Thomas Campbell of Mission Mountain Winery, Dayton, Montana
Ξ September 5th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ A Day at a Time, Wine News, Winemakers, Wineries |
I have the great pleasure of introducing Thomas Campbell, founder and winemaker of Mission Mountain Winery located on the shore of Flathead Lake in Dayton, Montana.
Being from Big Sky Country myself, I have a native son’s interest in the gathering fortunes of this great state. I did not think, however, that wine production from vitus vinifera could be counted as one of its blessings. I was wrong. Its wine industry, though small, became the subject of a modest, earlier post here, a pleasure to write. Mission Mountain Winery was unavailable for comment at the time. I recently wrote again to the folks there. What follows is an excellent gloss, written by Mr. Campbell, on the 30 year history of the first Bonded Winery in the state.
Enjoy!
I was raised in Montana and knew that if I wanted to stay here I would have to create my own job, so I went to U C Davis school of Enology and Viticulture. When I got out I worked in the California wine industry in Sonoma, Monterey Valley, San Luis Obispo and Temecula. Next I went to Washington as a hired gun to set up wineries and plant vineyards. During this time period I simultaneously experimented with viticulture in Montana and started the Mission Mountain Winery. My professors at U C Davis knew of my intentions. Their thought at the time was that growing grapes in Washington was crazy as the climate was too cold, and to try viticulture using vinifera in Montana was sheer lunacy. Well me and my kindred pioneers in Washington state went on to develop the second largest wine industry in the USA producing many of the finest wines in the world from virtually any variety of vinifera we can get our hands on. I say we because I am still professionally and financially involved in the Washington wine industry. So what is the history of Montana viticulture? Some still say sheer lunacy.
Let me take you back through some of the thought processes that made me proceed with my experiment in growing vinifera in Montana. Climate is the largest factor in terroir. I grew up on the western slope of the Montana Rocky Mountains. The western slope is under the influence of the Pacific whereas the eastern slope is under the influence of the Arctic ocean where cold air masses can roll down the northern plains and bank up against the the mountain barrier. Our family has property on the west shore of Flathead Lake. Flathead lake is the largest natural fresh water lake west of the Mississippi and is about 30 miles long, 20 miles wide and 400 feet deep. 
The thermal mass of the lake provides 10 to 15 degrees F of protection against any Arctic air that spills down from the north or breaches the Rocky Mountains from the east. The Jesuits created a mission south of the lake in the mid 1800’s to proselytize the local indigenous Salish and Kootennai people. These tribes knew the moderating effects of the lake and this slope of the Rockies and took full advantage of it as an area to winter in.
The Jesuits brought in viticulture and enology to their mission to produce sacramental wine. The range of mountains behind the mission took on the name the Mission Mountains and the lake took on the Anglo name of the tribe, Flathead Lake. Viticulture and winemaking in particular (due to rampant alcoholism in the tribe) did not flourish. The short growing season was a major factor as well. Some commercial lambrusca vineyards were in existence up to prohibition in the Dixon area (a local known for its melon production) just west of the mission in St Ignatius. Many people within about a half mile of the lake grow all sorts of nut and fruit trees and grape vines to produce for their home use. There is a significant cherry industry and was at one time an apple industry as well. The agricultural experiment station was as abandoned in the 1980’s and their collection of hundreds of varieties of apples lost for ever.
I decided in the summer of 1979 to try a grand experiment on our family lake shore property where Dayton creek flows into Flathead Lake at the end of the Proctor Valley. I installed a solid set overhead irrigation and frost protection system on all 30 acres and planted an assortment of every variety of vinifera I could get from the nursery programs of Washington state. Most of our property proved too frost prone except for about 3 acres of southern slope. You can use overhead sprinklers for frost protection, but applying too much water during the ripening phase just dilutes the fruit and causes the ripening process to come to a stand still. Some varieties proved to be Flathead Lake winter-hardy like Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Lemberger, even Merlot (these never ripen) and a handful, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier, showed the ability to survive and ripen in our short growing season. I shared this hard won knowledge with others around the lake. (At this time there are half a dozen small vineyards around the lake growing vinifera, a couple being planted and a few being dreamed of.)
Up into the early 1990’s we buried the vines over winter as our only insurance against sub zero temperatures that occasionally breached the mountain barrier. The vines were cane pruned from a low ground level head and the canes were lain down so a berm of dirt could be thrown over them with a plow. All the vines are on their own rootstock which is an advantage in that if the exposed part of the vine is lost new growth can be produced by the roots, so only a year’s crop is lost.
The winter of 1989 was the coldest on record. There was no snow cover on the ground the day the freeze came. The temperatures were in the 50’s which is shirt sleeve weather for a true Montanan. In the course of one hour the temperature dropped to -20 F and fluctuated between -10 and -30 for over a week. The local cherry industry lost half the trees that winter, about 200 acres. We only lost a few vines.
Starting in the early 1990’s we abandoned burying the vines and have not seen a winter arctic system drop our temperatures more than a few degrees below 0. Most winterized vinifera can withstand up to -10 for short periods with almost no bud damage. Our growing season has become a bit longer over the years and our pruning and training experiments keep evolving. A good year is when the globe heats up and all the forests in Montana explode into flame. A hell of a price to pay for making great wine.
The current season was shortened by 3 to 4 weeks so we are preparing for more champagne-type ripening conditions of 19 to 20.5 brix. Yields are kept between 1 to 2 tons per acre, so grape growing here is an act of passion not of profit. The netting in the vineyards is going up. The deer fences are being checked and in some vineyards the electric wires are being charged to keep the bears out. New French oak barrels are scheduled to arrive as we curse the Euro; and the white sails of the sailboats billow in the gentle summer winds in Dayton harbor.
Come see us some time.
Cheers,
Tom Campbell / Mission Mountain Winery
Thomas, thank you for the great photos and informative essay.
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