Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/264184
32 W i n e s & V i n e s M A R C H 2 0 1 4 g r a p e g r o w i n g way to promote the region's sustainable- certification programs. Transparency is an essential element of a sustainable wine-growing certification pro- gram. Without it, potential members cannot determine how the program was developed or evaluate its rigor and credibility. The Internet is a great vehicle for presenting information about a program, but potential members must remain critical when interpreting what they see on a program's website. It is easy to give a program the appearance of being credible with nice graphics and text, but be skeptical of any program that does not clearly present informa- tion about some of the following points. Process vs. practice Regional sustainable wine-growing certifica- tion programs are using two basic certification models: process-based and practice-based, and it is important to understand the difference. The California Certified Sustainable Wine- growing Program (CCSW) uses the process- based model. To qualify for certification, a wine grape grower must complete the online California Code of Sustainable Winegrowing self-assessment workbook each year, create an action plan to improve in one or more practice areas of wine grape growing called criteria, implement the action plan and demonstrate the grower is continuously improving over time on one or more criteria. Furthermore, there are 58 criteria out of 227, where the grower must either score a 2 or better out of 4 (with a practice in category 1 being least sustainable and 4 being most sustainable), or score a 1 but have an action plan in place to raise the score to a 2 over a period of time. All other regional certification programs use the practice-based model. To qualify for certification using this model, a wine grape grower must be implementing a specific set of sustainable farming practices and/or accu- mulate a minimum set of points by imple- menting specific practices. The primary difference between the two models is that the process-based one focuses on demonstrating continuous improvement, regardless of the number or level of sustainable farming prac- tices being used, whereas the practice-based programs are focused on implementing a minimum set of specific practices that are considered sustainable. Regional sustainable winegrowing certifi- cation programs focus on pretty much all aspects of growing wine grapes, so the farm- ing practice standards of all of them are com- prehensive. They do differ somewhat among the programs, however. To thoroughly evaluate the rigor of a sus- tainable-certification program, growers must review the farming practice standards they are required to implement for their grapes to qualify for certification. If the practices are not easily obtained online—or if it is unclear how many of the practices are required to achieve certification—be skeptical of the program's rigor. Another red flag is if many of the farm- ing practice standards are written in a vague manner so it is unclear what is required by the grower to demonstrate they are implementing the practice. Look for ambiguous words like "where practical," "periodically," "where appropriate" and "where possible" associated with a specific practice. If farming practice standards contain these words, it is unclear exactly what is required for the grower to achieve them. The rigor of a program is also very much dictated by the number and sus- tainable nature of farming practices that are required to achieve certification. That is one LIQUID NITROGEN HANDLING SPECIALISTS SINCE 1958 Tel 1-781-933-3570 Fax 1-781-932-9428 sales@vacuumbarrier.com www.vacuumbarrier.com LIQUID NITROGEN DOSING Liquid Nitrogen Handling Specialists Since 1958 Keep dissolved oxygen levels to a minimum with the new MiniDose • Designed to discrete dose up to 200 CPM • Compact size ideal for filling lines, mobile bottlers and R&D facilities The NITRODOSE ® MiniDose system is sold only through Vacuum Barrier and their select group of worldwide distributors View Video: Several vint- ners and wine grape growers discuss the benefits they dis- covered from going through a sustainability self-assessment in this video by the California Sustainable Winegrowing Program.