New Website Offers Free, Self-Guided Napa Valley ‘Green’ Tour

NORTHERN CAL., Calif. - Dec. 19, 2013 - PRLog -- Would you like to combine a wine tasting trip with a tour contrasting Napa Valley’s most eco-conscious winery sites?  You can plan a weekend ‘green’ tour of California’s most famous wine region for free at Vinobo.com.

‘Green’ wineries may include vineyards that practice organic, sustainable, and biodynamic principles.  Other ‘green’ wineries make extensive use of solar energy, are built to harness gravity to move wine, or are built of energy and resource-saving materials.

“There is a lot of controversy as many wineries strive to out ‘green’ each other,” says Vinobo founder Bruce Cass.  “We must beware letting the ‘perfect’ become an enemy of the ‘good’.  And do ‘green’ techniques such as biodynamic viticulture result in better tasting wines?”

“It’s a complicated issue,” continues Cass.  “There’s a fine line between ‘greenwash’ and the superstitions of  true believers.  Lots of people have opinions. Nobody has definitive answers. You need to compare various practices personally to arrive at an individual opinion.”

It is for this reason that Cass has included a ‘green’ tour in his latest wine project. Vinobo is a self-guided wine touring site that offers detailed maps of various California wine regions, with itineraries built around various themes, like the green tour, a Napa architecture tour, a sparkling wine tour, and many more.  Regions covered so far include Napa, Sonoma, the Central Coast and the Sierra Foothills.

Cass has been a wine educator for over 40 years.  He has taught wine appreciation classes at Stanford University and for three years taught the inaugural wine courses at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley. He is the general editor of the Oxford Companion to the Wines of North America and editorial consultant for the Wine Atlas of California.

“My students always have a lot of questions about these issues,” said Cass.  “And the best way to find the answers is to get out there and really visit these vineyards and wineries.  It can be a really fascinating journey.”

Some of the wineries on the suggested itinerary include Bouchaine, which is certified sustainable, is fish friendly,  features a marsh restoration, creates composts from restaurant discards, and used recycled barrel wood in its hospitality center construction.  Frog’s Leap uses temperature control from underground wells, and its large solar array in the vineyard sells electricity back to Pacific Gas & Electric.

“‘Green wines,’ those with environmentally-friendly credentials, have become very popular lately. A couple notable companies like Frey and Nevada County Wine Guild have grown tremendously in the last decade on the strength of their organic wines sold through health food stores,” says Cass.

Itineraries, maps and even recommendations for wine country restaurants and inns can be found on the Vinobo website at www.vinobo.com.  Registration is free and there are several levels of membership available.

The Green Tour is available at http://vinobo.com/subscribers/theme-tours/napa-tours/the-green-tour/.