Bud break–about 2 weeks ago in the Pillsbury Wine Co. Vineyards, and the vines are now sprouting leaves and beginning to grow. This week brought the threat of frost, but the babies survived!

Writing Pour Me Some Grapes for TucsonCitizen.com has led to a fantastic personal opportunity that will make me a wiser wine blogger. I have just moved 89 miles from my Tucson “roots” (okay, only 21 years)—to the Pillsbury Wine Company vineyard property in Willcox Wine Country. Soon I will be managing a new tasting room at this rustic working vineyard/farm in the Sulphur Springs Valley, just a couple miles from the Zarpara Vineyards tasting room, which opened a little over a year ago.

Why would any semi-respectable 60-some-year-old woman do such a crazy thing? If you’ve followed Pour Me Some Grapes at all, you know I am a champion for the wines produced in Arizona. Likewise, I have become captivated by the people who turn Arizona grapes into these palatable concoctions. I’ve said often that I’d really like to get more hands-on experience in the wine industry. Be careful what you wish for!

Who better to direct me into the Arizona wine business than famed New Zealand film and television director, Sam Pillsbury, who now gets red carpet reviews for the amazing wines he’s been creating with Arizona grapes since 2000.

Last December, Sam and I were musing on Facebook about the well-connected and supportive Willcox wine community. I mentioned I had considered moving to Willcox if I ever found suitable accommodations. Sam, who also operates a tasting room in Old Town Cottonwood, AZ, mentioned his charming cottage in the Pillsbury vineyard, which he’d like someone to open up as a tasting room.

Long story short, I now reside in that quaint vineyard cottage off Kansas Settlement Road, readying for my new life as a grapista*. I’ll continue blogging, writing, editing, and social marketing, which will be easy—with majestic mountain views all around, fruit and nut trees in bloom, birds galore, and, of course, vineyards everywhere, this is perhaps the most inspirational place I’ve ever lived and wrote.

A view of the Pillsbury Wine Co. vineyard estates. The plowed area is all prepped and ready for planting an organic vegetable garden. Tasting room is situated upper right side of photo.

The tasting experience here at the Pillsbury Wine Co. Vineyard Tasting Room will be as unique as its rustic locale. We plan to greet you with a complimentary taste of the Pillsbury Wild Child (red, white, or rose), making it well worth your time to seek out our distinctive setting and try our wines. The wide open spaces surrounding the tasting room beckon hanging out to enjoy the views and sharing a packed lunch and wine. Four days a week—Thurs.-Sun., 11 a.m.-5 p.m., I will share my digs with lively wine tasters, beginning sometime in mid-May.

Because I love my wine and respect where it comes from, I’ll also be pitching in—pruning, planting, harvesting, bottling, etc.—for the growing number of Willcox grape growers with vineyards nearby (22 vineyards at last count). I’m certain there is much joy to be discovered in the effort—and what a great balance to my many hours spent in front of the computer.

Cheers to my new life! Stay tuned as I continue to bring the Arizona wine news to you—from an insider’s perspective.

*DEFINITION—Grapista: One who pours wines (personally coined identity)

I’m so looking forward to my weekend visit to the Willcox Wine Country Fall Festival in the Railroad Avenue Park, just an hour’s drive east of Tucson on I-10. As they say in Willcox, “It’s not too far, but feels a world away.” The festival is on tap for this Saturday and Sunday, October 20 and 21, from 10am to 5pm each day.

This two-day fun-filled event focuses on wine tasting and meeting the Arizona winemakers who make it so. For a $15 tasting fee, festival-goers receive 8 wine tastings, a commemorative wine glass, and will enjoy live entertainment. Additional tasting tickets may be purchased at the hospitality kiosk. Choose from more than 60 wines from 13 Arizona wineries at this event; be among the first to taste some of these wines, many of which are new or recent releases.

There will be plenty of live entertainment on hand as you make your way around the park to taste the wines.

On Saturday, October 20, Buzz and the Soul Senders will be providing entertainment. This is a versatile group of talented musicians from southern Arizona with a strong background in blues and funky soul.

On Sunday, October 21, local favorites from Bisbee, Nowhere Man and a Whiskey Girl with Sam and Daniele Panther, will play an eclectic mix of styles along with their own critically acclaimed songs. Nowhere Man and a Whiskey Girl have received rave reviews of their most recent CD Children of Fortune. Not only is their music uniquely Arizona, it is an exciting update of the Folk/Americana genre.

