A toast to Powers Winery … and you!
By Lynne Jordan, Development & Outreach Associate
This article was originally published in August 2010
This June PCC Farmland Trust reached a milestone worth celebrating — our partnership with Powers Winery surpassed $50,000 raised in support of organic farmland preservation. (See Two exclusive wines from Powers winery and PCC)
For every Powers’ Farmland Trust Cabernet or Chardonnay bottle sold at PCC Natural Markets, two dollars is donated to the trust. We extend a big thank you to Powers Winery and to the shoppers who have purchased more than 25,000 bottles of these exclusive wines since 2007.
Jeff Cox, PCC Natural Markets’ Wine Guy, has the pleasure of personally blending these wines alongside Powers’ Seri Sedlacek. Jeff says, “assembling the blends is a joy. Because of the respect that Powers enjoys among Washington’s growers, the winery has some superb component wines with which to work.
“Further, as we blend these wines, there are no stylistic boundaries — rather than modeling the wines after what’s in the marketplace, we evaluate the possible components and blend a wine that is the best possible sum of its parts. The result: wines that are a pleasure to drink — and that offer tremendous bang for the buck — all while helping to save organic farmland!”
The Powers’ Badger Mountain Vineyard became the first certified organic wine grape vineyard in Washington state in 1990 and also is certified Salmon-Safe. The Salmon-Safe program has certified more than 200 vineyards across the Pacific Northwest that are striving to protect water quality and biodiversity in important Northwest salmon watersheds.
By planting trees on streams, growing cover crops to control run-off, and using natural methods to control weeds and pests, Salmon-Safe-certified vineyards protect and restore salmon habitat.
Powers Winery truly walks the talk — cultivating vineyards in an ecologically sound way and supporting the community. It embraces a true model of sustainability.
As a nonprofit, one key indicator of the trust’s own sustainability is a healthy diversity in funding support. We’re fortunate to have a dedicated base of individual donors, foundations, corporate and vendor partners, and PCC Natural Markets, of course. Visit our website, pccfarmlandtrust.org, to find out more about our community partners and how you can help.
Organic farmland preservation requires a community-wide effort. Together, we’re safeguarding healthy and productive farmland now and for the future. We can all raise our glasses to that!