2011 is the year we opened our Tough Country Winery at Juniper Well Ranch. It is open on weekends and serving some of our delicious AZ Merlot, delicate estate Tempranillo, and rugged Red Belly Red blend.
We just finished planting 600 Tempranillo and our new varietal, Malbec. We are optimistic, these own rooted plants from Inland Desert in Washington state will thrive...
The 2010 winter in Skull Valley was once again very harsh with a low of 0 at one point, lots of high winds intermingled with spring-like winter days. Our vines were very confused and finally gave up the ghost. Our 6-year old vineyard was almost completely replanted today with own rooted Tempranillo and Malbec. Last year after another vineyard was almost completely devastated we tried own-rooted rather than grafted- Most of them survived Skull Valley's crazy winter/spring so we think this might be the answer. Most of our previous winter kill was around the graft.
