Michigan winery steps up green practices

Winemakers around the state are not just talking green, they are walking it.

More than a dozen Michigan wineries and vineyards have been verified as carrying out measures to minimize or prevent pollution, promote water quality and soil health, be good neighbors in the community and maintain profitability.

They are clean, responsible growers.

The state program that oversees these issues has a long name -- the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program. It is known by its acronym, MAEAP. Its job is to verify that farms, including vineyards, are "sustainable." Peninsula Cellars, Chateau Chantal, Two Lads, Chateau Grand Traverse and many more have all met the requirements. 

 It boils down to "taking care of the land while making a living from the land," in MAEAP's own words.

But one Michigan winery has taken it a step further. Domaine Berrien Cellars in Southwest Michigan also has met all the requirements of MAEAP and the new Grape*A*Syst program, which is more rigorous and was established for juice grape growers who sell to Welch's, also known as the National Grape Cooperative.

Bottom line: Green sells. Consumers dig it. And important retailers like Wal-Mart are strongly urging it for all of its suppliers, and that includes agriculture.

"A lot of people don't understand the term 'sustainable agriculture,' " Wally Maurer, owner of Domaine Berrien Cellars, explains. "There's organic green, biodynamic green, holistic green. People think if they recycle, they are green.

"What we are doing here is protecting the environment. We are taking care of the grapes the best we can, but there also is a point where you have to be environmentally aware."

Mauer says he and wife Kate have been practicing responsible growing practices for the last decade, often not realizing it. Measures include things like spraying for pests when the need arises -- not based on a calendar schedule; returning water used inside the winery (to wash tanks, barrels, etc.) to an irrigation pond; and building a facility with a 3-inch-thick concrete floor to house only spray equipment and chemicals.

But is the wine any better for all the extra work?

"It's too early to tell," Maurer says. "But I've never had cleaner fruit in challenging years."