Arizona Wine



Over six years ago, I wrote about wine tasting in the desert of southeast Arizona. At that time, the Arizona wine world was pretty limited and located mainly in the Wilcox area of south eastern Arizona. Since those first tastes, I have been following the progression of the industry in Arizona. Certain wineries had come to the forefront: Caduceus, Page Springs, Arizona Stronghold, and Pillsbury. These four were getting some press, and were about the only wines you could find in California. Even then, it took some searching.

Following the movie, “Blood into Wine” with Maynard James Keenan (Tool, A Perfect Circle), interest in Arizona wines garnered more attention. When I first tried his wines, the grapes were still coming from California. Now, his Caduceus wines are true Arizona wines. Keenan’s presence and celebrity brought life to the Arizona desert, and its’ wine scene. For this reason, I had to visit the Verde Valley, and see for myself what was going on there.

Main Street (Hwy 89A), Jerome, AZ
From Phoenix, it is about a two hour drive to Verde Valley wine country. While most of the grapes are still grown in the Wilcox area, there are more tasting rooms in Verde Valley. With the proximity to Sedona, I think the Verde Valley attracts more wine aficionados than the southeast corner of Arizona.
By my count, there are about 25 wineries in the towns of Jerome, Cottonwood, Clarkdale and Page Springs. The Verde River runs through the valley, and the red rocks to the north make for a gorgeous setting. This is the desert, but it is set at about 3,500 feet above sea level, so was about 15 degrees cooler than when we left Scottsdale.

We had a limited amount of time, so my goal was to get to Jerome first, and check out the Caduceus Cellars tasting room. Jerome is an old mining town, perched on the side of a hill at about 5,200 feet. My first advice is to get here early, to find a parking spot. The main street is Hwy 89A, and makes a loop through town. Park and walk. The town dates back to the mid 1800’s, and many of the old buildings are still intact. There are four wine tasting rooms in Jerome: Caduceus, Cellar 433, Passion Cellars, and Echo Canyon.

Caduceus Tasting Room
Caduceus is located at the end of town. Even if you park at the bottom of the loop, it is only a ten minute walk to the tasting room. The tasting room is well appointed with gourmet food items, gadgets and clothing. There is a long tasting bar on the west side. Tasting flights are not inexpensive. There were three flight choices, and since there were three of us, we each ordered a different flight and shared. The flights included a mix of whites, roses, and reds. Varieties had an emphasis on Italian and Spanish grapes. Caduceus has the only vineyard in the Jerome area, and it is a small hillside vineyard.

Cellar 433
After wandering around town, we decided to stop at Cellar 433. The views from the large back windows are spectacular, overlooking the Verde Valley below. Here, a tasting was $10 for any five wines on the menu. All the grapes are grown in the Wilcox area. There were a few unusual grape varieties on the menu, so that alone was worth the $10. On the “unusual” side were grapes such as Symphony, Blaufrankisch and Marselan. Along with these, were a mix of Rhone, Bordeaux, and Italian varieties.

I find that some of the most interesting wine tastings are where the wine tasting staff are engaging. They spend time talking about the vineyards, the process, and the history of their winery. The first two tasting rooms never spent the time to connect. Where they failed, the remaining two made up.

Arizona Stronghold
We drove back down the hill to the town of Cottonwood, and their quaint downtown main street. The first stop was at Arizona Stronghold. Of the Arizona wines, this was probably the first one I had tasted years ago. The tasting room is located right in the center of downtown. You can stand at the tasting bar, or sit in the chairs located throughout the shop or the back patio. They offered three different flights of tastings, and since there were three of us, we once again bought one flight each and shared. Since many of these wines are available in retail outlets, the staff made us aware of what was at retail, and what was available only at the tasting room, or for club members. The wines included a range of white, rose and mostly red. Many single varieties but also blends. The red grapes are mostly Bordeaux (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cab Franc) but also include Rhone, Italian and Spanish. I really enjoyed their wines, and walked away with a few bottles for my cellar.

Main Street - Cottonwood, AZ
We next walked down the street to the Merkin Vineyards &Osteria. This is a “farm to table” restaurant and wine bar. It seemed a bit out of place in the old main street of Cottonwood. It was modern and upscale, with fresh bread and pasta, made on site, with locally sourced ingredients. While we were hungry, the wait was longer than we had time for…so maybe next time.

