Vino from p 29 Center at Yavapai Community College in Clarkdale. After graduating, Ide honed her skills working at some of the state’s most revered wineries including Maynard James Keenan’s Caduceus Cellars and Merkin Vineyards, and Callaghan Vineyards, where owner Kent Callaghan became her mentor and introduced her to vineyard owners and farmers that provide her fruit the most respected people I know in the industry. I still can’t believe people pay money for my wines,” she says. Once, her 18-year-old son was watching her pack cases of wine she would person- ally deliver to vendors. After a few minutes, he said, “Oh, you’re really doing it.” The realization that what his mother had been working for and dreaming of for years was happening. “Yes! Isn’t it amazing?” Ide says of her response. “That I can go back to school, Georgann Yara today. Callaghan encouraged her to open the winery on the land she and David purchased. Their goal is to plant their own vineyard, maybe when their daughters, ages 12 and 10, are in high school. During the busy season, David, a tech entrepreneur, and the couple’s daughters head down to help on the weekends. Their two oldest sons, 22 and 18, live out of state but help out when they’re in town. Friends and family also lend a hand and Ide has met people at wine festivals and tastings who have come down and assisted with picking. “Being married to an entrepreneur gave me the guts to believe I can actually do this. Having him help me along the way has been amazing,” Ide says of her husband and business partner. Ide embraces a hybrid lifestyle between her big-city home and quiet rural farm in wine country. She’s struck a satisfying balance between winemaking, doing tast- ings, being a mom, a wife, and coaching her daughter’s club volleyball team. The journey was not without trepidation and constant self-questioning, however. She made a huge investment and brought her entire family along for the ride. “The doubts? Yes, 100 percent. And the guilt. Are we making the right financial decision? You think, how am I going to sell this wine?” Ide says. “Failure’s not an option.” Last fall Vino Stache produced 500 30 cases. Today, she has barely 20 left as she prepares to bottle this year’s harvest. “Our wines sit next to those of some of When Vino Stache Winery winemaker and owner Brooke Lowry Ide started out, she cold-called Valley restaurants and wine shops asking if she host a tasting. Among them was ODV Wines in Tempe, which carries several of Ide’s wines today. learn a new business, and be successful at that business. I want my kids to under- stand that you can do this too.” As a woman winemaker and winery owner, Ide is rare. She credits other women who hold key roles in the Arizona wine industry with helping her get her footing. Ide’s supportive resource list reads like a who’s who of Arizona wine royalty, including Todd and Kelly Bostock of Dos Cabezas WineWorks, FnB co-owner Pavle Milic who has his own winery Los Milics Vineyards, and Callaghan and his wife Lisa. But when she pours at festivals with her husband, Ide is reminded she has more chipping away to do. Not only for herself, but for other women with dreams of doing what she does. Often, tasters assume David is the winemaker and does all the heavy lifting. When he points to his wife and shares that she’s the one who makes the wine and does 90 percent of the work, many have difficulty wrapping their heads around that fact. “I still think people are saying, ‘Does this chick know what she’s doing?’ They’re looking at a middle-aged woman saying, ‘How can you possibly be doing that?’” Ide says, laughing. After a pause, she adds, “Yes, my hustle is real.” OCT 20TH–OCT 26TH, 2022 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
