Join us as we talk about the Arizona Stronghold Barrel Tasting event.

Her View

On Saturday Feb 2nd we did our annual AZ Stronghold Barrel Tasting, always an interesting event where we get to meet other wine lovers and club members. There is always an eclectic group of people which is entertaining and we usually end up connecting with at least one other person or couple.

On this trip there was a smaller group of only about ten-ish people and it was likely due to it being Super Bowl weekend. Fine by me, means things should be less busy. I should mention, I was WRONG! The tasting rooms were slammed! We all gather in front of the winery, they offer a white as a welcome wine and I said no thank you. Side note here, I have been drinking wine for about twelve years and in that time, I have attempted to try several white wines. I never enjoyed any of them and have decided that I would no longer punish myself and have just given up on ever having that want of a white wine. Which is a shame in the summer time since Arizona gets so hot. Sedona was nice enough to grab me a red so I would be able to drink with the rest of the crew.

We all gathered as Matt gave a nice speech on the season and how great it was for wine makers this year. Matt has a real passion for his art and it shows not only in the way he speaks about it but his excitement at the process and end results.

We all funnel into the warehouse and start with a white, the 2018 Buhl Memorial Vineyard Malvasia Bianca, so I say I will try it. Now, remember that these are straight from the barrel and
are unfiltered. Some of the wines come out a bit cloudy, some taste better straight from the barrel and others don’t taste as good as they will once bottled. It just depends. So I thought I
would give this a shot. Also, I did not want to stand around without a glass of wine whilst everyone else was enjoying some. It was not awful, I can say that this would probably be the only time that I would ever have it. We were doing a comparison with the year before bottled vintage and I passed on that. But Sedona was super proud of me because I gave it a shot. This was offered with an Emmentaler cheese. It did take the sweetness out a bit, but still not my jam.

Next we moved onto the 2018 Rosada that they just completed which I believe is their first full rose that they have done on their own. It was dry and not so sweet and def better than the white wine we had. They paired it with 8 month raw manchego, which is a fantastic cheese. We had this the first time we did a barrel tasting with them and fell in love with it. For this wine I was way more focused on that cheese. Go get some if you can!

Matt is giving a nice presentation and explanation with each tasting and I enjoy how much he truly loves his art. But can we move it along to the reds Matt!

And then we do, now are speaking my language! We start with their 2018 Bonita Springs Cabernet Pick 2, since I have always enjoyed their Cabs the barrel sample for me went very quickly! Sedona even came back around and asked me if I had gotten a taste, I laughed and said yes, it was real tasty and went very quickly. I slowed down for the bottle sample, I was not trying to get hammered and had gotten the taste of the others out of my system so now I was going to enjoy the rest.

The bottle was of course good but I think the barrel Cab was better, richer in taste, more complex. They paired that with Kaltbach cave aged Gruyere, which such a nice smooth cheese and it really enhanced the flavors in this wine.

Then we moved onto the 2018 Bonita Springs Merlot paired with Mimolette. The merlot was nice of course but I was very distracted by the fact that Sedona said this cheese was made by cheese mites. BLEEHHHH, I was like, say what now. She confirmed like real mites. I told her I was gonna need her to stop saying mites in relation to my cheese. I got in my head about it and could only have a few bites. But hey, that Merlot!

We moved onto the 2018 Buhl Memorial Syrah. Now we are talking, very bold, barrel taste, deep in color. It was very pretty when she poured it. They paired that with Farmhouse Cheddar. So far this was my best moment so far of the tasting.

Last but not least we had my all time favorite AZ Stronghold wine, the Lozen, paired with aged gouda. Here is where I really noticed the difference in Matt’s style of wine making and the previous winemaker. The barrel just had way more flavor to it. It sayed with you when you drank it. Sometimes you get a wine, you drink it and then it is gone, but the Lozen Matt made just hung around on my palate and stayed for a little visit. Delicious!

As long as we are able to we will be attending the barrel tastings with AZ Stronghold. They are informative, fun and educational, not to mention the opportunity to try the new wines coming out. We look forward to it every year, and now that my mom has been attending, it is our annual family wine tasting outing to Cottonwood. I mean, Derek and I go several times a year, but mom really only gets to go the one time.

I would like to thank the staff at AZ Stronghold, for always being so gracious and fun to be around. From the warehouse to the tasting room, I truly enjoy conversations with all of them. What a great group of folks!

— Taunya

His View

Every year Arizona Stronghold does a barrel tasting event in late winter. This a really fun event where the winemaker and staff take you around the winery and you sample wines that are still aging in barrels. It is a really fun event, and one we have attended the last couple of years. Honestly, it is probably my favorite event put on by Stronghold. Well, at least of the ones we have attended so far. The event has two sessions, one in the late morning and one in early afternoon and is very reasonably priced.

