Stu Weiss got into the wine business on the wings of a butterfly—the bay checkerspot, to be precise. Weiss, the chief scientist of the Creekside Center for Earth Observation in Menlo Park, has conducted much of the extant research on this endangered, jewel-like, northern Californian lepidopteran. His work has not only expanded the body of knowledge on the checkerspot, but has contributed to the protection of the last parcels of serpentine rangeland that support the butterfly’s rare f...