Those of you who have been reading this blog already know that I was in Arizona over Christmas, and that I had launched into a quest to procure some Stonghold Wines while I was there. I posted on my failure to find any in the infamous town of Tombstone, where I had vowed to continue searching when we went into Phoenix.
Although it would be more fun to drag this out over several stops and make it look like a bona fide quest, I decided to just give the winery a call and find out where I could get their wine in Phoenix. Yeah, I really know how to suck all of the drama out of a quest. I found out that AJ's Fine Foods, an Arizona food and wine heaven, carried Stonghold. I thought that was perfect, what better way to buy Arizona juice than at an Arizona market. The localness of the whole thing made me feel all warm and fuzzy. I bought a bottle of the Nachise, which is a Rhone style blend, and of the Tazi, a white blend of 52% Sauvignon Blanc, 21% Chardonnay, 19% Riesling, and 8% Malvasia Bianca. Both bottles were the 2008 vintage.
Now, a little about Stronghold wine, for those who don't know what it is. Stronghold is the winery owned by Maynard James Keenan, who was the lead singer for the bands Tool and A Perfect Circle, and is made from Arizona grapes. Keenan has another winery called Caduceus Winery, but those wines are currently being made from California grapes. There is a documentary coming out in February about Keenan's Arizona winery project, called Blood Into Wine. There is also a great article about Keenan and the upcoming movie on Sacre Bleu Wine (if you aren't reading Sacre Bleu Wine (Twitter @SacreBlueWine) yet, you should be).
I've been really impressed with how serious Maynard James Keenan is about his wines. This isn't just some vanity project where a famous person buys a winery and then stamps his name on them. Maynard seems to be actively involved in producing quality wine, and in an area that you don't normally think of when you think of quality wine. I'm really curious about the Tazi white wine. The blend that they used for this seems really intriguing. I'm excited to try these wines, and will be posting reviews on them as soon as I've tasted them. Cheers!
Okay, the build up to these wines has been huge. I hope they are epic so they don’t disappoint you. I’ll be looking forward to the post. How much were they?
Josh @nectarwine (twitter)
Yeah, I hope so too. I’ve heard good things, so hopefully they will live up to the hype. They ran about $20 a bottle. I couldn’t bring myself to spend the $50 on the Caduceus, especially with it not being made from Arizona grapes, which I really wanted to try.
Vanity project… LOVE IT. I know a few of those guys… They lack heart and soul, and that honestly strips away the flavors of their wines. I’ve heard Maynard James Keenan’s name a lot lately, connected to his wines, but haven’t yet had the pleasure of discovering them. Now, I’ll have to. Thanks, Ben.
Thanks for the comment Jo. This is going to be my first experience with Arizona wines, so I’m excited about that as well as my Maynard based curiosity. Hopefully they really do have the “heart and soul” that you mention.
I can’t wait for your reviews on the wines. Although I am from AZ, the only wine I have tasted from there is the barrio from Page Springs Vineyards, which still gets some of its grapes from California. The documentary looks very entertaining, I hope it makes its way up to Oregon!
Thanks for the comment! I almost bought a bottle of the Page Springs Vino de la Familia while I was in AZ, but I thought that my wife might kill me if I didn’t stop buying wine.
I believe that the same winemaker makes Stronghold and Page Springs, so I would be curious to try them too. I really wanted to try some of the other AZ wines, but I’ll save that for next time.
I am also hoping that Blood Into Wine makes it to Texas, but I really doubt that it will play in my city.
Wife would like to clarify that she would not have “killed” Vinotologist for buying more wine, but admittedly would have been even more unhappy during unmentioned later wine-related argument. Wife tolerated, and kind of enjoyed, quest due to wee crush on said rock star (despite fine food establishment’s lack of Applejack).
When I was in Cave Creek, AZ, I tried a glass of the Stronghold Dayden. Beautiful wine, really delicious. Strawberries, a little sweet, a little acidic…perfect accompaniment for lunch sitting outside soaking up the Arizona sun.
Nice. Sounds yummy. I still haven’t done my Stronghold tastings yet. I have so much good wine lined up right now, just slowly working my way through it. I think I might be trying the Tazi with a meal this week though. Stay tuned.