Kief-Joshua Vineyards has 20 acres in Elgin and 40 acres in Willcox.  Kief was initially an in-home winemaker and the idea to open a winery stems from his experiences.  In 2002 the decision was made to open a winery.  Kief left ASU to pursue viticulture studies in Australia, where he earned both a graduate and undergraduate degree in Viticulture and Enology from the University of Melbourne.

Kief-Joshua uses the practice of traditional winemaking methods, open fermentation and barrel aging.  They specialize in dry, full-bodied wines that are crafted by hand.  They also use sustainable farming techniques, such as composting, planting cover crops and other plant species to avoid soil erosion, add nutrients back to the soil and attract desirable insects.

We had been to the tasting room last year, but we did not review them for Sippin’ September because we did not have a great experience.  We did not know at the time, but Kief was actually running the tasting room. Of course he may have been having an off day.  He was a bit on the gruff side, but we didn’t want that to taint our view of the wines. Much of wine tasting is the experience you have while there.  So we tasted the wine and decided we would give them another shot this year from a fresh perspective.

The tasting room in Elgin is beautiful.  Kief does ironworks as well and he has added many of those touches throughout.  It is amazing and awe inspiring work.  He is very talented.  It adds a bit more elegance to a building that is already very elegant.

We were greeted by a cute li’l dog, but I cannot remember his name, and a young lady who was at the tasting bar.  We started with the reds of course. 

Due to the pandemic the patio was open but the inside tasting area was not.  I can honestly say that at this venue I was so distracted by the dirtiness of the deck and the other goings on of the folks in the vineyard, that I don’t remember the wines.   The deck wasn’t super gross. But it was covered in dirt, cobwebs, a broom off to the side, like maybe someday they were going to sweep. Also there was a potpourri of furniture scattered around.  It was very distracting and made it hard to think.

The heat of course was not helping and the wines were really too warm to get much of a taste.  I know that there were not any wines that I enjoyed or would have purchased. You cannot get a real taste from wine that is too warm and this wine was almost hot.

There was no music ambience to even help relax you or get you into the right state and I did not see anyone moving about.  This felt very much like self service and almost as if we should be lucky to even be there.

The whole experience was not great as was the first time.  It could be that I already had a bit of a chip on my shoulder from our first visit, but honestly I feel like they are phoning it in at this vineyard.I will say that Kief was much nicer this time around.

I think you should still visit Kief-Joshua Vineyards in Elgin, or the Willcox vineyard. Like I always say, we all have different palates and this could be to your liking, either the tasting room or the wines.

Be sure to check out tomorrow's feature, Dos Cabezas WineWorks. You can read yesterday's article on Flying Leap Vineyards, or see all of our Sippin’ September articles here.

Living, loving, drinking, and traveling through life.

— Taunya

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