Keeling Schaefer Vineyards: 2006 Two Reds Grenache

Keeling Schaefer Vineyards is in Cochise County, in Southern Arizona.  It sits at roughly 5,000 feet above sea level.  When people think of Arizona, they most often do not think about growing grapes and making wine.  However, with the Southern AZ growing regions being anywhere from 4,000-5,000 feet in altitude, the climate is quite temperate.  The days are sunny and warm and the nights are cool - perfect growing conditions for many grape varieties.  In fact, Arizona growing regions mimic the Rhone Valley of France.  As such, Rhone style red and white grape varieties do quite well here.  Other varietals such as Tempranillo, Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon also do well.  Arizona has great potential to become a great wine growing region.  One example is Keeling-Schaefer Vineyards.

Tonight I tasted the "Two Reds" Grenache.  Its a blend of 85% Grenache and 15% Syrah.  It's dark ruby red in color.  There's a ton of spice on the nose, starting with intense clove, black cherry and pepper - quite frankly, I think of the soft drink Dr. Pepper when I smell this wine.  It has medium-firm tannins, but it well balanced and flavorful.  One drawback is the alcohol.  See, Arizona has monsoon season from June to August every year and this particular year the monsoons greatly impacted the growing season.  There were sunny mornings followed by stormy, rainy afternoons.  This slowed the ripening process, causing the berries to stay on the vines longer and increased the sugar, which increased the alcohol.  All in all, a very nice effort from this vineyard, but I think it would have been better had mother nature cooperated. 

I think there are great things to come of the AZ wine growing region.  It may not be as well known now as Napa, Washington, or Oregon, but I think it has the potential to compete with these areas in the not so distant future.  Stay tuned...