Laurie Jervis: A Year in the Life of a New Santa Maria Valley Winery – Part 6 | Homes and Lifestyle

[Noozhawk’s note: In early February, Will Henry told Noozhawk that he was about to plant the first estate vineyard for Lumen Wines, the label he co-owns and produces with Lane Tanner, and we jumped at the chance to document the process from Day One. Following is the sixth in a series about the life of a new vineyard by Noozhawk contributing writer Laurie Jervis and photographer Len Wood.]

About half a mile from the residence of Will Henry and Kali Kopley and Warner Henry Vineyard is another vineyard owned by a neighbor, businessman Doug King, whose primary residence is in Bend, Oregon.

As Henry, Kopley and their Vineyard Manager Jason Muscio of Chalky Ridge Vineyard Management walked in and out of the newly planted Warner Henry Vineyard, they could only think of King’s Pinot Noir vines visible behind a fence.

Finally, Henry remembers: “Jason asked me, ‘What is this location?'”

This place is owned by King, a pilot who is the chairman and CEO of Epic plane by Bend. In 2008, King planted seven acres of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay on both sides of the private road that leads to his home, and beyond, the Henry / Kopley House and Warner Henry Vineyard.

David Addamo was the original King’s winemaker Royal Flight vineyards, whose first vintage dates from 2011, according to princeofpinot.com.

When the vines of Royal Flight Vineyards matured in 2020, another local winemaker who had been hired to purchase King’s pinot noir withdrew, leaving the owner to hold the harvested fruit. It’s a farmer’s nightmare.

I did the math: with seven acres producing about two tonnes per acre, or 14 tonnes in total, at a likely going rate of $ 3,000 each, that means a loss of about $ 42,000.

Will Henry gazes at an almost abandoned field full of Pinot Noir grapes near his burgeoning vineyard. Henry harvests the grapes for himself and other wineries. (Photo by Len Wood / Noozhawk)

King, said Henry, was so frustrated that he walked away saying “enough is enough.” King didn’t spend any money to prune, water or spray his vines for powdery mildew, a fungal disease often prevalent in foggy coastal vineyards.

While most vineyards can survive a year without irrigation, the lack of antifungal spray can decimate a grape crop.

However, King’s vineyard not only survived, it thrived.

Earlier this month, Henry said he tracked down King via email; all residents of the rural road share a water supply system and have emails from each other. “The king has given me permission to take ALL the fruits of the vineyard,” which lines the road in two plots, one of two acres and the other of five.

Left untrimmed, the new shoots of the vines had grown up to 6-7 feet and were loaded with bunches of grapes, despite the lack of water – when irrigation is scarce, the vines focus on reproduction (fruit) and less on green and vegetative growth (shoots and leaves).

“The site has been organically grown – by accident – for the past year. We found tiny bunches (of grapes) and tons of fruit, ”Henry told us on September 21 when we met him at the site.

The seeds of the grapes were already brown (general indicator of maturity) and the berries showed optimum ripeness. Lane Tanner, co-owner with Henry of Lumen wines, had already squeezed some of the grapes and was getting a quality but “limited” juice, he said, perhaps because the bunches were smaller and slightly dehydrated.

Will Henry owns Pinot Noir grapes found in an almost abandoned vineyard near his budding vines. (Photo by Len Wood / Noozhawk)

Henry shared his spoils from King’s Vineyard with fellow winemakers Gavin Chanin (Cie du vin Chanin), Mike Roth (LoFi Wines) and Ernst Storm (Storm wines). The grapes from these winemakers were hand picked in the wee hours of the morning last Friday.

All the winemakers were more than delighted to come away with unexpected, high quality fruit.

While he and the other winemakers don’t pay King directly, they will compensate him in other ways, Henry said: this fruit could see proper treatment from great artists.

Chanin, who will harvest “a good chunk” of the total Pinot Noir harvest, told me he was “delighted” with the health and maturity of the harvest, despite the hardships the vineyard has suffered, and is looking forward to it. to work with the site in the years to come, given its intrigue.

“The color of the pinot bunches was almost blue-black,” he said. “The clusters are tiny and intense, but there is so much fruit (in general). “

Farm workers prune the stalks of Pinot Noir grapes harvested around 1 a.m. last Friday in an abandoned field discovered by Will Henry. (Photo by Len Wood / Noozhawk)

Echoing Henry, Chanin speculated that the length of the uncut shoots allowed the clusters to grow less densely, creating more airflow between the clusters and less need for antifungal spray.

“Plants know how to take care of themselves” during a stressful growing season, Chanin said. “They’ve been growing like this (naturally) for tens of thousands of years.”

Henry and the other winemakers named their transport of King’s property as “Wild Vineyard” after a vineyard that beat all odds of survival.

“When you are a skilled farmer, you learn to keep the vines beautiful,” Henry said. “This (the king’s vineyard) is on the opposite extreme, when things aren’t pretty.

“Maybe we can lean a bit more that way,” and let the vines teach us, he added.

Coming in October: Keep our fingers crossed for fall rains and cover crops for 2022.

– Laurie Jervis tweets at @lauriejervis and reachable via [email protected]. The opinions expressed are his own.

A farm worker harvests Pinot Noir grapes early Friday in an abandoned field discovered by Will Henry, near his burgeoning vineyard. (Photo by Len Wood / Noozhawk)