Santa Margherita, founded in 1935, began with a personal and passionate commitment to preserving the environment. Environmental, economic and social considerations have been the core touchstones of the company and it is honored today in every facet of how the winery operates. That includes making truly sustainable choices to save energy, reduce pollution and respect the land and those who live and work on it.
The Santa Margherita approach to winemaking is eco-friendly, revolving around the use of natural products and growing processes to protect the health and well-being of the vineyards. An example of this can be found at their production center in Chianti Classico, where the viticultural team has opted to use products such as copper and sulfur instead of conventional pesticides, and reuse pruned vegetation as compost to feed the soil.
For more information, visit www.santamargheritawines.com
Santa Margherita is continually investing in new resources and technologies that help to deliver the highest quality wines. The winery abandoned the use of animal byproducts years ago, and instead use only vegan-friendly bentonite clay, yeast-derived and vegetable-derived products during filtration.
One of their strongest efforts in reducing the winery’s reliance on fossil fuels is an emphasis on the production and use of clean energy. Santa Margherita only uses energy derived from 100% renewable sources, such as the 6,500 square feet of solar panels used at their Portogruaro facility, enabling the facilities to be entirely self-powered. Using solar energy, the winery produces 360,000-kilowatt hours of clean energy every year, the equivalent of burning approximately 145 tons of coal. This eliminates their CO2 emission output by 190 tons. In addition, Santa Margherita has developed a proprietary closed fermentation method to capture and re-use CO2, a solid example of the company’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gases. In fact, 10% of the overall production of Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio (1.5 million bottles!) is certified carbon-neutral.
Instead of sourcing wine bottles from outside companies, Santa Margherita creates their own at our glass production facility, which shares solar energy resources with our winery. This reduces various pollutants related to storage and transportation emissions. In addition, up to 65% of the green glass bottles for all of our wineries are made of recycled material.
Last Updated: May 4, 2023
