Lopez Island Vineyard & Winery

A short 10-minute drive from the ferry dock takes you to the small stone-and-timber winery that is Lopez Island Vineyards. The grapes in the vineyards are cool-weather grapes suitable for the Puget Sound viticultural area and include Madeleine Angevine and siegerrebe. These grapes go into Lopez Island’s estate white wines. For better-known wines such as merlot and cabernet sauvignon, winemaker Brent Charnley uses grapes from the renowned Crawford Family Vineyards in the lower Yakima Valley. In addition, Lopez Island Vineyards makes fruit wine using berries and stone fruit from nearby organic farms. The winery rotates its fruit wines; one year it might be raspberry wine, the next year, wild Himalayan blackberry wine.

This winery is first and foremost about using organic farming techniques and natural winemaking practices to produce food (i.e., wine) that is “clean and healthy.” This has been its focus since the beginning back in 1986. The goal, in part, is sustainability, which it defines on its website to be “capable of being maintained indefinitely; capable of meeting the environmental, economic and social needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”

When on Lopez Island, do as the Lopez Islanders do: Slow down and enjoy these wines. It is no surprise that just outside the winery are a number of Adirondack chairs begging you to sit down and relax. Wound-up city dwellers need to take in the moment and breath slowly; really taste the wine, notice the vineyard’s canopy growing skyward, hear the birds, and notice how the sunlight plays on the glass window. Heck, the ferry won’t depart for another four hours. Just chill and enjoy.

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  Lopez Island Vineyard & Winery was featured in WineTrails of Washington as part of the San Juan County WineTrail on page 44!