Oregon Certified Sustainable Wines Debut

Oregon Certified Sustainable (OCSW), a bottle sticker program highlighting the Oregon Wine industry's commitment to responsible, sustainable vineyard and winery practices, today announced that six Oregon wineries - Adelsheim Vineyard, Bethel Heights Vineyard, Panther Creek Cellars, Ponzi Vineyards, WillaKenzie Estate and Willamette Valley Vineyards - have OCSW certified wines in their portfolios, translating to 210,241 bottles of Oregon wine.

Six additional wineries have started the certification process: Amity Vineyards, Anne Amie Vineyards, Sokol Blosser Winery, Soter Vineyards, Stoller Vineyards and Wooldridge Creek Vineyard. This is a beginning of course, but Oregon now boasts more than 400 wineries, so recognition and a unified effort is yet to really happen.

OCSW focuses on the shared principles that many "sustainable" programs share:  Low Input Viticulture and Enology (LIVE), Food Alliance, the National Organic Program and its certifying agencies and Demeter Biodynamic(r).  This unifying platform and certification logo aims to help consumers easily identify and purchase sustainable wines.

OCSW does no certifying itself, nor uses the services of an outside certifier.  Instead, it requires a winery to be certified by the agency that represents what they practice.  So, if a winery is certified organic by Oregon Tilth (or any other registered certifier), that is enough for OCSW.

The OCSW logo on a bottle label hopes to guarantee that consumers are drinking wine crafted using responsible agriculture and winemaking practices; and that both of those processes were certified by an independent third-party, according to Ted Farthing, executive director of the Oregon Wine Board.

"The goal is to raise awareness and provide clarity and simplicity so
that consumers interested in purchasing can easily and immediately
identify these wines," Farthing said.  Farthing knows that a number of studies have shown consumer confusion on this topic.

WillaKenzie Estate is the first winery to be awarded OCSW certification and it will use the labels on all of its 2008 vintage.  The winery was also the first winery to be certified with the LIVE certification for the winery operation as well as the vineyard.

But not all wineries in the program will be using that label.

Alex Sokol Blosser of his family's eponymous winery in the Dundee Hills says, "What is important to us is the organic certification.  That is recognizable by consumers.  We won't be putting the OCSW logo on our wines; we want to have all of our eggs in the same basket.  We pulled out the LIVE program for the same reason."  Sokol Blosser said he is very supportive of the program though, and will promote it on the winery's website. "Oregon's image is green and we want to support that.   Green is very important to Brand Oregon."

The Oregon Wine Board (OWB) plans to launch a campaign when OCSW-labeled bottles are available nationwide The OWB will provide participating wineries with trade materials to help communicate the program.  A new, interactive website featuring OCSW wines and videos showcasing personal stories will launch in late March at www.ocsw.org.