Destiny Bay Vineyards Becomes Waiheke’s First Sustainable Winery & Vineyard

Waiheke Island, New Zealand, October 20, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Sustainable Winegrowing NZ® this week has issued the first certification for a Sustainable Winery operation on Waiheke Island to Destiny Bay Vineyards. Known as a producer of distinctive, premium branded cabernet blend wines, Destiny Bay achieved Sustainable certification for their vineyard operations in 2005, but has spent the last year monitoring and recording winery operations relating to recycling, energy efficiency, and environmental management. Mark Boyle, Destiny Bay’s Sustainable Winegrowing Compliance Manager said, “Sustainability is an important part of the way we operate at Destiny Bay. It’s not just good for the environment, but it’s also good grapegrowing and winemaking practice. We’ve significantly reduced our energy costs by improving the insulation in our barrel aging facility. By using ‘green’ technologies like ozonated water, the use of common sanitizing agents like caustic soda has been completely eliminated from our winemaking procedures.” Among other practices, Destiny Bay recycles all of their packaging materials, returns pressed grapes to the vineyard, mulches all of their prunings, and carries out pH testing of the soil across the site.

“While there are other wineries in New Zealand that have received Sustainable certification, most of them are more than ten times the size of our business. For small vintners with limited resources the certification process can be time consuming and expensive, but we feel it was a worthy investment,” said Destiny Bay Wines Owner, Sean Spratt. “It is the land and the terroir at Destiny Bay that allows us to produce distinctive wines sought by collectors around the world. The vineyard is our most important asset and it makes sense that we acts as good stewards of the land.”

About Destiny Bay Vineyards, Ltd.
Destiny Bay Vineyards is located in a small, north facing valley on the renowned ‘cracking clays’ of Waiheke Island, New Zealand. Established in 2000, Destiny Bay grows Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot from vines sourced from premium wine districts around the world. Destiny Bay wines are found on the wine lists of fine restaurants in San Francisco, Chicago, and Auckland and in the private cellars of discriminating collectors. Destiny Bay is a fully accredited Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand® vineyard and winery. For more information about Destiny Bay Vineyards, visit our Web site at http://www.destinybaywine.com.

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