Vine Hill Winery Receives Coveted CCOF Organic Certification
Vine Hill Winery, one of the Santa Cruz Mountains wine appellation’s premier, award-winning wineries, announced that it has received organic certification from the esteemed agency, California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF). CCOF is one of the oldest, largest and most-respected organic certification agencies in North America. This viticultural milestone represents another step forward in the winery’s and vineyard manager Rachel Ormes’s commitment to environmental consciousness, with the 2010 vintages of estate-grown Pinot Noir and Syrah being the first of Vine Hill’s wines to bear the labeling of “organically grown” fruit under this recent accreditation.
Santa Cruz, CA (PRWEB) December 8, 2010
Vine Hill Winery, one of the Santa Cruz Mountains wine appellation’s premier, award-winning wineries, announced that it has received organic certification from the esteemed agency, California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF). CCOF is one of the oldest, largest and most-respected organic certification agencies in North America. This viticultural milestone represents another step forward in the winery’s and vineyard manager Rachel Ormes’s commitment to environmental consciousness, with the 2010 vintages of estate-grown Pinot Noir and Syrah being the first of Vine Hill’s wines to bear the labeling of “organically grown” fruit under this recent accreditation.
The Importance of Growing Quality
The general public, and more specifically American wine consumers, are increasingly accepting the benefits of organically grown products, basing their buying decisions on them. Organic crops are grown without harmful pesticides or synthetic chemicals, producing a product that is free of toxic and carcinogenic contaminants. With a properly managed whole-systems approach to farming, organic operations save on energy consumption, help prevent soil erosion and watershed contamination and benefit wildlife and native ecosystems by promoting biological diversity. Perhaps most significantly, growing organic helps curb the spread of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), considered by many members of the agricultural and scientific communities to be a biological experiment possessing untold threats to the stability and integrity of all DNA.
CCOF’s clear and direct mission is to certify, educate, advocate and promote organic. With roots in the California farming community for more than 35 years, health and environmentally-conscious consumers trust in the CCOF seal displayed on organically grown and produced products, guaranteeing that the food being purchased has been grown and produced to federally regulated, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) standards, and that it has passed inspection.
The process of obtaining certification by CCOF is extensive, with the in-depth review and inspection of an applicant’s practices, and ultimately at completion, certifying full compliance with CCOF organic standards. Vine Hill Winery’s mission of being a responsible steward of the land and its environmental consciousness that led to its certification by CCOF harkens back to the original founding of the winery in 2004, then, with the driving force to fully “grow organic” set in motion in April of 2006 with the arrival of Vine Hill’s vineyard manager, Rachel Ormes.
Rachel Ormes ” Pragmatic Vineyard Manager With An Ecological Vision
When Ms. Ormes joined Vine Hill she recognized the organic potential that the winery’s property possessed to contribute to ecosystem health. With a complete replanting of the winery’s eight acres of vineyards underway at the time, it represented an ideal point from which to implement sustainable and organic practices in the vineyard. With a degree from University of California, Santa Cruz in agro-ecology and plant biology, as well as a personal commitment to being environmentally responsible, Ms. Ormes was ready to dig-in and shepherd a new era for the viticulturally historic Vine Hill property in the Santa Cruz Mountains that dates back to the 1860s.
Since then, Ms. Ormes has been instrumental in helping Vine Hill attain its certification from CCOF and feels strongly about the significance of organic farming practices. She also expresses some concern about how consumers perceive the concept of organic farming in general. “There are a number of misconceptions about the differences between organic, sustainable, biodynamic and conventional farming practices. I think it’s important for the organic consumer to understand that there is sustainable farming ” and there is organic farming ” and they are not always the same thing,” Ms. Ormes points out. At Vine Hill, to grow estate grapes organically, Ms. Ormes integrates a number of non-eco-threatening practices, including integration of an intensive
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