Beneficial Business

Here is a feature that was the cover story for the April 2025 issue of Oregon Wine Press. The online version is available HERE.

Rows of grapevines flanked by evergreen trees at Brick House Vineyards.
Photo provided by Brick House

A budget is more than numbers on a page—it's a roadmap for priorities. In personal finance, it might mean deciding when to repaint the living room or start saving for a new car. For Oregon's sustainable wine producers, budgeting takes on a deeper meaning, blending climate-conscious choices with business realities.

As former Irish President Mary Robinson put it, "Our budget decisions are choices about the world we want to live in and the legacy we leave behind." Oregon winemakers are taking that philosophy to heart, integrating sustainability into their business models. Certifications like LIVE, Organic, Biodynamic and Regenerative signal their commitment to environmental stewardship.

Sustainable farming brings to mind adorable grazing animals helping with weed control and the avoidance of chemical sprays. But sustainability isn't just about the vineyard. Wineries are businesses, and their survival hinges on balancing ideals with economic realities. I set out to explore how Oregon wine producers are turning sustainability into both a practice and a profit.

HEALTHY DEMAND

There is little question that wine drinkers demand sustainable wine. Health concerns and environmental worries are key drivers of consumer interest in all food choices, including wine. According to a survey by Tastewise, a food research firm, 74 percent of shoppers are more likely to trust a brand that promotes its environmental impact, and 57 percent prefer wines that disclose their carbon footprint.

These concerns are particularly strong among younger wine drinkers. While these generations currently account for a small segment of overall wine consumption, there are high expectations for their significance to the future of the wine industry. Identifying ways to appeal to them was a prominent theme of the 2025 State of the US Wine Industry report released by Silicon Valley Bank.

Younger people's environmental concerns extend to their interest in a winery's social equity commitments and fair governance. They are willing to pay more for products that reflect their values. "Less but better" is an aphorism often applied to these wine drinkers, meaning that they prioritize purchasing less of a more expensive product if it shares their convictions.

"The world is hungry for this," affirmed Elizabeth Whitlow, founding executive director of the Regenerative Organic Alliance, speaking at last February's Oregon Wine Symposium. Younger demographics are "more and more leaning into these sustainable products," she added. "They demand integrity. They don't have any tolerance for greenwashing. They want to see equity. They care about climate."

Doug Tunnell, Founder and Vintner at Brick House Wine Company, has farmed organically, and later biodynamically, since converting a nut orchard near Newberg into a 40-acre vineyard in the 1990s. "We believe that the younger generation, especially, is aware, awake and paying attention to the way that food and wine are produced," he said. "We take great heart in that."

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

Winemakers who opt to meet the demand for sustainability must bear the financial impact on all facets of their business operations. The winemakers I spoke with identified three key motivations: their personal environmental values, their belief that sustainable practices yield superior wine and their desire to stand out in the marketplace.

After a culinary career in New York City, Foundry Vineyard's Jay Anderson returned home to the Walla Walla American Viticultural Area (AVA) to take charge of his family's Stonemarker estate vineyard. He embraced organic farming and Pet Nat wines, partly as a way to stand out in the rapidly growing Walla Walla wine market and to define his own winemaking style.

"I want to go this direction with organic winemaking, and I want to try to do these kinds of natural fermentations and things like that, because it's what meshes with my personal philosophy," he said. "Also, no one else is doing this in our area ... this will be a new and differentiating factor for us. So I looked at it two ways." Anderson also sources fruit from certified organic or biodynamic vineyard partners.

A native Oregonian, Brick House's Tunnell recalls his boyhood spent fishing and boating on a Willamette River that he remembers as more polluted than it is today. Those memories shape his commitment to responsible farming. "Not only is there an environmental benefit, but I believe that the wines are better," he said. "They are more naturally produced, and they have more natural energies, verve, and they represent the place where the grapes are grown in a more true and unadulterated way.”

DOWN ON THE FARM

A third of the carbon footprint of the wine industry comes from farming and winemaking, based on data from Green Business Benchmark, a sustainability analytics firm.

Wine grapes cultivated in certified vineyards fetch a higher price per ton and subsequently as finished bottles of wine. Increased revenues provide another key motivation for farmers to adopt sustainable practices.

