The Bainbridge Island Winery
The Legacy of Gerard and Jo Ann Bentryn
“Uncommon Wines for Thoughtful Minds”
“The Food You Eat, and the Wine You Drink
Is the Landscape You Create.”
As I stepped into Gerard and Jo Ann’s house, Gerard called over his shoulder, “Don’t mind the mess. The house is an absolute disaster.” Having just visited another farm run by a woman with a serious hoarding problem, making the place look more like a junkyard than a home, I was prepared for the worst. However, as I entered Gerard’s domain, I was struck by how similar to a 19th century lord’s manor the decorative interior was. Gerard’s warning was clearly the overstatement of the decade.
The front entryway was floored with a polished slab of marble, inlaid with ammonite fossils. Various other fossils and geological specimens lined countertops in tasteful, if somewhat haphazard, arrangements. Antique guns, swords, and duck hunting decoys hung over the 10 foot towering bookshelf, lined with all manner of horticultural and botanical references. A flintlock pistol of Gerard’s own making was carefully displayed over the mantle. A full-sized replica of an early penny-farthing high wheel bicycle graced the living room, where wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling windows looked out upon a neighboring farm’s apricot orchard and corn field. Gerard later explained to me that he had fashioned the bicycle himself as a fully functioning, exact replica of the original models.
I was floored. This guy was the new Renaissance Man: organic farmer, vintner (winemaker), entrepreneur, pioneer of Puget Sound viticulture, fossil collector, and engineer all wrapped in one diminutive man. I imagined him to be a bundle of compact energy in his youth, balancing the physical demands of a growing vineyard and winemaking business with the idealism of the back-to-land movement that drove him and his wife, Jo Ann, to settle on Bainbridge Island.
30 years ago, Gerard and Jo Ann moved to the Seattle area from Germany, where they studied viticulture for many years. They brought with them cuttings of various northern latitude wine grapes that the couple had grown to love for their clean, floral notes and ability to ripen in cool maritime and alpine climates. Names like Müller-Thurgau, Siegerrebe, and Madeleine Angevine are now hallmark varietals of the Puget Sound AVA (American Viticultural Area) that began with the Bainbridge Island Vineyards.
But the past two years have been demanding for Gerard and Jo Ann. While a cool, wet La Niña wreaked havoc on Puget Sound vineyards, destroying grape crops with outbreaks of powdery mildew, Botrytis rot, and a failure to ripen for two consecutive years (2010-2011), Gerard and Jo Ann were simultaneously fighting battles against cancer. Although he now moves much more slowly along the paths of his vineyards, and a tone of cynicism towards the economy and industrial agriculture cuts across his dialogue, Gerard’s voice still echoes with a resolute adherence to the ideals of sustainable, local food that brought him to Bainbridge Island.
In this vein, Gerard and Jo Ann have made an unwavering, lifelong commitment to producing estate grown, non-irrigated wines as a true expression of the Puget Sound’s unique terroir. As one of their mottos boldly asserts, the Bentryns refer to their business as “Washington’s most authentic winery,” offering a not-so-subtle hint as to their sentiments regarding the sudden onslaught of garage wineries appearing in Seattle’s bedroom communities. According to Gerard, “95% of the work that goes into producing a quality wine happens out in the vineyard. All of these wealthy retirees who are buying grapes from huge vineyards east of the Cascades and then selling their wines under their own label are creating a disingenuous product.” Indeed, this is a feeling I have heard echoed strongly by many other estate-grown vintners.
As Washington State’s first certified Salmon Safe vineyard, Gerard deplores the manner in which Stewardship Partners has been certifying as “Salmon Safe” vineyards that regularly irrigate with water from the Columbia River and associated watersheds, putting their agricultural practices at odds with salmon conservation efforts. Meanwhile, Gerard’s outspoken criticism of local conservation organizations and other wineries and vineyards puts him at odds with many who believe that any and all efforts to conserve wildlife habitat and support Washington State farmers should be heralded, despite obvious shortcomings and challenges. Gerard’s political opinions even ruffle the feathers of many liberals in the area. For instance, he strongly opposes the use of undocumented workers in agriculture, as their employment drives down wages for small, self-employed farmers and those that hire U.S. citizens or legal migrants.
As the 2011 growing season winds to a close, the Bentryns have already sold the last bottles of wine from their tasting room, two full tanks of wine from 2009 are waiting in the winery to be bottled, and flocks of crows dive into the vineyards to pick the neglected grapes from the vines. In an email, Gerard confided to me his concern and aspirations for the future of his vineyards: “If this farm is to be saved it needs young, moral, and intellectual people.”
But amidst the crisis that the Bainbridge Island Vineyards & Winery appears to be facing, nobody can deny the perennial influence that Gerard and Jo Ann Bentryn have had upon the rapidly expanding community of organic vineyards and estate-grown wineries in the Puget Sound. As I visit the newly planted Alli-Lanphear Vineyards on neighboring Vashon Island, one of the farmers expresses the pivotal role that the Bentryns have played in inspiring and mentoring them with their own winegrowing venture. I see their young, neatly trellised grape vines thriving despite the poor weather, and hear them talk with enthusiasm and purpose about plans for next year’s harvest and fermentation. Somehow, whatever the fate of the Bainbridge Island Vineyards & Winery, I feel that the legacy of the Bentryns will live on, as much a part of the terroir of the Puget Sound as its unique climate and soils.
