Responsibility is one of our core values. This translates to developing LEED® certified buildings, sustainable farming and operating HALL, WALT and BACA wines with unwavering integrity. We are constantly innovating to turn our words into actions. We strive to maintain a healthy and beautiful environment for themselves, our neighbors and visitors at our tasting room locations. Our family-owned businesses make decisions for the long term to pass on thriving businesses to future generations. We make sustainability and eco-conscious initiatives a top priority both in the vineyard and buildings.

Our People

We set our goals high, and start internally. We invest in innovative environmental and social sustainability practices as a two-fold effort that combines green business practices with overall corporate responsibility.

All employees are given 40 hours per year to volunteer for a charitable organization.

Our Vineyards

Each of WALT's three estate vineyards are certified sustainable by the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance. The CSWA certification has rigorous requirements related to eco-friendly, sustainable winegrowing standards.

In March of 2017, each of WALT's three estate vineyards were Certified Sustainable by the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance. This coincided with a partnership with Sonoma County Winegrowers to make a bold commitment to be the first wine region in the U.S. that is 100% certified sustainable, coining the program "Sonoma Sustainable." This approach to sustainability includes 138 best management practices for grape growers in farming, business and how they support its employees and community. Sonoma County's quest to become the nation's first 100% sustainable winegrowing region has enjoyed enormous success and now WALT's "Bob's Ranch Estate Vineyard in Sonoma Coast joins this membership in the California Sustainable Certification effort.

• Our 12 Estate Vineyards Certified Sustainable by the CSWA:
• Napa Valley: WALT Ranch, Sacrashe, Bergfeld, Hardester, Beller, Rainin, Dellar-Friedkin, Cook
• Sonoma Coast: Bob’s Ranch
• Sta. Rita Hills: Clos Pepe
• Anderson Valley: The Corners & Donnelly Creek
• Dry Creek Valley: BACA Estate (in development)
• Three of our vineyards are Certified CCOF (California Certified Organic Farming): WALT Ranch, Sacrashe and Bergfeld.
• We work with 55 grape growing vineyard partners across 23 distinct Appellations in California and Oregon. In Napa Valley, we produce wines from 13 of the 16 Napa Valley Appellations.

• We are actively involved with the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance (CSWA). Kathryn was elected to the Board of Directors effective December 2017. The CSWA Board of Directors is made up of winegrowers representing both vineyards and wineries. CSWA is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 2003 by The Wine Institute and the California Association of Winegrape Growers to develop and promote sustainable practices, tools for education and outreach, partnerships with key stakeholders, and prioritizing research.
• Fish Friendly Farming – (FFF). FFF is a certification program for agricultural properties that are managed to restore fish and wildlife habitat and improve water quality. Walt Ranch, Lamoreaux, and Clos Pepe are not FFF, Westside Rd (BACA) application is to be submitted post-harvest, Donnelly Creek and Segassia applications are pending site visits, remaining 11 (including Senza) internal ranches are FFF.
• The WALT Estate Bob’s Ranch is part of the Climate Adaptation Certification (CAC) program that launched with Sonoma County Winegrowers in 2021. The Climate Adaptation Certification program, developed in collaboration with scientists from around the country, seeks to address how much carbon vineyards sequester. It will focus on proven scientific concepts that growers can implement without compromising their farming practices. By limiting nitrous oxide emissions and focusing on carbon sequestration, the health of the soil and vineyard will improve. The program meets both the State of California’s climate goals and the United States Department of Agriculture’s Healthy Soil goals. 20 vineyards are involved in the pilot program, with more participants vineyards being studied in 2022. The greenhouse gas reductions will be monitored and documented with the information shared with farmers and the general public.
• Sonoma County Sustainable – The Sonoma County Winegrowers are committed to farming sustainably and preserving agriculture for future generations and set a goal to make 100% of Sonoma County Vineyards Sustainable by 2024. Since their announcement in 2014, 99% of all vineyards in Sonoma County are involved in the sustainability program, including over 60,000 acres of planted grapevines. WALT joined the Sonoma County Sustainable program in 2016 following the acquisition of the Bob’s Ranch Estate Vineyard in 2014.
• Ecosystems: Rodents & Animals – Our vineyards help to shape important cultural, economic and ecological systems. Similar to other agricultural environments, vineyards can be multifunctional ecosystems that not only produce grapes, but also serve as a wildlife habitat. Keeping a well-maintained vineyard, growing seasonal cover crop, regulating drip irrigation, and minimizing spray and the use of additives in the soil, help to make the vineyards sustainable and improve the animal habitat. Additionally, enabling a healthy and diverse ecosystem helps to reduce carbon footprint.

We use various vine water status probes in the vineyard allows our vineyard teams to better utilize irrigation water when vines reach the appropriate critical moisture levels.

Additionally, The California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance (CSWA) has unanimously elected Vintner Kathryn Hall to its Board of Directors effective December 2017. The CSWA Board of Directors is made up of winegrowers representing both vineyards and wineries. CSWA is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 2003 by The Wine Institute and the California Association of Winegrape Growers to develop and promote sustainable practices, tools for education and outreach, partnerships with key stakeholders, and prioritizing research.

Our Buildings

The Halls are also moving forward with constructing a winery for WALT in West Sonoma. The 30,000 square foot production/tasting room and 5,000 square foot barrel cellar aims to be the first LEED Platinum Winery in West Sonoma, with the entire campus designed around various eco-systems and natural communities. The building will include a "living green" roof, low impact development and water catchment systems which will reduce the amount of embodied energy, lower overall gas emissions and reduce the water needs by recycling captured water to the surrounding landscape and vineyards. The new project is led by WALT General Manager, Jeff Zappelli, and is set for completion harvest 2020.

HALL was awarded LEED® Gold Certification established by the U.S. Green Building Council for its St. Helena Tasting Room and high-tech Production Facility. This accolade is the second LEED® Gold award for the St. Helena property which was previously recognized as the first winery in California to earn LEED® Gold for its fully sustainable production facility in 2009. LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is the preeminent building ratings program that is the nationally accepted benchmark for the construction, design and operations of green buildings.

With 35% of all energy consumption taking place in commercial buildings, the HALL St. Helena Production facility was designed to combat those challenges today and into the future. In 2009, the newly designed production facility became the first LEED® Gold certified winery in California. Later in the 2nd phase of design, the construction of the state-of-the-art fermentation winemaking facility and hospitality center and earned its second LEED Gold Certification in 2014.

• All HALL Family Wine facilities, tasting rooms and offices recycles office waste and prints n 100% recycled paper as possible
• HALL St. Helena Winery recycles 100% of all grey water utilized in winemaking process, in its offices and hospitality facilities to landscaping and vineyard irrigation on the property.
• HALL St. Helena Winery captures electricity through the use of nearly 1 acre of solar panels.
• HALL St. Helena Winery utilizes state-of-the-art Ultraviolet Light Sanitation units to clean its fermentation tanks, thereby reducing the water need to clean the facility