The cost of that commitment differs for the owner of an established vineyard that has been conventionally farmed with chemicals for a long time compared to a newly planted vineyard that has developed sustainably from the start. Converting an existing plot is a multiyear process that will temporarily result in reduced yields. A long-term investment in new equipment may be required, and labor costs will also change. Both the State of Oregon and the federal government have offered transition assistance grants for farms that are changing their practices.

Craig Camp serves as the General Manager of Troon Vineyard in the Applegate Valley. Under his guidance, Troon has become Oregon's only winery and farm certified as Demeter Biodynamic and Regenerative Organic. The extensive transition from conventional vineyard practices to organic and biodynamic methods began in 2016. "We went 'cold turkey' in 2017, and by 2018, we were fully into the program," he reported in an interest session at the Oregon Wine Symposium. Vine diseases in the vineyard required replanting, which was performed in 10-acre sections annually. "The good part was we got to plant what we wanted, how we wanted," observed Camp.

Converting to sustainable practices leads to a vineyard that works in harmony with nature, where grape growing enhances rather than fights against the local ecosystem and wildlife. "There's a learning process too," Camp said. "As you stop using conventional chemicals, then you have to learn what the right balance is with these organic products for your particular vineyard, and that can take a few years." Having started long ago, he and his team have had time to establish an efficient workflow.

"You're building this healthy farm, right?" asks Ryan McKay, who, with his spouse, Sofía Torres McKay, owns Cramoisi Vineyard. "The healthy farm is more resistant to disease and problems," he notes, enabling the farmer to avoid problems that might have otherwise arisen. "It'd be hard to account for [that] in a spreadsheet.”

IT'S CERTIFIABLE

As of 2019, 52 percent of the country's Demeter Certified Biodynamic farmland was located in Oregon. Between 35 and 40 percent of our state's planted vineyard acreage has been certified as some version of sustainable or organic, according to the Oregon Wine Board.

Certification itself requires committing to new ongoing expenses beyond changes in the field. Staff time is also required to track continued compliance and progress toward new annual reporting goals.

"We have always sworn by third-party certification, and I'm sure for some very small brands that it can be a little bit expensive," said Hallie Whyte, Managing Director of Soter Vineyards. "And while it's not super cheap, we think that third-party certification is absolutely necessary to tell the customer what we're doing and that we're actually doing it."

Brick House's Tunnell concurs: "The best way to guarantee some truth in advertising, if you will, was to have a certification and submit to periodic inspections and have the paper trail to prove it. And so we have done that. And to me, it just boiled down to a truth in advertising issue and to be completely transparent."

The various certifications found on the back labels of Oregon wines represent a range of practices and requirements. Their distinctions become clearer when viewed through the lens of the three "pillars" of sustainability discussed in all areas of agriculture: environmental, social and economic.

Some certifications begin and end with vineyard practices (environmental). Others challenge farmers to aspire toward a more holistic goal, as described in the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, to "create and maintain conditions, under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations."

Regenerative Organic Certification (ROC), established in 2017, uses organic agricultural certification as a starting point to "build soil health, ensure equity for farm workers, empower farmers and improve animal welfare through a holistic farm-based, brand-driven certification," according to the Regenerative Organic Alliance website. ROC is designed to enhance a farm's existing sustainability efforts as new goals are set and achieved.

"Wine is the only product where consumers commonly go to where a product is grown, and they'll sit down and they want to hear about it," said Pam Turner, co-owner of Ambar Estate with her husband, Rob Townsend. Their recently planted site, in the Dundee Hills, is the Willamette Valley's first ROC vineyard.

Speaking at the Oregon Wine Symposium, Turner recounted, "The reason why we went with Regenerative Organic was we really like the science-based approach, and we really appreciated that it's easy to understand." The certification is a recurring topic of conversation in Ambar's tasting room, where visitors are encouraged to learn more. "We are always happy to tell people about what we're doing and how we're doing it," she said.

sofía torres mckay, co-owner of cramoisi vineyard, holding a cluster of their delicious chardonnay grapes. photo supplied by cramoisi

PEOPLE POWER

All three sustainability pillars converge in the lives and work of vineyard stewards. Sustainable vineyard techniques often require more time-intensive "handwork," enabling farms to hire more year-round employees. Vine pruning and harvest are seasonal periods when a larger workforce is needed. Fair employment practices and living wages for these workers—along with those in the cellar and tasting room—represent an evolving aspect of Oregon wine's commitment to sustainability.

