As green as the Chardonnay grapes they grow, a winery along the base of California’s coastal Santa Lucia Mountains run entirely on wind power.
The mountains’ unique geography keeps the area windy, which powers not only a large private wind turbine, but a delayed and elongated growing season that complicates and matures the flavor in the grapes to award-winning levels.
Owned by Scheid Family Wines, Isabelle’s is one of several that benefit from this mixture of perfect soil, cooling fog, warm sun, and constant wind—as well as the Scheid family’s focus on sustainability.
Hi-tech sensors distribute water to each individual vine as needed, and not a drop more. Insulating jackets on the wine-processing equipment reduces energy consumption for temperature regulation. Large skylights and adaptive facility lighting mean that the winery’s interior is maximally lit by natural light.
Dozens of owl boxes welcome natural rodent control teams to populate the vineyards. Even the glass bottles are specifically made thinner in certain spots to reduce the energy consumption during thermal glass recycling.
Yet the crown jewel in all this focus of sustainability is the 400-foot-tall wind turbine that generates all—yes, all—of the electricity for the winemaking operations. The abundance of wind is such that the winery actually only uses half of the electricity it generates. The rest is fed back into the grid.
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“Sustainability has been one of our core values since our family founded this business in 1972,” Heidi Scheid, executive vice president of Scheid Family Wines, and the second-generation owner, told CBS News in the Bay Area. “The winds are very dependable. They can sometimes blow 24 hours a day.”
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The windy vineyards span 2,500 acres, and bear 36 different grape varietals, which it turns into several award-winning wines, sold as dozens of private labels in grocery stores across 10 global brands—all totaling 900,000 cases a year.
Yet not one of which generates an ounce of carbon emissions.
“Scheid is believed to be the largest winery in the world that’s powered by renewable energy,” said Ms. Scheid.
We’ll drink to that.
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