There is no doubt that a company’s mission is to create value, yet Cantina Cooperativa Vinchio Vaglio – since its foundation – has also focused in another direction: promoting the community and the territory.
Only by this approach has it been possible to ensure the company’s development goes hand in hand with that of the surrounding reality, becoming a sustainable reality in the long term in economic, environmental and social terms.
The path to sustainability
Sustainability is not a finish line, as many seem to think. It is rather a path we all must take, taking into account three factors: environmental, economic and social sustainability. We have come a long way on this path, over the years. Certainly, at the beginning of Cantina Cooperativa there was a different awareness, there was a different knowledge and there were also other interests: there was little talk of the environment, but there was also little talk of sociality.
Perhaps it is because we work with the land, perhaps because we owe so much to these rows of vines, perhaps because our winegrowers are also our neighbours as well as our schoolmates, perhaps because so much of us runs through the roots of this Monferrato. Perhaps for all these reasons, the terroir and the community have always been an intrinsic part of our reality.
Since 1959, we can identify 6 key moments that have led Vinchio Vaglio to become a Cantina Sostenibile (‘Sustainable winery’) today:
- 1959: Cantina Cooperativa was founded to protect the area’s winegrowers and guarantee a salary that would allow families to live in dignity;
- 1985: While in the rest of Italy the aim was to maximise grape productivity by uprooting the least productive vines, the project to protect the old vines was born, by promoting (also economically) the work of the winegrowers who are committed to maintaining them;
- 2001-2009: Quality becomes the winery’s true mantra, investing in state-of-the-art equipment and modern winemaking facilities, and resulting in the creation of some of the most prestigious Barberas such as Sei Vigne Insythesis and Vigne Vecchie 50;
- 2020: the Percorso dei Nidi (‘The path of the nests’) is created to promote the area around the winery and strengthen the connection with Val Sarmassa;
- 2023: Vinchio Vaglio is certified as a Cantina Sostenibile by Equalitas (‘Sustainable Winery’).
The Equalitas certification
The Equalitas standard certifies sustainability in the wine production industry, according to specific and measurable indicators, aiming at reflecting the path that has been taken in recent years to achieve such standard.
You may be pleased to learn, for example, that a large number of Vinchio Vaglio’s workers are young people under 30, that most of the employees reside in the villages close to the headquarters – so as to favour the growth of the territory and local wealth – that in 2022 no person left the company, that there have been no work injuries in the last 5 years and that 31.4% people have been working in the company for more than 10 years.
Such figures have always been reason for pride for us, and are finally acknowledged in a report that sees our commitment to sustainability as something much more significant than a simple label to pin to our brand.
The 2022 Sustainability Report
Would you like to know more about what we do to deserve the title of ‘Sustainable winery’? You can read the recently published Sustainability Report 2022 below.