Responsibility
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.
- 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.
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 have also constructed a winery for WALT in West Sonoma. The 30,000 square foot production/tasting room and 5,000 square foot barrel cellar has aimed to be the first LEED Platinum Winery in West Sonoma, with the entire campus designed around various eco-systems and natural communities. The building includes a "living green" roof, low impact development and water catchment systems which 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 completed at 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