“Tell me who you walk with and I will tell you who you are.” Loosely translated from an old Colombian saying, this is a favorite heuristic that I continue to apply in life. And it became even more significant when our winery, Los Milics, acquired its first vineyard in Elfrida. Although Juan Flores, our vineyard foreman, is good at his job, we wanted another perspective to fine-tune the way we approach viticulture. Enter Fritz Westover...
This time of year – harvest season – is imbued with reflection for the team at Los Milics Vineyards. Each vintage brings a new story and perspective. Precipitation coupled with harvest is not something desirable, but for better or for worse, part of the winemaking milieu here in Arizona. (Thanks for nothing, monsoons!) We had a very wet August both in Sonoita and at Jenny’s Vineyard located in Elfrida, and were forced to make picking...
Planting a vineyard involves a great deal of work, from establishing the water source to developing the irrigation and trellis infrastructure. There’s also the small matter of deciding what to plant. When my team at Los Milics Vineyards was making these important decisions three years ago, we reached out to local winemakers to find out what would do well in our part of the world. Graciano made the cut. Native to the Rioja and Navarre...
2022 is here, and it’s fitting to reflect as we commence another year. Back in 2004, while driving south on Napa Valley’s Silverado Trail after helping at Neyers Vineyards with my friend Tadeo Borchardt, I whispered to myself that one day I would be involved in the world of making wine. Was I mollifying my own existential anxiety over the future by dreaming the impossible? Perhaps. “Be careful what you wish for,” the saying goes....
Produced in limited quantities by winemaker Todd Bostock, Dos Cabezas WineWorks’ Carbonated Pink has emerged as the most cultishly consumed of Arizona’s growing number of sparkling wines.
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,...
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...
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...
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...