Napa County nonprofit gets grant to promote sustainable wine growing

Napa Green, a nonprofit promoting sustainable winegrowing, has been awarded a three-year, $456,000 Specialty Crop Block Grant.

The organization stated that the money will help it to continue to certify wineries are doing programs such as regenerative carbon farming, saving energy and water, preventing waste and using environmentally preferable purchasing practices.

Napa Green has set a goal to work with certified growers to become carbon neutral within six years, and climate positive within nine years.

The first five growers to complete the new program and become Napa Green Certified Vineyards are Opus One Winery, Spottswoode Winery, Dominus Estate, Clif Family Winery and Sequoia Grove Winery.

An additional 42 growers are “actively transitioning to Napa Green Vineyard certification,” with 5,800 vineyard acres and over 13,700 total land acres currently certified or in transition, the organization stated.

Funding for the project, called Tomorrow’s Vineyards: Advancing Climate Action and Social Equity in the Winegrape Industry, was made possible by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service through grant 21SCBPCA1110.