Lopez Island Vineyards
We are a small, family-run, community-owned business, producing quality wines on Lopez Island. We use unique grape varieties, organically grown in our estate vineyards, as well as grapes grown by the Crawford Family Vineyard in Yakima Valley and End of the Road Vineyard in the Red Mountain AVA. We strive to maintain a sustainable use of our environment, our local economy, and our community.
2009 Harvest is In!
Dear Friends,Great News! We have found organic grapes in Eastern Washington and will now be producing 100% of our products from vineyards that are certified organic.
It’s an exciting time and we’d like to share with you observations on winemaking, selection of the grapes, and this year’s harvest. What follows is a review of our estate harvest and a narrative of Brent’s trip to pickup grapes in Eastern WA.
We hope you enjoy this report and are inspired by our new releases listed below. They’re a wonderful match for the special meals of the coming holiday season and make good gifts for friends and family. Have a great winter. We hope to see you soon.
Cheers, Brent Charnley and Maggie Nilan
HARVEST ON LOPEZ
Harvest has been in full swing at Lopez Island Vineyards, with tanks bubbling, sweet fruit and fermentation smells on the air, and late nights under lights processing the grapes for next year’s wines. Summer and fall have been good to us, with plenty of sun and dry weather, bringing a bounty we haven’t seen in a few years time.
Our vendage began with Siegerrebe on September 24th. For our farming efforts, we pulled in a good crop very nicely flavored juice. A small dedicated crew took two days to bring this one in, which has just finished its fermentation. Look for this wine in early spring.
We are still working on our Madeleine Angevine harvest. On October 3rd, a big picking party of friends and family picked 7.33 TONS. Nice fruit, great flavor, which I can tell you, are a huge relief to these anxious farmers. This wine is currently bubbling away in old oak barrels.
On Oct 8th we picked the remainder of this crop, harvesting for our Wave Crest White. We also picked enough botrytisized late harvest grapes to make 50 gallons of this unusual sweet nectar of a wine. These two wines will be released in late spring!
Any way you look at it, harvest in our estate vineyards was a huge success and we look forward to bringing these wines to you.
Cruising the Fields of Eastern Washington...a narrative
A sunny drive brought me to a very warm afternoon on the renowned Waluke slope, where after dropping off bins for the coming harvest, I walked the vineyard. Struggling vines with ripe fruit stretch away from me; the ends are not visible from my vantage. Quiet pervades the vast landscape, a stillness that reflects the slow ripening of the fruit, the coming energy of the winter.
Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon will hail from these vineyards. This area has a great reputation and is known for its red wines. Soils are sparse, mostly sand laid down by the Missoula floods that swept down the coulees of the Columbia. With careful deficit irrigation, the canopies are open and with the heat of this area, good things happen to the flavors of these grapes. Our source here is the old Doc Stewart vineyard, now organically farmed by the Gilbert Family.
Yesterday I looked at and sampled Malbec, Merlot and Chardonnay. Today I must get the Chardonnay and Malbec harvested, loaded and to the Lopez ferry. I am writing from the Rosa Berge Arrowsmith vineyard, farmed by organic grower Joe Cervantes. I listen to the pickers, as they cheerfully banter away with each other. The Taco Isabelle truck has just arrived! The workers stream from the vines, eager to replenish themselves. I join them, buying two tacos made with sliced beef, onion, lettuce, guacamole and a drink for only $3.50! These folks work hard and they are so unseen in our enjoyment of food and wine. I do get to see their work and thank them personally; I wish more people could see what it takes to get the wine to the bottle. Eighty percent of the work in wine is in the vineyard, as I know very well.
The morning air is clear and cool, the work easy amongst the sparse open canopy of these vines. It is a bit of a cliché to refer to struggling vines, but these vines set a definition for struggle. The statement is based in some fact, born out by generations of experience: Struggling vines have a more open, less vigorous canopy. A more open canopy allows more sunlight to directly shine on the developing fruit. Fruit that ripens in the sunshine has more intense fruit flavor.
This is our first harvest of Chardonnay from the Arrowsmith vineyard. I am feeling some trepidation in this change of farm, as there are a lot of unknowns for me. However, this vineyard is an old well documented vineyard, one I made wine from over 25 years ago, so I know it can do quality. The big attraction has been the organic certification that this vineyard now carries.
Harold Pleasant is the farmer of our Merlot. He farms his organic field, not far from Red Mountain, using very tight spacing on a vertical training system. After a trip to France, he decided to try this technique. His rows are closer together than any I have seen in the new world. Because the vines are so close, he has had to fabricate his own farm equipment to fit down these rows! His contraptions are ingenious! I can tell he likes to invent and weld things up, as his farm yard is full of homemade devices, where he has tried to improve on existing technology. The grapes this year look beautiful and the vines well balanced; not too vigorous or too much crop.
Well, I made the ferry that day, and now those wines are moving from tank to barrel. Some of these wines will be available in the next year; some will be two years in their aging. Meanwhile, we have some outstanding wines from the Crawford’s being bottled and released. Enjoy your winter and may it be filled with friends, family and good times. Brent Charnley, winemaker
Our Previous Year in Review
This economy is impacting our business as well, but we have had more difficulty from the weather in the last two years. Cool, late spring weather, with some untimely rain events, has impacted harvest from our Estate Vineyards. Low crop levels in 2007 and 2008 have left us without our most popular wines: Madeleine Angevine and Siegerrebe. Competition is fierce with our more familiar varieties (Chardonnay, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon), so we have to work hard to make up the sales represented by our crop losses. If these familiar varieties are your favorites these award-winning wines are are available currently. Two stand outs are our Malbec and Red Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon.
2009 Siegerrebe grapes are fed to the stemmer-crusher; first step in the winemaking of this great vintage.
Tasting Room Open Saturdays only through Dec 20th
Farmer's Markets In Seattle!
Seattleites, we are now bring our wines to several neighborhood farmer's markets. Get your wine direct from the farmers, or preorder and save on shipping! See our Orders page for more information.
New Releases Now Available:
Malbec—Careful Selection
Riesling—Dry and Traditional
Raspberry Wine- Sweet Taste of Summer
Wave Crest Ruby Blend—Great Match for Holiday Meals
Fall is here and soon frost will cover the ground.
Our Winery Gardens are available for your private event. Pictured here is our tent and tables set for a wedding reception. See our Events Page for more information.
Special Wines in Short Supply
Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot 2006—Our blend of Cabernet, Merlot & Malbec has now had over 12 months of bottle age. We are down to only 35 Cases remaining and this wine is tasting great! We urge you to order some for the holidays