DeLoach Vineyards Rolls out Barrel-To-Barrel Wine Service

DeLoach Vineyards Rolls out Barrel-To-Barrel Wine Service
at The Fairmont San Francisco

Pioneering Russian River winery creates elegant 10-liter barrel to provide an authentic and eco-conscious wine tasting experience

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Russian River, CA, July 16, 2009 – DeLoach Vineyards, a pioneering Russian River Valley producer of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Zinfandel, is revolutionizing wine-by-the-glass service at premier hotels and restaurants with the introduction of its “Barrel-to-Barrel” wine program. A leader in sustainable winery practices and organic and biodynamic farming, DeLoach now offers a convenient and elegant 10-liter barrel that ensures ease-of service, improved quality of every by-the-glass pour, and reduced waste and carbon footprint ­­- creating a truly new “Cellar to Glass” experience.

“We are honored to be able to create a revolutionary and unique offering for our hotel and restaurant partners that is sophisticated, refined, historical, luxurious and intriguing for their customers while also providing the lowest by-the-glass carbon footprint,” shares Jean-Charles Boisset, President of Boisset Family Estates and DeLoach Vineyards. “The barrel-to-barrel offers a one-of-a-kind experience to all consumers representing the closest to an actual barrel tasting in a cellar. Lightly-fined and filtered, the barrel-to-barrel Pinot Noir is intense, rich, delicate and continues our philosophy of sustainability all the way to the glass.”

DeLoach Vineyards, with its heritage as one of the original producers of Pinot Noir in the Russian River Valley since first planting it in 1973 and now with its innovative Barrel-to-Barrel Pinot Noir offerings, is well-positioned to be a leading partner to the on-premise as Pinot Noir continues its growth. As Wine & Spirits Magazine noted in its 2009 restaurant issue, Pinot Noir surpassed Cabernet Sauvignon for the first time as the most popular variety in America’s restaurants.

DELOACH & FAIRMONT SHARE COMMITMENT

TO ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPECTFUL BUSINESS PRACTICES

DeLoach is proud to have partnered with The Fairmont San Francisco, under the guidance of Director of Food and Beverage Todd Nagle, to develop the Barrel-to-Barrel program in order to provide an authentic winery experience at the hotel while also reducing the carbon footprint associated with traditional wine packaging.

“I first approached the Fairmont San Francisco because I knew the hotel creates exceptional experiences for its guests while being fully committed to the environment. They are a natural partner due to our shared beliefs,” notes Boisset.

Through the decades, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has cultivated a tradition of environmental stewardship. Several of Fairmont’s Canadian resorts,are actually located in national parks. They were built to enable visitors to experience the natural wonders of the Canadian Rocky Mountains and their success is founded on a harmonious and nurturing partnership with the surrounding environment. Quite naturally, these resorts developed standard operating procedures designed to protect the national parks in which they reside and, today, these practices are recognized as the gold standard in environmental conservation. In 1990, Fairmont’s Canadian hotels pioneered The Fairmont Green Partnership, literally writing the book on sustainable best practices in the lodging industry.

“Our mission at The Fairmont San Francisco is to bring the Wine Country experience to our guests. Together with DeLoach, we feel we’ve found an authentic means of presenting wines in a way that connects our guests directly to the winery,” said Nagle. “The barrel provides a visual icon that sets the expectation of the wine cellar experience for our guests, while for us, the benefits are clear: the convenient 10L eco-bag guarantees that every glass we pour is as fresh as if we’d just opened the bottle with no concern of possible tainted corks, and it offers added convenience in the ease of handling of the 10L eco-bags and the reduced storage space required.”

BARREL TO BARREL DELIVERS EXCEPTIONAL BENEFITS FOR ITS RESTAURANT AND HOTEL PARTNERS

The Barrel-to-Barrel program delivers DeLoach’s award-winning California Pinot Noir in an attractive wooden barrel for a “Cellar to Glass” tasting experience. Each barrel holds 10 Liters of Pinot Noir, lightly fined and lightly filtered, for a direct from-the-winery connection. DeLoach plans to offer a range of Pinot Noirs, from its California appellation to Sonoma Coast and Russian River Valley offerings to a highly-allocated selection of single vineyard wines that encourage exploration and discovery of California’s best terroir. Every glass is easily poured from an elegant spout located at the front of the barrel, ensuring graceful service of remarkably fresh wine.

