LIVE is an acronym meaning Low Input Viticulture and Enology. This refers to the practice of limiting the amount of raw materials (inputs such as pesticides, fertilizer, water, chemicals, fuel, etc.) used in vineyard and winery production.

Program Objectives

1. To see the vineyard as a whole system.
2. To create and maintain viticulture that is economically viable over time.
3. To maintain the highest level of quality in our fruit production. Integrated production should not require any compromise of our quality standards
4. To implement cultural practices and to solve problems in such a way that we minimize the use of off farm inputs, such as agricultural chemicals and fertilizers, with the goal of protecting the farmer, the environment, and society at large.
5. To encourage farming practices which promote and maintain high biological diversity in the whole vineyard.
6. To encourage responsible stewardship of soil health, fertility, and stability.

LIVE was registered as a 501(c)3 in 1999. Prior to this the organization had been certifying a small group of vineyards since 1997.

You are required to complete a contract and pay the fees associated with your membership type. You can do this by returning to the homepage of this website and using the link labeled 'Click here to enroll your property' just below the user login on the left-hand side of the screen.

The IOBC is the International Organization for the Biological and Integrated Control of Noxious Animals and Plants. This organization sets the protocols from which LIVE draws its standards. Every year LIVE applies for endorsement from the IOBC. This international endorsement proves compliance to GLOBALGAP standards (www.globalgap.org), a recognized and highly regarded standard for agricultural production.

The IOBC promotes the use of sustainable, environmentally safe, economically feasible, and socially acceptable control methods of pests and diseases of agricultural and forestry crops. Certified LIVE members are also internationally certified by the IOBC.

Because LIVE is a technical certifying organization, we do not focus on consumer marketing. Our members have in the past taken it upon themselves to spread the word of our program. Recently, Oregon Certified Sustainable Wine (OCSW) was launched as a program aimed at simplifying the message of 3rd-party certification. LIVE members are eligible to participate in this program, which is administered by Hannelore Buckenmeyer at the Oregon Wine Board. She can be contacted at hannelore@oregonwine.org. You can learn more about the OCSW program here.

Only certified members are listed on this website. LIVE takes very seriously the confidentiality of its members. Therefore, until a member has successfully completed two inspections (or one inspection in the case of wineries), it will not be listed on this website.

The answer to this depends on a number of factors. In order to use the LIVE logo on your wine bottle, you must certify that particular bottling. To do this, log in to your account, click on 'Wine Certification', and fill out an application for this bottling. Furthermore, you will need to fax the LIVE office a copy of your labwork with all pertinent information. Finally, your wine must contain at least 97% LIVE certified fruit. If your wine meets these criteria, then you may use the logo along with the required text "Made with LIVE Certified Grapes." If your winery is certified, you need not use this text.

LIVE is first-and-foremost a technical certifying organization that must meet the evolving needs of its membership. To remain a responsive body, LIVE has employed the use of regional technical committees to address issues dealing with sustainability, chemistries, key pests, and other non-administrative issues.

Currently, LIVE has sanctioned four technical committees. The vineyard certification program currently consists of three - Western Oregon, Central and Southern Washington, and Eastern Oregon and Washington. The winery certification program currently consists of one based in the Willamette Valley.

The regional nature of these committees allow for timely and informed responses to membership as the LIVE program grows to include diverse areas of the northwest. If you are unsure of which technical committee you should refer to, please contact the LIVE office.

LIVE vineyard members are required to pay the following fees:

1. Application Fee:
   • $100 one-time fee for processing your application
2. Annual Dues:
   • $175 for vineyards up to 20 acres plus $2/acre over 20 with no cap
3. Inspection Fee:
   • $350

     This fee is billed only in the years your site is visited for an inspection by our 3rd party. LIVE requires vineyards to be inspected for the first two years of membership and then every third year thereafter on a random basis. The regional difference in cost is a result of travel time and distance from our inspectors' locations.

4. Late Enrollment Fee (see explanation):
   • $50

     This fee is only billed if you join outside of the open enrollment window (January 1 - July 1 of year to be considered). Our inspectors batch their visits and determine their fees based on enrollment numbers up to July 1. This fee covers late enrollment after their contracts are negotiated.

Your inspector may vary from year to year. LIVE contracts with a third-party agricultural inspector to perform site-visits and record collections. You will be contacted by your inspector in the weeks prior to your visit.

Currently, LIVE contracts with three inspection companies for vineyard audits: Agro-Ecology Northwest, Corridor AgLand Consulting, and Apple Leaf LLC.

Vineyard members are inspected on-site in years 1 and 2, and every third year thereafter on a random basis. If a vineyard receives a No-Pass determination, it will automatically be scheduled for a site-visit the following year.

