Vineyard & Winery Management Magazine
Feature Story
Arizona's Extreme ViticulturistsHigh-stakes, high-altitude winegrowing
By Laura Ness
When vintners and growers in traditional wine regions consider the topic of Arizona viticulture, many can't help raising an eyebrow. Who can blame them? It's not easy to get the images of cactus, Gila monsters and triple-digit temperatures out of your head.
But don't jump to conclusions about the state's agricultural suitability. Were it not for Arizona, you'd be virtually lettuce-less in the winter months across the United States. In Arizona's fertile Cochise County, 90 miles east of Tucson, pecans, pistachios and apples grow, along with (surprise!) wine grapes.
Statewide, Arizona is home to about 500 acres of grapevines and counting, nearly all planted at elevations of 3,500 feet and above. This is high-altitude, high-stakes viticulture.
Torturous heat is what Eric Glomski most feared when he left the verdant, redwood-studded Santa Cruz Mountains in Northern California for the Arizona desert. Instead, the former winemaker for David Bruce Winery in Los Gatos discovered that Arizona's devilish heat is no match for winter's icy-cold hand.
An Arizona native, Glomski returned to his home state to make fruit wine from abandoned orchards. Sniffing an apple one day, he realized he was making "liquid landscape," and vowed to express this wild and rugged place with the finest wine possible.
He now owns Page Springs Cellars, south of Sedona, and has substantial vineyard plantings in Cochise County. There, he and partner Maynard James Keenan, front man for the rock bands Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer, established Arizona Stronghold in 2007. Keenan also owns Merkin Vineyards and Caduceus Winery in Cornville/Page Springs, just southeast of Sedona. While touring wine regions around the world, Keenan noted that higher-altitude areas produce amazing wines, and he became convinced that Arizona could do likewise.
As owners of nearly 20% of the state's vineyards, Glomski and Keenan are playing high-stakes poker in two major Arizona growing regions.
In addition to their own brands, they make wine for seven other wineries in the state. With nationwide appearances and bottle signings at Whole Foods stores - along with some good critical scores - the partners have quickly become the poster boys for the Arizona wine scene.
Their new movie about Arizona viticulture, "Blood into Wine", has already positioned the two as the embodiment of Arizona winegrowers' pioneering spirit. You might call them "vioneers." Others might call them crazy.
GROWING REGIONS
Arizona's three main winegrowing areas include the Verde Valley, Sulphur Springs Valley and Sonoita/Elgin. The Verde Valley is the northernmost region, located between Prescott and Flagstaff, near Jerome.
Approximately 10%-15% of the state's vineyards are located there, mostly at about 3,500-feet elevation. This region is characterized by small, boutique wineries that appeal to the affluence of Sedona area residents and tourists. Sourcing water is a challenge, as are the cold winters, due to the windy, high-desert scrub- and grassland-covered Coconino Plateau south of the Grand Canyon, which drains into the Little Colorado River, and the chilly air sweeping down from the Mogollon Rim of the Grand Canyon to the north.
Page Springs Cellars sits at 3,900 feet on an old basalt-over-limestone lakebed. Glomski said temperature inversions, cold nights, late frosts, wind at set, and water issues can wreak havoc. "Water is liquid gold here," he said. In 2009, Glomski lost 50 tons of grapes due to three days at 7°F in April. He plans to add 8 more acres to the existing 4.5 planted, putting in more syrah and mourvedre, as well as viognier, roussanne, marsanne and possibly grenache blanc.
Marge Graziano, partner with her son, John McLoughlin, in Dragoon Mountain Vineyards in Willcox (in the Sulphur Springs Valley), also has grapevines in Jerome. Their 92-acre vineyard in Willcox is 6 years old, with 45 varieties planted. In Jerome, Graziano and McLoughlin have 2 acres planted at about 3,500 feet. "Jerome has its own little weather pattern," Graziano said. "We can get light frost to heavy snow. It can reach as high as 100 degrees in the summer. The vines I have planted receive morning sun and about 1-2 p.m., they are beginning to be in the shade. They receive no hot afternoon sun.
"In Willcox, the vineyard is in full sun all day. The weather is about the same in both areas, and both get high winds at times. Vines in Jerome are more protected, so they're safer from frost, etc. Both areas get monsoon rains in the spring and fall."
Graziano noted that syrah, zinfandel, charbono and dolcetto do particularly well in Arizona. "Grapes that require a lot of air moisture, like varieties in California, we do not grow in Arizona. We don't have a mildew problem, but there is always the fear of freeze and too much rain while harvesting."
SULPHUR SPRINGS VALLEY
In the south, to the east of Tucson, is the Willcox region, in the Sulphur Springs Valley. Climatically and water-wise, it's ideal for growing grapes. Essentially a 5,000-foot-high desert valley in the shadow of the 10,000-foot-high peaks of the volcanic Chiricahua Mountains, it is home to 40%-50% of the state's vines, and is expanding quickly.
With no river to drain the snow melt, Sulphur Springs Valley has an enviable agricultural infrastructure, with plentiful water that has nowhere else to go but into the aquifers. Summer temperatures are in the high 90s in the daytime and low 60s at night, with low temperatures around 30°F in the winter, with the occasional brutal frost. Harvest occurs during the monsoon season, from July to September, which can necessitate spraying. However, rot and mildew are not perennial problems.
