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32 MAY 1, 2016 Good Fruit Grower www.goodfruit.com Syrah from Tenet Wines) came from Canoe Ridge as well. "Canoe Ridge has three and one-third wines on the Top 100, and four differ- ent varieties," she said. "I don't know if there's another vineyard in the world that can say that." Moving on Nye's passion for growing grapes and producing wine was contagious, and she pursued her job with no other agen- das despite being one of the stalwarts among early women in the Washington wine industry, said Joy Andersen, wine- maker for Ste. Michelle label Snoqualmie Winery. "She just got the job at hand and did it. It wasn't about trying to prove herself or be a woman in the workplace," Andersen said. "She just showed what anybody could do, woman or man, and she managed to do a very, very good job at bringing that vineyard up to world-class status." Nye will continue this year as a con- sultant to Ste. Michelle, helping to guide Smasne through her first season as vine- yard manager, pointing out the things to expect in different parts of the vineyard throughout the season. Also helping will be members of the crew, some of whom have been with the vineyard as long as Nye. Nye recalled a day in the vineyard when she wondered if the crew should quit for the day or tough it out through a rainstorm, worried she might make the wrong decision, until Flores spoke up. "He said, 'Don't worry, Mimi. The people respect you,'" she said. "That was a breakthrough for me. I was unsure of myself, because of the language barrier, and when he told me people respected me, I started to have more confidence that these are my people." Nye said she'll miss the Ste. Michelle family, but the people — and the wine — have made the trip worthwhile. In February, the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers honored Nye with the Grower of the Year award, joining the likes of Dick Boushey, Jim Holmes and Paul Champoux. "I didn't think I was one of them and now I think, 'Yeah, I'm one of those people. I belong there,'" she said. "It took me a little while to accept that, but now I realize more people were watching than I realized." At the ceremony, Nye recalled reading Proverbs 31 when she was first offered the vineyard manager job. The story is about a woman — a wife, mother and business woman — who uses her profits to plant a vineyard. "So, 2,800 years ago, a Jewish woman planted a vineyard. I thought, 'If she can do it, I can do it,'" Nye said. "She's the ideal woman, and she's no pushover." At 39, Smasne is close to the age Nye was when she started at Canoe Ridge, and both had been working for Ste. Michelle full time for 10 years before taking over the vineyard. "It's funny. We have a lot of weird idiosyncrasies. She's my younger clone, according to my husband," Nye said. "We are different in a lot of ways. We have dif- ferent strengths for sure, but we have a lot of similarities too." So the legacy of Canoe Ridge contin- ues, with wine that is delicate, nuanced and balanced. "There's something in this vineyard that is feminine," she said. "Some things are meant to be." • courtesy ste. Michelle's Kari Smasne, Ste. Michelle's viticulturist, will take over as vineyard manager at Canoe Ridge, and production supervisor Pedro Flores has been promoted to assistant vineyard manager. Both are longtime Chateau Ste. Michelle employees. ® Trademark of The Dow Chemical Company ("Dow") or an affiliated company of Dow Always read and follow label directions. www.dowagro.com Delegate ® Insecticide. Insecticide applications may target a single pest, but other pests are likely residing in your orchard. With Delegate, you can control multiple pests at once, including: n Codling moth n Thrips n Leafroller n Leafminer n Spotted wing Drosophila n Cherry fruit fly n Pear psylla Pests are controlled by contact and ingestion. And the translaminar movement (into the leaf) of Delegate helps reach pests out of the direct line of spray. To learn more, visit www.DelegateInsecticide.com. MULTIPLE PESTS LURK. COINCIDENTALLY, DELEGATE ® CONTROLS MULTIPLE PESTS.