Learning about LIVE

Learning about LIVE. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.??

Making Northwest wine better is something growers and winemakers are always striving for. Vicky Scharlau, Executive Director of the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers has recently joined the board of a group that helps do just that.??

SCHARLAU: LIVE stands for low input viticulture and enology and it’s actually a 501c3 – a not for profit organization based in Oregon but LIVE uses their international standards of sustainable viticulture and enology practices both for the vineyard and winery. So it’s wine grape and wine grape production and all the practices are based on an independent, third party verified checklist so it’s a system that you have required and prohibited elements and included in that there are ecological options for both wine producers and wine grape growers.??

Scharlau discusses how it can be used.??

SCHARLAU: LIVE has checklists and it’s an online process that have objectives and standards and these are not necessarily end-points but it’s an on-going process that wineries and vineyards can use as a dynamic process where they can become more sustainable as they learn more about the process and also really apply these processes to the growing at the vineyard level or the processing and making of wine at the winery level. ?

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.