Agoura vineyard ready for first harvest

SWEET SNACK-Chloe Bilsland, 9, sneaks a grape to eat from her family's vineyard. The Bilslands, who have 13 acres in Lobo Canyon, are preparing to harvest their first crop this month. That harvest will produce three wines-Chloe syrah, Christopher cabernet and Colin merlot- named after the Bilsland children. When one thinks of California vineyards, those in Napa or Sonoma come to mind first. Very few people think of Southern California as a place where grapes are grown and wine is made.

Surprisingly, the local area is home to several vineyards, Mailbu especially. Rural Agoura even has a vineyard.

"We bought some property out here in Agoura that had 13 acres that we didn't know what to do with," said Karin Bilsland, whose family owns Slide Peak Vineyard in Agoura's Lobo Canyon area.

"And so we started asking around and looking around and noticed that there are a couple of big vineyards in the (Malibu) area. People said, 'Oh, the best thing to do is to grow grapes around here. It's a really great area. It mimics the coastline in Italy where they are very successful in growing grapes.' So we thought we'd give it a shot."

The Bilslands bought their Lobo Canyon land in 2002 and planted their vineyard the following year. They named the vineyard Slide Peak Vineyard after the peak behind their home. It looks like a large rockslide took place there, she said. The Bilslands will be harvesting their grapes in September.

"We're four years into this after planting the vineyard, and now it is time for the first harvest," Bilsland said. "The sugar content in the variety of grapes that we put in is such that we can make wine with them this year. So we're going to give it a shot for the first time." Creating a vineyard has nobeen an easy process, according to Bilsland.

"We enjoy wine, and my husband's family is from Spain and they grew grapes many generations ago in Spain, but as far as first hand experience, we pretty much knew just about as much as anybody about making wine."

Bilsland said she and her husband spent some time at Saddlerock and Rosenthal vineyards in Malibu learning the process of creating a vineyard. Through those vineyards, the Bilslands have found consultants who come to their property on a regular basis to examine the growth of the grapevines.

"My husband is in the construction business, and he does a lot of work up in Santa Barbara," Bilsland said. "He knew of somebody there who knew somebody else who lives in Napa, and so that's how we started talking to some of the vineyards in Napa before we purchased grapes. We found out where to find good vines to purchase."

The vineyard has turned into a fulltime job for Bilsland, her husband and even their three children. It's a lot of work, she said. Planting grapevines on a hillside was a challenge, and keeping out pests continues to be. It's difficult, having to learn so much about making a vineyard so fast, she said. The "hobby" is also costly.

"The vines themselves are probably $35 to $40 each, and we have 700 of them," Bilsland said. "You have to spend the money to get the quality. Those vines are from a region in France. They're not just vines that you can go buy at the Home Depot."

The Bilslands won't make their wine on site. They'll send their grapes to Daumé Winery in Camarillo.

"Pretty much everybody in this area uses the same winemaker," Bilsland said. "We will ship our grapes off to a winemaker in Camarillo and he will return us our wine bottles and we will put our label on it."

The Bilslands will make cabernet sauvignon, merlot and syrah red wines.

"The wines are named after our kids," Bilsland said. "We have a Chloe syrah, a Christopher cabernet and a Colin merlot."

The Bilslands won't sell their wine. At least, they won't sell it yet. They first plan to enjoy it with family and friends, and will bring it to various wine shows for people to try.

"We found that it's a little tricky to actually sell wine," Bilsland said. "You have to have a liquor license." Liquor licenses, according to Bilsland, cost at least $10,000.

Bilsland said she has no regrets about her family's vineyard venture. She loves her vineyard. But she looks forward to future years when the learning curve will make the process of growing grapes much easier.

"We got really lucky with our land," Bilsland said. "We bought this property from a family who really didn't know what they had. They come by every once in a while and say, 'Oh my God, if we would've thought to do this, we would've done it . . .'"

She said, "we're notified by a realtor in the area all the time that he's got buyers lining up waiting to buy our property because they want to be able to have their own vineyard and grow their own grapes and make their own wine."