Bud Break in the Vineyard

I went to the Yakima Valley with my friend Joel McNelly to visit some of the vineyard owners. Joel is the owner of Capstone Cellars in Longview. Yes, Longview has its own winery! I met Joel last summer at a wine tasting and Los Lobos concert in Vancouver. We hit it off and Joel seemed to take an interest in my growing desire to make good wine. I owe it to my parents for introducing me to fine wine. I didn't drink any alcoholic beverages for 10 plus years in my adult life, but when my Mom and Dad would take Nancy and me out for dinner, they would order wine and we would try it. Whites at first, and then red, and I was off and running for what has been a learning experience with wine.
Joel has developed quite a relationship with some of the top growers in the Valley. Like they say, good vines make good wines. That is the first thing Joel taught me. if you want to make good wines, you ned to understand the vineyard. We met with Dick Boushey in Grandview and he showed us his new high-density vineyard. He explained to us that by planting the vines closer together, the vines have to compete for water and nutrients and this produces more concentrated flavors. They still keep the yeild down to about 3 tons per acre. I was impressed with his knowledge and willingnes to take time to show us about. We had lunch at the famous Snipes brew pub where we continued to talk about all the gossip in the Valley. Names were thrown out about whose who in the wine busines, it made my head spin!
We then went over to Zillah and saw Paul Portteus at his winery. Paul is an interesting guy. he lived on Vashon Island near Seattle and it sounds like he was a part of a Jesus commune or something like that. he had an interest in buying some land in California, but it was too expensive. He heard about some cheap land in Eastern Washington and how the wine industry was getting started. Paul moved with his family and the rest is history. Porttius makes some good wines and their Rattlesnake Red is moderately priced and very popular. Paul is very hot on the Valley and seemed surprised that anyone would want to make wine in Longview when you could just move over to Yakima and be where the action is. He also thought that Joel and I were too old to be getting into wine!! Thanks Paul. This made me mad because I don't believe you are ever to old to do something you care about. I guess Robert Mondavi shouldn't have started his own winery when he was 55 and later produce Opus One with the Rothchilds.
We headed home without hardly a goodbye to Paul, and Joel and I continued to dream about making the perfect 10. Two old farts who love the fruit of the vine.