Hahn Family Wines gives out seed packets with the same mixture as the wildflower/cover crop they use in the vineyard.

McIntyre visibly touted sustainablity and the SIP Seal in their handout, including noting that Steve McIntyre was a founding member of Central Coast Vineyard Team. Hahn Family Wines had the SIP seal all over their marketing literature, including seed packets containing the same wildflower/cover crop mixture that they use in the vineyard: five percent each of Bachelor Buttons, California poppies, Baby’s breath, and Persian clover, and 20 percent each of Crimson clover, Blando Brome, Buckwheat, and Rose clover. Philip Woodrow, director of marketing communications said “they are wildly popular. Last year we gave out over 2400 packets.”

Among the outstanding wines from SIP wineries and/or wineries using SIP fruit were … (prices are the suggested retail)

Hahn Family Estates: 2007 Estate Pinot Gris ($20) – nice acid with light peach, a good food wine or as an aperitif; 2006 Estate Chardonnay ($25) – smooth luscious mouthfeel; 2007 Estate Syrah ($27) – wonderful balance with a rich structure and hints of tobacco and meat, a classic varietal interpretation.

Hope & Grace: 2007 Hahn Estate Pinot Noir ($45) – very smooth with bright fruit and black cherry

La Rochelle: 2007 Paraiso Vineyard Pinot Noir ($50) – good balance with nice briar and plum

McIntyre Vineyards: 2008 Estate Chardonnay ($29) – beautifully balanced with elegant structure

Paraiso Vineyards: 2007 Eagle’s Perch Chardonnay ($30) – very rich mouthfeel, pair with cream sauces or even serve on its own as an aperitif; 2007 West Terrace Pinot Noir ($40) – earthy with nice notes of plum

CCVT Executive Director Kris O’Connor spoke about the success of the fledgling program, now only in its second year, but already with 30-plus members and about 11,000 certified acres. She also noted that all the first year members renewed, many with expanded acreage. She stressed that although much of the certified acreage is from the counties of Monterey, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara, SIP is not and was never intended to be strictly a regional program.

O’Connor moderated the roundtable, which consisted of John Niven of Niven Family Wines (Baileyana/Tangent/Trenza/Cadre), Matt Merrill of Pomar Junction Vineyard & Winery, Daryl Salm of Paraiso Vineyards (and one of the committee members that wrote the SIP Program and Protocols), and Jean-Pierre Wolff of Wolff Vineyards & Winery.

There was a lot of great information presented at the SIP roundtable, some of which we’ll explore with some later posts, but it was intriguing to hear what some of the members had to say about the value of SIP as a marketing tool. Pomar Junction is using the SIP seal on everything from bottle labels to event posters, from advertising pieces to winery logo apparel. Matt Merrill noted that the SIP seal is particularly useful as a point of entry with which to get visitors to the tasting room talking about sustainability. Many visitors are pleasantly surprised to hear about such topics as vineyard worker benefits, for example. (Check out the recent article in the San Luis Obispo New Times discussing this.)

John Niven noted that getting the word out about SIP “is a grass roots marketing effort right now,” but his family’s labels are putting out a lot of roots. He estimated that about 30,000 cases of their labels’ wines went out with the SIP seal in 2008, and he estimates that number to increase to 40,000 this year. For his sales team, that seal has proven invaluable on at least one occasion – one of them walked into a shop and pointed out the sustainability seal, which prompted the proprietor to gather up 12 other labels with the word “sustainable” on them and ask “what makes yours different?” The wine rep was able to answer that in two words – “We’re certified.”