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16 WINES&VINES June 2018 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS P aso Robles, Calif.—At the recent Hos- pice du Rhône event held April 27-28 in Paso Robles, wine writer and critic Jeb Dunnuck interviewed Todd Bos- tock of Dos Cabezas WineWorks based in south- ern Arizona's Sonoita and Willcox AVAs, and Maynard Keenan of Caduceus Cellars, based in northern Arizona's Verde Valley. The theme: high elevation wines, referring to the fact that most of Arizona's wineries produce wines from grapes grown between 3,500 to 5,500 feet above sea level. For Dos Cabeza WineWorks' two southern- Arizona properties, Cimarron Vineyard in Will- cox and Pronghorn Vineyard in Sonoita, rainfall hovers around 12 inches annually, "and most comes right at the end of ripening and going into harvest," Bostock said. "A lot of people perceive that heat and dryness are the problem [in Arizona], but it's really hail, water, and extreme cold." To demonstrate how his estate excels with Rhône varieties, Bostock shared the 2015 Dos Cabezas "Meskeoli" from Cimarron Vineyard, a blend of all the white grapes grown there: Picpoul Blanc, Viognier, Riesling, Roussanne, Malvasia, Albarino, and Muscat. "We pick by hand and sort through it by hand — probably not like most people do. It's terribly labor intensive." After, he soaks the fruit whole- cluster for one day without adding sulfur diox- ide, ferments in concrete and ages some of the wine in oak vessels for six months before bot- tling. "It's so arid and dry that evaporation is a real factor," he said, referring to neutral vessels like concrete, foudre, and large wood tanks. "Wines benefit from age in the cellar but if there's evaporation they lose freshness." Bostock said because of the state's extreme climate the most consistent wines may ulti- mately prove to be blends. "You have to have a constellation of things you can put together to create balance," he said. Maynard Keenan owns 40 acres of vine- yards spread over several sites near Jerome, Ariz., in addition to vineyards in Willcox. "Northern Arizona isn't as agriculturally- friendly as Southern Arizona in terms of cost of land and ease of farming," he said, noting that, in the basin of the Verde Valley where he farms, the terrain is rougher, more sloping, less hydrated and much cooler. Of the 26 SKUs Keenan sells, one-quarter are Rhône-based, hailing primarily from his southern Arizona properties. "I feel like Syrah and Petite Sirah do much better down south for me," he said, but added that Grenache and Mourvedre appear to be doing well in the chillier, less predictable north. For Keenan experimentation starts with choosing vineyard sites and extends into farm- ing and winemaking: early picks, extended maceration, and submerged cap fermentation. For Caduceus Cellars' 2013 "Nagual del Agos- tina," a 100% Mourvedre from northern Ari- zona, he picked at 23.5° Brix followed by extended maceration in a 350-gallon tank and pump-overs on skins for a few weeks. Like Bostock, he will age his 2016 and 2017 Gre- nache in concrete eggs. —Jamie Lewis Rhônes Finding a Home in Arizona " A lot of people perceive that heat and dryness are the problem [in Arizona], but it's really hail, water, and extreme cold." —Todd Bostock