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News & Notes BRIEFS GOURMET NEWS JUNE 2019 www.gourmetnews.com NEWS & NOTES 8 Domaine Carneros Recognized for Green Business Domaine Carneros, a family-owned winery committed to handcrafting ultra-premium sparkling and pinot noir wines from hand- harvested, estate grown grapes, has been named a California Green Medal recipient for the fifth annual Sustainable Winegrow- ing Leadership Awards. As the recipient of the 2019 California Green Medal Business Award, Domaine Carneros was recognized for demonstrating "Smart Business through efficiencies, cost savings and innovation from implementing sustainable practices." Since 1987, sustainability has been a main business practice employed by Do- maine Carneros, instituted by Chief Exec- utive Officer Eileen Crane, who has been with the winery since inception. Crane rec- ognized that for philosophical as well as economic reasons, sustainability made sense as a tenet of doing business. Her open book management plan sets measurable goals every three years and reevaluates on an annual basis, ensuring employee in- volvement in managing the sustainability category as part of the winery's culture. "Domaine Carneros' smart business sense and commitment to sustainability has been apparent in every facet of their oper- ation, with both vineyards and the winery comprehensively certified to Certified Cal- ifornia Sustainable Winegrowing (CERTI- FIED SUSTAINABLE) and the Napa Green Land and Winery programs," noted the award announcement. Domaine Carneros has placed a high priority on living as lightly on the land as possible. One practice credited for earn- ing the Green Medal Business recognition was the packaging reuse program, whereby cases and inserts are re-used for in-house purposes, which amounts to about a 20 to 25 percent reuse rate each year. This alone has saved the company an average of $75,000 per year since the program began in 2011. In addition to the packaging reuse pro- gram, the company installed the largest solar collection system of any winery in the world at the time in 2003 (the system captured enough electricity to power 230 homes for a year in 2017 when the data was last measured). Utilizing skylights to reduce the need for electricity, building into the earth and using night cooling sys- tems to maintain cellar temperatures, have all contributed to further energy conservation. Other green practices at Domaine Carneros include composting, and the re- cycling of bottles, corks, foils, cardboard, paper, plastic wrap and more throughout the winery, which has helped to divert 90 percent of its solid waste from landfills. Since 2013, Domaine Carneros has been CERTIFIED SUSTAINABLE. An annually renewed certification, CERTIFIED SUS- TAINABLE vineyards and wineries produce high quality grapes and wine, protect and preserve the environment and enhance the community economically and culturally. The company culture of sustainability extends beyond the walls of the winery as well. Since the late 1980s, Domaine Carneros has farmed sustainably, from using owl boxes as a natural solution for rodent management to using grape pomace from the harvest to feed local cattle. An enduring focus on water conserva- tion has led the winery to incorporate low flow toilets and employ reclamation sys- tems through its properties. These are also some of the practices that led Domaine Carneros to be Fish Friendly Farming cer- tified in 2015. Fish Friendly Farming is a certification program for agricultural prop- erties managed to restore fish and wildlife habitat and improve water quality. The cer- tification is renewed yearly. In addition to these viticultural practices, Domaine Carneros follows vegan practices, using no animal-derived products at any point in the process, from growing the grapes to the winemaking. GN Ruth's Mustard Named Small Business Champion Bob Harper Named COO Integrated Fresh Solutionsd Integrated Fresh Solutions, parent company to Fresh-Link Produce, LLC; a nationwide provider of grower products specializing in dry vegetables, tomatoes and fruit; and to third party transportation company Kool Logistics, LLC; has recently promoted Bob Harper to the role of Chief Operating Officer of IFS companies. In Harper's new role, he will oversee the operations of the multiple produce and transportation offices by supporting strategic plans in place, maximizing sales efforts and reducing inefficiencies. Lidl to Open First Wave of Stores on Long Island by Early 2020 Lidl US has announced plans to open stores in Plainview, Babylon, Huntington, and Center Moriches by early 2020 in the first of what the company says will be several waves of openings on Long