Small Vines Wines vineyard

We took a few days off to hit the wine country, no not Napa or Sonoma but rather the Russian River Valley. Keeping with our true nature, we explored and tasted our way through some of the more possessive thinking sustainable wineries in the region. We’ll start small and work our way up.

Small would mean Small Vines Wines. Like most others in the region vigneron Paul Sloan creates Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Small Vines grows on several small acre plots situated in Sebastopol and the vineyard that we visited takes up only about an acre but Sloan makes the most of his space. They use high density planting which seems to make sense but not many wineries use. Like high density Green building, doesn’t it seem logical to grow more grapes on less land? Why doesn’t everyone use this traditional technique used successfully for ages in Burgundy France? Because high density does not equal tractors, so mechanization doesn’t fit in the density style, thus the method (often like organic growing or biodynamic growing) remains labor intensive and more costly.

The high-density grapes need less compost because more nutrients can be found in the roots. More nutrients and less compost don’t just equal more sustainability but better wine quality as well. We sipped some pinot noir and chardonnay to be sure while Sloan mentioned how he views wine as a living entity and as an expression of place.

Unlike many wineries, we completely get how Sloan considers the whole picture when producing wines. Small Vines only produces a limited number of cases each year because if the operation gets too large Sloan said, “You lose your ability to be in tune with the whole system.” People often don’t understand or often abuse the term “sustainability” but considering the whole picture and caring about the Earth can’t be too far from what the meaning truly represents.

Photo by Valerie Summers

Director Lixin Fan

In the last days of the 53rd SFIFF we must attend the parties (oh yes, it is a chore) and awards ceremonies. Last night we milled about the Golden Gate Awards with lots of buzz, drinks, food and happy filmmakers. The under appreciated and deserving filmmakers stood in the spotlight and garnered more than just awards but cold hard cash. (That’s what indie feature and docu filmmakers need most).

Held at the Temple Bar which does more than the average bar/club and adheres to the People, Profit and Planet philosophy (but we wish that they would do away with the paper towels in the bathrooms) the Golden Gate awards spotlighted several films and filmmakers who created sustainable and socially responsible films. Among the big winners, Director Lixin Fan picked up an award for best Investigative Documentary (along with oh so welcome cash) for his intriguing and visually stunning Last Train Home which highlights the story of a group of migrant factory workers on a taxing holiday trip back to their small village in modern China. It offers a stirring look at social justice and the dichotomy of modern versus old school China life.

The film beat out other feature documentary contenders including: Colony, where two Irish directors (Ross McDonnell and Carter Gunn) investigate the mystery of the vanishing bee colonies in California’s Central Valley and The Investigation of Dr. Nakamats.

In a nod to festival award recipient Roger Ebert, here’s a thumbs up to films that don’t have to resort to 3D to tell a story.

Food like anything else can be about expectation. We set the organic chocolaty bar fairly high and weren’t disappointed by the plethora of organic chocolates but we actually went in search of more interesting items. Zhena’s Gypsy teas marked our first discovery. Even though they’ve been around for about 10 year they more recently created five biodynamic teas and we felt much better after sampling the Caramelized Pear flavor. On top of the tea itself we had to like containers made from 70% recycled steel (and the cans are 100% recyclable because they contain no paper stuck with glue. They make their tea bags from non-GMO corn silk and can be composted as they biodegradable after 60 days. Having this teas makes us feel good better come 4 pm tea time.

We know that several natural partially organic (organic flour) bog bones exist but we could help from talking (no sampling for us) with the owners of Bare Bones dog bones. If they hailed from Cali then we might not of stopped but seeing that these guys make their all natural bones in Dallas caused us to discuss how people in Big D see these dog bones of all things. They mentioned that the people in Texas don’t exactly “get” the whole dog bone thing but they know that organic is some buzz word so they continue to go along for the ride. Go get ‘em Fido!

Field Roast impressed us not just by feeding us tons of samples of their various fake meats but by showing us their factory in  a renovated 1920s former dairy building in Seattle. These commitment to re-using an existing building cost them more than moving into some new factory but it showed that along with their commitment to use local veggies and minimal packing that their heart or rather their “meat” is in the right place.

We weren’t so happy to see all the companies pushing organic this and that in horrific plastic packaging. We saw enough gluten free, natural, corn syrup based products in the section (we don’t want to call anyone out at this point) that must have had various green marketing gurus earning their bonuses. We wish that they would spend less money on marketing about how good their product is and just make their product better.

