Blood Into Wine Page #7

---

But as the wine

goes down the back of our throat,

it volatilizes and turns into a gas

and it goes up into our sinuses,

and that's what we really,

really smell and taste.

When you really get into wine,

wine just coaxes you

to develop your sense of smell.

I could walk into a room,

I wouldn't notice that

this guy used Irish Spring

and this woman's wearing pertume,

or I wouldn't notice

all the different shampoos in the room.

I wouldn't notice,

unless it was really extreme,

that this person

was exercising right beforehand.

You know, I wouldn't notice

that this woman was on her moon.

I wouldn't notice that we were downwind

from a certain type of forest.

Like this forest right here.

I could smell the cottonwoods

way up at my house.

And somebody walks into the room--

Even if l don't hear them,

I can tell if somebody's in the room now.

And to me, that's a whole world

that didn't even exist before.

And I can't imagine living a life

without that extra sense.

It would be like all of a sudden

losing my eyesight now.

Here we're seeing an interest

in Verde Valley,

where major winemakers

from other parts of the world

and, of course, people from this region,

are really paying attention

to what's happening.

And so we expect to see a lot more

vineyards planted here in the valley.

Many have already been planted

in the last four or five years.

We see major makers coming in

and taking a look to see

what they can capitalize on.

One of the fellows here in the valley--

Actually, the head of economic

development in cottonwood

just came back from a trip to Napa, Sonoma.

And he made it a point to visit

as many tasting rooms as he could

while he was there,

and said he was

a little bit surprised to find out

that everybody he talked to

was familiar with the Verde Valley.

They may not have known all of the nuances,

they may not have been able

to name all of the wines,

but they knew something

was going on out here--

that the word was already out

that this was a region

to kind of keep your eye on.

My name is Alder Yarrow,

and I run what many people consider

to be the world's leading wine blog,

vinography.com.

I taste between 3 and 6 thousand

wines a year,

and 99.9% of them are not from Arizona.

The world doesn't know

there is wine in Arizona yet.

The world barely knows

that there's, you know, wine

in half the regions of california.

Here in the Livermore Valley,

we've been farming since 1 883,

when first generation C.H. Wente

founded the winery.

It's been a wonderful operation here.

Five generations

of family involved in the business.

And today,

we're operated by the fourth generation

and have the pleasure of having our

fifth generation winemaker, Karl Wente,

making all of our beautiful wines.

My family's been farming grapes

and making wine onthis land since 1 883,

and we're celebrating

our 1 26th vintage this year.

I think I have the best job here

with the oldest family-owned

and operated winery in california.

Grow grapes and make

the best wine in the world.

And it's all about execution when it comes

to grape growing and winemaking.

It took, you know,

decades to figure out

what to plant in parts of california,

and I think, you know,

they have the advantage

of watching other failures and successes

in other parts of the world

that resemble theirs.

We're farming cabernet Sauvignon,

Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Bordeaux,

Malbec, Tempranillo, Triga Nationale,

Triga Francesca, Sauzal, Marselon,

Roussanne, Viognier, Syrah, Senso,

Grenache, Graciano,

Termpranillo, Orange Muscat,

Muscat Canale, Sauvignon blanc,

Smillon, Nebbliolo, Sangiovese, Barbera.

I might have said Zinfandel,

or l might not, so...

I mean, that's a lot, a lot of grapes.

And the winery

is about an 18,000-ton winery.

On the sales volume side,

we're about a 350,000-case brand,

and then we also sell grapes as well,

and we sell bulk wine.

So, when you're vertically integrated

and have these beautiful

estate-grown vineyards,

you stay out in front

of the growth of your main wines.

And so, there's times

where we have too much fruit,

so we're able to sell it

and just choose the grapes

and the wines

that we want to come into our product.

There are all sorts of hurdles

for beginning winemakers,

and that's...

even if they're in a place

that everybody knows about already

like Napa or Sonoma

or even, you know, Upstate New York.

Folks from Arizona, you know,

they got to get past the "Arizona?"

question

before they really get

to the "okay, maybe I'll even

try the wine" question.

The Napa Valley is the most recognizable

wine district in the New World, I think.

If you consider California the New World,

I think when you look at Arizona,

perhaps, you know, it's a blank slate.

Maybe it's like trying

to make wine on the moon.

It's really only the wine geeks

at this point,

or perhaps people who live there,

that understand that Arizona

has a wine country.

The big boys up in Napa

seem to have it all figured out--

growing grapes and selling their wines

for a heap load of coin.

Meanwhile,

Maynard and Eric are hunkered down

and working hard down in Southern Arizona,

harvesting grapes at their vineyard.

They call that vineyard

the Arizona Stronghold.

Our boys are making their wine

on the same plains

that the mighty Geronimo waged his war

against the U.S. government.

The terroir is so outer-worldly

that NASA recently held

supersecret training there

for the mission to Mars.

I reckon the landscape

is so similar to Mars

that the boys at NASA

thought it was a spitting image.

Grandfather Fire,

Grandmother Earth, Grandmother Cedar,

I join you sacreds here in holy union

that you might bring forth

in our midst creation

in the manner of balance and harmony.

Shamanism is humanity's oldest

and most enduring spiritual practice,

and these ways are conversant

all across the globe.

With the harvest going on today,

it just makes it that much more rich,

vital, and alive, what we're doing here,

because it's not a staged event.

Rather, this is the actual blessing

consecration of this vineyard.

After we destem the grapes,

we put them in these-- in these vats.

To get the stuff cooking out here,

to inoculate it,

to get this grape juice into wine,

we add yeasts.

The yeasts are basically going

to take the sugar in the juice

and convert it to alcohol.

As the yeasts

start to metabolize the sugars,

they give off carbon dioxide,

they give off heat.

They create alcohol. This thing

starts to form what we call a cap.

If I move a bunch of these grapes--

Watch this.

I push down here.

You can see this foam, okay?

And that's the beginnings

of the fermentation.

Making wine is a little bit like making tea.

Envision these berries as the tea leaves.

Our job as winemakers

is to dunk that teabag

down into the water, which is the juice.

One of the misconceptions

that people have

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes