Infinite Enophile: Dear good grapes, how do we love thee? Let us count the ways.

Grape Skin

Using grape seeds to recapture youth

By Charyn Pfeuffer

‘I just don’t get it.” As we made our way to the Kenwood Inn & Spa, Morgan exclaimed in pure disbelief that people pay good money to be exfoliated. “Skin naturally exfoliates itself–I’m exfoliating right this very minute!” he cried. A heated discussion ensued on the subject of beauty, free radicals and antiaging.

Most people in the beauty know have identified that certain environmental factors such as cigarette smoke, pollution, alcohol and sunlight contain destructive oxygen molecules. These nasty molecules are called free radicals, and they wreak havoc on our skin, tiring it out and aging it prematurely. Many scientists and skin-care experts believe the best way to combat these free radicals is by using antioxidants. As modern medicine learns more about fermentation and the internal benefits of wine, the potent power of grapes as an antioxidant in external antiaging and therapeutic spa treatments is gaining worldwide devotees, especially here on the home front at the Caudalie Vinotherapie Spa at the Kenwood Inn.

Grapes contain antioxidants, polyphenols and resveratrol. Scientific research has shown that the active component of polyphenols–proanthocyanidin (PCO)–is particularly concentrated in grape skins and grape seeds. It was the cutting-edge researcher, professor Joseph Vercauteren of the department of pharmacology at University of Bordeaux, a center of research on wine and health, who helped establish that PCOs are highly effective in countering free radicals. But it has only been over the last two decades that serious attention has been focused on the role of PCOs as a beauty treatment.

During a 1993 visit to Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte, a Bordeaux vineyard, Vercauteren met with property owners Mathilde Cathiard-Thomas and her husband, Bertrand Thomas. He mentioned to the winemakers that once stabilized, the grape seeds discarded at the end of the harvest contained powerful antiaging properties and were a valuable source of PCOs.

Only grape seeds from the winemaking process of white wine are used for the extraction of polyphenols (with red wine, the seeds macerate in vats, where they release their polyphenols, becoming unusable). The grape-seed skins hold the majority of polyphenols, and it takes over a ton of grape seeds to extract one kilo of polyphenols. Vercauteren’s disclosure paved the way to a new approach fighting free radicals, and therefore aging.

With the experience of winemaking behind the Thomas’ and a research agreement with the Pharmacy Faculty of Bordeaux for a patented, stabilized grape seed polyphenol, the beauty line Caudalie and the term “vinotherapie” were born. The Thomas’ extensive skin- and body-care products quickly became a cult favorite, appearing on the shelves of Barney’s, Sephora and Neiman Marcus in the United States. A few years later, they debuted the world’s first dedicated “wine spa,” Les Sources de Caudalie, at their Burgundy chateau.

The Caudalie Vinotherapie Spa at the Kenwood Inn, one of only three Caudalie spas worldwide (the third is in Italy), harnesses the healing properties of grapes in such vinotherapie services as the barrel bath, the Merlot wrap, the crushed Cabernet scrub and the Sauvignon massage. After settling into the luxurious Mediterranean-style setting of the 30-room inn, I indulged myself with three treatments to see for myself: the Caudalie grand facial (80 minutes, $165); a barrel bath (30 minutes, $65); and a brushed Cabernet scrub (50 minutes, $115). Unlike many products, these didn’t overindulge my olfactory senses. I’ve subjected my skin to countless spas and treatments around the country, and this was truly an outstanding all-around spa experience.

Later that night at the inn’s wine bar, Morgan continued to debate the science behind beauty products and asked if it wasn’t enough to get treatments because they feel good, plain and simple. I agreed that that was indeed part of the equation, but as I sat there scrubbed and all aglow, I swear that a few years were shaved off my age that afternoon. I felt like an updated version of myself and that there truly is something to be learned from the European-inspired enophile lifestyle celebrating the powerful properties of one of our region’s finest commodities–the grape.

Caudalie Vinotherapie Spa at the Kenwood Inn, 10400 Sonoma Hwy., Kenwood. 707.833.1293.

From the May 4-10, 2005 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Flock Together: Environmental artist Erica Fielder, and friend, in one of her bird-friendly art hats.

A Bird on the Head

Artist and avians share sense of style

By Jill Koenigsdorf

Erica Fielder talks a lot about watersheds. The way she sees it, people would feel more protective of one another and the species in their vicinity if they thought about the source of the water in their watershed. Watersheds sustain every culture around the world, yet most people don’t even know the name of “their” river or the source of the water in their watershed. This got Fielder thinking about interspecies connections, and from there, it was only a short hop, skip and a jump to making birdfeeder hats.

The biggest dilemma for Fielder, 58, has long been which hat to wear herself, that of the artist or the environmental educator. She has always been active in education, and spent 18 years teaching children about the natural world. But she is also a painter and sculptor with an advanced fine arts degree; the divide between those two worlds perplexed her. Two years ago, she applied for and received an $11,000 grant that enabled her to expand her vision of narrowing this divide through the very physical action of crafting hats that feed birds.

At first her hats were placed among ordinary birdfeeders to get the hungry avians used to the idea. Gradually, the feeders were taken away and the birds ate off the hats. Then, to Fielder’s delight, she was able to don one of the hats and sit very still, and after only a half hour, birds began to roost on her brim and peck at the irresistible food she had placed there.

“I wanted to take people out of the voyeuristic role of watching birds through binoculars or sunsets through a car window or nature shows on TV, and put the human back in the picture,” she says by phone from her home north of Fort Bragg.