13 to the Gallows will be closing the event on Sunday, October 21. The group mixes classic country style with contemplative lyrics and a self-described “spaghetti western” vibe. This Peoria, AZ-based band is a gem shining from the Arizona desert dust.

“Melancholy Radiance” was created with the assistance of a Sand-Reckoner Vineyards Sangiovese (Brunello clone) leaf. Look for this moody mixed-media work by Xymyl at the TRUST booth, which will feature other artwork in the “Terroir” series made with grape leaves from Keeling Schaefer Vineyards, Coronado Vineyards, Carlson Creek Vineyards, Pillsbury Wine Co., Zarpara Vineyard, and Lawrence Dunham Vineyards.

On Saturday, the 20, TRUST Art & Design will give away an original artwork by a local artist. Everyone who buys a bottle of wine can enter the drawing. They will also conduct a silent auction at the TRUST Art & Design booth in the park, featuring local artwork, so stop by and bid on your favorite piece(s).

Other vendors will be scattered throughout the park, where you’ll discover locally grown pecans, olive oils, food mixes, jams and jellies, jewelry, gifts, and more.

Movie Night Bonus

Starlight Hotel is a 1987 film by Arizona winemaker and movie director Sam Pillsbury, who will be screening this family-friendly film. This after-hours special event will be held just 35 short steps across the street from the park, on Saturday, October 20, at 6pm, at the Rex Allen Theatre. There will be no admission fee, but generous donations at this viewing will help reopen this historic theater to the public.

According to a review that ran in the New York Times, the movie is set in the Great Depression. Kate (Greer Robson) is a 13-year-old girl living on New Zealand’s South Island, whose mother dies and father takes work far away. Kate is sent to live with an aunt, until she runs away to find her father. She hops onto a boxcar and befriends a fellow fugitive, Patrick (Peter Phelps), an emotionally battle-scarred WWI veteran. The two use each other for cover as they make their way across New Zealand, sleeping under the stars (hence the film’s title), and championing the rights of destitute farmers and homeless squatters whose fortunes have been wiped out by economic hardship.

I’ll see you in Willcox this weekend, woo woo woo (that’s my railroad train sound).

Cheers!

VERTICAL by Rex Pickett, sequel to SIDEWAYS

Flush with plenty of dough and crippled by an extreme fear of flying, Miles cooks up a plan for his old traveling buddy Jack—divorced, out of work, and pretty much pickled—to assist him on this venture. The goal is to transport Mom to her sister’s home in Wisconsin, up the west coast via the International Pinot Noir Festival in the Willamette Valley, where he’s to be the keynote speaker and guest.

The unlikely crew springs Mom from the home, enlists the aid of her pot-smoking Filipino nurse Joy, and pilfers her pet Yorkie, Snapper, from the paws of one of Miles’ former trysts to set the wild and crazy adventure in motion. As they travel up the coast, nostalgically stopping  by favorite tasting rooms and vineyards along the way, buddy Jack laps up the love leftovers, enjoying fame and attention-by-association all too much.  I can’t wait to see how some of these outrageous scenes are interpreted on screen.

The story takes a twisted turn away from the typical guys’ road trip to a mother-and-son story that ends up so touching it took me by surprise. In the bittersweet ending, it’s just Miles and Mom coming to peace with each other…and themselves, confronting and resolving a dysfunctional life of distrust and hurt feelings. The ending of VERTICAL totally redeems Miles/Pickett in my heart and as a serious writer; he’s not such a louse after all. VERTICAL will earn Pickett continued fame and an even steadier pipeline of Pinots, particularly from the Willamette Valley this time around. Gotta love a man who knows how to shamelessly leverage his wine.

Look for VERTICAL on the big screen soon.

See this book review and others, including CRUSH by Adam Jacobson, another wine adventure, at http://thevirtualscribe.net.

Verde Valley Wine Trail bound & Wine Wipes testing

I’m off on my maiden voyage up the Verde Valley Wine Trail in northern Arizona for a short 3-day wine tour of our own design. I’ll be blogging all the way (or at least taking notes for an early posting next week) of the many Arizona wines,  people, processes, and provisions along the way. For the first time, I’ll be experiencing these wines in their home court.

We’ll also be testing Wine Wipes and Pearly Wipes, two natural products provided by EverythingButWine.com that help fight off teeth stains, specifically from all that red wine tasting. Stay tuned for four very discriminating women’s honest reviews.

Cheers to your happy wine weekend too!