14 May 15th-May 21st, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | other facilities before 2014, when he opened his own winery. Back then, it cost $200,000 to get it going. That total didn’t cover vines, marketing and some other crucial ingredients. But that number was manageable. The figures now are much steeper. Turnbull, for one, estimates that startup cost for even a small winery in Arizona would be $3 to $4 million. That would cover planting a 40-acre vineyard, building the winery and producing 8,000-9,000 cases a year. “If you’re a blue-collar kid whose parents didn’t leave you with a silver spoon, it’s difficult to build generational wealth,” Turnbull says. “It’s a very hard business to make money in.” Restrictive Arizona laws don’t help. Wineries must produce fewer than 20,000 gallons a year if they want to sell and ship their wines directly to consumers, retail shops and restaurants. Wineries that produce between 20,000 and 40,000 gallons are required to go through a whole- saler or sell their wines to consumers from their premises. Wineries that produce more than 40,000 gallons are required to sell through a wholesaler, eliminating direct-to- consumer options. They may have tasting rooms, but only at the winery, not remotely. This would mean the closure of popular Old Town Scottsdale tasting rooms like Arizona Stronghold Vineyards, Carlson Creek Vineyard, LDV Winery and Los Milics Vineyards, should they exceed the 40,000-gallon limit. In this structure, the larger a winery gets, the more privileges it loses. By comparison, states known for their powerful wine presence like California, Oregon, Washington and even Texas, do not impose such production limits. The numbers were arbitrarily set years ago, when the industry was so small that the possibility of producing 40,000 gallons was deemed too high for any winery to reach. The idea was to give small rural wineries a fighting chance against indus- trial wineries. Over the last few years, Arizona wine- makers have been lobbying to increase the limits. Distributors have opposed any increase. The limits on production in an industry based on an economy of scale discourage most investors from taking the plunge that would allow the small producers to grow and new ventures to take root. If this changed, Turnbull believes it would be more appealing to young people as a viable, even lucrative, career. But for most, the choice to be an Arizona winemaker is driven by pure passion. “I haven’t made much money making wine,” Turnbull says. “It’s just something I love doing.” Life after wine Pillsbury doesn’t have specific plans on his post-wine life. First, he needs to sell his empire and is unsure of the current market and economic climate’s impact. He spends his time between Willcox and Phoenix, the home of his wife and CFO of the company Melanie Bermudez, their son Luc, 19, and his mother-in-law Geny Dignac, a famed sculptor. Pillsbury says nothing would make him happier than to pass his operation to someone who could take it to another and better level with a gorgeous tasting room, new varieties in the vineyard and more award-winning wine, with or without his guidance from a distance. Recently, he’s been getting a lot of ques- tions about his legacy. He says he never thought about it. “I hope I’ve been a decent, good person,” Pillsbury says. “I’ve been more interested in introducing people to the pleasure of wine and getting them inter- ested than making money.” While the whole operation is up for sale, the Willcox tasting room remains open to visitors on weekends. (David Del Grande) A Distiguished Vintage from p 12
