- Oregon is obsessively leading the way in the US with sustainability, organic and biodynamic winemaking/farming.
- All of the vineyards Leah works with are certified sustainable via L.I.V.E. (Low Impact Viticulture + Enology) and are certified Salmon Safe – very important in the Pacific Northwest to protect our waterways!
- All of Leah’s Applegate Valley fruit from Mae’s Vineyard (Blanc Cab Franc / Grand Reserve Cab Franc) is farmed organically, but not certified yet.
- Leah makes her wine in a cellar that is sustainable – from the materials that were used to make the building to how the cellar is operated and managed.
- We have excellent recycling resources in Oregon – all of our trash from production/bottling gets sorted and sent to specific places for proper disposal. We take all plastics (wrappings around bottle pallets, etc.) to a designated plastic collection for proper disposal. Nothing goes into a landfill!
- We have moved to lighter weight glass for all of our wines, save for the Blanc de Cabernet Franc and Reserves (limited production). We are moving towards domestic manufactured glass only. This year, the tariffs with China considerably affected our costs for several of our select bottle molds. Leah decided it’s not worth dealing with the added costs or the carbon footprint associated with shipping/receiving that glass.
- All of our packaging (wine case boxes, etc.) is easy to recycle.
- Leah started reducing the use of tin capsules. Our “Nisse + Hygge” natural wine has a naked cork and we use wax over the corks of the Blanc de Cabernet Franc and Reserve wines. Leah is researching sustainable, alternative capsules for our line up – one prototype she’s looking into is a plastic-free polylaminate capsule called an “e-cap” which is 100% recyclable.
- Leah has moved away from business travel (flights) – mostly because she had a baby. But, babies do instill a more conscious focus on what we do and why – for obvious reasons. Leah is finding an effective alternative to travel via video-conferencing with sales reps in their accounts.
- While we are omnivores in our household, and also when we dine out in the world, we are 100% committed to consuming sustainable food. Leah is a certified holistic nutritionist. We support local, sustainable, organic (always) agriculture and farming, and ethical treatment of animals. We follow Traditional Chinese Medicine in our approach to nourishment – which has a strong base in food ethics. We are very involved with a local organization called Growing Gardens – which is all about food justice in our community. We live on a one-acre organic farmy homestead where we tend to a very large home garden of seasonal fruits, vegetables and herbs because we believe in the importance of growing your own food. We have a very small backyard orchard of pears, plums and apples. We grow raspberries and strawberries. We have chickens that gift us with beautiful eggs. We manage an impressive compost pile in our backyard.
- A portion of the sales of our Nisse + Hygge wine gets donated to woodland restoration, protecting Oregon’s treasured forests, along with providing wildfire prevention and education.
- Leah participated in select industry (stakeholder) gathering for input on “Winegrape Smoke Exposure and Taint” for a USDA Grant on Smoke Exposure hosted by Oregon State University research team in February 2020.
