Ron Rubin Winery Certified Sustainable

Ron Rubin Winery has fulfilled the requirements for us to have earned our sustainability certification in 2016. This certification was approved by the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance, for both our vineyard and winery operations. This is very exciting for us; and reflects our commitment to the environment, our employees, and the business relationships that drive our success. Our holistic approach to winegrowing requires us to continually evaluate our processes and implement positive changes.

Here are just a few of our sustainable practices that we implement at our estate:

In the Vineyards:
-Owl boxes for pest management
-Covercrop for nutrient addition to soils
-Tilling of weeds (no sprays)
-Water availability monitoring in soils, limited irrigation based strictly on needs of vines.
-Drought tolerant, beneficial insect friendly landscaping

Around the Winery:
-Water use monitoring and conservation
-Solar energy
-High efficiency LED lighting installed in 2016 to replace sodium halide lighting
-Continued education and training for staff

According to Mark Greenspan of Advanced Viticulture, “Ron Rubin Winery has installed a new Ranch System weather station and sensor network. The teams in place will be able to monitor and address specific needs of the vineyards; such as tracking the micro-climates of this 10-acre vineyard, along with monitoring soil moisture profiles for irrigation scheduling purposes. Telemetry was an important first step in Ron Rubin Winery’s move toward becoming certified as sustainable. Once we’ve established terroir, the next step will be to initiate a ‘small drink’ irrigation format, providing only the amount of water required by the vines without waste and for optimum wine quality from the vineyard.”