The wine arrives in 10L eco-bags for the price of a typical 9L case, offering the value of an extra liter of wine – up to seven more glasses – for the same cost. The bags protect the wine from oxidation for a minimum of six-eight weeks from the moment they are opened, take up minimal space in the restaurant, are easy to store, and recyclable. Made from a 100% recyclable material and housed in an equally recyclable outer box, the eco-bag fits inside the barrel and holds the equivalent of 67 glasses at a five-ounce pour, or more than 13 standard bottles of wine.

Every time a restaurant re-orders the wine, they receive just the eco-bag containing wine, dramatically reducing the amount and weight of packaging being shipped to each location. In this way, DeLoach and its partners significantly reduce their carbon footprint by effectively eliminating the vast majority of the packaging, which is shipped from production to consumption and ultimately to the waste stream. While typical 3L bag-in-box wines are estimated to reduce the carbon footprint 55 percent compared to traditional 750ml bottles, the DeLoach eco-bag improves that even further as it transports 10 liters with an equivalent amount of packaging.

Further, DeLoach offers the 10L of wine for the same cost as 9L cases of its comparable Pinot Noirs, enhancing the profitability of by-the-glass wine programs for every account as they receive one extra liter of wine, equivalent to an additional 1 1/3 bottles, for free. For by-the-glass accounts, this equals approximately 7 additional glasses of profit above the profit available on a 9L case. “In addition to its convenience, appearance and ecological benefits,the DeLoach Barrel to Barrel delivers exceptional profitability advantages to our partners,” says Boisset.

DeLoach Vineyards is part of the family-owned Boisset Family Estates, recognized internationally for its green innovations in the wine world, including its French rabbit wines in Tetra Pak cartons, the first wines launched in North America in lightweight, recyclable PET plastic bottles (Fog Mountain - the first California wine in a 1L PET bottle, Yellow Jersey, Louis Bernard Bonus Passus, and its Mommessin and Bouchard Aine Beaujolais Nouveau in PET bottles), and finally, its Mommessin Beaujolais Grande Reserve in an aluminum bottle with a thermo-sensitive “chill me” dot. Jean-Charles Boisset was awarded the Innovator of the Year in 2009 by the Wine Enthusiast for his company’s efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of wine packaging, and . The DeLoach Barrel-to-Barrel program is Boisset’s first innovation tailored specifically for the on-premise market.

ABOUT DELOACH VINEYARDS

DeLoach Vineyards has been making terroir-driven wines in the Russian River Valley since 1975 and is a pioneer in Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Zinfandel. In late 2003, Boisset Family Estates, the U.S. importer for family-owned Boisset, La Famille des Grands Vins, purchased DeLoach Vineyards, citing the Russian River Valley as California’s most expressive terroir for cultivating Burgundian varietals. With roots in the heart of Burgundy, Boisset is one of France’s leading producers of Pinot Noir. Since its purchase, DeLoach has focused on dramatically improving quality, expanding its single-vineyards program for Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Zinfandel, and has converted its estate vineyards to a rigorous organic and biodynamic regiment, receiving CCOF Organic Certification in 2008. DeLoach has adopted green practices throughout the winery, using an innovative membrane bio-reactor to purify all water from wine-making to be re-used in vineyards, and purchases 100% of its energy from renewable sources (eliminating 314 metric tons of CO2 -the equivalent of 57 passenger vehicles for 1 year). Located at 1791 Olivet Road in Santa Rosa, the DeLoach Vineyards tasting room and organic garden are open to the public daily from 10:00 am to 5:00 p.m. For more information, visit www.deloachvineyards.com.

MEDIA CONTACT: For interviews and photo requests, please contact Kendall Johnson, Charles Communications Associates, 415-701-9463, kendall@charlescomm.com

DeLoach Barrel-to-Barrel Program Quick Facts

The Wines

* 100% Pinot Noir
* Lightly fined and lightly filtered for a true cellar experience
* Available exclusively on-premise
* Served from a 10L eco-bag inside the barrel that eliminates oxidation
* Presented on-premise in an elegant natural wood barrel

Barrel-to-Barrel Benefits

* Unique “cellar to glass” service for the customer
* Authentic wine country experience on-premise
* Reduced packaging: 1 68 gram bag versus 13 bottles weighing in excess of 550 grams each.
* 10 L versus a typical 9 L case for an extra liter of wine free
* Less on-premise storage space required
* Less packaging means less weight to transport, less energy to produce and transport, and a dramatically smaller carbon footprint
* No waste from breakage or unfinished bottles
* No risk of cork taint

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