Shop Lumen Wines from Wild King Vineyard:
⇒ Coming in 2023 (join the club to ensure availability)
WILD KING VINEYARD
Wild King Vineyard lies immediately to the east of Solomon Hills Vineyard and to the west of The Warner Henry Vineyard and Presqu’ile Vineyard, and is the first producing estate vineyard of Lumen. The vineyard was planted by Doug King in 2007, entirely to Pinot Noir. The soils are sand which runs very deep, consisting mostly of the ‘Marina Formation,’ which is a reddish sand that was once a beachside sand dune. During the growing season, mornings are generally foggy and cold, followed by breezy afternoons that keep temperatures down and serve to air-dry the fruit.
Will Henry began harvesting fruit from the Wild King in 2021, when he discovered that the vines were left untended for an entire year – no pruning, no spray, no water – no farming at all. The fruit, defying all logic, was some of the best that Lumen has ever seen. We made two wines from the Wild King that year: Pinot Noir Wild King Vineyard, and The Mad King. The former will be released in 2023, and the latter in 2024. The vineyard became ours later that year, and will be a main fruit source for us going forward. The farming is zero-intervention organic, and dry-farmed.
WARNER HENRY VINEYARD
The Warner Henry Vineyard was planted in 2021, and was named after Will’s late father, the wine-industry legend who founded The Henry Wine Group in the 1980’s. This five-acre, hilltop vineyard site lies directly between Presqu’ile Vineyard and Lumen’s Wild King Vineyard. The soils are deep sand, consisting of both the Marina Formation and Arnold Formation. The climate is very cool, with cold, foggy mornings and windy afternoons. The farming is organic.
The vineyard was planted almost entirely to Pinot Noir, consisting of the following clones: 667, 115, Mt Eden, 23 and 828. More than half of the vineyard is own-rooted. In 2022, Will planted about an acre of Ruché, after a visit from old friend Randall Grahm, who suggested the future success of the varietal. Randall told Will, “Ruché tastes as though Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo had sex,” and a few months later, the vines went into the ground. To get on the list to purchase wines from The Warner Henry Vineyard, Join the Lumen Wine Club. (photo by Len Wood)
Shop Lumen Wines from The Warner Henry Vineyard:
⇒ Coming in 2023 (join the club to ensure availability)