The hat is also a way of getting our species to slow down and be aware of another species, something Americans aren’t very good at,” Fielder says. “I wanted the wearer to have a sensory experience, because those are the ones we most remember. When the bird lands, it’s quite an experience. I’m always amazed when I hear what feels like a big bird land and someone watching tells me it’s a chickadee. The hat is like a drum, really, you sit there and you can hear the birds chatter as they eat, little conversations and their talons make tappy noises. The best part is that it gets people to sit very quietly, to be patient, which is a huge contribution.”

The hats themselves are not widely available. As they are individual works of art, Fielder charges between $250 and $300 per hat. Each piece takes her at least eight hours to make. She blows up a balloon and takes the measurement of the customer’s head before wrapping the balloon with papier-mâché. The brims are often three feet in diameter and reinforced with small bamboo skewers so they’re good and sturdy, broad enough, at first, for Fielder to hide under. When the newspaper strips dry, she pops the balloon and uses ribbon so the hat can be secured under the chin.

Fielder uses different colors to adorn the hats and affixes in the branches small seed trays she purchases at a thrift store. She will even place hummingbird feeders on top. “How tolerant birds are to humans is directly related to how fast they can get away, so the hummers are the most bold, and the smaller birds next,” she says.

Since bird watching is second only to gardening as a pastime in the United States, people seem to crave the interspecies connection that most interests Fielder as an artist; her hats offers a crucial sense of immediacy. “I am after that sensory memory, that sense of ‘Ah-ha!’ when they feel the connection,” she explains.

“Once we have a connection with one species and begin to care about them, we will hopefully become more protective of the watershed that those birds, and we, inhabit.”

From the May 4-10, 2005 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Points of Reference: Artist Trey Gerfer’s Point Rays Lamp is intended for seduction.

Light Work

Stereoluz creations set the mood for love

By R. V. Scheide

‘Light is hard to work with, it’s very temperamental,” explains Trey Gerfers as he opens the door of his studio in Point Reyes Station, revealing a pile of ancient speaker cabinets, gutted TV sets and antique radios stacked high against one wall. These are the skeletons of what will eventually become “Stereoluz,” a word Gerfers coined to describe the ambient light sculptures he creates from recycled audio components and modern lighting effects (luz, pronounced “loose,” is Spanish for “light”).

In the back of the studio, a number of completed Stereoluz pieces glow softly in a darkened corner. “Tee-Light” features a pair of rectangular speaker cabinets, cemented together in a T shape, the internals ripped out and replaced with orange, red, blue and green theatrical gel lights. “Reel-2-Real” is, aptly enough, an old tape recorder, reels removed and replaced with a tweed covering, through which red and amber lights shine through. Gerfers tweaks on the recorder’s tuning knobs, which now control the mixture of red and amber, the tone of the light, rather than the tone of the sound. With the knobs, one can quite literally set the mood for just about any situation.

“A lot of these pieces need a special space,” Gerfers says. “I always encourage people to think of something that will provide ambiance in a dining room or a bedroom. It’s something for nighttime, to make love by.”

Gerfers, whose formal training is in languages and translations, has always been interested in lighting design; early creations included old heating lamps transformed into quirky light sculptures. However, his interest really took off after moving to Berlin in the late 1990s. “Berlin is so dark, and there’s a sensibility about ambient lighting that’s not found here,” he says.

He moved to San Francisco in 2000, first working for a design firm building models of buildings for future cities. Around the same time, he started Stereoluz, mass-producing his own designs as well as creating one-off art pieces using old stereo components, maps and other found objects. One of his original designs, the Point Rays Lamp–a perforated cube one foot on each side through which various colored lights emanate–has proven popular enough to support his true love, creating original works of ambient light art.

“It’s funny, they kind of select me,” he says, gesturing toward the stack of old speaker cabinets. For instance, the holes in the speaker cabinet used to create “Planets,” one of the completed pieces in the back of the studio, reminded Gerfers of a 2003 news report he’d seen on the Galileo spacecraft’s visit to Jupiter. The holes now glow a luminous red, reminiscent of the gas giant’s angry red spot, or one of its many moons.

He taps lightly on the touch-sensitive rheostat fixed to the piece’s side, and the light passes through four phases of intensity, from bright to off. Gerfers designs each piece to look good whether it’s on or off. He touches the rheostat on “Tee-Light,” switching it off and transforming it into a marble white abstract sculpture. “Very Yoko Ono,” he quips.

The most aesthetically compelling transition occurs in pieces that employ translucent wood veneer, a medium Gerfers uses often. The most impressive piece is a large former coffee table he has tipped over on its end. When the lighting inside is switched off, it looks like an enormous block of solid wood. When the lighting is switched on, the wood grain becomes liquid and alive, appearing to drip down the surface.

A world traveler, Gerfers is partial to including maps in his designs, including the piece “Sectional Seashore,” in which a map of Point Reyes (a durable, waterproof plastic trail guide made by local cartographer Tom Harrison) is presented in five arranged speaker cabinets, creating a cubist effect.

Gerfers is clearly proud his work, which ranges in price from $150 for the mass produced Point Rays Lamp to $2,300 for one-off pieces. If effort is any gauge, the price is worth it. In order to create Stereoluz, he must work in the light and the dark, with constantly shifting aesthetic variables. That’s why he describes working with light as “temperamental.” Nevertheless, there’s no doubt he loves what he’s doing.

“A lot of people who come out here have seen a lot, they’ve seen it all,” he beams. “But they haven’t seen this.”

Trey Gerfers joins other local artists for Point Reyes Station Open Studios on Memorial Day weekend, May 28-30, from 11am to 5pm. Opening reception Friday, May 27, 4-7pm. For more info, go to www.pointreyesart.com.

From the April 27-May 4, 2005 issue of the North Bay Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.