The Qupe label
A California resident since childhood, Bob Lindquist named his winery “qupé” to honor the Chumash, the indigenous people of the Golden State’s Central Coast and Channel Islands. Since many of the sounds of the Chumash language have been obscured by time, Bob gave “qupe” its pronunciation (“kyoo-pay”), with an accent on the final syllable.
In Chumash, “qupé” refers to the poppy, a flowering plant traditionally used for food and medicine. In 1903 the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) was officially designated the state flower, and every spring masses of the bright orange blossoms still blanket local hills and back country.
Pictured on the winery’s label, a stylized poppy stands amid a swirl of stems studded with leaves and seed pods. The arresting image - originally intended as an embroidered motif for bed linens - was selected from designs associated with Gustav Stickley, the famed furniture maker and champion of the Arts and Crafts movement of the early 1900s.
Ann Johnson, one of Qupé's original shareholders, discovered the design in a book of clip art available for public use. She sent a copy of the art to Bob, who immediately recognized it as the perfect image for his wine label. The original design resembled a wine glass, but Bob tweaked it to look more like a poppy, in keeping with his intention to pay homage to the region’s earliest residents.
About Bob Lindquist
Born in the Midwestern U.S., Robert Neil "Bob" Lindquist moved to Southern California with his family in 1964 at the age of 11. The music scene was in full swing and as the Beatles, Beach Boys, Kinks, Byrds, and Rolling Stones electrified the airwaves, Bob's passion for rock-and-roll ignited. In fact, the Kinks would later figure as a plot device in Bob's path to becoming a winemaker.
Bob had caught baseball fever while living with his family in Germany and listening to the radio as the Pirates upset the mighty Yankees in the 1960 World Series. In 1965, during his first Southern California baseball season, the Los Angeles Dodgers won their third World Series since moving west. The event galvanized Bob into an instant, avid Dodger fan who often sports their logo wear
While attending U.C. Irvine in the early 1970s, Bob sipped quality wine for the first time and instantly was hooked. He began frequenting Hi-Time Cellars, a well-stocked wine shop in Costa Mesa, asking lots of vinicultural questions and buying all the wine he could afford.
In 1975, Bob moved his young family north to pursue a career in the wine business. His first job found him working harvest at Fortino Winery, near Gilroy. When harvest ended, he landed a position in the tasting room at the venerable San Martin Winery, a key player in the growing Central Coast wine industry. Bob's contagious enthusiasm and ever-expanding knowledge of wine soon earned him a promotion to assistant manager.
When an opportunity to manage San Martin Winery's new Ventura County tasting room came up in 1976, Bob seized it. While working there, he often drove north to explore the wineries of the Santa Ynez Valley. Bob frequented Firestone Vineyards, Santa Ynez Valley Winery, and Rancho Sisquoc Winery, admired the fruit of the famed Sanford and Benedict Vineyard, and decided his destiny lay in the wine country of Santa Barbara County.
On New Year's Day, 1979, Bob moved to the Santa Ynez Valley to manage an innovative wine shop in the little town of Los Olivos. The shop's proprietor was the son of Marshall Ream, who co-owned the nearby Zaca Mesa Winery. Through this connection, Bob became friends with Jim Clendenen, Zaca Mesa's assistant winemaker at the time.
Indulging his passion for rock-and-roll, Bob bought tickets to a late summer Kink's concert. After his boss abruptly fired Bob for attending the show, Jim Clendenen stepped in and got Bob a position as Zaca Mesa Winery's first tour guide.
Tourists were few and far between in 1979, so Bob spent most of his time in the cellar, learning to make wine under Jim's tutelage. Also on staff were winemaker Ken Brown and Adam Tolmach, who served as the winery's enologist, both of whom have gone on to win international acclaim for their winemaking skills.
While working at Zaca Mesa Winery, Bob began buying grapes and barrels, and foregoing a paycheck in exchange for use of the winery's equipment. In 1982, he founded Qupé and produced Chardonnay, Syrah and a dry rosé of Pinot Noir, for a total of 900 cases. Bob struck out on his own and left Zaca Mesa Winery following the 1983 harvest, renting space in other area wineries to make wine for Qupé.
As Qupé's production grew, Bob focused his efforts on Syrah and other Rhône varieties, but continued to craft ever-popular Chardonnay, which helped to pay the bills. In 1989, Bob joined
his old friend Jim Clendenen (who founded Au Bon Climat in 1982) to build a winery of their own under a lease agreement with Bien Nacido Vineyards. The two continue to produce their wines at the elegant facility, located on the Santa Maria Mesa.
Over the years, Bob and Jim have mentored dozens of winemakers, including Jim Adelman, Gary Burk, Frank Ostini and Grey Hartley, Paul Lato, Louisa Sawyer Lindquist, Morgan Clendenen, and Gavin Chanin. Proving that the wine business can be a true family affair, Bob's two older sons, Ethan and Luke Lindquist, have become winemakers, while his daughter, Paige, manages Qupé's tasting room and wine club. With his wife, Louisa Sawyer Lindquist, as winemaker, Bob has partnered in a second winery, Verdad, which specializes in Spanish varieties.
In 2002, Bob and Louisa purchased an 80-acre ranch in the Edna Valley near the city of San Luis Obispo. The following year they moved to San Luis Obispo with their then two-year-old son, Theo. In 2005, the couple installed the 40-acre Sawyer Lindquist Vineyard, which is planted to Pinot Noir, Marsanne, Syrah, Grenache, Tempranillo, and Albariño, and farmed according to strict biodynamic standards.
BIODYNAMICS
As Bob Lindquist and his wife, winemaker Louisa Sawyer Lindquist, prepared to plant the Sawyer Lindquist Vineyard (SLV) in 2005, they made a commitment to sustainable farming. Their good friend Steve Beckmen (Beckmen Vineyards) had been growing superior fruit at his Purisima Mountain Vineyard using biodynamics - a system devised in the 1920s that treats the vineyard as a self-contained, living organism. The couple was intrigued, despite the fact that so much about biodynamics seemed difficult to understand.
During the winter of 2004/2005, heavy rains delayed preparations for planting the vineyard and in May, Bob traveled to the United Kingdom on a pre-scheduled sales trip.
"Fate came into play," Bob remembers. "My agent picked me up and said, 'I hope you don't mind, but Andre Ostertag and Dominique Lafon are doing a seminar on biodynamics this afternoon. Would you like to attend with me?' I thought, 'This was meant to be!'"
The seminar was an eye-opener for Bob, who then shared dinner and several bottles of wine with Andre and Dominique. The two explained to Bob that the best way to implement biodynamic techniques was to start before the vineyard was planted.
The next day over lunch, Bob questioned Andre about biodynamics, including some of the more arcane aspects, such as making soil preparations by filling cow horns with combined ingredients and burying them underground for specified lengths of time. Andre, who offered logical and scientific explanations for all of the tenets of biodynamics, convinced Bob of their efficacy.
Upon returning home, Bob contacted Philippe Armenier, the French biodynamic consultant who works with Steve Beckmen. Armenier helped Bob and Louisa devise a plan for the new vineyard, and they were able to incorporate their initial biodynamic preparations into the soil before the vines were planted.
In 2008, the Sawyer Lindquist Vineyard yielded its first real crop and even on such young vines, the fruit showed extraordinary promise. A year later the vineyard earned certification as both Demeter Biodynamic and Stellar Organic, official recognitions that formalized Bob and Louisa's commitment to biodynamic farming.