In the event that you need to used a solution in the vineyard that is not allowed by the LIVE Yellow List of Approved Pesticides, we allow you to apply for a variant. You will be asked to submit a Request for LIVE Variant to your regional LIVE Technical Committee for approval. The committee will work with you to arrive at a sustainable solution. If the solution involves a chemical that is not allowed by LIVE, your vineyard will be taken out of certification for one year. You may then re-apply for certification the following year. You may only apply for a variant once in a three-year period.

The deadline for vineyard reporting in 2009 has been extended to December 10th. This change was made to reflect concerns by the membership that the previous deadline of November 30th fell too close to Thanksgiving and harvest. LIVE recognizes these time constraints and will proved an extra 10 days this year as a service to our members. As a result of this change, late reports will no longer be accepted and any members reporting after the December 10th deadline will be given an automatic NO PASS determination.

In January of 2009, the LIVE Vineyard Certification Technical Committee decided to create, based on climate, two distinct regions for its membership. These fall under one of two categories: LIVE Region I or LIVE Region II. Each region has its own unique set of forms, including pesticide list, and Green/Yellow List of Vine Protection Measures.

LIVE Region I describes cool-weather, maritime viticulutral climates. Currently, this includes Western Oregon (Willamette Valley), certain areas in Southern Oregon, and Western Washington.

LIVE Region II describes warm-weather, maritime viticultural climates. Currently, this includes certain areas in Southern Oregon, Central and Southern Washington, and Eastern Oregon and Washington (Walla Walla).

Each region has its own pest- and climate-related issues that require unique attention. If you are unsure what region you fall under, please contact the LIVE office.

Salmon-Safe is an organization dedicated to protection of fish habitat through watershed management. LIVE has partnered with this organization for a number of reasons. Salmon-Safe certification is included in year one at no cost with the first successful inspection of a member farm. We believe that this is a value-added reason for joining our program. Secondly, because LIVE is a "Whole-Farm" program, we see the need to partner with an organization that has rigorous standards for off-vineyard crops and properties. Salmon-Safe fits this function perfectly and we have been successfully offering joint inspections for a number of years. If you should have any questions about this program, you may contact Dan Kent at dan@salmonsafe.org.

Biodiversity consists of the practices designed to increase the diversity of genetic, species, and ecosystem elements to provide a natural resource for the vineyard to minimize pesticide usage.

1. Areas for ecological compensation are to cover at least 5% of the farm surface (excluding commercial forests). This includes areas such as hedges, non-farmable ground, field boundaries, streams and ditches, and other agricultural surfaces that receive no input of fertilizers or pesticides
2. The encouragement of flowering plants in the vineyard to provide habitat and food for beneficial predators and parasitoids

The IOBC defines 'direct plant protection' as "control" of problems rather than "prevention."

Priority must be given to natural, cultural, biological and highly specific methods of pest, disease and weed control, and the use of agrochemicals must be minimized. Plant protection products may only be used when justified. The most selective, least toxic, least persistent product or control procedure, which is as safe as possible to humans and the environment, must be selected.

Control measures should be used from the more selective to the less selective

1. Use of control measures that act exclusively on target organisms (pests, diseases, weeds)
   • Release of sterile insects
   • Repeated release of parasitic organisms
   • Encouragement of predators
   • Introduction of competitive plants
   • The use of selective chemicals (Pheromones)
2. The application of less selective control measures, to be used when the previous measures do not prevent economic damage
   • The use of semi-selective pesticides (i.e. BT, insect growth regulators, sterol synthesis inhibiting fungicides, etc.,)
   • The use of non-selective short persistence pesticides
     

Indirect plant protection is the use of methods that prevent the outbreak of disease and insect damage beyond an economic threshold. This is an attempt to establish and manage the vineyard in a way to prevent problems that would later need to be addressed by higher off-farm inputs. One example of a preventable problem would be the planting of late-ripening varieties prone to rot that would later need several Botrytis sprays to combat this disease. A second example of a problem that could be prevented would be the installation of a training system that caused too much shading and increased the incidents of disease requiring additional sprays.