Verde Valley Olive Oil Traders
Across the street is the Verde Valley Olive Oil Traders. They have one of the larger olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting rooms I’ve seen. They source from all over the world, and offer samples of every one of their items, including chocolate.

I always ask the tasting room staff where we should go next to taste. The wine industry is good about sharing the news of up and coming wineries. We had seen Chateau Tumbleweed on the way to Jerome, earlier in the day. We thought, “that’s a cute name”, but drove on by. I am glad the guys at Arizona Stronghold told us to go back and check them out.

Chateau Tumbleweed is located in a newer building on the edge of Clarkdale. When we got to the tasting room (and winery) there were only two other people in the place (when we left, it was packed). One happened to work for Babcock Winery in the Sta. Rita Hills of California. Ends up we knew a lot of similar people. We ordered a bento box of cheese, nuts, fruit and crackers. Again, three tasting flight were offered, and we bought all three. 

Kris Pothier and Joe Bechard of ChateauTumbleweed
Chateau Tumbleweed is owned by two couples. All four of them have spent time in the wine business with other wineries inside and outside of Arizona.  Kris and her husband Joe were working at the winery this day, and Kris spent about an hour pouring wine for us, and telling us about each bottle. After hearing her stories of working at wineries in Oregon, and at Caduceus, and then on to the Four Eight Wine Works, it became clear where the Tumbleweed name came from, as they seemed to blow around until they came to rest at their current location. 

Chateau Tumbleweed doesn’t own any vineyards, but they are able to source choice blocks within the vineyard, obtaining good juice to work with. Of the wines we tried, all the grapes were source from the Wilcox area, in southeast Arizona, except the Seyval Blanc, which was grown locally. They only produce about 2400 cases a year, and have been in business since 2011. Their wines include a mix of whites, roses and reds. Some of the standouts were the Carlson Creek Malbec, the Juan Villa Mourvedre and the 2015 Graciano. Here is the good news for wine buyers...the wines are very good, and the prices are reasonable!

There usually is one great “find” on these wine trips, and Chateau Tumbleweed was the surprise of this trip. I highly recommend stopping by and tasting their wines.

We will definitely plan on revisiting this area, and so should you. The surface was only scratched in the short time we had. Next visit will need to include Page Springs Cellars, Pillsbury and Four Eight Wineworks, and of course, check in on our new friends at Chateau Tumbleweed.

Four Days of Wine Tasting in the Central Coast





If you read my last blog, you know that we spent the first two days of our tasting in the Edna and Arroyo Grande Valleys. Staying in San Luis Obispo made for a great central location to reach as far south as Santa Barbara County or as far north as Paso Robles. Either direction was only about an hour drive to get to a wine tasting region.

Tasting at Lone Madrone
When we do our trips, we are pretty structured for Friday and Saturday, but Sunday is the day we roll the dice, and see where we end up. On this Sunday, we decided to drive north to Paso Robles. During our Friday tasting with Ryan Deovlet, he suggested that we visit McPrice-Meyers Winery on Adelaida Road, in Paso Robles. So, we headed north, and got to the winery about 10:30, only to find out they don’t open until 11:00am. After a quick search on the phone, we saw that Lone Madrone opened at 10:00. Just a few more minutes up the road, and we were at the tasting bar. It has been a few years since I was last at Lone Madrone, and this is a new location for them, versus my last visit. One of our objectives was to find some Rose, late in the season. No luck here. Their Rose is very good, but sold out over a month ago. Since our group was small, and there was no one else in the tasting room, we got all the attention from the staff, and basically tasted whatever was available. Lone Madrone has a mix of wines, from single variety to blends. There is a nice gift shop and outdoor area that overlooks the rolling hills.

Tasting room at McPrice-Meyers
We next headed back down the road to McPrice-Meyers. When we arrived, we were surrounded by a number of dogs, who “escorted” us into the tasting room. Once again, we were the only ones in the tasting room. McPrice-Meyers specializes in Rhone varieties from Santa Barbara and Paso Robles, as well as Zinfandel.. All the wines were well-balanced, fruit forward, and complex. Some will make great wines for cellaring, while others were ready to drink now, or at least within the next couple years. As was the case with many wineries this weekend, they had been up early, harvesting grapes, so we were invited into the winery and tasted some of the freshly picked grapes, among the stacks for wine barrels.  Great wines from a winery I had not heard of prior. We’ll be back.

