Tucked away in a hidden canyon in the Verde Valley lies a winery that is committed to saving the planet.
“We feel like we are doing what’s right, to be honest,” said Luke Bernard, the assistant general manager for Page Springs Cellars.
At Page Spring Cellars, their mission is to make great wines while responsibly farming the land.
“The two main cornerstones to our sustainability efforts are solar power and water reclamation,” said Bernard.
In a state like Arizona where it is sunny 300 days or more a year, going solar was a no-brainer.
“In the last few years we were able to add more photovoltaic cell panels onto our roof here and we are 100% solar-powered,” said Bernard.
Generating zero emissions and saving money, the panels are installed above the parking lot, main winery building, and the crush facility.
“We are treating and reclaiming all of our grey and black water," Bernard says about how they use water.
The winery is considered a zero-water usage farm thanks to its hybrid water treatment system.
“The coolest part is that we have created artificial wetlands using native plants from the creek banks down here to act as a biofilter,” said Bernard.
The water goes through a second biofilter before naturally going back into the water table, impacting Earth one drop at a time.
But the sustainability doesn’t stop there.
“We have a dedicated employee to sustainability that focuses on our composting program,” said Bernard.
From food scraps to the materials used around the vineyard and the organic waste created by the grapes themselves, everything is compostable, reusable, and recycled.
“Even our pizza boxes are compostable, the corks in our bottles are made biodegradable,” said Bernard.
Just down the road, other vineyards are starting to do their part to become more sustainable too.
“We have in the rows a lot of cover crops that are going to hold water down. So the water is not going to evaporate it’s going to come up through the plant where it is supposed to,” said Ron Brumley, the vineyard manager at Alcantara.
“Basically, any waste from the grape, we reuse to fertilize into the vineyard and we don’t use any kind of pesticides,” said Lucas Reed, the general manager at Javelina Leap.
Each grape, each vine, and each winery is saving Mother Earth one glass at a time.
