Sonoma Wine Company (SWC), a North Coast-based full-service crush-to-bottle contract winery services provider, has received a Certified California Sustainable Winery (CCSW) status for its Graton and American Canyon winemaking facilities from California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance (CSWA).

Established in 2003 by Wine Institute and California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG), the San Francisco-based CSWA is a non-profit organisation that recognizes and certifies California-based wineries and vineyards that follow sustainable winegrowing practices.

The CCSW certification is a result of SWC’s commitment for following sustainable practices such as installation of solar cogeneration system in 2010 at Graton facility and maintaining food safety standards at its American Canyon facility that earned them ISO 22000 certification in March 2011, reported WineBusiness.com.

As a recipient of the CCSW certificate, SWC can now use the CCSW logo on its marketing materials, website and secondary packaging but on the wine labels.

If the wine is made in certified winery facility from 85% of grapes of certified vineyards, then CCSW logos on secondary packaging can be attached to the wine bottle.

These regulations will allow SWC clients, which make wine from CSWA certified vineyards, to show their winery status.

SWC business development director Natasha Granoff said, "This is a validation of the great works that the team at SWC has been undertaking since we began operations in 2001, we’ve received many environmental awards at the regional and state level,1 but this is really gratifying for us given its comprehensive criteria."