Ferrington Vineyard

Owner:
Kurt Schoeneman
You don't have to be born a farmer to grow great grapes. Anderson Valley grape grower, Kurt Schoeneman, at age 59 is relatively new to the art of farming, but he brings to his work a tenacious insistence on being the best and a lifetime of building on opportunities.

As the new owner of Mendocino's famous Ferrington Vineyards (since 1997), with about 70 acres of rich valley floor planted to grapes, Schoeneman learned fast that smart farming is part study, part luck, and the only way to get grapes that make great wine. The previous owner, Ferrington himself, was a dermatologist from Santa Rosa, who planted a few suitcase clones brought in from Burgundy years ago and quickly caught the eye of Burt Williams.

"There's something about this place," Schoeneman says, standing hip-high in a riot of blossoms that fill the flowerbeds around his vineyard home. "Everything grows great here - it's always been that way."

Schoeneman, a builder from the East Bay, first took an interest in both wine and farming when his father would take the family to a summer cabin along the Russian River. "Each year, my father would buy a barrel of local wine and stick it in the cellar. He would tap off that barrel all summer. There was a carafe of wine on the table every day. When I was young I would get half wine, half water in my glass. I would work harvests at nearby farms, picking prunes with the braceros. It got into my blood."

Schoeneman says he spent 20 years looking for the perfect place to farm, all the while building apartment houses in and around Oakland. "Finally, my daughter said, 'Dad, just go DO it!', and at that moment, I was blessed to have found this place." It took nearly a year to negotiate the purchase of the Ferrington property, during which time Schoeneman took an intensive course of study in viticulture at UC Davis.

"The first thing I learned when I got there was that book learning meant nothing. Reading about pruning and actually pruning a vine are two completely different things." His second lesson, Schoeneman says, was "getting the very best fruit that could possibly be produced was going to cost more than I ever imagined."

Growing the best possible wine grapes is how Schoeneman describes his interest in farming. "I like to make things. I get the same satisfaction I get from building when I am able to grow great grapes. I take something and make it better, then make it better again. When I talk to other growers, we have something like that in common. They want to grow better grapes. They talk about it and they're thinking about it all the time. It's a personal commitment."

Schoeneman's personal commitment extends to driving his freshly harvested grapes to the winery and delivering them himself. "It is something I can do and it helps me understand what happens between the harvest and the bottle. I learn a lot watching Williams Selyem handle my grapes. They just take it to a higher level every step of the way."

Schoeneman grows five clones of Pinot Noir, comprising about 27 acres of his vineyard. He has planted the rest to Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Gewürztraminer and Riesling. "We are in just about the coolest growing region in the state," Schoeneman says. "Cabernet won't ripen here. Burgundy is cool, too, and that's why champagne grapes like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir do so well in both places."

"I have a little hillside that gets lots of sun, about three or four acres, where I'm trying out Merlot and a couple of other warmer varieties, but its too early to tell how they'll do. I know a lot of people talk about hillsides being better for grapes, but I'm not convinced that hillside vineyards are better. It's tough to farm on hillsides, but I'm trying it out. I want to produce the best fruit I can. That's my intention."

While pursuing his goal, Schoeneman still tends to his construction business, but spends more and more time at his vineyard/ranch. He has a thriving vegetable garden that grows much of the produce he uses in his kitchen. He has studied cooking and likes to entertain guests with food and wine from his land. He keeps sheep, chickens, and turkeys on the ranch. Both hospitality and wine seem to run in his family.

"After I made the commitment to come here," Schoeneman says, "I learned about my great-grandfather. He was a gunsmith who came to California via Reno and Virginia City in 1851. He had a gun shop on Kearney Street in San Francisco, then in the 1890s he moved to San Rafael. He bought a hotel and a four-acre vineyard, and he made wine that he served in the hotel. When I produce the absolute best fruit I think is possible, who knows, maybe I'll make wine, too."