Beginnings.9 (fin)- Fourth Anniversary Reflections

Join us October 1 & 2 as we celebrate the fourth anniversary of opening our tasting room. We will be open from 11am-4pm each day, serve some cake and have lots of our wines available for tasting and purchase - including two new releases - 2009 Syrah and 2009 Zinfandel.




There are many ways to mark the passage of time. These days looking in a mirror seems to be the most frequent way. Minutes stretch into hours, hours in to days, days into years. Developing Canelo Hills Vineyard and Winery from uncultivated land 8 years ago and opening the tasting room 4 years ago has been a triumph. Fortunately Joan and I were able to make some young friends early on in the process. Perhaps reflecting back on them is the most sobering reminder of the ephemeral nature of our labors. Thanks to Kevin Buhl, Clare Callaghan, Caitlin Callaghan and Parker Bostock for the grounding they provide. Thanks also to sweet Emma Lou and good old Cassandra.

Beginnings.8 - Fourth Anniversary Reflections

Join us October 1 & 2 as we celebrate the fourth anniversary of opening our tasting room.








Opening Day in 2007 was the culmination of many years of work and many more years of dreaming and scheming.





Kathryn and Nathan helped pour our new wines.




Joan sparkled (Sparkling wine would come in a few months, but not on opening day)





People visited, eventually revisiting and became loyal fans and friends.





We were happy.

Beginnings.7 - Fourth Anniversary Reflections

Join us October 1 & 2 as we celebrate the fourth anniversary of opening our tasting room.


Let's make some wine.




Hauling Riesling from Dos Cabezas (now Arizona Stronghold)




Fooling around with fermenting wines in the universal small winery container - blue barrels.





Picking Syrah from our own Estate vineyard.









Scooping and pressing Syrah from Sweet Sunrise Vineyard (now Sand Reckoner).







Corking Malvasia.





Bottling Sangiovese. What a big empty building!

Beginnings.6 - Fourth Anniversary Reflections

Join us October 1 & 2 as we celebrate the fourth anniversary of opening our tasting room.







Vineyard? - (check). Next up building. Nothing defines a space like a new concrete pad. It looked so small when the sky was the roof.






A Mueller metal building. Ironic no?





And it looked so big when the roof was the roof. How in the world would we ever fill it? It seemed like enough space to last forever.




A winery building awaiting some contents. Honestly it looked like a purple roofed tin can. Beautiful to Joan and me.

Beginnings.5 - Fourth Anniversary Reflections

Join us October 1 & 2 as we celebrate the fourth anniversary of opening our tasting room.






The newly planted vines were very happy, as were we.




They took off, nourished by what only 5000 foot elevation Southern Arizona high desert can provide.








The plants "reached the wire" their first year, a milestone every wine grape farmer celebrates.





The backdrop as always was spectacular.

Beginnings.4 - Fourth Anniversary Reflections

Join us October 1 & 2 as we celebrate the fourth anniversary of opening our tasting room.

Loved vineyards always do better, always show it, and always make better wine. We decided to keep our first planting small, just half an acre of Syrah, and relied on our family to provide the love and the labor.













A very humble beginning in retrospect. At the time it occupied a huge space in our imagination.

Beginnings.3 - Fourth Anniversary Reflections

Join us October 1 & 2 as we celebrate the fourth anniversary of opening our tasting room.



Grape vines don't plant themselves, at least not wine grape vines, and especially wine grape vines destined to make very fine wine. Help comes from unexpected quarters.



In the high desert at 5000 feet elevation, irrigation lines are necessary to nourish the plants.



Holes have to be dug. A backbreaking and repetitive process eased by a mechanical augur.





Planting rows need to be laid out.



A task always made easier if the focus of the transit is a pleasing sight.

Beginnings.2 - Fourth Anniversary Reflections

Join us October 1 & 2 as we celebrate the fourth anniversary of opening our tasting room.




Raw land, never tilled, lying fallow for who knows how many millions of years needs a little coaxing. It takes BIG machines to do this work. Digging trenches for electrical power for one.



Loosen up the soil so it'll accept grape vines for another. Called "ripping the soil" in viticulture circles.




Ever the spectacular vistas to feed the soul.

Beginnings - Fourth Anniversary Reflections

Join us October 1 & 2 as we celebrate the fourth anniversary of opening our tasting room.





Eight years ago we started. The landscape was different in many ways - wild, seemingly untamed, full of endless possibilities.






Our vineyard was grasslands. The landscape was breathtakingly awesome. Joan and I were enriched by our dreams of the future.

The Tempranillo is Harvested!

Yesterday we finished bringing in the Tempranillo with the help of some great volunteers.

This was Cheryl's first time picking grapes.  She was a trooper and seemed to enjoy herself.

 Therese is happy to think she found the biggest cluster.

 Wayne is an old pro at harvesting and is always great to have around.

  Nick and Sage are conducting quality control.

 The happy crew at the end of harvest.  It's always a great feeling to get the fruit off the vines!

Lizzie the Lizard Hunter

This is Lizzie, one of our tasting room greeters.  When she is not at work at the winery she is hard at work at home.

This is Lizzie's prey.  This little lizard has spent its summer traveling around from window to window attaching itself to the screen.

This drives Lizzie crazy.  She stalks, jumps and whines.  My question is; do you think the lizard knows Lizzie can't get at it and is purposefully taunting my poor little Lizzie?

Bottle <---> Harvest

Hand in hand they go. Wine from years past gets bottled to make room for the new wine that will result from the upcoming harvest. Today Eve, Juan, Mike, Stephanie and Ella helped bottle 2008 Sangiovese Select. These grapes (Brunello Clone of Sangiovese) were harvested from Sweet Sunrise Vineyard (now Sand Reckoner) in 2008 and have been resting for nearly three years in lovely French and American oak barrels. It is one of my favorites. Bottling that wine cleared out the barrels and the settling tanks it had been occupying so that those vessels can now accept the 2011 Tempranillo that we will harvest from our own vineyard this coming weekend. I love the cycles of wine making.