"Most people see the fair treatment of their vineyard stewards as part of their sustainability overall," observed Leigh Bartholomew, Director of Viticulture at Results Partners, a vineyard management firm that oversees thousands of vineyard acres in Oregon and Washington. "Most people don't feel like you should spray less, but treat your people poorly," she notes. "I think, in general, the two things go hand in hand very closely."

"We spend more money in all the things we do in the vineyard ... because we're focused on quality," said Cramoisi's Torres McKay. "We want to do it right."

She sees Cramoisi's sustainable practices as "teachable moments" for the vineyard stewards, who raise questions and engage in discussions in the field. The goal of worker education motivated her several years ago to co-found the educational nonprofit AHIVOY (Asociación Hispana de la Industria del Vino en Oregon y Comunidad—Hispanic Association of the Wine Industry in Oregon and Community).

The McKays report that workers are eager for the chance to come to work at Cramoisi. Using paid time to teach the crew, they say, is "worth it, [not] only in terms of money spent, but also having a safe place for your crew to come and work, instead of touching chemicals that later on in their life is going to affect them."

"One of the things Tony [Soter] challenged me with when I was first put in this position was to make it the best place to work in the valley, if not in Oregon," said Soter Vineyard's Whyte.

While working in the California wine industry, Tony Soter gained a deeper understanding of sustainable farming practices and their significance. A St. Helena vineyard he cultivated for Spottswoode Winery bordered the backyards of nearby homes, prompting him to consider how "conventional" chemical sprays would impact the neighbors.

"The fence line is not a deer fence, like most vineyards here; they're literally peoples' backyards," described Whyte.

Soter and his late wife, Michelle, were guided by social responsibility as they planned and planted their first acres of vines in Oregon in 1997. They later pursued a "whole farm" vision that resulted in Demeter Biodynamic Certification and, most recently, B-Corp certification. Whyte notes that alongside their estate's 50 acres planted to vines, "we have about 200 acres that are not - they are other biodiverse systems, whether that be forests we don't touch, or wildflower fields, or our animals we have ... or you name it, we've probably got it!"

DETAILS, DETAILS

One purpose of third-party annual reports is to measure ongoing improvement. This requires making countless business decisions congruent with the commitment to become more sustainable.

Packaging and transportation represent the largest share of a wine company's carbon footprint. Producers I spoke with highlighted alternate packaging choices such as the use of natural cork or engineered corks made from natural materials, the adoption of lighter glass bottles or refillable Revino bottles, eliminating capsules around bottle closures and using paper and cardboard certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Foundry's Anderson in Walla Walla even uses branded paper tape to seal shipping boxes.

The design and operation of buildings and facilities prompt more decisions. Wastewater treatment, the choice of building materials and the conservation of electricity and other fuels are a few starting points.

Vinovate Custom Wine Services is a custom-crush winery located in the Dundee Hills that opened in 2023 to provide grape-to-bottle services for both still and sparkling wines. Their new 24,000-square-foot facility on Worden Road is solar-powered, utilizes electric trucks, forklifts and pallet jacks, and collects rainwater for various onsite purposes. All of this aligns with a goal stated by co-owner Rob Townsend: "To help bring the industry in the right direction around farming and around winemaking, and ultimately help Oregon develop a more diverse and renewable and sustainable industry here."

SUPPLY AND DEMAND

Sustainable agriculture is a more complex business proposition than simply inviting sheep to graze on a vineyard's cover crop. Incorporating the three pillars of environmental, social and economic sustainability into a business plan has implications that can transform everything.

Remaining in business, however, is crucial as well. "If you aren't financially sustainable, then it doesn't matter how many animals you have," noted Soter's Whyte.

While consumer demand and pricing are strong incentives for overcoming challenges, the sustainable vintners I met pursue this path because they believe it produces better wine and aligns with their personal ethics.

"It's not easy to always do the right thing, especially financially," concludes Whyte after 15 years of working at Soter. "But if Tony's taught me one thing over the years, it is [that it's] absolutely worth it to stick to your values in terms of who you want to support and how you support them ... if you don't do that, then the rest of your business doesn't hold nearly as much value to consumers or to yourself.”