About Us

Our vineyards and winery are located in the mountains midway between Lassen Volcanic National Park and Redding, California, nestled in majestic pine forests.

In the spring of 1982 we planted our first vineyards, and currently have 42 acres in production. The majority of the grapes we grow are sold to an acclaimed premium winery in Mendocino County.

Lassen Peak Winery is truly a small scale family operation with everyone working especially hard in the harvest and crush season. Our 18 year old runs tractors, our 12 year old runs water to our harvest crew, and my wife and I do what I call "running interference", basically trying to keep everything and everyone running smoothly, happily, and keeping everyone and everything in motion.   

Harvest and crush season are especially frantic here, with vineyard and winery operations both demanding the most time of the whole year all at once. Picking decisions are made last minute on a daily basis, which vineyard block is ripe, is the winery ready for the grapes, and can we get the harvest crew on site. Craziness. All things must come together to produce the highest quality. The harvest day begins well before daylight, and crushing and winery functions go well into the night.

The idealized vision most wine lovers attribute to harvest, and their dreams of one day working in one are best left as an idealized, unrealized vision. The business is far sexier from a distance than up close.

The Land

Locally known as a "banana belt", the Inwood area of Shingletown  is a beautiful agricultural community set in a small mountain valley that winds it way northeast from California State Highway 44, about 25 miles east of, and 2000’ in elevation higher than Redding. The area is home to a growing number of vineyards, but it still basically serene cattle and timber country, as well as a bedroom community for Redding.

Inwood is said to be "above the heat and below the snow". As to our reckoning, neither is wholly accurate. If it didn't get hot, we couldn't ripen winegrapes, but it is far cooler than the Redding area, only a 30 minute drive away. We get regular snowfalls, but typically just the right amount, you wake to a lovely 2 or 3 inches of snow which usually cooperates by melting on its own, without having to use a shovel or a plow. A 30 minute drive east gets you an average yearly snowfall of about 15 feet. We have though, had snow as late in the spring as June 15th, and as early in the fall as mid-October before harvest, not the most fortunate of scenarios.

On a historical note, the area's first white settlers came in the 1850's and set up ranches and farms to supply the needs of the areas mining and timber camps. It is told that the Inwood population was greater in 1860 than it is today.

Our first Chardonnay vineyard is on the site of an untended apple orchard planted during prohibition when the vineyards that were originally there became uneconomic and were pulled out. Wild "Mission" grapevines still cling to and vine in the pines, cedars, and oaks surrounding this vineyard, some 60 to 80 feet up in the tree canopy. A future project (on a very long list) is to take cuttings, plant a small test plot, and make some wines from this near native varietal.

The Soils

Geologically recent volcanic action has produced the soils and shaped the landscape of the lower Cascade Mountain Range of which we are a part. Mount Lassen is the southernmost of the Cascade Volcanoes, and last erupted starting in 1914, with that activity lasting for a few years. The western slopes of the mountain, of which we are a part, are marked with volcanic ridges, lava flows, and cinder cones.

Our soils are a deep volcanic red, shallow, unproductive, and very rocky, which is considered one of the best soil environments for growing winegrapes. These steep hillside vineyard soils are underlain by a curiously deep layer of a gray impervious material somewhat like gunite or a low density concrete. It turns out to be what is called a pyroclastic flow, which happens when volcanic eruptions of extreme magnitude produce superheated quantities of ash, which then combine with a certain amount of water to become a superheated mass of material the consistency of wet concrete. This moving mass bulldozes the landscape, combining trees, rocks, and the soils it comes in contact with and then eventually settling, cooling, and solidifying. Our topsoil has formed over this material and is 1 to 6 feet in depth.

The Vineyards

Our first grapevines were planted on this property in 1982. These consisted of a number of varieties as a test of the site, its microclimate, and their effect on the resultant grapes and wines. As these vines matured, it was clear the area had the capability of producing fine winegrapes, and was especially suited to varieties well accustomed to cooler climates. Our planting decisions were made from this experimental block, we first planted our commercial sized vineyards in Chardonnay and Merlot. 

Some heat loving varietals, such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel, struggle to be able to fully ripen to maturity due to our cooler mountain climate, cold nights, and relatively short growing seasons. They are consistently the last varieties we pick each year, and although they come to full ripeness here stubbornly, through advanced viticultural practices of controlling trellising, water, and limiting yields, the wines are wonderful. We have also planted them on our warmest and southernmost facing sites, to optimize the heat and longer season they prefer.

Trellising is an important tool to the grape grower, allowing you to alter the microclimate the grapes grow in. Here, we primarily use what is called a VSP system, or vertical shoot positioning system. This is a fairly new design that allows a free airflow and more sunlight to the grape bunches themselves. Instead of growing up and falling over themselves, the new shoots are trained upwards, held in place by wires, capturing more sunlight, and allowing a free flow of air. This not only improves grape and wine quality, but cuts down disease pressure so that less fungus control is necessary. 

We will soon be announcing construction plans for our new Winery building and crush area. This is a venture we have needed for some time, and will soon be undertaking.

A tasting room is in the plans, and in fact is under construction and should be in operation summer 2007.