Over the past two decades, the Arizona wine scene went from being as dry as a desert to a full-on flood. Now approaching 130 wineries—compared to just 12 in 1999—the Southwestern state’s tasting scene and its sudden explosion may go down as the fastest viticultural about-face in New World wine history.
“How often do you get to see wine regions and the whole economic engine of an industry happen right before your very eyes?” asks T. Scott Stephens, a sommelier and co-owner of Beckett’s Table, in Phoenix. He’s served fine wine for his whole career, but only became wise to Arizona wine a little over a decade ago after drinking wines from Sand Reckoner Vineyards made by co-owners Rob Hammelman and Sarah Fox.
“If this quality of wine is being made by this lovely couple, who else is doing it?” thought Stephens, who now sells a significant share of Arizona wine. “It created this journey that continues to today.”
Arizona’s accelerated evolution is due to a unique combination of factors. There’s the rockstar attention brought by Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan, who started his Arizona brand Caduceus nearly 20 years ago. Then came the rise of an educational backbone at Yavapai College’s Southwest Wine Center, which is pumping out expertly trained winemakers every year.
Underlying the entire Arizona wine culture, too, is a proud spirit of experimentation. It continues to empower winemakers to explore—and rather quickly determine—which grapes are truly suited to the state’s stark landscapes.
“We have an opportunity to tell a new story,” says Pavle Milic, who opened Scottsdale’s FnB Restaurant nearly 15 years ago and more recently launched Los Milics Vineyards. “What’s liberating is that we don’t have to follow any trends or any rules.”
