Working on our Blue Zones Certification
Napa Valley’s The Good Life Wine Collective specializes in small lot, handcrafted wines produced in their award-winning boutique wineries, Handwritten Wines and Jessup Cellars.
Each boutique winery has earned significant awards and accolades in recent years. Handwritten Wines, for example, was recently named one of the top two Best Boutique Wineries in a poll conducted by Napa Valley Life Magazine’s “Best of Napa Valley Readers’ Choice Awards.”
While earning significant accolades for their excellent handcrafted wines presented in their beautiful and hospitable Tasting Rooms, Handwritten Wines and The Good Life Wine Collective team are consolidating efforts in another critical direction: To create an environment for their employees that encourages healthful living and longer life.
What is Blue Zones® Certification?
Researchers have identified specific communities where citizens’ longevity far exceeds the average length of life elsewhere. Led by best-selling author Dan Buettner, a team of experts has studied five locations where longevity is most notable. These communities are Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece; and Loma Linda, California, USA.
The mission of this effort was to identify those lifestyle behaviors that were common and unique among the residents. These areas have been labeled “Blue Zones.”
Blue Zones® is now a trademark of Blue Zones, LLC, an organization that promotes the lifestyles and environment of the world’s longest-lived people. Organizations may earn Blue Zone Certification through education and implementing practices supporting healthy lifestyles.
What Are the “Power 9” Behaviors?
After studying the unique behaviors in Blue Zone communities, the following Power 9® behaviors were identified. Implementing practices consistent with this list is considered essential to achieving a long and healthy life:
- Move naturally: stay active.
- Purpose: have a purpose or “why I wake up in the morning.”
- Downshift: reduce stress with meditation, prayer, or relaxation activities.
- 80% Rule: Eat only until 80% full, no more.
- Plant Slant: Reduce meat consumption and focus on vegetables.
- Wine: Moderate alcohol consumption; no more than 1-2 glasses of wine per day with meals or socially.
- Belong: Participate regularly in group activities, particularly faith-based.
- Loved Ones First: Prioritize the welfare of parents, partners, and children.
- Right Tribe: Participate only in social networks that support healthful behavior.
Handwritten Wines Blue Zone Approach
Handwritten Wines, an award-winning boutique winery in Yountville, has adopted the concept of Blue Zones and a healthier lifestyle with the same zeal they apply to world-class winemaking.
To earn Blue Zone Certification, the Handwritten Wines Team, in conjunction with the rest of The Good Life Wine Collective, has created a Blue Zone Committee consisting of representatives from each department. Their mission is to meet bi-weekly to establish guidelines to implement and measure progress toward implementing the Power 9 behaviors
Here is a list of actions the Committee has proposed to heighten the boutique winery’s Blue Zone compliance:
- Offer financial well-being tools
- Offer a paid-time-off policy that encourages and supports employees to take time off
- Offer Employee Assistance Programs
- Provide self-monitoring equipment (i.e., blood pressure, glucose testing)
- Provide on-site biometric screening for employees
- Offer weight-management and nutrition coaching
- Organize or promote a workshop that supports leaders in connecting with their well-being and influencing a well-being culture in the organization.
- Establish a campus-wide tobacco-free worksite
- Provide showers and/or changing facilities with lockers to employees
- Ensure that at least 25% of meeting rooms, workstations, and/or private office furniture provide flexibility to stand or sit while working
- Provide secure bicycle storage
- Provide walking and/or biking workstations
- Designate a space in the office where employees can downshift
Visit Handwritten Wines, a World-class Boutique Winery
Handwritten Wines, one of the best boutique wineries in Yountville, offers award-winning wine varietals and blends for tasting at their Yountville Tasting Gallery. Handwritten Wines Tasting Gallery is at 6494 Washington Street, Yountville, CA.
You may make your reservations to sample the excellent Handwritten Wines’ handcrafted wines by visiting the Yountville winery’s website.
If you have questions or special requests, you can leave a message on the Contact Us Form, and one of the Handwritten Wines professionals will contact you.
Or you can phone the Handwritten Wines Tasting Gallery at (707)-944-8524.