Island, New York. Shoppers in those communities will be the first to experience Lidl's simple and efficient approach to grocery shopping as well as Lidl's price- cutting effect in the region. A study from the University of North Carolina found that grocery stores located near Lidl stores dropped their prices for individual products by as much as 55 percent. Krasdale Foods Promotes Gus Lebiak to Chief Operating Officer of Alpha 1 Marketing Krasdale Foods, a 110-year-old, privately owned company providing grocery distribution, merchandising, and marketing to independent grocery store owners, announced that Gus Lebiakhas been promoted to Chief Operating Officer of Alpha 1 Marketing, an affiliate of Krasdale Foods Inc. In his new role, Lebiak will work on unifying the departments starting with a focus on merging skill sets of employees with various backgrounds and experience levels. Kroger Announces New Columbus and Dallas Division Presidents Dana Zurcher, previously president of The Kroger's Company's Dallas division, has been named President of the Columbus division, effective May 1. She is succeeded by in Dallas by Tom Schwilke, who joins Kroger with more than 35 years of retail leadership experience.She succeeds Dan De La Rosa, who was recently named President of the King Soopers division. Zurcher now oversees 118 stores and more than 21,000 associates throughout central and northwest Ohio, as well as southeast Michigan and the Ohio River Valley. Schwilke was most recently the president and general manager of the NorCal division of Safeway Inc., where he oversaw 283 stores and 35,000 associates. for keeping the business going. "When we make it, it's a haul, but we want to keep doing it," says Laurel. The "Ruth" in the mustard's name is Lau- rel's Grammy Scranton, who used to make her special mustard for family celebrations. "I thought everyone ate this as a kid. I didn't know it was a unique flavor," Laurel says. "They'd eat it with ham. It was usually what she put on the ham – just drizzled on. Now people use it for everything." Laurel herself started making the mus- tard without a thought that she'd ever sell it. Instead, she gave jars to friends. And then friends asked for more. They said they'd buy it. Suddenly, she had orders for 61 jars, and she had to step up her produc- tion from the eight jars a night she'd been making when she was handing them out as gifts. "We were now up to 24 jars a night to get this order done," Laurel says. As the orders kept coming in, it was ob- vious that she was either going to have to scale back or move out of her home kitchen. "I got an idea, which are the words that totally make my husband BY LORRIE BAUMANN Founded in 2012, Ruth's Mustard LLC, founded by Laurel Smith along with her husband Ed, is a New Hampshire com- pany that's one of the businesses operat- ing out of Genuine Local, a shared-use commercial kitchen located in Meredith, New Hampshire and owned by Mary and Gavin Macdonald. Like the Macdonalds and some of the other small food produc- ers there, Smith lost the use of her previ- ous facility when it suddenly closed with little notice. "When that went out, we were out," Laurel says. With a four- to five-hour trip to the next-closest available commercial kitchen, that might have been the end of the business, but Ruth's Mus- tard was rescued by the Macdonalds' de- cision to build the new shared-use facility and open it as Genuine Local. "They bought all the equipment and kept it going and kept us going," Laurel says. Genuine Local is still a two-hour drive from her home, so she still spends a lot of time on the road on mustard-making days, but that's just part of the price tag cringe," she says. The idea was that if they took Grammy Scranton's mustard into real commercial production, they could use it as a vehicle to help others, as Grammy Scranton herself would have liked. "You always felt wel- come, and she always made sure people had enough, and she was always concerned about other people," Laurel remembers. "When we started this, we didn't feel like it was ours, so we used her name and put her picture on the label. And we said we'll make sure we share." Today, Laurel and Ed are making nine fla- vors of mustard in batches of 250 jars. The two of them can make two batches a day, and the mustards are sold in shops across New Hampshire and online nationally – Laurel's son Cory handles some of the sales. Ten percent of the profits are donated to charities, which have included local chari- ties that serve the homeless, the Make a Wish Foundation and St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. "We'll give 10 percent Continued on PAGE 30

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