Silver Oak winery gets environmental honor for Healdsburg building

Alcoholic drink trade groups lobby for federal relief

A group of alcohol beverage trade groups coordinated efforts to lobby Congress for more relief to help survive because of the business slowdown brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. The groups include the Wine Institute, the Brewers Association and the Distilled Spirits Council among others.

They formed an umbrella organization called the Craft Beverage Coalition.

They are calling for changes in federal law that include:

Suspension of all federal excise tax payments on domestic and imported alcohol products for all of 2020.

Making permanent the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act that provides a reduction in federal excise tax, weighted to benefit smaller providers.

Additional funding to support no- and low-interest loan and grant programs that have been taken under recent emergency actions.

Create temporary tax incentives that encourage consumers to return to on-premises dining and drinking establishments when public health officials give clearance, such as reinstating the expanded business entertainment tax deduction and creating a new, temporary travel tax credit equal to 50% of any expense for meals, lodging, recreation, transportation or entertainment while traveling.

Silver Oak winery awarded environmental honors

The Silver Oak winery’s Healdsburg site has been certified as having the largest environmentally sound structure in the world, according to a Seattle-based nonprofit group.

International Living Future Institute announced its living building certification on April 23, noting that the family-owned winery was awarded the label after five years of planning and construction and a one-year performance audit.

Among the findings by the institute: the winery’s solar panels generate more than 104% of total energy needs; its wastewater is disinfected with an ultraviolet system and stored in a 100,000-gallon tank; and the water is reused for toilet flushing, landscape irrigation and equipment cleaning.

USDA report: Wine grape ?acreage fell statewide in ’19

The amount of overall wine grape acreage in California declined 4.3% in 2019 compared with the previous year, according to new data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Bearing wine grape acreage did not change at 590,000 acres, but nonbearing acres dropped 45,000 acres, according to the department.

Grapes for top wine varieties continued to be cabernet sauvignon at 94,854 acres and chardonnay at 92,311 acres.

Compiled by Bill Swindell. Submit items to bill.swindell@pressdemocrat.com.