Vintage Wisdom: The Art of Aging Wine in Arizona

This episode brings you insights from Ken Callaghan of Callaghan Vineyards, as we explore the intriguing world of wine production in Elgin, Arizona. Callaghan shares his experiences and expertise accumulated over nearly 30 years, emphasizing the importance of understanding wine aging through a unique library tasting event. Listeners will discover the distinctions between wine grapes and table grapes, highlighting the complexity and variety inherent in winemaking. Ken's achievements, including accolades from prestigious competitions, showcase the quality and craftsmanship at Callaghan Vineyards. Join us for a delightful journey into the art of winemaking, where every vintage tells a story and every sip is an adventure.

Welcome to The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast. I’m your host Forrest Kelly from the seed to the glass. Wine has a past. Our aim at The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast is to look for adventure at wineries around the globe. After all grape minds think alike. Let’s start the adventure. Let’s start the adventure.

Our featured winery is we return to Elgin, Arizona, for part two of our interview with Kent Callaghan Vineyards. Some of the events that they put on at the winery is a library tasting where they share a library worth of wines and they take you to a behind the scenes special event. You get to sample wines from their earliest vintages back when they started in early 1990 to the wines that they are producing now. So you get to compare the two.

I think it’s interesting for them to see, you know, the library historical data to see how the wines age, what’s done well, you know, and how these images are different, because we definitely have vintage variation in Arizona in general, and particularly in Sonoita, the monsoon rainfall that we would get.

So when you’ve been working with the vines for close to 30 years, as Kent has, you tend to get recognized in the wine industry with some awards, most recently a governor’s dinner in 2017 San Francisco Chronicle, probably a competition that people in California can relate to. And we got Pinot 19 in competition got Best of Class. Got the craft in the last competition and 2020 launches happen in January. Man, I have been there a white one best of class. So they tend to do pretty well in the competition. If you’d like to inquire more about what’s going on with the events or even visit the winery in Elgin, Arizona, at Callaghan Vineyards, how can people get a hold of you can go to the website Callaghanvineyards.com

All right. Thank you very much for your time. It has been very enlightening. Yeah. Thanks for us. Thank you.

It is time now for our listener voicemail question.

My name is Jolene Erickson and I’m from Flagstaff, Arizona. And I was wondering when making wine do you have to have seedless grapes? If you could answer that question. That would be awesome. Thank you.

No, you do not have to use seedless grapes. However, there is a difference between wine grapes and table grapes. There are over a thousand different varieties of grapes made for winemaking. They’ve converged them over the years. Plus, wine grapes have a very thick skin, unlike the table grape, which has a very thin skin. So it’s easy to eat and the differences go on and on. That’s what makes winemaking so intriguing. The layers are endless.

Thank you for listening. I’m Forrest Kelly. This episode of The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast was produced by IHYSM.

If you like the show tell your friends and pets and subscribe. Until next time pour the wine and ponder your next adventure.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Callaghan Vineyards