Duck Pond Cellars began growing fine Willamette Valley wine at our Dundee Hills winery in 1993. Since then we have farmed sustainably, crafting minimal-intervention wines that we hope faithfully reflect our unique Oregon climate, soil and culture. The 2020 vintage marks an important moment in our history because with this vintage we released our first Natural Path Production Certified Wines. Our wines are certified by the Clean Label Project. You can find the standard here.

LOW SULFITES ≤100PPM * COMMITTED TO CONSUMER TRANSPARENCY * FREE OF HARMFUL NEONICOTINOID & GLYPHOSATE PESTICIDES

Clean Label Project™, is a national nonprofit whose mission is to bring truth and transparency to food and consumer product labeling. In 2021, Clean Label Project announced their launch into a new category: natural wine, in order to set specific standards that define natural winemaking. Up until this point, natural wine was not regulated or standardized in the US market.

“It is our mission to provide information about products that might otherwise not show up on the label,” said Jackie Bowen, executive director of Clean Label Project™. “Due to growing consumer demand for transparency and proper labeling in not only food but wine, we felt it critical to bring this vital information to the forefront. Industry and regulatory change often come when people are given the facts,” said Bowen.

The Clean Label Project™ launched two different seals, Natural and Natural Path.

The seals provide critical information to consumers about what it means to be a ‘natural’ wine. This includes such things as how the grapes were grown and cultivated in addition to how the wine was produced, be it with or without the use of traditional winemaking or more industrial approaches. In an effort to set specific standards that define natural winemaking, two seals have been created: the top-tier “Certified Natural” and the second-tier “Certified Natural Path Production.” Certified Natural aligns with what mother nature intended - capturing traditional natural wine best practices including but not limited to the exclusive use of organic grapes, indigenous yeasts, and minimal additives. Certified Natural Path Production utilizes elements of traditional natural wine production while allowing for some modern wine production techniques including but not limited to the exclusive use of certified organic or glyphosate and neonicotinoid-free grapes, allowance of minimal cultured bacteria, minimal use of added sulfites to extend shelf-life and ingredient labeling for transparency. The criteria is public and can be found at www.cleanlabelproject.org

Our mission is to leave the world a better place than we found it. Upon this sturdy foundation, we have built the following pillars:

1. That we will craft the purest wines on earth. 2. That we will be leaders in consumer transparency and 3. That we will innovate in ways that solve real problems for our customers.

This vision informs our entire portfolio. It is why we are vertically integrated from farm and vineyard to winemaking and bottling to ISO 17025-accredited analytical chemistry lab; it is why we partner with non-profit and other charitable organizations to further their work; it is why we submit every product we make to independent outside testing and third-party accreditation; it is why we create brands like Duck Pond, which is now the first Certified Natural Path Wine brand in America.

LEADING THE WAY IN CONSUMER TRANSPARENCY

Our experience is that making healthful choices is a core value for the vast majority of our customers. We want to put healthy foods and beverages into our bodies.

For many of us the problem we confront in making healthful purchasing decisions is less in our intentions than in the knowledge of what is actually in the products we consume. For this reason we made the choice to hold ourselves to a higher standard, by committing to the Clean Label Project’s Natural Path Production Certification testing standard and providing our customers with full transparency into how we produce our wines. Starting with our 2020 vintage, we will be among the first wineries to include both serving facts and ingredients on our Duck Pond Natural Path wines. Cheers to making more informed decisions about what you put in your body!