Arizona Wine Grape Market

     Wine grapes are the most profitable crop legal you can grow. This is especially true in Arizona. Here there is low supply and a growing demand. With new wineries starting up every other month, and existing wineries statewide expanding production, the grow is palpable. There are new vineyard being planted but mostly by new wineries. So any new supply is not making it to market. Some grapes prices are already reaching the high end of what California growers charge for their grapes.

     A clever move here would be to build up a quality vineyard selling grapes through contract. Lets take a non-scientific look at demand. The urban wineries are landless, so zero grapes from estate vineyards. The have stated their eagerness to use Arizona fruit, but they are unable to find grapes to purchase. These are wineries in the thick of wine consumers, mostly the Phoenix metro area, the front line in the Arizona wine movement. But they are having trouble showing off our native terroir.

     Next we have the Northern wineries, mostly locate in and around the Verde Valley. Even the largest of wineries still bring fruit in from California. The Verde Valley contains the largest vineyard in Northern and Central Arizona and still imports fruit. It also contains one of the largest wine producers, who also need to bring fruit in from California. There are also many smaller wineries hurting for fruit constantly fishing for grapes from southern vineyards.

     In the south, in our state's only AVA (American Viticulture Area) Sonoita, we have seen the risk involved with farming. They had a bad frost to start the season, and just before harvest many crops were wiped out by golf ball sized hail. The next morning most of them where on the phone to Willcox vineyards trying to buy any excess grapes available. Not only that, but some have sourced grapes from Willcox for years and are now out int he cold because of rising local and new winery venture in the Willcox area.

     Willcox, only 75 miles east of Sonoita, was unharmed by the the hail storm. This is the fast growing region, seeing more wineries staring up than vineyards. Though it has the most vineyards planted in the state so far, and most of the new vineyards as well. There a couple of reasons for this. First that land is cheaper in Willcox. It has great growing conditions for grapes, though so do the other two growing regions. The other reason it is a great location for new vineyards is a concentration of existing vineyards provide a local skilled labor force for vineyard work.

     What we have here is about 7 or 8 years before we see supply catching up with demand. It takes 3 years until the first crop off a vineyard and about a years planning and preparation to plant vineyard acreage. Figure over the next four years farmers and entrepreneurs start to sit up and take notice. Until then expect grape prices in Arizona to continue to keep parity with expensive California fruit.

Cheers

Festival at the Farm - Post Motrem

Tired is the summation of my current state. The Festival at the Farm was excessively busy, at times very crowded, and otherwise dizzyingly active. But not so crowded as to make you feel uncomfortable, or too busy as to keep you from getting wine. Still I am tired. I basically saw the majority of the Arizona wine industy in a 5 hour span. Not just the wine makers and grape growers, but the restaurateurs, the wine shop owners and representatives from grocery store chains. There is a stack of business cards on my desk all of whom had owners expecting phone calls to set up meetings. After them came the cacophony of wine fans, a crowd that the word eclectic does not begin to describe. In all this we even managed to sold some wine. Heck, I even got a chance to taste some.

The music as acostic, the ice cream Blue Bell. Th auctioneers, who usually deal in cattle, spoke almost as fast as the wine disappeared. The high bidding items were vacation get away packages with wine makers dinners. The seminars on wine tasting filled up almost instantly. As did the parking, as I predicted.

The interesting thing about the AWGA's Festival at the Farm is that the wineries are not compensated for the wine they pour. Why is this you might ask? Because this is the AWGA's main fundraiser. Sure we sell some wine but to be blunt this was so our trade organization is able to pay its bills. Which is great for everyone. The more our organization grows the better we can support new growers and winemakers. As they grow and flourish they hire Arizonans. With more growth mean more quality local wine for us to enjoy. We are building an industry that will pay dividends to our great state for generations.

It also has a element of near term returns, in that it is an awesome marketing event. Tons of people who would not have otherwise known a winery existed are now raving about its wine. Left and right the shock on peoples faces who had just learned that Arizona makes quality was giving way to pleasant surprise.

I myself had a pleasant surprise when I sampled Coronado Vineyard's Riesling. Which while sitting here I am kicking myself for not snagging a bottle. Maybe next weekend during our Scent of Wine event at our tasting room in Willcox. A nice floral noise, with a crisp acidity, low residual sugar, a thickness in the mid palate, etc. The chicken salad sandwich was great too, and I do not like chicken salad normally.

