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....
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...
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.
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...
Find a hotel, B&B or guesthouse with our update of the Willcox, Sonoita and Verde Valley hospitality scenes.
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...
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...
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...