Most vintners in the renowned Napa wine region might take exception with strangers tromping around in their vineyards, getting the inside scoop on their practices. But last week, Debra Becker Lamb and her husband Eric Lamb were happy to open their gates to give outsiders an insider’s perspective o n sustainability in action on a working vineyard.  The couple welcomed visitors to Lost Valley Wines to give Earth Week-inspired demonstrations on the many green practices they’ve incorporated into their vineyard operation. The couple set up stations around the farm where visitors could stroll, taste a wine, and hear about things like automated irrigation and the farm’s utilization of compost.  “My wife Deb and I are extremely interested and motivated around sustainability and regenerative agriculture,” Eric Lamb said. “And so we’ve been putting them into practice here on this ranch here over the last five or 10 years, and we’re excited about it.”  Visitors at Lost Valley Wines in Napa tour different stations, learning about the farm’s sustainability practices. The event itself was made possible by the California State Legislature’s recent passage of AB 720, which allows small micro-wineries to apply for permits to host pop-up wine tastings each year on their properties. The Lambs decided to use the event to pair their wines with lessons in solar power and sheep-powered lawn mowing.  “We’re driving sustainability, not just in the vineyards — in the packaging and the energy. There’s so many facets to it,” said Debra Becker Lamb. “We really want to sort of elevate that story and share with others so more people can do similar sustainability efforts.”  The group of several dozen visitors included people from the couple’s wine club, the wine industry, journalists and the general public.  On one stop of the tour, the visitors got a demonstration of the farm’s use of compost by Robert Reed of Recology, who dug his hands into a truckload of compost and invited the guests to do the same.  “I just want to dive in and bathe in it,” Reed yelled, excitedly extolling the virtues of compost as a soil amendment made from what some might regard as garbage.  Cori Carlson of Napa Pasture Protein gives a presentation on the benefits of using sheep to mow down grasses in vineyards. At another station, visitors sipped locally made wines while listening to Cori Carlson of Napa Pasture Protein talk about her business, which delivers sheep to farms like the Lambs’ to naturally mow down grasses and vineyards while also simultaneously fertilizing them. Carlson was happy to see the Lambs’ unique approach to sharing green practices.  “I think anytime you can educate the consumer on why choosing a sustainable product is better for them and their children or their children’s children, I think you buy them in for life,” Carlson said. Debra Becker Lamb gave a talk on the environmental weight of glass bottles in the wine industry. She said there’s a misconception in the wine world that the heavier the bottle the better the wine. She advocates for lighter wine bottles, which have a smaller carbon footprint.  “Actually 30% of the entire carbon footprint of making wine, from vineyards to getting in your glass, is just in the packaging,” Debra Becker Lamb said.  Debra Becker Lamb gives a presentation on the large carbon footprint of heavy glass wine bottles. Eric Lamb offered the tour a glimpse of the farm’s power source — a series of three solar arrays that power the newly-built barn, irrigation and his foreman’s housing. With climate change delivering more hotter days to the Napa Valley, Eric Lamb said the vineyard experiences regular power outages during the summer. The energy generated by the solar panels is stored in a series of Tesla batteries within the barn — operating completely off the grid.  “From our standpoint, it’s not just reducing our carbon footprint and emissions, but it’s providing resilience for what we endure from PGE,” Eric Lamb said. Following the traipse around the vineyard, the group sunk down in chairs, sipping wine, munching on snacks — including dairy-free cheese — and listening to a presentation on Napa’s micro-wine industry. For Debra Becker Lamb, it was an opportunity to tell the story of what’s possible within the wine industry, which is becoming requisite in the face of a changing climate. “We are planting some seeds and sewing some seeds,” she said. environment Apr 23 What to know about citizen science and why public participation matters Alameda Apr 23 Bay Area brewery taps into the air to make beer that's better for the environment ...read more read less