OCSW
Oregon Certified Sustainable Wine® (OCSW) is an education program showcasing the Oregon Wine industry’s commitment to responsible, sustainable vineyard and winery practices. OCSW focuses on the shared principles of Low Input Viticulture and Enology (LIVE), Food Alliance, National Organic Program and its certifying agencies (e.g. Oregon Tilth, Stellar Certification Services, and others), and Demeter Biodynamic®.
The OCSW logo guarantees that the Oregon wine in that bottle was made:
- Using responsible agriculture practices; AND
- Using responsible winemaking practices; AND
- That both of those processes were certified by an independent third-party.
Requirements for bottling-lots to qualify for OCSW certification:
- The wine in a bottling-lot contains at least 97% fruit certified by one or more of the following organizations: LIVE, Food Alliance, National Organic Program and Demeter Biodynamic®. AND
- 100% of grapes, in a bottling-lot, are grown in Oregon and bottled into wine either in Oregon or in a cross-state American Viticultural Area (AVA) that includes Oregon. AND
- Bottling-lots are produced in facilities (or using winemaking processes) certified by LIVE, Food Alliance, National Organic Program or Demeter Biodynamic®. AND
- Beginning with the 2011 vintage, 97% of the fruit must come from Salmon-Safe certified vineyards in addition to the vineyard certification by LIVE, Food Alliance, National Organic Program or Demeter Biodynamic®.
More information:
A brief overview of the Oregon Certified Sustainable Wine program is available in either an FAQ format or a PowerPoint presentation .
The complete program details are found in the OCSW Certification Manual (PDF)
The contract that participating wineries need to sign is the Standard Certification Agreement for the Oregon Certified Sustainable Wine Program (PDF)
All of the applications must be submitted online by logging into your Oregon Wine Explorer account. If you need to create an Oregon Wine Explorer account, begin here.