McPrice-Meyers

We decided to take the long route to our next wine stop, driving down Vineyard road to get back to Hwy 46. We passed so many good wineries along the way: Daou, Adelaida, Halter Ranch, Thacher, Whalebone, etc. We made a quick stop at Niner Winery, to see if Dick Niner happened to be around (I used to work with Dick back in the 90’s).We found out that Dick is spending most of his time in Jackson Hole, and his son has taken over most of the operations.
 
ONX tasting room
We made a stop for lunch at the Firestone Brewery. Lunch and a beer were on order before we headed south to “Tin City”. Now I spend a lot of time in Paso Robles, but I had never been to “Tin City”. It is a warehousing complex with numerous wineries and breweries. You can park in one spot and walk to around. My first impression was that this was an answer to Lompoc’s Wine Ghetto. It is somewhat off the beaten path, but there is somewhere around 20 wineries, breweries and distilleries located in this compact area. Most of the wineries are producing their wines on site, so there is an opportunity to meet the winemaker at the tasting room.


Our first stop was at ONX Winery. I had been seeing some reviews of these wines in Wine Spectator magazine, so wanted to give them a try. The tasting room is very modern, and the tasting staff was willing to pour whatever we wanted to try. The ONX vineyards are located not too far away in Templeton. The grape varieties range from Rhone to Pinot Noir, to Bordeaux blends and even Tempranillo and Zinfandel. These are mostly big wines. Lots of concentrated, extracted fruit, and full bodied. But not all….they had a wonderful, light Rose of Tempranillo…the only rose we found on this trip. Each of the wines are given unique names and labels. This is a very modern feeling tasting room, versus the previous wineries that were more an extension of the vineyard.

Powell Mountain Cellars with Bill Powell
At the suggestion of the ONX tasting staff, our next stop was just one the next road up in the Tin City area. We met with Bill Powell, the owner/winemaker for Powell Mountain Cellars. Bill was getting ready to shut down for the day, when we walked in, but he was happy to share his wines, and his passion, with us. He was also happy to tout his wines, and tell us about each one. These are all handcrafted, small production wines, ranging from single variety, to Rhone and Bordeaux blends, as well as Tempranillo and Primitivo.  Powell Mountain wines are more terroir driven versus next door at ONX.  It was a nice contrast between the two wine styles. Bill is also quite the salesman, as I think we all walked out with at least five bottles of wine!

Just a quick recap of Tin City…if you want to do one stop tasting, and hit a lot of wineries, this is a good option. If you prefer to taste where the grapes are grown, and see the vineyards, this might not be your spot. I prefer to taste at the vineyard, but in most cases, this is the only place where you can try some of these wineries, as they don’t have tasting rooms at their vineyard.

Powell Mountain Cellars tasting room
We ended the day at Novo Restaurant Lounge. This was one of the top rated restaurants in the area. We all met back up and shared our tasting “finds” for the day, and recapped stories. As it turned out, everyone in our group headed north to Paso Robles. Novo is a unique restaurant. I did not realize that it was outdoor seating, when I made the reservations. It just so happened that this night was the only night that we got a little bit of drizzle. The outdoor heaters did help. The setting is great. The food was good, but not what I expected. There was a mix of different items, making it hard to determine what I would describe their cuisine as. Lots of noodle dishes. I guess I would call it Asian fusion”, but the menu is really all over the place.

Bladder press at Dragonette Cellars
On Monday, we headed back south. We had scheduled a stop at Dragonette Cellars winery (not the tasting room). Due to the odd weather we were experiencing, John and Brandon were unable to meet with us, but Steve Dragonette was there. We tried some of the freshly press juice, and went through a full tasting of wines, including one library wine, with Jessica guiding the tasting.. What can I say? I always enjoy Dragonette Cellars. I have been a fan since I first tried them around 10 years ago, and have written about them many times.

Our last stop was in Solvang, where we stopped at Eco-wine furniture. They make a number of items out of used wine barrels. Their prices are better than what you find on line, and they can even personalize any item, if you want to give it as a gift. A great little find.

A final toast to our friend Manny at Talley Vineyards
My hope with these four day weekend recaps is that it gives you some ideas, some suggestions, and maybe some new places to visit. There are lots of great places to visit in the central coast. Good restaurants, good hotels (expensive and inexpensive) and obviously good wine, and the great winemakers that go along with them.