With my new found time with my recent job layoff, I decided to reach out to a few people in the wine industry to see if I can learn more about vineyard management and learn about what it takes to make a bottle of wine. Wes Hagen and his wife, Chanda, of Clos Pepe Vineyards welcomed me with open arms. They put me up for a week in their intern trailer located at their vineyard in Santa Rita Hills.
Clos Pepe is known for distributing their grapes to such great labels as Ken Brown, Brewer Clifton, Ojai Vineyards, Siduri, Loring, and a few others. Wes also produces his own Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, a recently release of Sparkling Rose, and soon a Syrah. Clos Pepe's wines has received a lot of recognition within the industry. Wes Hagen has been quoted several times in various magazines talking about the Santa Barbara's wine industry. His passion in wine making truly shows in his personality and in his craft.
Day 1 - I arrived in Clos Pepe Vineyards in down pouring rain. This 40 acre vineyard was original purchased as a horse farm. With these 40 acres there is only a crew of 4 that helps maintain all the grape vines. With the rain pouring down, Miguel, Caesar, Oscar, and Felipe have already gone home for the day. I was first greeted by Chanda, who manages all the animals on the vineyard. Clos Pepe is an environmental friendly place. They raise sheep to help graze the vineyard, they rescue racing greyhounds, Indica and Oliver to help chase off rodents, they have an Australian Kelpy, Max that herds all the sheep, a border collie, Rosa to watch out for coyotes and other predatory animals, and a few owl boxes to help control the rodents. I was pretty impressed with their operation. Chanda does a phenomenal job in training her dogs!
My first day I spent most of my time at their winery packing boxes and preparing shipments out to people who purchased futures. I shipped boxes from anywhere from California to even Germany! Wes explained to me all the machinery that was in the winery and we also did a few barrel tastings of future releases of Clos Pepe wines....
Day 2 - The sun was finally out! This was my opportunity to work out at the vineyard with the crew. I was coached by Chanda on how to prune the vines. I learned there are several ways to prune. The 2 most common are spur pruning and cane pruning. Spur pruning is where you cut the branches and allow for future shoots to grow into vines from the branches. While Cane pruning is where you allow the shoots to spur off of the main bilateral branch. Of the two, spur pruning is an easier way to maintain the vines. Pruning is the most important part of the vine management because depending on how the vine is pruned it is directly related to the grape output of the vine. There has been extensive studies of canopy management of grape vines.
I spent most of my day job shadowing Miguel, Caesar, Felipe, and Oscar aka "the crew." They all have been with Clos Pepe for over 10 years! They are a bunch of hard workers who just works and loves sing out in the open fields with their radio blasting. They are an interesting group of guys. After work for a few hours my hands and my feet started to ache. My hands were not use to using shears and my ankles were not use to standing on uneven ground for so long. I didn't want to look like a wuss, so I mustard on for the day pruning. After my day was done...I was ready for a nice cold beer! It was quite the learning experiencing. During harvest I intend to go back to those same vines and harvest those grapes I helped produced!!!
Day 3 - More pruning! The day was colder, consistently raining, and windy! I thought to myself, this is what I signed up for and this is what I am going to do, even if it means catching a cold! So I ventured out with the crew! We were all a little quieter from the day before. The radio had run out of batteries so there was no music and mother nature was not being so nice. A little past noon, the crew chief, Oscar called it quits. He did not want any of us getting sick.
So I spent the rest of the day in my intern trailer reading about canopy management and the trellising systems that certain vineyards use. For example, Australian vintners and French vintners use different methods because of the differences in climates and the different style of wine they produce. Growing grapes is such a craft! There are so many variables you can do to produce grapes. Making wine is an art form. Wine is made based on the expresssion of the wine maker. For example, the wine maker might want to make a bolder wine, so they might have it soak longer, or more delicate so the wine is barrelled in neutral oak. I think you get the idea. Wine is generally created out of passio for the craft and art.
Day 4 - I spent the day with Wes doing a little competitor analysis. Yes...we went wine tasting!!! It was such an experience watching a wine expert in a tasting room. The way Wes can describe a wine is beyond what I have ever experienced. I was amazed how he can identify alcohol content, whether the vines were grown on the north side of the valley or south side of the valley. Whenever Wes starts talking about a wine he just tasted people within the tasting room woud just stare and wonder who this rock star wine guy is. I think he gets a lot of business that way. I was introduced to a lot of winemakers that day. I met Ken Brown of Ken Brown Winery, Steve Beckmen of Beckmen Vineyards, Norm Yost of the Flying Goat, and a few other industry people. All of these gentlemen had the same attitude and demeanor in life. Their life was truly about the vines!
Day 5 - The last day of my mini internship. Wes I spent more time doing competitor analysis. As we were going from vineyard to vineyard I thought to myself what a great experience this week has been. Chanda and Wes are really nice people. I admire their passion in the job. I think a lot of people in corporate America lack that passion. They may have drive but not passion. I've come to realize if you truly like what you do, with your work and your attitude shows it, you can really make an impact with others around you. I've worked for over 10 years in corporate America and I can sadly say, I have never seen that out of any of my managers. I am determined to find my next job and find ways to see if I can influence others by having my passion displayed by my new found attitude in life.
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