A young vine sprouts tiny grapes and leaves inside a protective tube. The foot-tall plant is part of Will Henry’s new Warner Henry Vineyard near Orcutt. 
Will Henry is looking forward to replacing a generator that powers his well, left, with a larger electrical line that will be installed soon. 
A buzzard watches for ground squirrels at Will Henry’s Lumen vineyard. In the background are trellises and tubes to protect the young vines inside. 
Lalo, the Henrys’ family dog, patrols the vineyard looking for ground squirrels and other pests. Plastic tubes that surround and protect the young grape vines are supported on trellises. 
A hole is left by a ground squirrel that burrowed under new grape vines planted at Will Henry’s new vineyard near Orcutt. Pests are a big concern as the plants get established in the organic vineyard.
[Noozhawk’s note: In early February, 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 fourth in a series about the life of a new vineyard by Noozhawk contributing writer Laurie Jervis and photographer Len Wood.]
On Thursday, June 17, I joined Will Henry around a table in his front yard, which overlooks the northern section of Warner Henry Vineyard. Vine rows stretched away from our hilltop vantage point toward East Clark Avenue east of Orcutt.
Earlier that week, daily temperatures had inched into triple digits, and at nearly noon, this day was already warm with a light breeze.
“The vines are liking the heat after having such a cold spring to date,” Henry said.
Lumen Wines, the wine label co-owned by Will Henry and Lane Tanner, will have its first estate vineyard in Warner Henry, a five-acre vineyard on 11 acres that Henry and his wife, Kali Kopley, 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 August 2020 at age 82. Henry and Kopley named their vineyard Warner Henry to honor his legacy.
As of today, the vines were exactly one month in the ground, and their rate of growth varied by vine source.
“The grafted vines (on American rootstock) are growing very well, but the cuttings — pieces of mature vines (or bud wood) — are not doing as well,” Henry explained.
But it’s just one month into the life of Warner Henry Vineyard, and Henry isn’t worried. In fact, in his free time, he’s happy to sit and watch the plants grow.
“It’s funny — there was so much planning involved in the infrastructure and getting the vines into the ground,” he said. “Now, it’s just watering!”
Ah, water — the source of life for newly planted vines. All young plants require consistent irrigation, be it water from a garden hose or watering can, or drip emitters from an irrigation line clipped to trellis wire.
Surface water seeps into soil to keep it moist and nourish plants via their roots. An “even rate” of irrigation is ideal for the grape vines, Henry said.
The well at Warner Henry has not been without a few issues, all of them linked to it having sat idle for nearly two years: “We got a lot of sandy water and sediment at the start.”
In preparation for the May planting, the crew that installed the pump to the well spent nearly three weeks repeatedly cleaning its filter, struggling to flush the lines and keep the water free of sand, Henry recalled.
Finally, the workers dug “a big hole” about 100 feet south of the well and for several hours pumped water through a big hose into the hole until it eventually ran clear.
One problem down, one to go — the electricity that powers the Henry-Kopley residence is not sufficient to also consistently power the pump.
Both single phase (residential) and three-phase power transport via pressure (force) and flow (speed). In the United States, the standard single-phase voltage is 120 v.
There’s no need for a deep dive into voltage and delivery; suffice to say that commercial operations and large pieces of equipment, such as pumps that drive wells, require three-phase power.
Henry and his electrician have contacted Pacific Gas & Electric about Warner Henry Vineyard’s need for what likely will be a new power pole, possibly located near the existing one along the driveway, he said.
“But pandemic or no, PG&E is slow to respond,” he added.
In the interim, Henry rented a generator to power the pump at a steady rate until three-phase power becomes a reality.
The generator is diesel powered, making it more efficient than one fueled by gasoline, he said.
Since the generator has been in place, “we’ve used 250 gallons of diesel,” Henry noted.
Generators similar to the one he rented have a tank capacity of between 75 and 400 gallons.
Henry is using red, or “rebated” diesel, which costs less than white, or “road” diesel, because of a lower fuel tax duty required. Red diesel is specifically designed for agricultural vehicles and machinery, he said.
In the weeks before his family vacation, bottling and then harvest, Henry has spent some time learning from other grape growers, among them Louis Lucas, co-founder/owner of Lucas & Lewellen Vineyards.
“He is a wealth of information,” having planted some of Santa Barbara County’s first grape vines, back in the early 1970s, Henry said.
Another source of information has been James Ontiveros, whose family vineyard, Rancho de Ontiveros, is located a few miles east of Warner Henry. Ontiveros has decades of vineyard and winemaking experience, both in Santa Barbara County and Northern California. He currently produces pinot noir and chardonnay under the Native 9 and Rancho Viñedo labels.
“He praised me for having utilized the vine/row spacing that I did, because higher density plantings are harder to farm by hand,” Henry noted. Warner Henry is planted eight by three, or eight feet between rows and three feet between vines.
Organic farming dictates that no herbicides be used; all weeding must therefore be done either by hand or using a tool called a clemens, which weeds under and between the vines.
“Farming organically means using more labor instead of using sprays,” he said.
Henry voiced interest in using a portable chicken coop to keep his chickens in the vineyard, since chickens eat ants. The latter carry mealy bugs — major vineyard pests that damage grapes.
“With an organic vineyard, the first few years are easy because there are no (viable) grapes, which is what the mealy bugs go for,” he said.
Coming in August: Calm before the harvest storm
— Laurie Jervis is a Noozhawk columnist. She tweets at @lauriejervis and can be reached via winecountrywriter@gmail.com. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are her own.