Month: November 2011

Arizona Wineries Growers Assoc. 3rd Annual Festival at The Farm part 2

Here are 3 more wineries I visited with at the 3rd Annual Festival at The Farm last weekend.

Keeling-Schaefer Vineyards produces about 3,000 cases annually from their 21 acres in Cochise county. Winemaker Rod Keeling has been making wine for 13 years and his experience shows. I had the opportunity to chat with Rod and his daughter Cecelia while tasting 3 wines, with 2 of them being available only from the winery. The  2009 Three Sisters Syrah is soft, ripe with good fruit. It’s complexity and medium body give it a nice mouth feel. Plenty is available as they made 539 cases, quite a bit for an Arizona winery. The 2007 Home Place Reserve Syrah gets aged for 3 years in new French oak and delivers a soft start that leads to a full bodied wine. With only 96 cases produced this wine is only available at their tasting room and online, as is the 2008 Schaefer Boys Mourvedre. This 68 case production wine is spicy with dark fruit and is terror driven, showcasing their Rock Creek vineyard. http://keelingschaefervineyards.com

Kief Manning is the winemaker at Kief-Joshua Vineyards in Elgin is very well versed at wine making & the wine business having earned both an undergraduate & graduate degree at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Grapes are provided by their 2 vineyards with 60 acres planted to vines in Elgin and Kansas Settlement. Pouring 2 white wines and 2 reds at the festival all were good, solid wines. I was especially fond 2 of them. The 2010 Cephus is easy drinking blend of Chardonnay and Rousanne. Light and crisp this is a good food wine or drank by itself. His 2009 Magdalena is 70% Petite Sirah and 30% Barbera that has some earthy overtones and solid dark fruit qualities. Kief-Joshua is striving to be environmentally friendly by implementing several techniques in the vineyards and at the winery. I’m curious to see what Kief can do with Pinot Noir as he has some currently in the barrell. http://kj-vineyards.com/default.asp

Dos Cabezas Wineworks is owned by the Bostock family and Todd Bostock is their winemaker. Getting most of their fruit from Dick Erath’s Cimarron vineyards next door, Todd not only makes good wines, he is also experimenting with others plantings of varieties from from Spain, Italy and France. Making about 3,000 cases annually some of Todd’s stand outs were the 2009 El Norte which is a Syrah based blend and is dry, soft and spicy with medium tannins. The 2009 Red is Grenache based and offer good fruit and a soft on the palate. I also enjoyed the 2009 El Campo which is an interesting blend made mostly of Tempranillo and Mourvedre that I found spicy, with good tannins and fruit. http://www.doscabezaswinery.com/index.html

Arizona Wine Growers Assoc. 3rd Annual Festival at The Farm


The Farm at South Mountain was the scene for the 3rd Annual Festival at The Farm with over 30 wineries in attendance. Most have been making wine for years and several are relatively newcomers. My goal was to catch up with some old friends while at the same time meet some new friends who I’ve heard good things about. This is the 1st of a series of posts to come.

My 1st stop was at the table of Lawrence Dunham Vineyards, which specializes in Rhone varieties from Willcox in south east Arizona. Owner/ winemaker Curt Dunham was pouring 5 of 2009 reds that happen to be his 1st release. Curt who is a self taught winemaker was showcasing some food friendly, Grenache’s, Petite Sirah’s and his R.E.D which is a blend of Grenche, Mourvedre and Petite Sirah. Wines that were well balanced, with good fruit, medium tannins and hints of spice, Curt was able to produce wine with only 2 years of grapes on the vines. Less than 130 cases of each of the 5 wines are produced and all should retail for less than $30 each. www.LawrenceDunhamVineyards.com

I made my way over to Rob and Sarah Hammelman of Sand-Reckoner Vineyards, where they were pouring their 2010 Malvasia and Rose. Rob caught the wine bug when working at Callaghan Vineyards(read about them soon) on a summer off from teaching. He then graduated from the University of Adelaide in Australia and learned to make wine at Hewitson while down under. His desire to make old world Rhone wines became a reality in 2008 when he learned from the famed winemaker Louis Barruol of Ch. St. Cosme in Gigondas. Rob and Sarah currently have only 3 acres planted to vines and both do about everything themselves. The Malvasia has a great nose, crisp acidity good fruit and should be a crowd pleaser. A small crowd though as only 85 cases have been produced. The Rose is a blend of 65% Nebbiolo, 31% Sangiovese and 4% Syrah, and is fermented in neutral oak. A good food wine, it’s dry style has depth and a good mouth feel. Only 60 cases of this vibrant wine have been produced. If you can find these wines they both retail for under $30. http://sand-reckoner.com
The 1 winery that really put Arizona wine on the map in 1990s was Callaghan Vineyards and owner/winemaker Kent Callaghan still sets the bar for others. Pouring 5 reds from the 2009 vintage and a white blend from 2010.  Kent’s red wines are big and bold and offer deep fruit along with great aging potential. His 2009 Padres blend of Tempranillo, Grenache and Syrah was a gold medal winner and judges favorite at the banquet the evening before the tasting. I’m excited to see what Kent could do with with the Graciano the he has planted along with other Italian whites he’s grafting for future plantings. He feels that Sonoita has great growing conditions for Italian white grapes.  http://callaghanvineyards.com

These are just 3 of the wineries I visited with at The Festival and in coming days I will post others and bring you up to speed on more of the latest and greatest that Arizona wineries have to offer. For more information on Arizona Wineries please go to http://www.arizonawine.org Cheers!

Colle Massari Rigoletto from Tuscany’s newest D.O.C. Montecucco.


  Claudio Tipa founded Colle Massari in 1999 and it’s located in the heart of southern Tuscany, in the newly created “Montcucco D.O.C.” So far he’s planted 100 acres of 740 acres planted to Sangiovese, Montepulciano, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Vermentino & Ciliegiolo. He also has olive trees planted on 48 acres and all the wines and olive oil is organic.

Rigoletto is a blend of 80% Sangiovese, 10% Montepulciano & 10% Ciliegiolo from vineyards that are 1,000 ft. in elevation and are rich w/ clay soils and calcareous minerals. The wine is aged 12 months in barriques and is ruby red in color. Smooth and velvety on the palate it has soft tannins and a medium body. Red fruit and spices make this wine good to pair with meat, poultry, pasta and cheeses. 13.5% alc. Suggested retail is under $25.