Pavle Milic, Author at PHOENIX magazine

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Desert Digest Food & DrinkPav on Juice: My Fave New Bottle Shop

Pavle MilicSeptember 17, 2021

It’s always momentous, at least for an oenophile like me, when a new wine shop or bar opens. Far Away Wine and Provisions in East Phoenix is the brainchild of Pat Jasmin and Chris French, part of the food-and-bev fabric of Arizona for years. Jasmin has done a little of everything, from writing wine lists to owning a restaurant to wine distribution, which is how she met French, a history and music buff who sold...

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Desert Digest Food & DrinkPav on Juice: Making of a Winery, Vol. VII

Pavle MilicAugust 9, 2021

At Los Milics Vineyards in Sonoita, we’re hosting tastings on our crush pad while the tasting room is built. If I am not in the weeds, I give tours of the production facility. Invariably, someone asks about barrels. Questions like “Where do you get your barrels?” or “Are they all new?” are common. There are three major reasons to use oak barrels: to add aromatic and flavor compounds; allow for slow oxygen exchange through porous...

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Desert Digest Food & DrinkPav on Juice: The Vranac Varietal

Pavle MilicMay 21, 2021

The delicate art of selecting the right grape varietal to plant on any given plot of land led me to create an informal amicus brief with neighboring winemakers in Sonoita. With my coterie, I parse through all the choices to make prudent decisions based on history and performance of established vineyards. Currently at our Los Milics estate vineyard, we have Petit Verdot, Marsanne and Montepulciano in the ground; and this spring, we’re grafting Malvasia Bianca,...

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Desert Digest Food & DrinkPav on Juice: Making of a Winery, Vol. VI

Pavle MilicApril 15, 2021

Last time I wrote about Los Milics Winery was back in September of 2020 – after the hurricane known as “harvest.” Construction on our winery in the Southern Arizona town of Elgin was completed and my wife, Carla (pictured), and I processed 36 tons of fruit by ourselves. From our vineyard a few miles away in Elfrida we got some beautiful Graciano, Grenache and Mourvèdre. However, the Tempranillo from that site was not yielding the...

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Desert DigestPav on Juice: AZ Wine Lit

Pavle MilicFebruary 3, 2021

Recently, Jessica Dupuy, a contributor to forbes.com and Texas Monthly, was tapped by book publisher Infinite Ideas to contribute to its Classic Wine Library series, which profiles both benchmark and lesser-known regions, from Burgundy and Rioja to Greece and Georgia (the country). Dupuy’s entry is The Wines of Southwest U.S.A. and includes wine regions in New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and – you guessed it – Arizona. Dupuy writes about each region’s history, climate and personalities...

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Desert DigestPav on Juice: Twisted Union Wine Co.

Pavle MilicDecember 9, 2020

Here’s another column about some new kids on the block. One day, driving down Elgin Road in Southern Arizona wine country, I noticed a banner that read “Twisted Union” hanging on Kief-Joshua Vineyard’s fence. I’d heard rumblings about Kief Manning looking to sell his winery and vineyard, and by the looks of this, he did. Twisted Union Wine Co. is composed of 14 partners. In fact, I know some of the folks involved because they...

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Desert DigestPav on Juice: Adventures on the Wine Route

Pavle MilicOctober 30, 2020

After the 16-hour-a-day whirlwind of harvest came to an end at my Los Milics Winery, I suddenly had time to think about something other than pH and Brix levels. It caused some low-level depression. A sense of non-purpose. I was warned about this by fellow winemakers, but I didn’t believe them. Well, it’s true. As an antidote, I stepped up my infrequent running routine and decided to revisit one of my favorite wine books to...

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Desert DigestPav on Juice: What is TCA and How Do You Recognize It?

Pavle MilicOctober 2, 2020

Everything is just right. You decanted that special bottle of wine you bought on vacation six years ago to accompany the anniversary dinner that you lovingly cooked for your significant other. Letting the dry-aged ribeye rest, you set the table and take the Dauphinoise potatoes out of the oven. Finally, you both sit down to clink clink over the momentous occasion, with candlelight flickering and Wilco playing in the background. You pop the cork, swirl...

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Desert DigestPav on Juice: Making of A Winery, Vol. V

Pavle MilicSeptember 2, 2020

In early August, my fledgling winery, Los Milics, harvested our first pick of Tempranillo. It could have gone horribly wrong, because just two days prior we had a hailstorm in Sonoita. Thankfully we lived to pick our fruit and avoid disaster. A helluva start to our 2020 vintage, and par for the course for a challenging and emotionally straining year. Before we could harvest, we had to prepare the winery for the incoming fruit. Though...

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Desert DigestPav on Juice: New Grape on the Block

Pavle MilicAugust 4, 2020

The Arizona wine scene continues to show us the spirit of discovery and experimentation is alive and well. A common thread is the continuing search for grape varietals that can do well here. Enter Arizona wine pioneer Kent Callaghan’s latest discovery: Xarel-lo. Hailing from the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia, the white varietal is one normally found in the ubiquitous sparkling Cava. Callaghan tells me that his interest “began with a trip to Barcelona in...

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Desert DigestPav on Juice: Making of a Winery, Vol. 4

Pavle MilicJuly 7, 2020

Temporarily closing FnB, the little gin joint I help run in Scottsdale, due to COVID-19 was challenging and sad. In stark contrast, my other life in Baja Arizona has never been busier. The vineyards don’t stop growing at Los Milics, our nascent winery in Sonoita, so my wife and I have been hard at work. For the last couple of months, we’ve been finalizing trellis architecture. In 2019, we finally put our own vines in...

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Desert DigestPav on Juice: Corona Vino

Pavle MilicMay 6, 2020

People are being asked to forego non-essentials – including visits to wine-tasting rooms. This hurts the bottom line for Arizona wine growers, but it’s not nearly as painful as the mass closures of restaurants, hotels and wine shops, where they do the bulk of their sales. Many hope to pick up the slack through wine clubs and direct-mail services. Some wineries have gone digital, connecting with their customer base via services like Zoom. Kent Callaghan...

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Desert DigestPav on Juice: The Meading Room

Pavle MilicFebruary 19, 2020

One of my favorite rituals every morning before heading to work is doing The New York Times mini crossword puzzle, which always puts my brain in the right place. One recent clue read: Ancient alcoholic beverage enjoying a 21st-century resurgence. The answer came to me quickly: “mead” – probably because I drive by a meadery every day on Highway 82 in Sonoita. Traditionally made from honey, water and yeast, mead is considered the oldest beverage...

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Desert DigestPav on Juice: Merkin Vineyards

Pavle MilicJanuary 22, 2020

I finally got around to visiting Old Town Scottsdale’s latest Arizona wine-tasting room: Maynard James Keenan’s Merkin Vineyards, which opened last year. It was something of a nostalgic homecoming for me, because the space served as the first home of my restaurant, FnB. And, yes, I like what they’ve done with the place. Just like Keenan’s Caduceus tasting room in Jerome, MV is posh and welcoming. General manager James Cunningham walked me through the offerings:...

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Desert DigestPav on Juice: 2019 in Review

Pavle MilicJanuary 6, 2020

In an effort to celebrate a year passed, and to possibly introduce you to a wine you haven’t tried yet, I reached out to fellow colleagues in the wine industry to ask them what wines they thought to be memorable in 2019. I’ll start off by telling you my pick: Petit Manseng. Originally from the southwest of France, the Jurançon to be exact, the white varietal held natural appeal to Kent Callaghan of Callaghan Vineyards,...

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