We have to give the festival credit, maybe it seemed as though more authentic green businesses showed up at this year’s version. We didn’t see much corporate greenwashing like the not as Green as it used to be Burt’s Bees. Also, Coke owned Honest Tea sold its not so green corporate drink but that would be a minor quibble. Aside from checking out some of the various discussion groups (state of small Green business) and even some cooking demos (how to make organic stew) most of the time we spent wandering the trade floor.

Without spending too much time or words (we’ll post some more ramblings soon) here’s some of the cool stuff we found. Zen Honeycutt’s mother roped us in (or rather grabbed) us to introduce us to her daughter who is busy creating her own lavender empire with her practically lavish lotions, eyeshades and creams. Just down the long aisle, we spotted the reusable sandwich bag the Fresh Snack Pack. Great idea in place of the sandwich bags that get tossed. These packs contain no PVCs but we’d like to find out what these bad boys consist of. We had no doubt about what the Organic Essence lip balm consisted of. But we licked our lips for more than just the organic ingredients. The 100% FSC compostable non-plastic tube really wowed us. Why hadn’t someone thought of this before? Like us? We also ignored the wishes of our dentists and sampled the multitudes of chocolates, and we sampled them all but we liked Alter Eco bar (especially the dark) not only for the best and richest creamy favor but also for the organic ingredients and the fair trade philosophy that the relatively small company abides by.

As for 2010….bring it on!

We figured that with all the talk about food and food sources (see the stirring documentary Food, Inc. or read The Omnivore’s Dilemma or Fast Food Nation) that people can make their own decision about where their McNuggets come from and if they want to munch on them.

PETA often creates outrageous ads and they definitely like to stir the pot. Their ads, seen or not, often start a dialogue which we like. Dialogue about our fast food nation – we’re loving it.

While some film fans may be psyched to see the Matt Damon’s newest role as Mark Whitacre, and others queue up too see director Steven Soderbergh do something other than an “Ocean’s” film, my friend and I liked the whole corn based aspect of the film. What other film maybe except for documentary flicks like King Corn, or Food Inc. open with such info about how corn exists in a ridiculous amount of food and even non food items.  The Informant! delves right into the world of the corn based lysine and even high fructose corn syrup (the photo depicts a scene where one of the FBI agents spies yet another product containing high fructose corn syrup).

While most people might be excited to see this film, the people at agri-industry giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), probably won’t be lining up anytime soon to see it. As Whitacre mentions in the film that most people haven’t heard about ADM but they have their hand in an outrageous number of processed foods. The film cleverly follows and comedic/dramatic line to show how ADM got caught price fixing lysine in the 90s. What’s another five cents for the liter of soda among friends?

Even though The Informant isn’t a “food film” per se, it gives us a peak behind the corporate food world curtain. Movies like The Informant! normally have the intent to entertain first (which it does) but it also educates as well which in its subtle ways creates a small glimpse behind that man (or in the case agri-giant) behind the curtain.

We checked out a local SF band Big Light early today – 1) to check out a local band and 2) because they played at the Solar Stage (completely powered by solar like last year). Wouldn’t it be nice to have all of the stages powered by solar? They actually used solar on a larger scale for OL uno but they had power issues which apparently turned into economic issues this year.

Behind the scenes, most people think that a lot of drinking and eating goes on, which is true but people like Ice Cream Man sits in his ice cream van and just gives out ice cream – free. Why does he do it? He wants to just give something simple like ice cream (we downed a few Cherry Garcias while we talked with him) just to promote community and show people that you can simply give stuff away without expecting anything in return. Ice Cream Man hits the festival circuit but we’re more impressed when he hits various childrens’ hospitals and gives out free ice cream to sick kids. Now that’s a wonderful dessert.

Tucked in the corner of the EcoLands section, we checked out the Yellow Bird Project – a Montreal-based nonprofit that works with an eclectic array of indie rock musicians to create unique t-shirt designs that benefit an array of charities, each chosen by the musicians. We’re not sure what charities Joseph Arthur supports but we like his shirt design (along with his tunes).

It’s not easy to stuff thousands of people into a festival venue and be totally sustainable. It just ain’t gonna happen. There is too much electricity being generated, too many things trucked around, too much litter being created but we all want to see and experience the great music. OL continues to make strides in various aspects that other festivals or venues don’t. It’s far from a perfect sustainable setup. Perfection takes a lot of work. As far as sustainability, OL lands is still a work in progress. But hey, aren’t we all?