1. Optimal use of natural resources
   • Planting of varieties and clones adapted to the local conditions
   • Appropriate yield expectations
   • Planting of resistant varieties and clones
   • Weed management appropriate to the level of competition to the crop
   • A mixture of varieties and crops
   • Appropriate timing of planting and vineyard operations
   • Appropriate training systems for the local area
   • Ecological compensations areas
2. Farming practices with impacts on the agro-ecosystem
   • Avoid the surplus input of nutrients including excess Nitrogen
   • Provide for the optimal crop and foliage ratio
   • Protect soil fertility through minimum tillage/cultivation
   • Manage weeds for plant competition and erosion control
   • Enhance biodiversity through habitat management
3. Protection and increase of antagonists (beneficial insects,fungi, plants, etc.).
   • Assessing the importance of individual antagonist species
   • Release of predatory species
   • Management of the habitat
     

LIVE Winery Certification fees are as follows:

1. Application Fee:
   • $100 one-time processing fee for your application
2. Annual Dues:
   • $500
3. Inspection Fee:
   Your inspection fee is based on the total case production of your winery for the vintage prior to your registrations.
   • $600 (under 10,000 cases)
   • $900 (10,000 - 50,000 cases)
   • $1200 (over 50,000 cases).

   This fee is charged only in the years your winery is visited for an inspection. This is currently every third year beginning with year 1.

   Example:
   In year 1, a winery with 14,000 cases produced in the previous vintage would pay $1500 ($100+$500+$900)
   In year 2, that same winery would pay $500 (no inspection in year 2)
   In year 3, that same winery would pay $500 (no inspection in year 3)
   In year 4, that same winery would pay $1400 ($500+900)

Record-keeping allows our inspectors to verify the practices in your winery. LIVE provides boilerplate forms in the Winery Certification Workbook. You may also use your own forms, as long as all required information is available. The following records are required to be presented to the inspector (more information is available in the Winery Workbook):

• LIVE Scorecard Checklist (submitted to LIVE annually)
• Basic winery grounds plan (submitted to LIVE and updated when necessary)
• Energy usage summary (submitted to LIVE annually)
• Harvest receiving records (presented at inspection)
• Equipment maintenance records (presented at inspection)
• Substances added to wine (presented at inspection)
• Annual cleaning agent inventory (presented at inspection)

Other items that the inspector will use to verify your Scorecard Checklist include (but are not limited to) purchase receipts, bills of lading, receiving records, DEQ Citations within the past 3 years, OSHA logs, and appropriate DEQ permits. Please have these records available for the inspector prior to their visit. Having as many records available as possible will make your first audit go smoothly and quickly.

LIVE currently contracts with the Oregon Department of Agriculture's Commodities Inspection Division for winery inspections. The ODA acts in a strict third-party auditing capacity that DOES NOT INCLUDE compliance with laws and regulations outside of the scope of the LIVE standards.

Winery members are inspected in year 1, and every third year thereafter. If a winery receives a No-Pass determination, it is automatically scheduled for a site-visit the following year.

There are many different types of non-traditional winery business models being developed in Oregon. The spirit of the LIVE winery certification is this: The facility (and all bonded wineries within) must meet the standards as set forth by LIVE, and each label to be considered for LIVE certification will be evaluated separately. This program is aimed at the winery ownership level. It is the responsibility of the ownership to address LIVE compliance throughout the entire facility by all tenants. The one exception exists in the case of long-term contracts. If a contract exists with a tenant of the facility, LIVE will grant a conditional certification, with the condition being that the tenant complies with LIVE standards upon expiration of that contract. The facility owner will be responsible for payment of an application fee, annual dues, and inspection fee. Further, each individual tenant will be responsible for an annual dues should they choose to pursue certification.

Certainly! You can source fruit from wherever you wish. However, in order to produce LIVE certified wine, you must use 97% LIVE certified fruit. You may also achieve bonus points (see LIVE Winery Certification Checklist) for sourcing meaningful amounts of fruit from LIVE (and other OCSW allowed) vineyards. One thing to remember is that if you own a vineyard and a winery, the vineyard must be also be enrolled in LIVE in order to be eligible for the LIVE winery certification.

The truth is, you might not be. The decision to certify your winery through LIVE is not a light one, and we hope one that you will consider carefully before joining the program. It is our hope that you will find value in the LIVE Winery Certification. This value may be found in the rigorous peer-reviewed standards, the ability to participate in Oregon Certified Sustainable Wine, regional technical considerations, or the strong member participation in our program that LIVE has nurtured over the past 10 years. In any case, we would be honored to have your participation.

When developing sustainability standards, a number of considerations were made. These included worker health and safety, raw material production (environmental and human health impact), and post use impact (also concerning both environmental and human health). It is the hope of LIVE that the unnecessary use of caustic chemicals can be minimized, and in the case of the most caustic, eliminated except in small quantities in the laboratory.

No it does not. Having your winery certified by LIVE simply enables your facility to produce LIVE certified wines if you should wish to. You still must follow the LIVE procedures for certifying wine for each label you wish to have LIVE certified. You may certify as many labels as you wish or none at all.