Hall Wines Receives LEED Gold Certification

NAPA VALLEY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–HALL Wines, the premier 21^st century vineyard and winery, announces today that it has received the prestigious Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED^®) Gold Certification for its Napa Valley St. Helena winery, becoming the first winery in California to be distinguished as a Gold certified facility by the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED^® Green Building Rating System™.

The HALL St. Helena LEED^® certified winery is one of most advanced wineries in California, with state-of-the-art facilities designed for ultra-premium wine production. LEED^® is an internationally recognized certification system that measures a building or community’s performance across all environmental metrics including energy savings, water efficiency, CO₂ emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

“The certification of HALL Wines not only marks a momentous occasion for the wine industry of California, but demonstrates how all industries can choose to be solvers of our collective environmental challenges,” said Rick Fedrizzi, CEO & Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council. “The HALL Wines project efficiently uses natural resources, makes an immediate positive impact on our planet and as a business leader, can expect to reap financial benefits over the lifecycle of the building.”

Owner and Vintner of HALL Wines, Kathryn Hall, and President Mike Reynolds, made it their long-term mission to become the leader in earth-friendly California winegrowing, resulting in the design of their new St. Helena facility in accordance with the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED^® rating system.

“Visitors come to HALL to experience hand-crafted Cabernet Sauvignon and are excited to learn about our vineyards, buildings, and operations, which result in a minimal carbon footprint.” Kathryn says, “At HALL Wines, we grow our own grapes and craft our wines, and so we are obligated to ensure the health of the land, as well as that of the greater Napa Valley ecosystem.”

To meet the precise requirements to become Gold LEED^® certified, HALL has included many sustainable design elements and practices including:

• Radiant Floors Allowing for Precision Winemaking and Maximum Energy Efficiency – Radiant flooring allows HALL to control the facility’s temperature while conserving energy. This technology, accomplished by running cold or warm water through the floor slab, provides an energy efficient and stable storage and production environment.
• Solar Energy – The sun provides more than 35 percent of the energy needed to power HALL St. Helena. Solar photovoltaic cells (solar panels) on the roof tops of the barrel cellar and fermentation building convert sunlight directly into electricity. Approximately 42,000 square feet of solar panels span the St. Helena winery roofs.
• Local Building Materials – More than 10 percent of materials used to build the facility were extracted, harvested or recovered, as well as manufactured, within 500 miles of the project site.
• Recycled Building Materials – More than 10 percent of the materials used were made with recycled content.
• Water Conservation – Drought tolerant plants were selected for the winery landscaping which will reduce the demand for irrigation by more than 50 percent. In conjunction with this, all of the landscaping and vineyards are irrigated with recycled water. A 40 percent reduction of building water has also been achieved through the use of low-flow water outlets without compromising performance.

HALL extends their environmental responsibilities to their general operations by recycling and using recycled materials whenever possible in their offices as well as shipping direct-to-consumer wine in recyclable packaging. Additionally the Hall’s own nearly 500 planted acres in Napa and Sonoma counties which are organically farmed and scheduled to be certified organic within the next year.

HALL wines are distributed in major markets throughout the U.S. The Halls have a second winemaking facility in Napa Valley, HALL Rutherford, which was completed in 2005. Additional information is available at www.hallwines.com.