Winery aims to earn green certification

Shale Oak Winery expects to complete construction of its Paso Robles tasting room in September.

Soon after, it hopes to become the second winery in the county to earn Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

“The winery portion was completed before harvest 2010,” said Mindy Hamers, Shale Oak’s director of operations. “The tasting room is under construction right now.”

Altogether, construction of the Oakdale Road project will run between $4 million and $5 million, Hamers said.

Its LEED submission will include both the 3,000-square-foot winery and the roughly 1,500-square-foot tasting room.

Certification is based on a four-tiered system, with points awarded for materials and construction practices that save energy, water and other resources. Preferred practices also promote environmental quality.

Originally, the team aimed for Silver certification, which requires at least 50 points. Now, it’s striving to earn 60 for Gold.

“We decided during construction to take the extra steps to achieve Gold,” Hamers added. “We’re kind of right on the cusp.”

Shale Oak is owned by Virginia-born Al Good, whose background is in apples and table grapes. Mesa Vineyard Management of Templeton oversees its vineyards, and Kevin Riley is consultant winemaker.

Designed by architects from Studio 2G in San Luis Obispo, the project includes a water plan from Above Grade Engineering, also in San Luis.

Features include using reclaimed water for irrigation, landscaping and toilets, as well as parking lot materials that reflect light and let water back into the ground.

In Balance Green Consulting, hired to manage the LEED certification process, has also overseen energy and light efficiency.

New recycling program

Since December, the Central Coast Vineyard Team’s new Crop Recycling Program has collected more than 26 tons of plastic bird netting and drip hose.

“We just decided to test it out,” said Anne Michul, the team’s outreach and education coordinator. “Obviously, we had a really great turnout.”

The idea came from a member grower who had a large amount of polyethylene bird netting that he didn’t want to put in a landfill, Michul said. After approaching Integrated Waste Management Authority, the team arranged for recycling pickup at San Miguel Garbage and Cold Canyon Landfill.

For details or guidelines, see www.vineyardteam.org or call Michul at 369-2288.

Home wine winners

The California Mid-State Fair has announced the winners of its 2011 Home Wine Competition, which garnered 183 entries.

Best of Show and Best of Red honors went to a syrah from Tony Pratt, Jerry Bogue and Richard Raper of Paso Robles. Mike and Carolyn Jones of San Luis Obispo won Best of White with their chardonnay.

Tom Baer of Paso Robles took the Best of Dessert Wine title with his blueberry wine.

Judging for the fair’s commercial wine competition takes place in the coming week.

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