Front Corral Fixins

How in Heavens are our fancy city slicker designers going to use these? I guess we'll all see next week.

More barrel tasting photos

As promised yesterday, here are a few photos from our earlier barrel tasting on July 24. It was a great evening of wine, too.

Across the tasting room, guests taste and discuss our '09 reds

Right now we have a LOT of different tasty wines in the barrels

Tim uses a winemaker's tool, the wine thief, to extract wine from the barrels

Winemaker Tim shares his assessment of one of the new wines

Beautiful Sonoita skies over the vineyard as the evening comes to a close

Too bad we have to wait another year for our summer barrel tastings to return. If you missed them this year, be on the lookout for announcements next spring about our July and August 2011 (yes, 2011) barrel tasting evenings. We even have some new ideas for next year!

'09 Reds get a thumbs-up at summer barrel tastings

On Saturday evening we had our second summer Barrel Tasting event. It was a lot of fun, with many Canelo Hills regulars, and a few first-timers, pumping us with winemaking questions and giving us their feedback on our '09 red wines.


We sampled seven '09 wines plus our Yummy Zin dessert wine, and they were all pronounced delicious. Some guests asked if they could buy some that night right out of the barrel, but unfortunately we'll all have to be a bit patient. These wines will have anywhere from a few weeks to several months more barrel aging, and then they'll be bottled and need from 3 to 12 months of bottle aging to settle down from bottle shock and reach their full potential.

Stay tuned. Tomorrow I'll post photos from our July barrel tasting!

2010 Harvest

It has begun. Melissa and Todd brought over the 2010 Harvest's first fruits - Viognier from their vineyard in Sasabe, AZ - Sierra Vista Vineyard. This is the second time I'd had the opportunity to work with Melissa's fruit. She's a master gardener from the University of Arizona who not doubt tends to Arizona's southern most vineyard. The fruit isbeautifu, at the peak of ripeness and already along the way to wine. Today I destemmed the fruit which is now cold soaking at the winery to be gently pressed tomorrow. This should make a plush, rich wine with an "oily" mouthfeel in the way that only Viognier can be. It will be available on a limited basis in the winery and through the wine club.

City Slicker Design Team

Canelo Hill's New York City Design Team thinks our front corral needs some sprucing up. Since Rhian Swierat and Ian Mueller did a mighty fine job with our tasting room design, we're leaning towards believing them. They will be jetting out the middle of the month to start the work. I'll be posting some of their fancy Eastern ideas in the days ahead. You can add your two cents if you have a liking to.

High Desert Green

Almost exactly 9 years ago, Joan and I "discovered" Southern Arizona wine country. As we ventured down SR 83, we traveled through a monsoon rain storm complete with rainbow, nearby lightning strikes, brief hailstorm, intoxicating smells of wet desert and brilliant Arizona sun as the rain passed us by.








The hills were green - incandescent green waving grasses punctuated by small clusters of flowers of many hues. It has been many years since this valley looked that spectacular. This year is one of them. The grape vines are happy. In fact all things growing seem to be happy at present. I suspect you will be too when you make the trip.

A Great Run - the Great AZ Grape Stomp

Saturday morning was the first 5K race in the Great Arizona Grape Stomp, a series of 4 races in Arizona Wine Country sponsored by the AWGA. It was a beautiful Sonoita morning and a fun, well-planned event full of good spirits. My father beat his predicted running time by 10 minutes, and my mother, Charlie, and I, well...we got in walking under an hour!

The Canelo Hill Raisers: (L-R) Joan, Tim, Kathryn, David, Staci, Sharon, Kevin, Jayson and Fran

We had an awesome team of Canelo Hill Raisers for the race. Old friends Linda, David, Staci, Sharon & Kevin ran and walked with us, and we met Fran and Jayson for the first time and were glad to have them on our team. The team hung out at the winery post-race for muffins and mimosas made with my father's Sparkling Nebbiolo Rosé, a well-deserved treat.

After the race, Todd Bostock of Dos Cabezas WineWorks came over - we were in competition for the best team time. Without even seeing the official race results, he and my father conceded to each other (is that possible?). A bottle of bubbly was at stake, so everyone won.

More photos from race day are below. We're looking forward to next year! And encourage you to register for one of the 3 races still left in this year's Great AZ Grape Stomp.

Todd, Kelly, and Griffin Bostock of Dos Cabezas before the race

Our teammate Linda Wood of Square Top Ranch Alpacas and Joan chat while walking

Canelo Hill Raisers Kevin and Sharon, who seriously improved our team time

Kelly Bostock and the AWGA's Executive Director Rhonni Moffitt

The race stretches long down Elgin Road on a beautiful summer morning