Hall Wines of St. Helena is the first in California to be certified at the gold level of the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards. Certifications run from basic to platinum with gold at the second highest rating position in the system.
Hall Wines of St. Helena owner and vintner Kathryn Hall and President Mike Reynolds built the new winery as a state-of-the-art facility for ultra-premium wine production. Their operation already incorporated Earth-friendly elements, such as organically farmed grapes and tractors that use bio-diesel fuel, so designing a new winery according to green building standards was a natural progression according to Reynolds.
Completed last fall, the St. Helena winery is one of Hall's two winemaking facilities in California's Napa Valley. The Hall's other winery is in Rutherford and was completed in 2005. The grounds in St. Helena are the site of the historic Napa Valley Cooperative Winery, a key winemaking facility for the region during the last century.
In addition to heat radiant floors and a solar energy system that provides 35 percent of the energy needed to power the site, the winery uses low-flow water outlets that enable the facility to cut consumption by 40 percent. Hall Wines' barrel cellar has a solar roof as well. In the past decade the wine industry has stepped up its efforts to become more environmentally responsible. In California, an industry group published its first report measuring the level of sustainable practices among vintners and growers in the state during 2004.
