LIVE Sustainable Standards For Wine

Since 1999, LIVE has independently certified the sustainable practices of winegrowers in the Pacific Northwest, using the latest in university research and internationally accredited standards. Chris Serra, executive director of LIVE explains.

SERRA: The organization that endorses us annually is called the IOBC and it stands for International Organization for Biological Control and they're an organization of academics and researchers that put together these standards and sustainable viticulture that we base our standards off of. We approached them in the late 90's to get some sort of accreditation, sort of certify the certifier.

SERRA: What they do is they use a few organizations around the world to sort of act as a test organization for their standards so we're one of those. There's another in France and another one in Spain. We're their test case for wine grapes.

So what does this mean for producers here in the northwest?

SERRA: So they can then go ahead and potentially export their apples let's say to a foreign market and it qualifies for Global GAP accreditation. What it means in the Northwest, IOBC isn't necessarily recognized as an accreditation in states but it is in Europe and it is in the Pacific Rim.

315 Vinyards and 41 wineries keep their certification active each year through the LIVE process following their sustainable standards. Look for the Live certified sustainable label on your next bottle of NW wine.