If this post is scatter-brained it is because I am still tired. Look for better notes in The Arizona Republic on Wednesday.

AWGA Festival at the Farm - A Perspective

The 2nd annual Arizona Wine Grower's Festival at the Farm is this weekend, and I am intrigued to see how it turns out. During this economic downturn there seems to be only a few industries that are growing in our state. One of those few, is our local wine industry. The AWGA bills this event as the year's top wine festival. A place to shake hands with the wine makers and to learn more about this home grown phenomenon.

I myself see it as a $65 all access pass to the Arizona wine world. It is all you can taste, face to face meetings with the winemakers, a silent auction, tasting seminars, and a organic lunch to top it off. For those that might scoff at the price, beer festivals with a similar format run some $50-$60 for general admission in our fair state. And for those of you who scoff at the point I just made, the local scoffing festival runs about $100 a ticket. Scoffing aside, 20+ wineries each showing 4-5 wines (call it 20 wineries at 4.5 wines), each taste is 1 oz, you run about 90 oz or 3 and 3/5 bottles of wine for your ticket, assuming you taste all the wines. So for what you are getting it is truly a reasonable price. Granted if you partook in all the wines you wouldn't be walking let alone scoffing.

Aside from the passed out scoffers, I am interested to see the new wineries who do not normally sell wine outside of their local areas. A lot of wineries are still developing new vineyards and are growing by leaps and bounds. The cool thing about all these new wineries is that they are experimenting. They're trying grapes from outside the American wine mainstream such as Malvasia Bianca, Cabernet Pfeffer, and Nebillo to name just a few. Heck getting an un-oaked Chardonnay or a Sangiovese Rosé is pretty cool as well. My recommendation is if you cannot pronounce what they are pouring simply point, and they will say it for you. How do you think I learned to say "Gewurztraminer"?

All in all when my shift is over at the Carlson Creek Vineyard booth, expect to see me tasting. I hope to see you as well and I apologize in advance for cutting in front of you in line.

Cheers

PS The lunch is supposed to be delectable.

http://www.azwinefestivalatthefarm.com

HR 5034 - Waiting on takeoff

(Written a few months back, but edited today)

I was just deplaned at Tucson International Airport from my Southwest flight. I am not alone, they emptied the entire plane because it was not safe to fly according to FAA regulations. What could it be you say? An engine problem, a fuel leak, some terrorist plot that the FBI is foiling as I type? No, the cover for the light-up plastic exit sign over one of the emergency exits is missing. A fifty cent piece of plastic has grounded a multi-million dollar airplane. They even had all the passengers looking for it on the floor. So, because a cheap piece of plastic is no doubt wedged between the seats, 180 odd people are growing grumpier by the minute. Great example of a bit of bureaucracy that sounded good to some suit in DC, yet is inane in practice.

What does this have to do with wine you may ask? Well a lot if you are a winemaker typing a blog on a cell phone. Arizona winemakers, like the rest of the nations winemakers, are subject to the inanities of the federal bureaucracy. My first example is labels. When trying to get one of our labels approved by the TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) we experienced a most peculiar round of nonsense. We submitted our label the first time and it was rejected. When we asked why, they said they do not give notes on labels. Just great, so left with no idea of what was wrong, we simply guessed. So we fixed what we thought may have offended them and resubmitted. Rejected again, this time, strangely enough, we got a list of errors: font size was incorrect for the alcohol percentage, the spacing on the alcohol warning was wrong, they did not like how we stated the origin of our grapes, etc. At least we knew what to fix. The second person was more helpful than the first to be sure. We resubmitted and wouldn't you know it, we ended up working with a third person, awesome. He rejected our language on the back of our label because it mentioned our family vineyard and since we were buying grapes from neighbors it was apparently misleading to even mention our vineyard. Something that neither of the previous TTB agents had mentioned. So we sent it back. We finally got approval after we had already bottled(we couldn't wait any longer).

