers Appeal to Regulators"
October 10, 2007	Wines and Vines, "Industry Group Wins Federal Grants"
July 13, 2007	Capital Press Agricultural News, "More Growers, Vintners Warming to Solar"
May 15, 2007	Wine Business Monthly, "A Case Study in Sustainable Wine Production"
April 1, 2007	Practical Winery and Vineyard, "Improving Air Quality"
February 1, 2007	Practical Winery and Vineyard, "2006 Progress Report"
August 31, 2006	SacBee article "Stewards of Wine Land" with Wine Institute's former Chairman Paul Dolan and SWP **The article link is no longer active, however, you can attempt to retrieve the article from the publication's archives.
June 17, 2006	Modesto Bee "Growers learn to sustain soil". **The article link is no longer active, however, you can attempt to retrieve the article from the publication's archives.
April 25, 2005	The Press Democrat "Taking sustainable agriculture to the next level: Fetzer executive to lead grape growers' alliance". **The article link is no longer active, however, you can attempt to retrieve the article from the publication's archives.
October 11, 2004	Green Biz.com "Wine Industry Uncorks First Sustainability Report".

The following letter was sent to the National Geographic Editor in response to the May 2009 article on the "Toll of Wine."

May 28, 2009 Back to Top

I am writing in response to the menacing title and erroneous graphic portraying the "Toll of Wine" in the May 2009 issue of National Geographic. This graphic depicts the carbon intensity of shipping wine from various global wine regions to key U.S. cities and bases its data on a seriously flawed, two-year-old working paper that is filled with untested assumptions, has not been peer reviewed, and does not accurately reflect the complexities of greenhouse gas emissions in the wine sector. Research on a science-based Life Cycle Analysis for wine is underway but this graphic, as well as the paper on which it is based, misleads consumers into believing that foreign imports are somehow more environmentally-friendly than California wines.

This distortion of fact is particularly unfortunate given the ground-breaking work by California wineries and vineyards to tackle the issue of GHG emissions by working to improve air quality and energy efficiency, along with other sustainable winegrowing practices from ground to bottle, through the California Sustainable Winegrowing Program (http://www.sustainablewinegrowing.org/). This statewide program guides California''s wineries and winegrape growers to adopt an integrated system for their operations based on tested "best practices" in alternative energy, packaging, transportation, production and farming practices to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) footprints in the state with the most stringent environmental laws in the country.

California vintners and growers are taking their carbon footprint seriously and have partnered with the international wine community to create an International Greenhouse Gas Protocol and Accounting Tool (www.wineinstitute.org/ghgprotocol). In addition, we are working with scientists to better understand the carbon balance of wineries and vineyards, including how vines, soil and broader vineyard ecosystems may benefit the environment by sequestering carbon. For instance, we worked with leading agriculture and climate scientists at UC Davis on a comprehensive review of state of the science in 2008 (visit http://www.sustainablewinegrowing.org/publications.php).

We''re confident that U.S. consumers can add "environmental track record" to many other reasons for choosing California wines, including quality, diversity, value, and significant contributions to local, state, and federal economies through jobs, taxes, charitable donations and tourism.

Sincerely,

Allison Jordan
Executive Director
California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance