The Southwest Wine Center at Yavapai College in Clarkdale, AZ is a cannot miss venue. On this day we were blessed enough to not only taste the wines, but get a tour and see the process of wine making!
The Southwest Wine Center is a premier wine industry resource. It offers a comprehensive hands-on education, including programs in enology, viticulture and business. It covers the entire process from vineyard to bottle to retail.
The center’s vineyard was started by Maynard Keenan of Tool in 2009, who is a huge supporter of the Arizona wine industry. The initial one acre vineyard is adjacent to the center, and you can see it to the south as you pull up to the building. Within a few years the vineyard has expanded using an additional twenty acres located about a mile from the center.
When you pull up it is a nice looking building with great views of the area, you are slightly up a hill so you can see pretty far around you. The door to get into the tasting room is amazing, it’s a big heavy metal door. I love this kind of architecture (bummed we didn’t get a photo of that).
Stepping in we see a larger group in the corner, who appear to be a bit rambunctious, and another couple of gentlemen sitting on the other side of the room. This limits our place to be, so we take a seat at one of the bar high tables. We really liked the way they decorated the space. It could have been really utilitarian, but the tasting room was well done. We really liked the wine barrel wall which extended easily ten feet above the bar and extended the length of the room. There was also a roll up door that could open up to a patio adjacent to the vineyard.
The gentleman working in the tasting room was fantastic ( i wish we remembered his name), he explained what we were drinking in a clear and thorough manner and was dead on with each explanation of taste.
We were on our last tasting and he mentioned that he was going to do a tour of the winery area and asked if we would like to join. We, of course, jumped on that opportunity. Unfortunately it was with the large group who were pretty deep into the wine tastings, if you know what I mean. It just got frustrating dealing with their complete disregard for his time and experience, so toward the end I left, though Derek stayed for most of the tour.
We took some great photos and learned a lot about how they make wine, the temperatures that they keep everything at, and the steps necessary from beginning to end. Both of us really enjoyed hearing about the process of not only how to make wine, but how they create the flavors they end up with.
We got to see the fermenting grapes for what had recently been picked, and learned a bit about the chemistry involved in wine making. Some of it we knew, but we did learn some new things as well.
In the end we purchased two bottles, had good conversation and learned a little more about the wine world. We think it’s well worth a visit, and you are supporting a great education program. You can make an appointment to take the tour, but you may also be able to just request one, if they are not busy. I would call ahead, it is well worth the experience.
If you have not already, check out yesterday's feature on Chateau Tumbleweed, or check out all of our Sippin' September features here.
Living, loving, drinking, and traveling through life.
— Taunya
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