Leaf Pulling and Love Amongst the Lopez Island Vineyards

September, 2009

My last month on the island promises to be good. I have just moved to a gipsy caravan a stone’s throw away from the vineyard. This makeshift home, not quite a caravan but unlike anything else I have ever seen, is rented by a beautiful English horticulturist who tends the gardens of the rich. She also grows her own vegetables in a tiny plot, and I have already had a chance to sample her delicious rocket, lettuces of various kinds, and radishes. 

The nearest beach is fifteen minutes away on foot, walking on empty roads for the first part, then through woods, before arriving at a deserted stretch of sand and pebbles, with plenty of logs strewn about, providing ideal resting places for solace and contemplation. The water is generally too cold, but we are in the middle of a heat wave, so it is extremely pleasant to discard footwear and dip one’s toes into the ocean. There are virtually no sounds, apart from the occasional whirr of a small aeroplane, seagulls flying overhead, and the more constant accompaniment of wavelets lapping against the shore. Although it is five fifteen in the afternoon, the sun is still high in the sky, and there is so much light that it feels more like siesta time. 

The vineyard work is over for the time being, a lull in the otherwise busy summer schedule. Leaf pulling has been completed (allowing more sunlight on the grapes), and we are approaching veraison (when the grapes start colouring). Weeding continues, of course, but other than that we have been enjoying some very welcome rest. With the crew sent home, the owners and their grown-up children are preparing the formal garden for a wedding this coming Saturday.

Both the ceremony and the party will take place at the winery, so the tasting rooms will be only partially open to the public. A few weeks ago I observed how Cedar – one of Brent’s older children - created an almost natural boundary between the garden and the patio by putting bits of driftwood together and making a wooden gate. When I asked him how he’d done it he modestly replied that he was simply putting carpentry skills learned at school to good use! 

I attended a garden wedding in California a couple of years ago, in one of Sonoma’s great properties. It was a perfect evening, with a small party and a very unorthodox ceremony, led by a woman. An absolute delight. I expect Saturday at Lopez Vineyards to be similar, as the setting really lends itself to happy occasions, and the quality of the wines should ensure contentment all round. 

As I watered the baby vines yesterday evening in anticipation of a punishingly hot weekend, I reflected on how totally blissed out I had been feeling- a combination of tremendous fatigue but also the satisfaction of a job finally accomplished. The rows of Madeleine and Siegerrebe looked near perfect. I was alone in the vineyard watering tiny plants by hand, and, despite the heat there was a fantastic sense of elation. The week was coming to an end and I could take some time off, but seeing the vines tucked in, the weedless rows, the wires in place, there was a great balance to it all. 

I walked towards the shack, and, as I reached the first gate, was treated to the sudden flight of twenty-odd yellow warblers, a dash of gold in the cloudless evening sky. I couldn’t stop looking at the vines all the way home. 

Lopez Island is one of the San Juan Islands in Washington State. 

Vineyard Website: www.lopezislandvineyards.com