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Fall-Winter 2001 Newsletter
General Winery News Special Report Harvest Report Phelps Preferred Awards and Reviews Personnel Corner |
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Above Left: Manuel Montes (right) with his brother Bulmaro.
Above Right: Manuel with copper wire in the shape of a V. As he walks, when the V moves toward his chest it indicates an underground stream. Manuel Montes,18 year veteran of Joseph
Manual Montes walked an unexpected path to get to the Napa Valley and his life took an even stranger turn once he arrived.
At the age of 18, he was a freshman at the University of Mexico, intending to major in mechanical engineering. One day on his way to school, while riding a crowded Mexico City bus and hanging on to an outside strap, he fell off and hit his head on the pavement. The injury was critical, and resulted in intensive medical treatment for the next two years, during which time he had to drop out of school. Manuel suffered from dizzy spells for a long time. He couldn't work. The doctors told him to stay away from noise, and not to read or watch TV. But he could walk, and he did so, averaging five to ten miles a day. By the end of the second year he had started to heal, and decided to come to the Napa Valley where his father and brother were living. He arrived in April of 1961 at the age of 21, and began working in the vineyards. A year later he moved to Mee Lane outside of St. Helena and met Elwood Mee, a local grapegrower who had achieved a good deal of notoriety as a water witcher. Elwood stood 6'5" or more, a powerful man with a forceful personality and strong opinions. Over the years, as he shrugged off disbelievers and identified hundreds of underground springs through dowsing, he became something of a local legend. He charged for his services -- both by the hour and by gallons-per-minute once the wells were drilled, and donated the funds to the U.C. Davis Department of Viticulture. But as he got older he slowed down, and for the last eight years of his life, when he was in his 70's, Elwood was having Manuel do all the water witching, or dowsing, for him. By 1976 Manuel was foreman of a budding crew in the Napa Valley. His younger brother, Bulmaro Montes, was working at the three-year-old Joseph Phelps Vineyards at the time, and invited Manuel to come and help with a vineyard that needed rebudding. In 1983 Manuel came to work at Phelps full time. When asked to look back and evaluate his most important accomplishments, Manuel answers, "First, my family, and secondly, my career at Joseph Phelps Vineyards. I'm proud to have contributed to the success of a company whose product is recognized worldwide." Bulmaro, who is now General Manager of all JPV's vineyard operations, speaks with great affection about his brother. "Manuel is my right hand. He was the person who got me involved in this business, who taught me the basics of viticulture. He makes my job much easier and has played a key role in JPV's success. I couldn't have come as far as I have without him." Since working for Phelps, Manuel has repeatedly dowsed for water with an astounding success rate. Wells have been drilled at Phelps's Barboza and Backus Vineyards in Oakville, Las Rocas Vineyard in Stag's Leap, Los Carneros Negros Vineyard in Carneros, and on the Spring Valley ranch. In each instance, drilling commenced at the location Manuel indicated, and water was found. In the new Sonoma County Freestone vineyard, two out of three of the locations recommended by Manuel yielded water. Is water witching fact or fiction? In an article by John H. Lienhard from the University of Houston's College of Engineering, he states, "People have been finding water with forked sticks ever since Moses brought forth water by smiting a rock with a rod. Herodotus wrote about dowsing in the 5th century B.C. Chinese texts tell of water witching 4000 years ago . . . For millenia people have believed in something with no rational basis. Why?" Mr. Lienhard doesn't presume to have the answer, but he does offer a theory: "A geologist points out that some people simply learn the subtle relations between earth's surface and the aquifers below it. A good dowser, they claim, does what a good geologist does. Maybe the witching wand just helps him concentrate." Old timers say the secret to successful dowsing is believing, but it's hard not to be skeptical. It's equally hard to argue with results, however, and Manuel has an impressive track record of success. He currently resides on Mee Lane in St. Helena, where he has lived since 1962 with his wife, Maria, and children Manuel (now 31), Erika (29), Owen (20), and Valeria (13). |
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