The Cade Winery is Napa Valley’s newest addition to that wine country region. But Cade has set its standards high from the outset of the endeavor; not just in wine – every winery in Napa Valley has a high standard and most have gone to organic farming as well, but Cade Winery is also setting high standards in its approach to the manner in which the entire complex functions. Cade Winery has designed and built its facility with the intention of becoming the first of the Napa Valley wineries to receive the LEED Gold certification. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system has four certification levels: Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum which are attained according to credits that are accumulated over five categories of design: materials and resources, energy and atmosphere, water efficiency, sustainable sites, and indoor environmental quality.
While many wineries throughout wine country are now utilizing solar energy to address some aspect of their power needs, the Cade Winery will be the first to run every aspect of its operation - all the buildings’ and facilities’ needs, completely from harnessed solar energy. The buildings will be cooled using natural ventilation that will complement concrete designed to remain cool instead of resorting to using machines to conditioning the air. Insulation is by way of recycled denim. All steel used is 98% recycled and the wood is rated FSC Pure, FSC Recycled, or FSC mixed.
If the new winery takes half as thorough an approach to their winemaking as they have for the design and construction of the facility, they are sure to be a hit on the wine country tours circuit. And while it makes good environmental sense for its visitors to arrive by wine country tour buses to reduce the carbon footprint of the visitors, you are welcomed to carpool and preferably by hybrid electric vehicle and they have installed plug-in recharging posts to facilitate such. If you want to come by bike, there are bike racks encouraging that mode of transportation, and of course they welcome walk-ins – literally. However you arrive, they have environmentally considerate shower facilities using recycled water so that anyone wishing to freshen up from their travels will be welcomed to do so.
