Winery Implements Water-Saving Processes

How much water is going into your wine?

When you think of wine, you don’t typically consider water.  After all, who wants a watery beverage?

Yet, the wine industry is responsible for consuming vast amounts of potable water.  In drought-stricken areas like California – which also boasts a large number of wineries – pressure is mounting to reduce the waste and implement water-saving processes.  Can a wine save energy and precious water resources?

One of the first wineries to take the plunge (so to speak) is Jackson Family Wines.  The Sonoma County winery is known for its Kendall-Jackson label, but it may soon be the green poster child for the industry.  They’ve developed a process to save more than 70% of its annual winery water usage!

Jackson Family Wines considered the fact that water is primarily used for rinsing barrels, tanks and equipment.  So, it devised a way to recycle and filter the used hot water, so that the majority of the water is reclaimed (only 10% is lost in the process).  Substantial energy is saved, as well, because most of the water’s heat is captured as well.

Annual savings when the winery implements the water-saving processes are estimated as:

• 6 million gallons of water
• 133,000 kWh of electricity
• 73,000 therms of natural gas each year

Saving water from barrel-rinsing (image from Kendall-Jackson)

Working with U.C. Davis and winery waste-water specialist Heritage Systems, and implementing the engineering expertise of Riechers Spence and Associates, Jackson Family Wines has been testing the water-saving processes in a pilot program in 2009. It is now ready to lead the way for other wineries in the region, and hopefully world-wide.

In fact, if only 35% of wineries in California adopt similar water-saving processes, the state could save 1 billion gallons of water each year!

Jess Jackson, the founder and proprietor of Jackson Family Wines stated:

“This is the first time that the wine industry has seen a water filtration system that is so efficient and cost effective. We expect this to have a major beneficial impact on water and energy use not only in the wine industry, but in many industries throughout the state.”

Jackson Family Wines is exploring whether other wineries that are considering similar processes may be eligible for grant money.

Combined with solar hot water systems like the one used at Lucky Lab Brewery in Portland, Oregon, some serious energy could be conserved!  And don’t forget the fact that boxed wine is more eco-friendly than bottled.

Cheers to a “green” glass of wine!