Madison Co. vineyard using glass water bottles in tasting room

MADISON COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) - One Madison County vineyard was founded with the goal to be as environmentally sustainable as possible. Now, it has almost eliminated all plastic from its tasting room.

Plastic water bottles are a thing of the past at DuCard Vineyards, instead reusable glass bottles are there to stay.

“When I was a kid in Chicago, the milkman came with bottles every week and left them outside in a little cooler, and you had your milk and you put the empties in there,” owner Scott Elliff said.

You can grab a bottle and once you’re done, put it back to be cleaned, stacked, and returned to Virginia Artesian Water.

“It always really bothered us to give our guests plastic water bottles and have them even though we single-stream recycle. It just was a lot of waste,” Director of Marketing and Customer Experience Beth Wilson said. “We pay a small deposit and then after we collect enough, we give them back and clean them and refill them. Then, we start all over again.”

This is all a part of DuCard’s mission to preserve the environment around them.

“When I started the place 20 years ago, I swore that I was going to do it as environmentally responsibly as I could. We’re out in a beautiful place at the edge of Shenandoah National Park, and you know our business and vineyard is all about nature” Elliff said.

The vineyard uses solar energy, compostable utensils, and even lightweight glass bottles for its wine.

“I’m not saying that we’re eliminating the plastic water bottle problem of 40 trillion bottles, or whatever it is, but at least we’re doing what we can in our little scope and so forth and and proud of what we’re able to do,” Elliff said.

If you happen to walk out with your glass bottle, DuCard vineyard just asks that you recycle it at home.

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