According to film director and winegrower Sam Pillsbury, a New Zealand native who planted 20 acres of Rhone varieties in Cochise County to supply his Pillsbury Wine Company brand, the upsides to Arizona are the endless sun and the high altitude, which increases UV, positively affecting flavor and color and boosting polyphenols. The brutal sun negates the need for leaf thinning - a nice labor savings. Since everything is irrigated, growers have control over water and nutrition, except during monsoon/harvest.
The most obvious threats to viticulture are monsoons, frost (which happens every six years or so, and nobody has frost protection), wind at bud break, and ever-present javelina, deer and rabbits. And then there are the birds. The Sulphur Springs Valley is on the North American bird migratory path: Sandhill Cranes visit en masse every year (they seem to like tempranillo).
Most varieties do well here, Pillsbury said, but the most success has been with Rhone grapes, particularly syrah. Viticultural adjustments made in recent years include more care with trellising and pruning, and more bunch thinning - partly to avoid rot at harvest if the monsoons are bad.
Winegrower Rod Keeling, who along with his wife, Jan, owns Keeling-Schaefer Vineyards, south of Chiricahua Monument, said high-altitude farming necessitates watering in the winter. The Keelings' estate lies at 5,000 feet above sea level. "Just because it's cold and there's a threat of frost doesn't mean you shouldn't be putting water on the vines," he cautioned. It's a lot of work because you have to drain the emitters to prevent damage from freezing, but if you don't water - he adds about 3 gallons per vine per week during the winter, as opposed to 10-12 gallons per vine during the summer - you will end up with "winter kill."
Keeling has 9 acres of syrah, 6 acres of grenache and 2 acres each of viognier and mourvedre, in addition to some petite sirah and picpoul blanc, sourced from Tablas Creek Vineyard in California. He strongly agrees that Rhones are Arizona's strong suit, despite many initial plantings of chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and merlot.
Arizona Stronghold has 240 acres in Cochise County, with 110 acres under vine. Glomski and Keenan took over several older plantings, including the Dos Cabezos vineyard, grafting chardonnay to viognier and sauvignon blanc to syrah. Twenty varieties are planted there, including graciano, malvasia bianca and tempranillo. Additional plantings of cabernet pfeiffer and viognier are planned. Vineyards are planted at 4,400 and 4,600 feet. Arizona Stronghold partner Glomski noted that harvests are two weeks later at the vineyard just 200 feet higher up.
SONORITA/ELGIN
The region of Sonoita/Elgin is located an hour south of Tucson, where 10%-15% of Arizona vineyards are planted. With easy access to suburbia, it is home to more than one-third of the state's 38 bonded wineries. Most vineyards here are planted at or above 4,700 feet.
Kent Callaghan of Callaghan Vineyards in Elgin is without doubt the "vioneer" of this region: He's been a grower and winemaker pretty much all his life. He's used to damaging frosts as early as Oct. 13 (as in 2008) and as late as mid-April (as in 2009, when a dose of 23°F killed primary buds. "That was the worst since 1998, when it was 25° at the end of October," Callaghan recalled. Another problem is post-veraison hail. Callaghan rarely sprays for bugs, and does weed control only when it rains. "We can get 12 inches of rain in July, or nothing at all until November, when we can get 16 inches," he said.
In Cochise County, growers can crop between 2 and 4 tons per acre. In Sonoita, Callaghan said, "We try for 2 tons, but are lucky to get 1." He is one of the stalwarts making decent Bordeaux-style wines, although he's given up on zinfandel. "Zin doesn't blend well and is prone to rot," he said. "It's gone now, thank God!" In its place are Rhone varieties, tempranillo, and Callaghan's current favorite, graciano.
For whites, he blends viognier and riesling, although he notes that the latter is prone to rot. Roussanne is "a pain in the butt," he said, and he believes malvasia bianca is "the bomb," capable of lively longevity whether the grapes are picked at 19 or 28 °Brix. Callaghan is grafting over to some vermentino and fiano, and sourcing some Iberian varieties. "Ironically, our best, most distinctive, barrels are inevitably petit verdot," he said.
ARE WE THERE YET?
It could be said that the biggest challenges in growing grapes in Arizona are water, altitude and attitude. Determined as the wine pioneers are to establish Arizona as a legitimate wine region, overcoming the challenges of the first two have proved easier than overcoming the third. Yet, according to Keeling, the fledgling industry is slowly moving to the third stage of development. The first is land development, the second is quality achievement, and the third is marketing.
"At least seven of our wine labels were rated highly in Wine Spectator for the first time in 2009," noted Keeling. "Brands like Page Springs, Caduceus and Callaghan have helped a lot to raise visibility. Our own label is now in 15 restaurants throughout the state, which is unprecedented."
Keeling credited two factors: recognition of quality and price-points below $20. The fact that most of the vines planted in Arizona are Entav-sourced, rather than cuttings from local sources, gives Arizona's vineyards a leg up on quality. Naturally, the right rootstock is key, and growers have settled on 11047A for vigor, and on 110R for vines that don't need it.
"People constantly told me I couldn't sell Arizona wines," Glomski said. "But I've been amazed. We have something unique and we are making quality wines. It's our stronghold."
Laura Ness is a long-time Santa Cruz Mountains resident who enjoys writing about wines with character and the characters who make them. She covers the Santa Cruz Mountains, Livermore and Paso Robles, teaches a "meet the winemakers" class at DeAnza College, and writes a wine column for the weekly papers serving the Silicon Valley.
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