Thinking back on our 3 years of blogging, from Ruarri’s First Post and all his amazing storytelling on wine as the elixir of life and a unifier of the world, to Jake’s wizard tech guides, to Brad’s millennial generation expose, to Meg’s wine-your-diet, to my rants on sustainability and spirituality, to all the other amazing content from our various contributors, we’ve created a dynamic vortex of ideas. What’s been greatest of all is having people find these ideas, some from 2 or 3 years ago and still give us feedback. With our first harvest experience this past fall in Italia, we brought all these ideas to life by finally connecting to the source and creating some amazing elixirs. And it’s not just the liquid that represents our ideas, but the sustainable environments from which it is produced. Thus, we find it natural to take our ideas, and our environments, and put them in a bottle…  a bottle of GrapeThinking.

North Carolina is slowly building a very respectable wine country, located predominantly in the Yadkin valley north of Charlotte. We recently had the chance to pay an educational visit to RayLen vineyards based out of Mocksville. GT has always seen vineyards as much more than wine, energy environments if you will and RayLen is another winery backing that up, with an awesome solar install. Check out the video below for a quick look. Note: the muscadine (seeds) at the beginning is an indigenous grape to NC, which reportedly has up to 5 times as much resveratrol as other red grapes.

My facts aren’t quite right in the video. Click below to get the full spec on their setup.

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1. We would be keeping the bears happy…  I mean seriously.. look at this fellow.  He’s enjoying a little splash in the water without a care in the world.   If we don’t make an effort to save the environment, this is going to be a grumpy bear without any place to go other than your back yard. Read the rest of this entry »

President-elect Obama has proven pragmatism and decisiveness with the completion of his energy and environmental team. He apparently understands the issues and is ready to lead.

His team includes:

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Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy: Nobel physics laureate and head of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the EPA: former commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

Nancy Sutley, Chairman of White House Council on Environmental Quality: former energy advisor to California governor, Gray Davis

Carol M. Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change: former EPA administrator under Bill Clinton

Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior: Colorado Senator

Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture: former Iowa Governor

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Obama’s first stated target is to reduce U.S. GHG emissions to the level of 1990 by 2020. This is an incredibly bold goal and the wheels need to be put in motion immediately. The first course of action is deciding on a carbon tax and/or cap-and-trade system.

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If you are what you eat… what are you?   Yellow #5, Xanthum Gum, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Dextrose, Sorbic Acid??

We’ve been following the organic movement across the world, as consumers begin to understand the level of toxins, chemicals, pesticieds, preservatives, etc.. that are injected, grown, sprayed, or bred into the things we eat and drink.  In an effort to encourage  you to more closely scrutinize those items that you put in your body, we present “The Mouth Revolution” by Free Range Studios.. the same group that brought us, “The Story of Stuff”

Mouth Revolution hones in on the fact that we need to be more considerate of what we put into our bodies, and need to promote a culture of health within our communities.  By being more conscious of those items that are harmful.. The “Mouthifesto” or “Declaration of Indegestion” is a great starting point for understanding those items you should always avoid.   Read the rest of this entry »