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June 2017 WINES&VINES 29 GRAPEGROWING California-wide assessment The California wine industry became aware of the successes and influence of the PPS and Lodi Winegrower's Workbook in their respec- tive regions, in part because some of the lead- ers in these two regions were also leaders in statewide industry organizations. In 2001 the Wine Institute, under the direction of John Deluca, and the California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG), led by Karen Ross, came together and formed a task force of winemakers and growers to develop a self- assessment for the California wine industry. The Farm*A*Syst model used by Lodi was adopted, and an agreement was signed with LWC to use the Lodi Winegrower's Workbook chapters as a basis for the viticulture chapters; new chapters were drafted for winemaking practices. The California Code of Sustainable Winegrowing (CCSW) was published in 2002, and a nonprofit organization, the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance (CSWA), was formed by CAWG and the Wine Institute to implement a statewide winegrowing pro- gram with CCSW as its foundation. CSWA launched a web-based CCSW in 2006, pub- lished a second edition in 2011 and a third edition in 2013. On the other side of the country, the effects of agriculture on groundwater quality were becoming a concern on Long Island, N.Y. To address these concerns, the Long Island Coop- erative Extension viticulture farm advisor worked with the winegrowers to publish a sustainable winegrowing practices workbook in 2003. Two years later the grape and wine industries of New York came together to de- velop VineBALANCE, a self-assessment work- book for both juice-grape and wine-grape production using a slightly different version of the four-category Farm*A*Syst model used in the Lodi Winegrower's Workbook. It was pub- lished in 2007. Washington goes web-based Meanwhile, the Washington Wine Grape Grow- ers Association (recently rebranded as Wash- ington Winegrowers) published Vinewise in 2005, also using the Farm*A*Syst four-cate- gory self-assessment model. Up until this point, all previous workbooks had initially been pub- lished in print form. The Washington Wine Grape Growers launched theirs as web-based self-assessment. How have these self-assessment workbooks been used over time, and what is their status today? Probably the one with the most visibility is CSWA's CCSW. Since its inception, 1,616 vineyards representing 68.6% of California wine grape acres have participated in the Sus- tainable Winegrowing Program self-assess- ment. In 2004 CSWA published their first sustainability report based on anonymously aggregating the self-assessments and bench- marking the level of implementation of each practice in their workbook. In 2009 CSWA published their second sustainability report, in which they compared the level of implementa- tion of each practice with the benchmarks es- tablished in 2004. A third major sustainability report was published in 2016. CSWA has also used self-assessment results to identify work- shop topics for growers and winemakers. Since the start of their program, they have held more than 550 workshops attended by more than 14,000 participants. VineBALANCE continues to be used most extensively by the juice grape growers who are members of the National Grape Cooperative, which requires all of their New York and Penn- sylvania members to do the self-assessment and devise action plans for improvement based on the assessment. The cooperative also worked with Michigan State University to de- velop Grape*A*Syst, a self-assessment work- book for juice grape production, in Michigan. It is estimated that VineBALANCE has been used to assess between 30% and 40% of the 10,000 acres of wine grapes in the Finger Lakes region. I have been told that VineBALANCE was used as a model for a self-assessment workbook recently published in Maryland and Quebec, Canada, where parts are being translated into French. Last fall the Washington Winegrowers convened a strategic planning meeting fo- cused on the future use of Vinewise. It was attended by grower members, staff from Ste. Michelle Wine Estates (SMWE) and research- ers and farm advisors from Washington State University. Past use of Vinewise was reviewed and its possible future use discussed. SMWE reported they encourage their grower sup- pliers to do annual assessments, and their viticulturists meet with them to discuss the results and where improvements might be made. The attendees then brainstormed how to increase the use of Vinewise and what can be done to enhance the self-assessment. They agreed to revise the workbook in the coming year, adding educational content, and recently installed it into a new, user- friendly web-based platform. Impact on wine community Clearly, the creation and use of self-assessment workbooks has had a significant impact on the U.S. wine community. The biggest challenge faced by all the programs using them is first how to get growers to use them and then con- tinue to use them. I believe all the groups men- tioned have been very successful at meeting these challenges. Cliff Ohmart, Ph.D., is senior scientist for SureHarvest and author of View from the Vineyard: A Practical Guide to Sustainable Wine Grape Growing. Previously he served as research/IPM director at the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission. He has been writing about sustainable wine- growing issues for Wines & Vines since 1998. STEPPING UP TO CERTIFICATION F our groups that created self-assessment workbooks subsequently developed sustain- able-certification programs. The Lodi Wine- grape Commission was the first to do so in 2005, when it launched the Lodi Rules for Sustainable Winegrowing certified by Protected Harvest. In 2017, more than 120 growers have applied to certify more than 44,000 acres of vineyards. The Vineyard Team was next in 2008 with Sustain- ability in Practice (SIP), which includes wine grape growing and winemaking practices. SIP-certified vineyards totaled 40,300 acres in 2016. In both programs the certification farming standards, while based on their respective self-assessment workbooks, were drafted as stand-alone systems. The Vineyard Team retired Positive Point System, while LWC still promotes the use of its workbook. In 2010 the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance launched a farming standard certification directly based on their workbook, California Code of Sustainable Winegrowing. Long Island wine grape growers have adapted VineBALANCE for use as certification farming standards in the Long Island Sustainable Winegrowing Program, a second-party certification. There are currently 1,110 acres of certified vineyards out of 2,400 total acres on Long Island. All of these certification programs require on-site audits to verify growers are adhering to required practices.