August 2021 - 18

GRAPES
Table grape grower Columbine
Vineyards certified sustainable
The sustainable certification comes in time for Columbine Vineyards to market its proprietary Holiday table grapes variety. Photos: Columbine Vineyards
By Stephen Kloosterman
Associate Editor
A California company is being
recognized for its burgeoning
sustainability program.
Columbine Vineyards, a grower
of table grapes in the San Joaquin
Valley, recently was certified
sustainably grown by SCS Global
Services for its efforts to reduce water
usage (843 million gallons saved),
decrease styrofoam in its packaging
materials (54%), and pursue carbon
sequestration through the use of cover
crops and no-till techniques (saving
5,200 metric tons, the equivalent to
1,140 vehicles off the roads annually).
SCS's green stamp of sustainability,
which features a kingfisher bird,
will go on the operation's product
packaging. While there are many
different kinds of certifications for
sustainability, Columbine claims to be
the " first sustainably grown certified
table grapes producer in the U.S. "
" Sustainability is part of who we
are and where we want our business
to be. It is so much more than a piece
of paper to us, and expands into
environmental, social and economic
practices, " said Vincent Sorena, vice
president of compliance at Columbine
Vineyards. " We realized that with this
certification, our company objective
can be known to consumers and
customers alike. "
That's an approach that appears to
have already caught on well in the
winegrape industry. The California
Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance
wrote in its 2019 annual report that
2,097 vineyards, representing 184,818
acres, or 29%, of California's total
winegrape acres, had been certified to
sustainable standards.
In addition to the sustainable
certification, Columbine is starting
to increase the number of organic
products it offers.
" We are excited to bring organic
Holiday grapes, one of our proprietary
varieties, to the market this year and
are continually looking to bolster our
organic offerings each year, " Sorena said.
Several varieties produced
The sustainable certification comes
just ahead of the Holiday grape season,
which runs from late August through
December.
Columbine grows 15 red, green and
black varieties of table grapes on more
than 4,500 acres in production in the
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August 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of August 2021
