Birds and Barrels Vineyards, Willcox AZ

Hello again, and welcome to Sippin’ September 2020! During the event we will be featuring thirty wineries in thirty days, continuing our goal of eventually featuring every Arizona winery. We are going to kick things off this year with Birds and Barrels Vineyards in Willcox AZ.

It might surprise you, however we had never been to Willcox AVA. Ironically the first winery in Sippin’ September is the first location we visited in Willcox. Birds and Barrels is located down a narrow country road in a cluster with a few other area vineyards. Family owned and operated by Chad and Monica Preston, the vineyard was planted in 2015 and now includes about 14 acres in mixed blocks.

Birds and Barrels Vineyards was one of the places I was looking forward to visiting. Probably because we have been following each other on Instagram for a while. Driving in you can’t help but notice the large sign at the edge of the property. My immediate instinct was to turn in at the sign, but then we noticed an arrow pointing the right. The actual entrance is further along the property.

When pulling in the first thing you notice is the large charming structure that resembles a barn. After parking and stepping out, you could immediately notice the silence. The vineyard features some sweeping vistas of the Willcox prairie and surrounding mountains. We followed the signs pointing to the tasting room entrance.

Birds and Barrels, View from tasting room

As luck would have it, the day we visited was in the middle of a heat wave across the entire southwest. Willcox generally doesn’t get above the mid-nineties during the summer., I think it ended up at about 105℉ that day. When we rounded the corner we realized the tasting room was open air.

The tasting room itself is decked out in a rustic style. I think without the heat would be quite enjoyable. Thankfully the wines are kept at a proper temperature, as they should be. You can tell the Prestons have experience with an open air venue. Due to the pandemic, they chose to serve the wine in plastic cups instead of glass. Social distancing here is not an issue as they have plenty of space. We only saw one other couple while we were there.

I found their wines to be quite enjoyable, though we went through the tasting much more quickly then we would normally have. Our favorite was the 2015 Petite Sirah and we bought a couple of bottles. We did have a very short visit due to the heat, although in cooler weather we would have stayed longer and savored the experience more.

Birds and Barrels Vineyards has seven red and three white wine varietals growing in its vineyards. They bottle both single varietals and blends. All of their Estate wines are hand picked, crushed, and then pressed onsite. I would definitely like to spend more time here the next time we are in Willcox.

We have twenty nine days to go, so be sure to check out tomorrow's feature, Copper Horse Vineyards. Of course you can view all of our Sippin' September articles here.

Living, loving, drinking, and traveling through life.

— Derek