Lumen sources fruit mainly from vineyards that are certified sustainable, organic, or biodynamic – or a combination of the three. Their estate vineyards are practicing organic and are currently undergoing evaluation for certification. The intention is to move towards Regenerative Organic certification through the integration of farm animals in the vineyard and a more wholistic approach to organic farming.
The commitment to organic goes even beyond the vineyards and is also practiced in the winery. Lane and Will’s technique is low-intervention winemaking. Fruit is picked at optimum ripeness so that sugar and acidity are in balance. The fruit’s lower pH is a natural antioxidant, and hence the wines are naturally stable, which allows for very low sulfur additions, and almost never a need for acid adjustments. Lane is, in fact, allergic to sulfur, and has spent the past 40 years mastering her technique of using the bare minimum sulfite additions in the winery – a little is added at first racking, and a little more just prior to bottling. Free sulfur is usually below 20ppm at bottling, which is far lower than the organic wine requirements in the EU. Wines are fined with natural bentonite clay, and are gently filtered prior to bottling.
All Lumen wines are vegan and gluten-free.
1% for The Planet
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As a member of 1% For The Planet, Lumen will donate 1% of sales to environmental causes. Yes, that’s 1% of sales, not 1% of profit. That means every year Lumen will write a big check to help protect our natural world.
Lumen co-founder Will Henry has had a long-standing commitment to protecting the environment. In 2001 he founded Save The Waves Coalition, a non-profit that protects coastal ecosystems around the world. That organization was initially funded with a $5,000 personal check written by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, who was a guiding force for the fledgling coalition throughout its early years.
“Yvon has been my number one inspiration in life,” says Will. “He is the most influential environmentalist of our time. Not only is he a tremendously successful businessman, he is living proof what businesses can gain from being more proactive with the natural world.”
In 2019, Lumen announced its membership in 1% For The Planet. “Business owners have a responsibility,” says Will, “to both reduce their impact on the planet, as well as give something back to the organizations who work hard to protect it.”
About 1% for the Planet: A global organization that connects dollars and doers to accelerate smart environmental giving. 1% for the Planet recognizes that the current level of environmental giving – only 3% of total philanthropy – is not enough to solve the most pressing issues facing our planet. Started in 2002 by Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, and Craig Mathews, founder of Blue Ribbon Flies, members have given more than $175 million to environmental nonprofits to date. Today, 1% for the Planet is a network of more than 1,400 member businesses, a new and expanding core with hundreds of individual members, and thousands of nonprofit partners in more than 40 countries. (Source: Linkedin)