Women are entering California's wine industry in ever-increasing numbers. But how many of them are actually making the wines?

Lucia Gilbert Women winemakers also tend to collect a disproportionate share of awards in various competitions, observes Lucia Gilbert of Santa Clara University. She suspects the basis for that lies in the intense recruiting competition these women face as they leave school to join the winery workforce.

Gilbert's figures on the number of women winemakers statewide have been further broken down by region. She notes that their highest concentration, statistically, is in the counties to the north of Napa and Sonoma.

19th century American landscape master Thomas Cole wove a preservationist perspective into his art. First grade students liked seeing it, but enjoyed making their own pictures even more.

Thomas Cole's 1827 oil painting, Peace at Sunset (Evening in the White Mountains) currently on display at the Sonoma County Museum, is a featured compliment to the touring ehxhibit there, "Wild Land: Thomas Cole and the Birth of American Landscape Painting," which was produced by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Cole's rare masterpiece is on loan from San Francisco's De Young Museums (Image courtesy Sonoma County Museum).

Cynthia Conway, with a reproduction of one of Thomas Cole’s most famous works, Double Waterfall—Kaaterskills Falls, that is part of the current exhibition. (KRCB photo)One reason that Cole's work proved so influential, explains Cynthia Conway, the Museum's Curator of Education, was because it was such a contrast to the prevailing styles of his day.

Cole's fame might have been greater, but in 1848 he died unexpectedly at the age of just 47. The Thomas Cole exhibits at the Sonoma County Museum continue through January 13.

 A young artist from Luther Burbank School takes inspiration from the Cole exhibit in creating a colorful landscape of her own. (KRCB photo)

A new local non-profit is out to aid poor villages in West Africa through sharing their most precious—and in some cases, only—assets: their history and their culture.

Drums for Solar founder Bruce Rhodes was confident he could persuade Californians to support his vision of bringing solar energy to rural West Africa. But first he had to make sure his intended beneficiaries were open to the concept, and that required some extensive cross-cultural communications. Fortunately, Rhodes, a Sebastopol resident, was aided in that by some partners with ties to several of the villages they approached.

Bruce Rhodes drummingA key component of his plans, Rhodes adds, involves teaching the African villagers—in their own language—how to both install and maintain the new solar arrays they will be getting.

Although it's not the cheapest way to go, Rhodes is committed to acquiring and exporting American-made components for his African projects, underscoring the intangible linkage inherent in the cross-continental exchanges that Drums for Solar facilitates.

The Russian River Valley is acclaimed for its complex red varietals and the wine made from them. But it wasn't always that way, as a local film-maker has now documented.

Long before the grapegrowers and winemakers of the Russian River Valley developed a widely recognized "name" for their products, says local documentarian Joe Nugent, they quickly learned how to tap into regional markets for them.

His film, From Obscurity to Excellence: The Story of Grapes and Wine in the Russian River Valley, has been a five-year project for Nugent, one that grew out of his own, somewhat spontaneous entry into the realm of grape growers in the Russian River Valley.

The first public screenings of Joe Nugent's documentary about wine and the Russian River Valley will be at the Wells Fargo Center's East Auditorium on Saturday night, Dec. 1, at 7 and 9 pm. Advance tickets can be purchased online here.

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