When was the last time you turned a trash product into 4 steps of sustainability?
Wine that builds a brand
Cider that builds community
Pig feed for nutrition and methane reduction
Cost saving benefits
How do you define “sustainability”?
“Avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.”
“Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long time. Specific definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time.”
But for me, these definitions are uninspiring and honestly, a bit compressing when it comes to creative solutions and sustainable designs.
I define sustainability as the challenge of turning what you are forced to use into a force for good.
“How many steps can I take until this product ultimately has no more value? ”
-OR-
“How can I use this product so that the final use leaves as little waste as possible?”
The story of Ivy City Rosé sparks the true Utopian world of sustainability and was easily one of the most fun and powerful projects that I have been a part of.
It built the brand of City Winery DC, fostering growth among our customers and drew business to our establishment
It built the brand of Supreme Core Cidery, fostering growth and brand reputation for them, as well as market penetration of Ivy City, a revitalizing neighborhood in Washington DC.
It kept usable products out of landfills, saving City Winery DC almost $1,000/annually, as well as costs for pest deterrence.
It fed hogs, giving them vital nutrients as well as decreased methane production. It also strengthened ties between City Winery DC and local farmers.
The Wine
City Winery is a multi-city on-site entertainment business that prioritizes elegance. They are a winery that produces wine for in-house use, often pairing it with either their full-scale kitchen or wine education classes. They also feature a concert hall and event spaces, with daily concerts. They enjoy building the surrounding community and are often the anchor point for gentrification areas.
My Role
I was the Assistant Winemaker at City Winery DC for almost 1 and a half years. During our harvest season, we were focused on crafting wine and the organized chaos that goes into the production of the winemaking. During the off-season, we focused on community building, in-house customer events, and day-to-day management of the winery.
While we focused on a variety of wine styles and different quantities of wine, I was granted the ability to manage my own small batch project. I decided to create what was called a White Cabernet Sauvignon. This style of winemaking is performed by taking ripe red wine grapes, and fermenting them without the grape skins. Grape skins are what give wine it’s color, tannin, flavors and depth. By removing these skins, the resulting wine was lighter in color, less tannic and felt brighter on the palette, and deviated from traditional Cabernet Sauvignon flavors.
(Don’t worry, the boots were scrubbed, cleaned, and sanitized before performing this time-honored practice. Fermentation is another natural cleaning and sanitizing process.)
The wine was universally loved by customers who were looking for non-traditional options. It’s bright red color was an easy conversation piece which often lead to educational discussions about the science behind winemaking. The raspberry and peach flavors were unlike anything else we had on the menu, which offered new pairing options. It unexpectedly filled a niche on our portfolio, while building a brand reputation of fun and enjoyable.
Issues Arise…
Grape skin waste removal is one of the most challenging areas in winemaking. Often times, wineries are located on a farm and can easily work used grape skins into compost. We did not have that luxury for easy disposal at City Winery DC. This issue is often complicated and expensive.
Grape skin removal is often unpredictable, which is to say that the wine tells us when it’s ready. Add in different arrival times and schedules for used grape skin removal. This makes scheduling pickup difficult.
Keeping used grape skins in buckets is also highly unsanitary. They attract bugs and other pests as a supply of sweet sugars and nutrients.
On-call disposal proved to be expensive and a “worst of all worlds” scenario. We had to hold large amounts of grape skins for weeks, risking the quality of wine or health violations from the city. Then we paid the composting company almost $1,500 for the removal.
We needed a better solution.
We launched a partnership with Supreme Core Cider, a local cidery that we had a great relationship with. They aged their base apple cider on some the used grape skins that were used in the White Cabernet Sauvignon. The entire process took about 3 months to ferment, age, and get all the approval from the governing bodies. It was immediately successful and we had customers clamoring for it at both locations.
Ivy City Rosé Comes to Life
From a creative aspect…
New products always create public interest
Great for customer engagement
New ways to attract people to both establishments
Helps bring people to Ivy City
Great for my personal product ownership
From a sustainability aspect…
We reused a product that would have been trashed to create a new product
Elevated our brand relationship and furthered our good will
Saved money by not paying a company to collect the grape skins
Final Step: Hogs
City Winery DC’s Head Winemaker, Adam, had connections at other local wineries. Using this knowledge, we knew exactly where to go. The winery we went to incorporates a lot of sustainability factors into their vineyard and farming, such as low-spray programs and using oyster shells for weed management and slow release beneficial nutrients. They were extremely grateful for this waste product.
Benefit to Us
Low-cost waste removal
Strengthening B2B relationships and networking
Good will of helping further sustainability practices
Sustainability
Free nutrients for pig food
Brewers yeast aids digestion, leading to healthier hogs and decreased methane production