20 April 11th-April 17th, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Creating momentum for young wineries They had wine, talent and a solid business plan. But the founders of Chateau Tumbleweed lacked pricey equipment and a space where the public could taste and purchase their wines. They found both at the Four Eight Wineworks co-op, which Keenan launched in 2014. The co-op no longer exists, but it gave Chateau and other fledg- ling wineries access to the same top-notch winemaking equipment Keenan was using for Merkin. It also provided a cool tasting room housed in a historic bank in Clarkdale, another Verde Valley hub. Chateau Tumbleweed winemaker Joe Bechard and Keenan had known each other professionally for years. When embarking on the co-op’s winemaking facility, Keenan called Bechard who then selected the equipment and broke in the facility while Keenan was growing his Merkin line. All of this served as on-the-job training in every facet of the industry from harvest to sales, says Chateau’s co-owner and Bechard’s wife Kris Pothier. The couple co-owns Chateau Tumbleweed with another couple, Kim Koistinen and Jeff Hendricks. “(We) had been pushing on a plan and running into dead ends,” Pothier says. “What we didn’t have was forward momentum… Maynard was really generous and helped facilitate getting that momentum started.” At the co-op, Chateau made 1,500 cases of wine. They were able to move into their own winery and tasting room in Clarkdale and today it makes close to 6,000 cases per year along with wine for other area wineries. “Joe and I learned from Maynard how to move forward in this industry,” Pothier says. “The kindness he shows to fellow winemakers is often overlooked by people’s interpretation of him being famous.” Planting an acre sprouts a college wine program Yavapai College in Clarkdale started offering winemaking classes in 2009. A year later, Keenan donated the first acre of what would become the two-year college’s nearly 13-acre estate vineyard. Keenan’s father was a teacher, so he says he understood the importance of starting an education program based on local data and conditions and building a workforce with local expertise. “People make it sound like I did the heavy lifting. I did not. I just planted a vine- yard,” Keenan says. “(That way) people could see it, make decisions and go, ‘Oh that is real.’” But the first acre was a big push. “It kind of forced the issue,” recalls Pierce, the college’s director of viticulture and enology. “That’s when people started to get excited about this.” Pierce studied winemaking at the University of California, Davis, and Washington State University, considered the equivalents of Harvard in the wine world. He returned to his home state and took on winemaker duties at his family’s wineries Bodega Pierce and Saeculum Cellars in southern Arizona. In 2010, Pierce met Keenan when he was in Clarkdale to assist the college with building the Southwest Wine Center, which opened in 2014. Located in a space that once housed racquetball courts, it includes a teaching vineyard and oper- ating winery where students get hands-on lessons while earning a two-year certificate in viticulture. While Pierce was in Clarkdale, Keenan offered the Four Eight co-op as a home away from home for his family’s wines. Keenan has stayed close with the college, employing students and providing information and resources to the vineyard. “He started that idea of sharing what we’re doing,” Pierce says. “Our competi- tion is not other Arizona wineries. It’s California, Washington and other big players that can make wine at a large margin and low price point.” Several hundred students have gradu- ated from the wine program with the average age being 50. Most are retired and seeking a second career or have always dreamed about entering the industry. There have been numerous mom-and-pop operations started by graduates. “When you visit an Arizona tasting room, you’re talking to the owner-operator. And there’s always a story to be told there,” says Pierce, whose parents can be spotted pouring at Bodega Pierce’s tasting rooms in Willcox and Clarkdale. “(Keenan) is an owner-operator and even though he’s got more dollars and a bigger business, he’s still doing it and he’s able to tell that story.” Viticulture impact leads to ‘great fruit’ Kent Callaghan started making wine at his Elgin winery in the early 1990s, when the bulk of Arizona’s wine industry was in the Sonoita/Elgin designated American Viticultural Area in southern Arizona. By the early 2000s, activity expanded north into the Verde Valley and southeast into Willcox, the state’s two other designated AVAs. Keenan’s Al Buhl Memorial Vineyard, Callaghan says, is the epicenter for that Willcox growth, with much of the credit owed to Keenan’s southern and northern vineyard managers, Jesse Noble and Chris Turner respectively. With their expertise and willingness to share knowledge, the state’s overall viticul- ture has improved in quality and variety, explains Callaghan, who has exchanged ideas with Noble and Turner regarding planting and farming. “A great winemaker only gets you so far,” Callaghan says. He is the most tenured Arizona winemaker with at least 10 more years of experience than his colleagues. “You can’t make really good wine without great fruit, and variety selection and viti- culture practices are huge in bringing that about.” When they met in the early 2000s, Callaghan didn’t know Keenan’s music. He got to know Keenan through the lens of wine, as did Pavle Milic. When FnB co-owner Milic opened his James Beard Award-winning Old Town Scottsdale restaurant with chef and busi- ness partner Charleen Badman in 2009, Caduceus was among the first Arizona wines he added to the menu. Milic wanted to cultivate a solid Arizona wine selection to bridge the gap between the beverage menu and Badman’s local-centric dishes. “(Keenan) makes some of the best, most well-balanced wines,” Milic says. “I can’t remember anyone saying they didn’t enjoy them.” Milic is also the winemaker at Los Milics Vineyards, which he founded in 2014. The operation includes vineyards, a winery, tasting rooms in Old Town Scottsdale and Elgin and guest lodging. As a newer winemaker, Milic has called Keenan for advice during challenging times. Keenan always made himself and his resources available, Milic says. Right before harvest, Keenan sent FnB co-owner Pavle Milic is the winemaker at Los Milics Vineyards and has been the recipient of advice and assistance from Maynard James Keenan. (Photo by Bruce Racine) Winemaker from p 19 >> p 22
