Today we are starting the second half of Sippin’ September by featuring the Salt Mine Wine Tasting Room.   This little family owned boutique winery is located in Camp Verde, and offers some impressive wines at a great value.

The vineyard started in 2013, when the Norton family purchased a historic farm in Camp Verde.  The story I heard was that Kevin came home one day and basically informed his family that he “bought a vineyard”, although they may have been joking.

The five acre vineyard was planted over the next three years.  In the flat former pasture land, they planted Primitivo, Montepulciano and Aglianico vines which are a good match for the fertile soil and colder winter temperatures.  There is also a significant hillside area where they planted Malvasia Bianca, Sangiovese, and Barbera, which are tolerant to the warmer summer temperatures. We were told they used to have a map that showed what was planted where, however an overzealous visitor ran off with it and it was their only copy. 🙁

While they were waiting for their vines to mature enough to produce, they used grapes sourced from Buhl Memorial Vineyard, Juan Alba Vineyard, and Rolling View Vineyard in 2015 and 2016.  Starting in 2017 they were able to use their own fruit.

Getting to the vineyard and tasting room is an interesting experience.  You will leave Hwy 260 on Salt Mine Road and be driving through a neighborhood of large mixed use parcels.  The driveway is easy to pass by as the sign is small, but the grape vines are hard to miss. The driveway is mere feet from the vineyard, so drive slow to keep the dust down (dust hurts the vines). Since September is harvest time, you could easily see the grapes on the vines.

Since it was close to harvest time, the near ripened grapes were easy to see as we drove down the driveway.   As you pull up to the tasting room you notice that the vineyard is actually quite quaint. There is a little outdoor seating area which was too hot to use the day we visited.  As you walk in, there is outer room that has a table setup with four chairs for enjoying their wine. There are a couple of other chairs as well, and overall it makes for a cosy tasting experience.  You can tell it’s a small operation, and the Nortons are so friendly it’s a nice contrast to some of the busier Cottonwood tasting rooms.

Since Salt Mine Wine is a small production winery, they only have a few wines to sample.  They are only open on weekends. But it is well worth the stop, you won’t regret it. Since it was later in the season they had run out of their Uno, which was a bit of a bummer because we had heard good things about it.

I’ll be honest, everything on their tasting menu was pretty good.  We really liked their Tempranillo most, and that was the bottle we bought.  I really like their label, it is a rendering of a painting hung in their tasting room. I believe it was painted by Kevin Norton’s mother, and think the logo and wine label really fits the vibe of the vineyard.

I think I've covered all I can for now, but I know you’ll be hearing more about Salt Mine Wine since we plan to make it a regular stop on our Verde Valley trips.

If you have not already, check out yesterday's feature on Clear Creek Vineyard, or check out all of our Sippin' September features here.

Living, loving, drinking, and traveling through life.

— Derek

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