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