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June 2015 WINES&VINES 49 WINEMAKER INTERVIEW Pierce: Nearly all equipment must come from out of state—Califor- nia suppliers for the most part. There are also no established wine grape nurseries yet, so all new plant material has to be ordered from out of state. With the small size of many of the producers and costs associated with trucking, it has been beneficial for wineries and vineyards to partner up on orders and reduce shipping costs. We generally do this by sending out emails. It is not only more expensive to bring in things like barrels on our own, it is logistically more of a pain. If you ship your small order by common carrier, it will make its way through Phoenix and be passed off to different regional carriers before it makes its way to wine country a few days later. Fill- ing a truck with orders from the local wineries and having direct delivery has been the better way to go. Today, for example, a 53- foot truck full of glass arrived in the Verde Valley from Diablo Val- ley Packaging in Fairfield, Calif., to deliver glass to three wineries before heading to wineries in Willcox. Slowly the industry is making its way into Arizona. Higher edu- cation has helped bring instruc- tional resources in the last few years. Yavapai College in the Verde Valley has 8 acres planted (a total of 17 acres are planned by 2021) and a full-scale teaching winery with a 3,000-case capac- ity. (See "See Arizona to Build a Teaching Winery" in the Septem- ber 2012 issue of Wines & Vines.) One-year certificates in viticul- ture or enology and two-year degrees in viticulture and enol- ogy are offered. The college's facility, which is referred to as the Southwest Wine Center, has a well-equipped lab for wine analy- sis. Wineries' lab samples are commonly sent to California, but there are plans for the Southwest Wine Center lab to offer services, with revenues going to support the program. The college is also partnering with the University of Arizona's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to create a data reposi- tory. The purpose is to create a community resource for state- specific information pertaining to grapegrowing and winemaking. The university has also hired a cooperative extension agent in the southern part of the state to pro- vide educational assistance to growers. Plans are in place to hire a second cooperative extension agent to be stationed in the Verde Valley whose focus will be viticul- ture. A resident of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Laurie Daniel has been a journalist for more than 35 years. She has been writ- ing about wine for publications for more than 21 years and has been a Wines & Vines contributor since 2000.