Vineyard History
While the concept and dream of Lopez Island Vineyards began much earlier (see Our Winemaker for more details), it was in 1985, with the results of the grape trials I was growing on Lopez Island, and my experience with making Madeleine Angevine and Siegerrebe wines, I decided to make the move to plant my own vineyard. I had been growing a nursery of vines at my home while working as winemaker in Whatcom County, Washington in anticipation of beginning my own venture. It was through a relationship to friends on Lopez Island that the idea of a lease came up as a way to start a winemaking operation; we had little money to begin such a capital-intensive venture. With help from friends and my wife Maggie Nilan, we planted 3 acres in 1987. Our “boot-strapping” included using plants we had rooted and grown ourselves and we collected cedar posts and stakes off of the beaches. The only purchase we made was a small John Deere tractor and implements.
Our vineyard site was selected partly through research and the good luck of geography and climate. I had selected the island as a vineyard site in part because it has ideal soils, in that they are sparse and rocky, helping to reduce vine vigor and improve the fruit quality. This location has a wonderful southwest exposure and slope, which gives this site the advantage of good air and water drainage. Additionally, the climate, while much cooler than traditional hot climates, had a long frost free and low rainfall growing season, this being due to the location of the Lopez Island being in the heart of the Olympic Mountains’ rain shadow. All of these factors together are what makes Lopez an appropriate climate for early ripening wine varieties from Europe. As a bonus, these fields had been farmed without pesticides since they were first cleared over a hundred years ago, making this a good choice for an organic vineyard.
As we looked ahead to our first harvest of grapes in 1990, we began to plan on how we would build and equip a winery. We decided to turn to our community: we ran a small stock offering through the Washington State Securities Dept, and raised the money to begin our operations through the investment of our community members. We built, in 1992 (after 2 years in temporary facilities), a 1300 square foot winery using stones and timbers from the island. With our community of islanders, we now own 30 acres of farmland, that is operated using organic standards and certification. Since 1987, we have expanded our vineyard to 6 acres, we continue to experiment with new varieties of grapes that show promise for Lopez, we consistently win awards on our wines (particularly our estate grown grapes) and we have established our vineyard as one of only four certified organic vineyards in the State.
Our connection to our community is part of who Lopez Island Vineyards is: not only are we partially community owned, but our harvest each year is accomplished by a strong turn-out of community members who come to harvest grapes for a few mornings each fall. Having now raised our family, built our own home and now having a thriving, small scale vineyard and winery, we look outward to other passions in life. We look to ways to lower our impact on the environment in the way we run our winery, our home and our lives. We find that learning and growing and experimenting gives us challenges that make our lives more interesting. We always try to carry the hope of the future in everything we do.
