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Rick [center] with brothers Mike & Pete inspect those first vines August 1999

Lewis Vineyard… who, what, where, when, and why [condensed version… for now].

Lewis, being a common sort of name confuses some as to who we are, where we are, etc., etc. Enlightenment follows…

This small (2 and a half acres or one hectare as they say on the continent) vineyard is the product of the blood, sweat and tears of me, Rick Lewis. We, Pam and I, bought a six acre piece of land just south of the town of Windsor in 1996. A run down house, falling down barn and two very old sheep. Starr Creek cut through the property. As this was in the epicenter of the Russian River Appellation, known for it’s Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and that we now had some prime “bottom land”, the thought came to mind to plant it and see what happened next.

Now, I have a bonified degree in Forestry and had been in the lumber business most of my years. The lumber industry had evaporated in most areas in the west for reasons I will not go into as some will take offense to my views. So… trees and grapes are both woody plants, right? And I took lots of botany classes in college, right? So planting a vineyard was the right thing to do.

So I bought a used tractor and assaulted the land in 1998, laid out and planted the Pommard clone Pinot Noir vines in ’99. The first meager harvest would be in ’01. As of last harvest we are still at about 2 ˝ tons per acre as lots of developing fruit must be removed to insure the quality of that which makes it to harvest.

Years before this, my wife, Pam, who has been designing wine labels for twenty-some years, had designed a label for a start-up winery dedicated to Pinot called Siduri Winery. Adam and Dianna Lee were interested in our vineyard and bought the first harvest. Beginning with the 2004 harvest, Lewis Vineyard is a “vineyard designate” of theirs and sold under such a label.

Siduri will release the ’04 Lewis Vineyard Pinot Noir this November. Adam and Dianna are master craftsmen of world class Pinot's... and I could go on and on with other reasons to why it's so damn good, but you really should try it first.

So, I guess I’ve covered the who-what-where-when and why. Try the wine. Come by and see the vineyard. I’ll put you to work!

Rick Lewis, June 23, 2005

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