Arizona has been in the news a lot lately, as citizens of the Grand Canyon State grapple with the knotty problem of immigration. My wife and I traveled to Tucson recently to visit with friends. “While you’re here, would you like to see the wall?” my friend asked half-heartedly. He was talking about the controversial symbol of immigration that runs along a part of the border between Arizona and Mexico. “No thanks,” I said. “Then, what about visiting a few wineries?”
How’s that, wineries in Arizona? The high desert around Tucson is known for majestic saguaro cactus, so could he mean cactus wine? I
should have known that my friend and his wife, both avid wine consumers, had researched the wine scene in his backyard. Fact is, Arizona has 36 wineries scattered around the state, with the Sonoita/Elgin American Viticultural Area (AVA), northeast of Tucson, with nine wineries, the largest and only AVA in the state. Second, with five wineries is Wilcox, east of Elgin, where most of the vineyards that supply the Sonoita wineries are located.
Rolling into Sonoita, from the somewhat larger town of Patagonia, one of the first things I noticed is the absence of vineyards. The hamlet of Sonoita is little more than a friendly collection of shops and cafes at the crossroads of Highways 82 and 83. Dos Cabezas, a storefront with an Old West look, is the only winery in Sonoita, with the few scattered vineyards and other wineries located a few miles outside town.
Founded in 1995, Dos Cabezas hired Kent Callaghan as winemaker who quickly fashioned wines that drew national attention. Callaghan moved on to form his own eponymous winery, replaced by Frank DiCristopano and his assistant Todd Bostock. Bostock became the winemaker in 2003 and by 2006, he and his wife Kelly, with help from her parents, purchased the winery. I asked Bostock who decided that the area around Sonoita was good for growing wine grapes. “In the late 1970s a soils study in the region determined that the high altitude, temperate climate and red earth were ideal for growing wine grapes,” explained Bostock.
Ripening is not a problem for grapes in the high mesa Sonoita vineyards, but there is always a threat of frost. Shortly before my visit, the area had been hit hard by frost, wiping out a few vineyards. To counter this, many of the Sonoita vineyards are planted with cuttings from eastern Washington where the growing conditions are more similar to the high desert of southern Arizona than California.
Dos Cabezas markets three Arizona whites, including an unfined, unfiltered, thick and chewy Chardonnay and an aromatic, floral, peachy 2009 “Meskeoli,” a multi-varietal blend based mostly on Viognier and Riesling and a lively fruity 2009 rose, made mostly from Grenache, called simply Pink. Reds of note include the 2008 El Norte, a tasty Grenache-Syrah-Mourvedre blend with a hint of black pepper and a nicely structured Tempranillo-based 2008 Aquileon.
After lunch at the Viaggio Restaurant (next door to a now defunct Chia Farm!), we drove out Elgin Road for a brief visit to Kief-Joshua Vineyards, housed in a modern dun-colored MacMansion-like building that looked out of place in the barren landscape, followed by a stop at Callaghan Vineyards. Kief-Joshua offers a line of six wines for a tasting fee of $5, the best of which included a fragrant, crisp 2009 Roussanne, a fruity 2008 Tempranillo and a rich plumy 2005 Syrah.
Callaghan Vineyards is generally considered to be the top winery in the growing appellation. We were met in the casual tasting room by a tired bedraggled Kent Callaghan who had been laboring in the vineyard under the hot desert sun. Like many of his Sonoita colleagues, Callaghan purchases grapes from California, but is an advocate for Arizona grapes. He believes Malvasia is the best white variety for Sonoita and the aromatic 2008 Lisa’s blend of Malvasia and four other aromatic white grapes proves his point. It’s spicy, zesty and with loads of fruit.
The Callaghan reds made from Arizona-grown grapes with strong appeal include 2007 Buena Suerte, a structured complex Bordeaux-style blend based on Cabernet Sauvignon; a fruity 2008 Back Lot with texture and length that leans heavily on Mourvèdre and Syrah. The Callaghan 2006 Tempranillo, made from California grapes, is as good as any Tempranillo I’ve tasted made in the Golden State.
The Sonoita area is an easy drive from Tucson, made more enjoyable in any season by the stark beauty of the high desert that often seems to stretch to a limitless horizon. Sonoita wines, particularly from Callaghan, are beginning to trickle into markets beyond Arizona. So, if you are wintering in Tucson, take a day trip to the Sonoita/Elgin AVA, or ask your local wine merchant to carry Arizona wines. There is, after all, another beverage coming out of Arizona than Agave Nectar.
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