The year the event fell on the first Saturday in February. As most of you probably know, this means the event was on the day before the Super Bowl. It is just over an hour up there from here, so the morning of the event we left around 9:30 and drove straigh upt to the winery. We usually take Taunya’s mom with us to this event, Mama Ruby as she is known in our wine circle. It was probably the most peaceful time I have had driving that section of I-17, and there was very little traffic on the road. I am not sure if it was because it was Super Bowl weekend, or if it was something else, but just in case, thank you to the NFL! Traffic was so light in fact we made really good time, so we got there about a half and hour sooner than we intended. The winery is a few miles outside of town, to far really to head all the way into Cottonwood, so we drove around to kill some time and then headed back.

We attended the first session, which started at 11am and were the first to arrive. The lovely Sedona greeted us, and we chatted while we waited for the others. Sedona is the wine club manager for AZ Stronghold, and she is awesome. We found out that there were only going to be nine of us, probably because of the aforementioned gridiron conflict. But ultimately I feel like that actually worked out for us because it was more intimate experience this time around, plus the owners were attending as well. Anyway, we stood around drinking our meet and greet glass of wine which was a white. I don’t actually remember what it was though. Now if you have read our blog before, you probably know that we are not fans of white wines. I will sample one on occasion, but rarely drink a full glass. I did try a small sample, but Taunya will rarely even try a while. Sedona was really awesome tho because she went into the office and grabbed a red for her so she could have a greeting glass. Damn I thought, I should have waited! Rest assured though, when I finished my white Sedona offered me the red, and I gladly accepted a small splash.

A second couple appeared after about ten minutes, and we all chatted a little more while waiting for the rest of the party to arrive. The rest were a little on the late side. However we did end up in an interesting group of people. One gentleman was actually a distributor, two other gentleman were wine club members who had heavy collections and seemed to know a lot of people in the wine community. I thought I heard one of them say he also owned a vineyard, but if that were true it must have been to source grapes because I didn’t get the impression he made wine. The couple that arrived just after us were really nice, and we really seemed to click with them.

Once everyone arrived and enjoyed the greeting wine, Sedona rolled up the door and we were off to the races. I swear I heard “first call” in my head. We headed in and were directed to the first barrel. The way this event works is that just before the event starts, the winery staff use a tool called a wine thief to pull the wine from the aging barrels and into a carafe. For each stop they pour you a generous sample from the carafe while the winemaker Matt talks about the wine and tells some fun anecdotes about making it, or wine making in general. After the barrel sample, you get a pour of a previous vintage wine for comparison. Well usually, sometimes a particular wine won’t have a previous vintage to compare to. What was cool about this particular day, is that there were so few of us that there a good amount of banter and back and forth during the presentation. I have learned a lot about winemaking in the past, yet I actually learned quite a bit more about the process this time around. I think maybe it was because we were all well known club members, so they didn’t have to give us the basics, and were able to delve a little more deeply.

The first wine in the roster was a 2018 Buhl Memorial Vineyard Malvasia Bianca paired with Emmentaler reserve single source cheese from Emmi. In case you didn’t know, Emmentaler is basically the original swiss cheese and is named for the town in which it originated, which is yet another fun fact I learned during this trip. Did I tell you I don’t really like whites? However being a foodie, I do love to do wine and food pairings, so I imbibed. Even Taunya tried a small splash, and she is less willing than I to try whites. The wine was still a little cloudy because they don’t filter it until right before bottling. It had a fresh, almost crisp taste, paired well with the cheese, and I actually enjoyed it. Score one for the white team!

Next up was the 2018 Rosado paired with an 8 month raw manchego. This was a blush, or rosé if you prefer, and it is not a coincidence that rosado is Spanish for pink. Rosé wines are also hit or miss for me, however I must admit this was a really nice one. Very smooth, and light, and I could see myself having a glass by the pool. Well ONE glass, but the fact that I say that should be a testament for the quality of the wine, and how good it was. Ok, so now I am thinking that was a bit unexpected, so now it’s two in the non-red wine column. At this stop Matt really delved into detail on how Stronghold processes their whites. Here is where Mama Ruby asked the first of her many questions, and I noticed that Matt seemed much more in his element and at ease than previous times we have spoken with him.

Still on the processing side of the winery, we moved on to the 2017 Bonita Springs Cabernet pick 2 paired with Kaltbach cave aged gruyere. YES! Now we are in the reds! If you are not familiar with Stronghold you might be confused by the “pick 2”. Essentially, this means the wine was made from the grapes picked during the second round of harvesting. The grapes on the vines will ripen at varying rates depending on the vines, the weather, and other factors. They may have as many as four or more separate harvests depending on the vineyard the grapes are sourced from. The cab had a deep red color, and a nice bold flavor even though it will still age in the barrel for a few more months. In this instance, I thought the wine actually improved once sampling the gruyere. I really like gruyere, and I feel it was an excellent choice for pairing.

