Hello. I am Michael Renken, I am the Director and producer of Can Wine Save the Planet?
I wanted to introduce myself so you could put a face behind the video and film. But first, let me do a quick plug. If you could, like, subscribe and share to help us spread the word about this project, you can find all of our videos on the Crushed Grape Chronicles YouTube channel at Crushed Chronicles video, or find out latest information on Crushed Grape Chronicles.com and CanwineSavethePlanet.com online.
But first, a little bit about me. You can find out about me on my LinkedIn profile. Here’s the link and that’s also in the description below.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-renken-93b5b43a/
But let me give you a quick version. For the last 40 years I’ve been working and touring musical theater, regional theater, ballet, opera, TV conferences and conventions in Las Vegas along with so many other things.
Robin and I started a gift basket business in 1999. It ran for almost ten years. We had to close because of the great real estate crash in 2008.
This brought us to search for a new idea to fill the gap. The initial spark of Crushed Grape Chronicles was created.
We created our Custom Chronicles YouTube channel soon after to follow the stories of winemakers and vineyards. This started our development into video storytelling wine.
It’s simply crushing fermented grapes. The variations in the stories are what make it so fascinating.
The climate, the soil, the amount of sun.
We also started 42 Aspens productions, to act as our production company, to facilitate these movies and stories.
Our next project was the addition of four Farm to Market.
“We created 4Farm 2 Market to share information about the great farmers market in our area. There are lots of reasons to shop farmers markets. The food is fresh and often the food is healthier and tastes better. And you’re supporting small farms and the local economy.”
We then added a Scenic route series to our Crushed Grape Chronicles page.
The Scenic Route 2021.
“So you’re exploring the Applegate Valley now? Here, fruit trees and things like that. So we’re like the.
Transitional point between them, California climate and the warm climate, “
Which led to the development of Discovering Wine Country.
“Far in the north of Italy’s Lombardia region. Tucked in between the Russian Alps of Switzerland and the Aruba Alps in Italy, you find the East-West valley of Valtellina”
An article written by Robin for Jancis Robinson on Biodynamics and regeneration led to this video on discovering wine country.
“This is where the entire episode is. The rabbit hole. We find that the wines that we like the most, the vineyards that produce wines with complexity and energy, generally come from biodynamic vineyards. There are several reasons for this. The winemakers have a passion for the ecosystem where healthy plants coexist. It takes more work to be biodynamic. You must be passionate.
Most of these people have done the research and maybe experimented to see if this really worked. The second is you can see the results in the soil as the plants mature animals and the good insects start appearing. Biodynamics takes time. Generally, 5 to 8 years, but when it takes off, you can see the results all around. We will start with a refresher.
The biodynamic basics. Then we will share thoughts on biodynamics from the people who are doing this, winemakers and the wineries that we have visited over the years. They each bring a different perspective, but all share a common goal of wanting to make the land better.”
The popularity of this video developed into Can Wine Save the Planet, a documentary project. This multi-year project will span across several years and feature many different regions and wineries. We have footage for our feature wineries from years past, and we started shooting for the first feature in 2023.
I have spent the last three years working on another project with the friend and farmer, Rodney Mehring with Blue Lizard Farm. We met during our 4farm2 market project.
“Welcome to Blue Lizard Farm.
We created this series to help future farmers in Southern Nevada learn from our mistakes. To sell from your small micro farm. You’ve got to have water rights. It’s important to work out all of the financial end before you spend the money, and then you have to have a business plan in order to get a farm loan, whether it’s from an agricultural bay.
If you get rejected from them, then you can go to the FSA. But if you don’t have a good plan, nobody’s going to want to lend you money.”
You can see this on our 42 aspens production page. Thank you for watching. Please stay tuned. There’s so much more to come in the first quarter of 2026, will you be holding a fundraising campaign and so much more. I will leave you with this short.
“We need all of you to contact your family and friends, wine clubs and social media friends. We need the community to add their voice. We have a fiscal sponsor, the International Documentary Association, to help us fund this project. And your donation can be tax deductible on the International Documentary Association donation page. You can help us fund this movie.
You can donate any amount. Ten, 20, 50, 100 or more to help us capture these different stories. If you have a fundraising background, we need help spreading the word. Please contact us. Can one save the planet? Yes, it can get the ball rolling with biodynamic and regenerative organic vineyards and with people like you supporting them, spreading the word and encouraging other businesses to join this movement.
Share this video. Visit. Can Wine Save the planet.com for more videos about this project while you are there? Sign up for our email list or if you want to participate in another way, let us know! Our website has places where you can contact us to get involved. Watch for our video diary as we film these and more participating wineries.
Add your voice. Thousands of small donations. We’ll show the world that we want change. This is not just a one and done film. It is a multi-year project with three feature films plus additional film shorts to be presented at film festivals. We will also have educational videos available on our YouTube channel.
You can subscribe at the link on the screen.
Join us. On CanWineSavethePlanet.com
Find and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Can Wine. Save the planet. “
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