Now imagine that every state was allowed to regulate in this way. If you landed in Louisiana and they noticed the plane did not have exit sign written in creole you too would be grounded for hours on end while that found a 50 cent piece a plastic to glue on there(No offense to the French speakers among you). Or how about not being able to buy the wine you want because the skull and cross bones required by some puritanical legislator is not sufficiently intimidating enough? These are gross exaggerations, but that is how points are often made.

If HR 5034 passes you will see far more creativity than this in the new liquor laws that will crop up all over the country. Laws that would normally be struck down by courts citing the commerce clause. But, what is this? HR 5034 exempts states from impeding interstate commerce as long as it pertains to alcoholic beverages. Hmm, let me see, I seem to recall that the dormant commerce clause is like the federal governments ace in the hole when it comes to domestic policy. It is what struck down the Jim Crow Laws and advanced de-segregation across the country. Why would they give up that power? Money. I am not saying they are being bought, not out loud anyway. It is to protect the money being made by the beer wholesalers of America. The beer wholesalers of America wrote this spiffy little piece of "legislation" all while keeping the interests of the American people at heart. They wrote it to promote temperance in America and stop underage drinking.

Lets get this straight, they want to make sure people drink less. (Pause for dramatic effect) Okay, and General Motors wants people to drive less. They want to stop underage drinking, a noble cause to be sure. And how will they do this. By stopping the evil wineries from shipping directly to your home. Huh? I seem to recall when I was a rambunctious youth the first place my friends went to get boozes was the online sign up forms for a wine club. They would pay $20 plus tax and shipping and they might even get it by next weekend. Only to be carded by the the website and the UPS guy. Darn. No, underage drinkers usually just have an of-age-friend buy for them, or find a liquor store with shaky morals.

This isn't about underage drinking or temperance, or even states rights. It is making sure that their monopolies are safe. If we are able to mail you a bottle of wine then you aren't buying it from a store, and the store isn't buying it from a distributor.

When our three tiered system was enacted it was supposed to be to keep the gangsters out. I think it was to keep them in. What does a distributor own? Trucks. Why can't a producer own trucks? They are a distribution method and for a long time you were required to use them. What if you were required to ride the bus to work? Even if you own your own car? That would be fun. That is the effect of HR 5034, and that is my rant.

A Day at the Tasting Room

A tasting room is a place to sample wine, not a place to do shots of it. This is my pet peeve about running a tasting room. Many people don't taste our Chardonnay because before they can even smell aroma one, it is in their stomach. I avoid correcting them, because that means they are doing something wrong. The experience is not for my benefit, but for the person tasting. So I boast about the fragrance of the next wine and talk about how if you hold it in their mouth it really shows character. After that they tend to sniff and swish with the best of them.

You see, when people walk into my tasting room they either announce that they have never done a wine tasting before or they tell me they are shocked there is such a thing as Arizona wine. That is what we get: adventurous newbies and the curiously incredulous. So the goal of a tasting then becomes to initiate and to convert.

It is a lot like a club. "Have you tried Arizona wine?" If the answer is yes, you are usually barraged with question of where, when, what, how and oddly enough why. If the answer is no, most people who have tried a few Arizona wines will give directions, recommendations, websites, and offers to car pool. Once initiated you find that you could conceivably spend almost every weekend for the rest of you natural life with fellow Arizona wine fanatics. There is always an Arizona wine event going on. But once you become a zombie, vampire, or some other form of undead you are cut off.

While still human a tasting room can be a scary place for the uninitiated. If someone comes in with a group of friends who are self proclaimed connoisseurs, how is she to feel when the only descriptor she can come up with is "good"? That is one of the reasons I like Arizona wine. There is a comfortable lack of pretension. We don't have the baggage of estates that can be traced back to the Roman Empire, or brands crafted by marketing mavens, or even storied dynasties(check back in 60 years). We just have good wine. I say good because great wine, by popular and critical definition, needs about an inch of dust and a name that most of us would not bother trying to pronounce.

Most of the people who taste here end up talking about life more than wine. I learn about where the kids go to school, their family history, how their grandfather used to make wine in the basement(an extremely common conversation), and the personal details of ones life that no other salesman ever hears. That is because I am not selling them, I am just talking to them while they enjoy my wine. A friend once told me a tired saying that the best souvenir from a winery is a bottle of wine. Perhaps the more wine they buy, the more they want to remember their visit.

Cheers.