Arizonica

After a long hiatus I'm back at work on the vineyard, with plans to start building trellises in the next few months. For now I'd like to share some photos of Vitis Arizonica, the local grape variety. Finding ripe Arizonica berries is an extremely rare event. In my entire life this is only the second time I've seen them let alone eaten any. These were picked about a hundred feet from our cabin in Lyle Canyon where my future vineyard is going to be. Notice that the berries are quite small and there aren't very many per cluster. They tasted sweet with a nice tartness and a wild, brambly-herbal quality that reminded me of Petite Sirah. I'm hoping to grow some of these in captivity and turn them into wine. At this size it will take a heck of a lot of them to fill a bottle! Enjoy the photos!

Arizonica growing near the cabin.

A single berry.

A cluster in hand.

Alongside my trusty old pocket knife.

Inca Malbec 2007

Today I went down to Time Market for their happy hour, which starts at three o'clock and offers a modest selection of wines and draught beers at reasonable prices. It's been a while since I did something like this and it was a lot of fun. I ordered a glass of their cheapest red wine and sat down on their hidden back patio. The weather was perfect, about seventy-four degrees, and the wine tasted amazing.

The 2007 Inca Malbec (three dollars for a six-ounce pour!) was surprisingly good. The nose was bright and aromatic with spicy plum and just a hint of camphor. In the mouth the wine was firm, slightly tannic but nicely balanced with a delicious chewiness. The bright black fruit and just a hint of oak came together nicely with excellent acidity and grip, right through the midpalate. No hollowness here. A very integrated wine with modest varietal distinction and excellent drinkability. I'd have to say it's a steal. It retails for eleven dollars but expect it to go up in price over the next few years.

My score: 86+

Intentionality

Sitting here, wishing I was at Lyle, the rain coming down outside. It's Tucson, the kids watching Scooby Doo for the hundredth time, not knowing they could be sitting on the porch at Lyle, staring out at the eternal Huachucas, the impenetrable domain of deer and javelina and countless other forest dwellers. The wood stove stuffed with juniper cut from the hillside, the grass of the last season wet and weighted, waiting for warmer days. I look up at the hillside, contemplating grape vines, imagining the short rows well tended, the impossibility of it all, the diminutive harvest barely saved from birds, the wine—strong, imbalanced—which we nevertheless drink and force on our friends who smile and nod and think we're crazy. They're right, of course. It was all part of the plan.

The Good Life

The good life is a loving life, filled with love for people, animals, beautiful places and all the richness made possible through caring attention. It is a life of wine, of good food and quiet afternoons spent in the garden. It is a life of thoughtful repose. It is a life spent cooking great food in the kitchen, a life spent serving great food to others, a life spent doing good in the simple ways that make people feel at home.

It is a life of and for the home, a place of refuge, a place where weary travelers can take off their shoes and sit a spell, telling tales of the road. For what is life if not a road? What is life if not a journey filled with potholes and hazards, with occasional scenic vistas, always just out of reach. Forever out of reach. There is no good life out there, in the distance. The good life is here, now, in this house, or no where at all.

Cultivate the good life. Grow a garden of friendships. Make a harvest of grateful companions, of time spent tilling the soil of life together, of time spent on real things, things here and now, things filled with the terroir of your surroundings, your moment, your home, your back yard, your vineyard soul.

The good life is a vineyard where the careful attention of the grower rewards future generations with riches beyond imagining. Where the final product is something transcendent, something of the earth, but also of the spirit. Drink deeply of the good life. Let it fill you and release you from the troubles of the road.

Lyle Canyon Site Survey

Well, I'm back from Lyle and I've got a better idea what I'm up against. Also made some interesting discoveries along the way.



I measured the hillside and determined that the vineyard will be sixty feet wide by sixty feet high. It has a slope of about 40 degrees which is pretty severe. Trellises will be ten feet apart. Each trellis will have four vines for a total of sixteen vines on four trellises. That's enough to produce about eighty bottles of wine (at optimal yields).



The soil is rocky with large metamorphic cobbles and medium brown dirt. All digging will have to be done with picks. This is some seriously rocky soil but excellent for grape growing.



Any large rocks will be reserved for retaining walls. Here is an existing wall using the same construction method. Each terrace will have one of these walls to hold the soil in place.



I went for a walk down the road to check on the local wild grape population which appears to be thriving. I'll take this as a good sign since this is the same soil from the vineyard. These are vitis arizonica, a native species. I'm considering the possibility of transplanting a couple of these vines to blend into the future wine. Cool.



In case you didn't know it, this is the natural habitat for all grapes: growing in trees where birds can propagate the seeds.

Red Diamond Cabernet Sauvignon 2007

In addition to being a blog about my attempts to make wine, I will be writing the occasional review for a bottle or two that I find worth drinking. Rest a assured that if I write about someone else's wine, it is probably a delicious value at any price, at least as far as I'm able to tell with my limited knowledge. What this means is I'm on the lookout for really great wines at any price point, and the following Cabernet is no exception. Enjoy!

We tried this wine over at the Arizona Inn. It is currently their banquet house red. The bartender said they have been getting plenty of good feedback from their guests which is always a good sign. This review is for the '07. Don't forget that vintage means everything, at any price point.

The 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon by Red Diamond (Washington State) is an absolutely delicious example of this varietal, and while exhibiting all of the characteristics of a "crowd pleaser" manages to remain true to its roots, so to speak, by retaining a core that is distinctively Cabernet and not something else. On the nose the wine explodes with cherries and cassis wrapped around a smokey, tobacco/caramel/incense note that hints at things to come. In the mouth the wine is smooth with integrated, juicy tannins and nice acidity. Sweet flavors of red currant and dark cherries mingle with a perfect application of toasted oak that imparts an amazing almond roca note that isn't the slightest bit fake. I was expecting this wine to devolve into something less wonderful as it sat in my glass, but it never did. It is really well made and when I discovered that it retails for around nine dollars I was shocked. A truly fine effort. I'm very curious to try their Shiraz and Merlot. At this rate Red Diamond might take the place of McManis as my number one best value winery in America. Seriously good stuff.

You can find it at Trader Joe's. Yvonne, you listening?

My score, for what it's worth: 85 points on the Parker scale with another two brownie points for being so delicious.

Cheers!

The Hillside

Here is a photo of the hillside where the vines will be planted. No way to get a tractor up there. Maybe a rototiller and a jackhammer. To give you an idea of what I'm trying to do, here is a list of the basic tasks prior to planting vines:

1. Survey the site and determine potential drainage/erosion problems.
2. Create leveled terraces with retaining walls of stacked stones and drainage profile.
3. Dig minimum 2 cubic feet soil for each vine (24 vines) to aerate soil. This dirt goes back into the hole. That's right, we're digging big holes and filling them in with the same dirt, and we're doing it thirty times, in rocky soil on a 45 degree slope.
4. Put in a 5 foot high deer fence with posts sunk two feet. Another 50 holes at 2 feet deep in the same rocky soil, no way to get an auger rig up there.
5. Build a trellis system another 30 holes dug and major wire project.
6. Put in drip irrigation with timer so when I'm gone for a month the vines will be watered.

If I'm lucky I'll get all this done by the spring of 2011. The vines need three years to mature. We're talking about making our first wine in 2014.