Liz Formica and Will Ghek plant Ruchè canes at Warner Henry Vineyard near Santa Maria. In the background are Kali Kopley, left, Will Henry and Bonnie Pommerville. 
Kali Kopley, left, greets Lumen winemaker Lane Tanner as she arrived to help plant Ruchè red grape canes at Warner Henry Vineyard. 
Will Henry readies a water hose as he helps plant Ruchè red grape canes at Warner Henry Vineyard. Recently planted cover crops are growing between the trellises. 
Hilda Perez places a Ruchè red grape cane into a hole at the Warner Henry Vineyard. 
Rick Hill, husband of Lumen winemaker Lane Tanner, helps plant Ruchè red grape canes at Warner Henry Vineyard. 
Kali Kopley prepares to plant a Ruchè red grape cane at Warner Henry Vineyard. 
Hilda Perez places a Ruchè red grape cane into a hole at Warner Henry Vineyard. 
Workers at Warner Henry Vineyard plant Ruchè red grape canes. 
Will Henry and others plant Ruchè red grape canes. 
Workers plant Ruchè canes at the Warner Henry Vineyard. At center is Bonnie Pommerville (in black hat), manager of Pico Restaurant in Los Alamos. 
Cover crops sprout among young pinot noir vines at Warner Henry Vineyard.
[Noozhawk’s note: In February 2021, 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 ninth in a series about the life of a new vineyard by Noozhawk contributing writer Laurie Jervis and photographer Len Wood.]
Early in February, Will Henry and Kali Kopley invited wine industry friends and employees from their Los Alamos restaurant to plant a new grape varietal at Warner Henry Vineyard.
When the vineyard was first planted last May, Henry was short by about 1,000 young vines, or about seven rows across a half-acre, in the southern section of the vineyard, likely because the nursery ran low on the specific pinot noir clones he wanted to utilize.
Lumen Wines, the wine label co-owned by Henry and Lane Tanner, will have its first estate vineyard in Warner Henry, a five-acre vineyard on 11 acres that Henry and Kopley, his wife, purchased in 2018. The project has been years in the planning and was a dream of Henry’s late father, businessman Warner Henry, who died in 2020.
In a perfect world, a vineyard gets planted in one go — but our coronavirus pandemic-triggered supply chain issues continue to have a ripple effect: sometimes a particular rootstock simply isn’t available.
When I interviewed Henry for the November 2021 installment, he noted that viticulturist Randall Grahm, a “maverick, free thinker and a wealth of information,” had suggested filling that empty half-acre with something different.
Enter Ruchè.
This red grape varietal hails from the Piedmont region in northern Italy. Kopley described the resulting wines as lighter, “less intricate” and displaying more of an easy-drinking style.
Henry’s characterization was more direct: If the grape varietals Nebbiolo and pinot noir had sex, Ruchè would be the result, he said.
Their wine-world sales connections mean Kopley and Henry can make a few calls and a wine of their choice — Ruchè, in this case — arrives a few days later at their Pico at the Los Alamos General Store, at 458 Bell St. in Los Alamos. The couple said they sampled three bottles from different producers and fell in love with the grape.
On Feb. 8, the aforementioned group — mostly “people who work with us,” Kopley said — arrived to help the couple put 750 Ruchè rootstocks into the sandy soils at Warner Henry. Before planting started, she walked the group around the vineyard, sharing its history.
Kopley noted that the vineyard’s “second leaf,” or second fall season in the ground, will be this year, and by the site’s third leaf in 2023, she and Henry hope to produce at least a rosé from the pinot noir at Warner Henry.
Will Henry drove up in a truck, its bed filled to the brim with compost to be placed under each young vine in the holes that the crew would shortly dig.
The Ruchè, numbering 750 vines, would be sandwiched between pinot noir clones 828 and 23 in those seven rows that follow the line of the hill top to bottom along the south-facing slope.
Unlike in May, when a professional vineyard crew did the initial planting, this round would be Henry himself, plus a team of 10 that he divided into groups of three: One person to dig the holes, one to plant each vine, adding handfuls of compost, and a third to fill each hole back up with soil.
“While this is my first time planting a vineyard, I’ve planted lots of other things; let’s hope this isn’t a lot different,” he said with a grin.
One team member in particular grabbed a shovel and began digging holes, quickly outpacing the others and making his way down the hill.
If today was Henry’s first planting, it wasn’t the first for Rick Hill, husband of Henry’s Lumen winemaking partner Lane Tanner and a winemaker in his own right.
Among the labels he produces are Tantara, Labyrinth and Arrowsmith, the latter for Anna and Tim Arrowsmith, owners of Arrowsmith’s Wine Bar, at 1539-C Mission Drive in Solvang.
The morning was quite warm for early February, and Hill was already dripping sweat but clearly enjoying himself.
Coming in March: Pruning at Warner Henry and Wild King vineyards
— Laurie Jervis tweets at @lauriejervis and can be reached via winecountrywriter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are her own.