Don’t say that we didn’t warn you but those who are short on cash should consider the Global Inheritance sponsored recycle booth in the Eco Lands section. They offered a similar booth last year but not many people seemed aware of it. The deal here is that anyone who wants nifty Outside Lands shirt (for free) just needs to bring 75 empty cans or bottles to the booth. For 250 bottles you can snag a pair of Loomstate organic jeans and 150 gets a recycled record vinyl clock. Those not as inspired can get some Fuel TV sunscreen (and boy is sunscreen mandatory today) for just eight bottles.

On the food front, we like the local and/or organic slant on food. The chow lineup includes local faves like El Huarache Loco, Eos Wine Bar, Fated Calf, Hog Island Oyster Co among some of the tasty local purveyors. They even offer fresh organic fruit from local farmers markets. Think anyone will miss the fried corn dogs and dried out, mass market chicken sandwiches? We think not.

The Refillable Water Program marked the most curious thing (so far) that we spotted. Simple enough that people can refill their reusable water containers for $1 with water sourced from the large five gallon bottles. Yes, we people could just go to the park fountains and get the good old Hetch Hechy H20 but no biggie. The curious thing is that at the same booth they sell plastic bottles of Sprite and Coke.  We understand that everyone has to make a buck but if you’re trying to make a point then make it. Don’t go half way.

More Green and Sustainable action from Outside Lands to come.

San Francisco’s zany Bay to Breakers race brings out not only world class runners but crazy costumes as well. Some companies took advantage of the crazy and healthy atmosphere to promote various items (energy drinks, anti pain patches) but we had to question the Foster Farms “Say No to Plumping” race team.

Sure, everyone seemed to enjoy having their photo taken with the plump Foster Farms chickens but the brightly colored 16-person Foster Farms race team seemed bent on raising awareness of a little-known food fact: “plumped” or saltwater-injected chicken that costs consumers their health and money.

Instead of plumping maybe consumers and Bay to Breakers racers should be more concerned with eating chicken that isn’t organic, isn’t free-range and isn’t raised humanely. Foster Farms claims that they do not add hormones, steroids, or artificial enhancers. Okay but they don’t say whether or not the chicken is truly free-range or all natural.

This whole “Plumping” thing seemed to scream for everyone to be an aware consumer as far as economics go but aren’t missing the boat to promote health as well? It won’t do any good to save a buck or two on chicken (or any other meat for that matter) if you come down with some disease because of how a company raises the chickens . Maybe next year, maybe we’ll see some organic, pastured chickens run the race.

Usually when people visit a winery, people look for various shades of white or dark red, but here our color paradigm might shift to say Green. The recently opened CADE Winery offers not only solar power and organically farmed winery but hopes to garner LEED Gold status and if so, would be the first Estate Gold LEED certified winery in the Napa Valley.

When visiting a winery, people’s olfactory system normally goes into overdrive but instead of inhaling the aromas of vanilla, rosemary, oak and sage here we took deep breaths of the air. As in indoor air quality. No stuffy AC here as the building relies on natural ventilation. Although the wines remain something to admire, we also dig the other green aspects. CADE utilizes 100% solar power and organic farming methods which both look so green and tasty.

From top to bottom, our Green buzz comes from the other building features like the concrete composed that contains a generous amount (30 percent) of fly ash, steel made up of 98 percent recycled material, FSC glass and wood, as well as blue jeans for insulation and its own concrete mass for cooling.

The Green aspects just continue. It’s too bad that we didn’t bike or drive our electric car (we did carpool) because the winery offers a plug-in base for hybrid electric cars; and bicycle racks. Even better, they offer a shower (hopefully with low flow showerhead) so cyclists can clean up before one of the numerous tastings or events.

For the foodies, the winery offers a full-time chef on site who focuses on organic, sustainable cuisine grown on site. We haven’t had the chance to chow down on the sustainable cuisine but we’ll check back when we do.

Curious about the name? The winery name CADE derives from a Shakespearean term used for an oak cask or barrel.  How about the size? in this case size matters as the winery comprises more than 60 acres, 23 of which were planted as vineyards in 2003. Of the remaining land, 28 acres will be protected in a land trust to ensure that they will always remain open space.  Now there should be a big “Cheers” to that fact.