Pacific Ridge Vineyards

Vineyard on Los Angeles TV

November 12, 2009

Here's a bit of the front page story in the Ventura County Star, and a link to the Channel 9 TV news report from the new vineyard: 

The Westlake Village Inn is having a contest to name its newly planted vineyard, which can be seen at Agoura and Lakeview Canyon roads.  This month, Bob Kelly of Pacific Ridge Vineyards was asked by the hotel's owner John Notter to plant a vineyard of 550 syrah, cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon plants that could start producing wine-worthy grapes by the 2012 harvest. 

The vineyard, which occupies a little over an acre, includes about a dozen newly planted, 30-year-old manzanilla olive trees and the outlines for pathways that will be covered in decomposed granite, the better to allow rainwater to filter back into the ground.

Still to come is a 7-foot tall water fountain of hand-carved stone that will be installed where the garden meets the street corner.

The pathways and recirculating water fountain should be in place by Thanksgiving, said Chris Cuilty, the inn’s chief financial officer. An avid home gardener, Cuilty was on hand early Saturday morning to help plant the grapevines.

Notter hopes that the garden one day will include a modest stonehouse bakery and coffee house, but said he has not yet approached the city about obtaining permits for such a project.

The inn was built in 1968 and purchased by Notter, now its sole owner, in 1975. It has undergone numerous updates since then, including the 2007 remodel of the on-site restaurant, Le Café Bistro & Wine Bar, into what is now known as Mediterraneo.

The restaurant’s chef, Alberto Vazquez, keeps a kitchen garden planted with herbs and late-season corn and tomatoes between Mediterraneo’s stand-alone building and the inn’s tennis courts. The new vineyard is just a driveway away from the restaurant.

He left the selection of which grape varietals to plant to Bob Kelly, owner and founder of Pacific Ridge Vineyards. Kelly makes his own wines at Terravant, a custom crush facility and tasting room in Buellton; the inn’s grapes could end up there, too, Cuilty said.

Some believe that the inn’s vineyard may be the first of its kind in Westlake Village. Notter isn’t quite ready to make that claim, but he is willing to call it another sign of his interest in making the inn both friendly to the environment and more economical to operate.

What the vineyard doesn’t have is a name. So the inn is organizing a naming contest, with entries accepted from Sunday through Dec. 31. The winner will be announced Jan. 14 — Notter’s birthday — during a combination ribbon-cutting, sign-unveiling and wine-tasting party in the vineyard, said Amy Commans, the inn’s general manager.

Here's the link to the TV video if you would like to see some pics of the baby plants:   Channel 9 News