Seguin Moreau, the world's leading supplier of fine oak wine barrels, announced today at the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium that it is now offering French Oak wood barrels certified to originate from environmentally-sustainable managed forests. Seguin Moreau became the first eco-certified cooperage as well as the first cooperage to attain Chain of Custody certification in 2005 from the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes (PEFC).
PEFC is the broadest forestry certification program in the world. This certification guarantees that the French Oak used in Seguin Moreau products originates from sustainably-managed forests and also certifies that Seguin Moreau's "chain of custody" complies with PEFC requirements. It also helps to ensure consistent quality and the use of genuine materials.
"The major reason why a winery should choose PEFC certified barrels is to ensure that all of the French Oak used to manufacture the barrels comes from forests managed by the French National Forestry Office," said Lance Spears, President and CEO of Seguin Moreau Napa Cooperage, Inc. "By choosing PEFC certification, Seguin Moreau is demonstrating its commitment to responsible and sustainable management of timber resources and provides an option for its customers to do the same."
To fully comply with PEFC's guidelines, Seguin Moreau implemented strict specifications and performance standards. In part, this process involves reporting data concerning wood supply, which is then linked to sales data for eco-labeled barrels, tanks and vats.
The company intends to continue to provide its customers with consistent quality, but with the additional assurance that the forests where its wood is obtained are sustainably managed.
As the world's preeminent cooperage for oenological oak barrels, Seguin Moreau has always expressed its respect for this highly-valued material -- which is the essence of its success. This eco-certification acknowledges that commitment.
"It was a perfectly natural decision to commit ourselves to PEFC certification. The concept of sustainable forest management includes the principles of care for the environment, social well-being and financial balance," says Spears. "We fully support these principles and are ensuring compliance by following a sophisticated chain-of-control record-keeping system that involves tracking wood from certified forests through our factory and on to the customer."
About the Seguin Moreau Napa Cooperage, Inc.
The Seguin Moreau Napa Cooperage, Inc. was established in 1995 with the construction of this facility in Napa, California. The company employs 50 people in the United States, 30 in Napa and 20 in Perryville, Missouri, where the company owns and operates a wood yard. The U.S. subsidiary is part of Seguin Moreau France, based just outside of Cognac. What began as a union of two family cooperages during the 1850s has become one of the world's largest, and most prestigious, quality oak barrel makers, selling to wineries throughout the world. Seguin Moreau is part of the barrel division of OENEO, a global leader in supplying value-added products to winemakers worldwide.
SIDEBAR: About PEFC Certification
The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) Council, based in Luxembourg, is the world's largest forest certification umbrella organization. The PEFC provides oversight of more than 20 independent national programs from all over the globe that deliver hundreds of millions of tons of wood to the marketplace from tens of millions of acres of certified forests.
Founded in 1999, the PEFC has strong grass roots support from many stakeholders, including the forestry sector, governments, trade associations, trade unions and non-governmental organizations. PEFC provides an assurance mechanism for both enterprises and woodland owners that demonstrates that wood used in certified products comes from sustainable, managed forests. This also makes PEFC certification a useful tool in combating illegal logging.
In addition, PEFC provides a framework through which national and regional certification programs can integrate internationally agreed upon criteria with their local circumstances. The forest management performance standards of national PEFC programs are based on the results of inter-government processes, such as the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe. This conference grew out of the U.N. Conference on the Environment and Development at Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Inter-governmental collaboration ensures that, if the Ministerial Conference (representing the governments of 37 countries) agrees on changes in any aspect of suitable forest management, those changes will be put into practice through PEFC certification.
PEFC certifications (Sustainable Forest Management and Chain of Control) provide customers with proof of the origin of the wood used in the products they buy. To be credible, certification must be awarded in both cases by independent accredited third party certifiers. The PEFC certification model is now recognized as the most credible certification system in the world, leading other nations (Australia, etc.) to adopt similar systems. Once certified, companies can apply for a license to affix the green PEFC logo on their wood-based products, thereby enabling customers and the general public to make a positive choice in support of sustainable forest management.
In summary, PEFC uses internationally-recognized accreditation and certification processes to ensure independence of control, standard setting and delivery of sustainable forest management. For more information, go to www.pefc.org.Seguin Moreau Napa Cooperage, Inc. via Yahoo News