On to the barrel room and the 2018 Bonita Springs Merlot which was paired with a mimolette. I have never had mimolette before and it had a really interesting flavor. It is a deep orange colored cheese, and has a really hard grey crust formed during aging. Now I am not going to tell you how it’s made; however if you are interested you mite want to Google it (and no, that is NOT a misspelling 🙂 ). Traditionally, I have liked the cabs at Stronghold more than the merlots. This is the second season that Matt has been with Stronghold, so this is the first set of wines that he has fully cultivated. I can say though that I liked this Merlot more that any of the others I have tried before. Actually, this was true of the cab as well, int that the barrel sample was in my opinion a bit better than the previous vintage. Mama Ruby asked another great question on how making reds differs from whites. So I am standing there, thoroughly enjoying my wine and thinking wow, we still have two more to go, I better pace myself a bit. And then I thought hit me, “Oh! It’s now 2-2, the reds have caught up!”.

As we moved to the next barrel, I started to get a little sad because we were getting closer to the end. I perked up though when I realized we were tasting the 2018 Buhl Memorial Syrah Norte block. The Buhl vineyard names the different sections, so this wine was sourced from the Norte block. Stronghold generally makes really good Syrahs, and this was paired with a Farmhouse cheddar. Now we are cooking with gas! I was not disappointed, as this wine was no exception and excellent as expected, and was balanced nicely by the cheese. They also had blueberries, and I thought it brought out more of the fruitiness in the wine.

Finally, we reached the end, the last barrel. I kind of knew what was coming, or at least I had hoped. Sure enough, it was the 2017 Lozen, paired with aged gouda. The Lozen is a Bordeaux-style red blend and is my favorite Stronghold wine. Well, I really, really liked the B.O.B., however that was a limited production wine that is off the tasting menu already, but I digress. Another fun fact, the Lozen is one of the few local wines to be sealed with wax, meaning it is intended for long term storage. Historically, wax was used because corks were not reliable and prone to leakage, and to protect the wine from rodents. Now days, most wineries use aluminum. Some don’t use anything other than the cork since modern corks are much more reliable. Still, most wines are designed to be opened and drank within a few years, however the wax allows it to be stored for much longer without turning bad. I would really love to take a Lozen and store it for five or six years to see how much more complex it would be, however I do not have enough willpower; I think the longest we have ever had one in the house is maybe two months. Ok, I digress again. Anyway, the Lozen is both fruity, bold, and delicious. The comparison wine was the 2016 Lozen, and trying them side by side, I think the seventeen will be better once it finishes aging and is bottled. Both of them went well with the pairings; in fact it was pretty gouda. Ok, I know probably just groaned a little just now, but it was worth it. OK, now it’s 4-2 in favor of the reds.

By now we are winding down, and they are trying to herd us towards the doors. I look at my watch and go, holy crap, it’s almost one o’clock. Man did time fly. As I was walking I started reflecting on all the great wines we tried, and realized I enjoyed every one in some way, even the whites. And then I thought to myself, why am I keeping score, it’s not a fair fight. Not only were there more reds than whites, but come on, I’ve always going to pick a red over a white wine.

On the way though, we did end up buying two bottles of the Norte Syrah and one bottle of Lozen. Walking out, we make sure to tell the crowd waiting for the second session that we drank all the wine and they were out of luck. We headed into town to grab some lunch, and do some more wine tasting. We needed to pickup or wine shipment anyway, so we started at the Arizona Stronghold tasting room, so of course we had the duck skewers for lunch. I was surprised at how crowded they were for February, so we ending up having to “make a friend” and ask someone if we could share their table. We sat with a nice couple for Phoenix, and had some great conversation and an equally great lunch. Remember the couple I mentioned that was at the barrel tasting? While we were chatting Kathy came up and tapped me on the shoulder to say hello. She actually invited us to a party they were throwing later that evening, which I thought was super nice.

We’ve blogged before about wine tasting in Cottonwood, so I won’t go into super detail, however we did visit the new Carlson Creek tasting room. It’s a really nice venue, and completely different than when it was Fire Mountain. Michelle is running the tasting room, who we met months ago while she was training in Scottsdale. She was not there, so unfortunately we did not get to say hi; it was a little weird drinking CC wine and being served by strangers. Funnily enough though, we ran into Kathy yet again! She again told us we absolutely needed to come by.

We of course ate dinner at Bocce, and funnily enough we decided this time to stay in the Bocce Penthouse, which is part of The Tavern Hotel. It was our first time staying there. It is basically a modern, two room suite above Bocce (which is owned by the Haunted Group, which also own the hotel along with Nic’s Steak and Crab House among other things). It was really nice, and super convenient, and actually cheaper than getting two separate rooms. Because we only stayed one night, and it rained, we didn’t get to enjoy the adjoining patio. I’m sure we’ll stay here again, so we’ll share more details about the room in the future.

Well, that’s it for me for now. If you do get a chance, I’d highly recommend doing the barrel tasting event if you get a chance. Travel safe, travel well, and of course, travel often!

— Derek

Conclusion

Twenty five days folks until we fly out to Fiji. Stay tuned for lots of photos and small blurbs during our trip. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and see our trip unfold with some live feeds and more great photos.

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