Tasting in Verde Valley, Arizona

This past New Year’s weekend, I found myself passing through Northern Arizona and I decided to devote a few hours tasting Arizona wines in the Cottonwood/Jerome/VerdeValley area. A cursory plan took me to Alcantara Vineyards, mostly because I wanted to visit an actual vineyard in the area. I also visited two winery tasting rooms in the Maynard Keenan-owned group of Arizona wineries -- Arizona Stronghold and Caduceus. These properties, along with Stronghold partner Eric Glomski’s PageSprings Cellars, seem to represent the vanguard of pushing the Arizona wine movement forward. Their wine projects are profiled in the  2010 film Blood Into Wine.

I started at Alcantara. The vineyard and winery are located in the Verde Valley – an area about 75 or so miles north of Phoenix. This area is just below the southern edge of the Colorado Peninsula, so it has warmer temperatures than the cold/higher elevation areas of Northern Arizona, but sits at about 2000 feet in elevation above Phoenix with more moderate heat and cool nights. Its soils are sandy loam. Alcantara’s vineyards are on slopes near the floor of the valley, beside the Verde River.

I tasted wines in their tasting room at the vineyard. Somewhat disappointingly, many of their wines were either sourced entirely or partially from California (Paso Robles) fruit – a trend that I would see throughout the area visit. From talking to the tasting room pourer, it sounds like their estate program is still a work in progress, with a focus toward varietals that can potentially thrive in the warm arid climate of the area – Zinfandel, Tempranillo, Mourvedre and Sangiovese. All of the wines that I tasted were well-made and drinkable wines, albeit with optimistic pricing mostly in the $30 range. The estate-grown 2009’s Mourvedre and Zinfandel were the standouts- with ripe but mellow fruit and soft supple nuances from neutral oak aging. The Mourvedre had a marked mineral note to compliment juicy black cherry and blueberry as well as round approachable tannins. The Zinfandel more herbal than a brambly California Zin, featuring black pepper and dried herb notes going along with open blueberry and red apple notes.

Next was a stop on Main Street in Cottonwood at the Arizona Stronghold Vineyards tasting room. The vineyard and winery are a partnership between Eric Glomski and Maynard Keenan. They have two estate vineyards in the Southeast portion of the state – the Arizona Stronghold Vineyard in Coshise County and to the norththe Bonita Springs Vineyard. Both vineyards are farmed sustainably, on high elevation sites at roughly 4300 feet above sea level, with soils of sandy loam and sub-soils of clay loam. The elevation moderates temperatures with diurnal variations as much as 50 degrees during the growing season. Some vines at Stronghold are as much as 27 years old.  A surprisingly full range of varietals are grown there, with an impressive production of 80,000 cases.

I came away from the tasting impressed by the quality, depth and breadth of the production at Stronghold. Furthermore, the wines were the most fairly priced of the wines that I tasted that day. The 2010 Tazi -- a white blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Malvasia Bianca, Pinot Gris and Riesling was fresh and rich with bright tropical fruit notes. Interestingly, Malvasia Bianca (a white grape known primarily as a minor blending grape  in basic Chianti and one of the grapes of Madeira) is seen as a specialty of the vineyard. It makes up a substantial portion of the Tazi. There was also an excellent dry rosé, the 2010 Dayden -- primarily Zinfandel. It was clean and refreshing with pure mineral and spicy fruit notes. On the red front, from their “Site Archive” series, the 2009 Bonita SpringsCabernet Sauvignon offered nicely balanced fruit, mineral, and leathery spice notes, while the 2010 Stronghold Mourvedre showed pure blue fruit along with nutty and peppery notes. The reds tend to be aged with small percentages of new French oak barrels and otherwise in neutral oak.

The last visit was to Maynard Keenan’s Caduceus Cellars & Merkin Vineyards tasting room. The location was in a hip spot on Main Street in the funky mountainside town of Jerome. Compared to Arizona Stronghold, Caduceus is designed to feature wines grown in the high elevation Merkin Vineyards in Verde Valley. Among the Merkin sites, elevations range from 4200 to 4800 feet and varying soils. The wines are made in smaller lots, with longer aging in higher percentages of new oak. The wines are pricier than their Arizona Stronghold counterparts, in sleeker silkscreened bottles. Also, while the Merkin vineyards are maturing, many of the wines are still coming from the Stronghold & Bonita Springs vineyards as well as from estate sites in Paso Robles, California.

Disappointingly, none of the wines available for tasting when I was there were from the Verde Valley sites. There was the 2010 Dos Ladrones, Bonita Springs Vineyard – a Malvasia Bianca and Chardonnay blend not dissimilar to the Arizona Stronghold Tazi, albeit pricier. The red offerings included the 2009 Primer Paso from the Arizona Stronghold Vineyard – a Syrah with small percentages of Malvasia Bianca. It’s a nice wine with lots of leathery and gamey notes to go along with full dark fruit and approachable tannins. Also available for tasting was the 2009 Nagual de la Naga from Paso Robles – a Sangiovese/Cabernet Sauvignon blend with nice mulled spice, black cherry, tea and mineral notes with good structure. These were very nice and well-made wines. The pricing was definitely on the optimistic side though ($40 for an Arizona white wine!).  In fairness, there is definitely significant investment in the vineyard and cellar programs, coming from a famous rock star with a rabid fan base, and pretty stunning packaging. I’ll watch this program with interest as it develops – especially the Verde Valley wines – but I’m not yet a buyer.

For that I’ll look to the Arizona Stronghold label. In my quest to taste Arizona wines that were solid and sound in quality and value, and that hinted at terroir, Stronghold was the clear winner. I’ll look for them in the market while looking forward to following the progression of all of these wines in the future. 

Vineyards at Alcantara