Page Springs Winery

From Doc Ed:
"Just starting my first sentence, and I already have a problem.  I went to Sedona to taste their wines, but there are no wineries in Sedona!  Fortunately, 10-15 miles to the southwest are several small towns that do contain approximately 35 wineries.  These towns are centered around Cottonwood AZ.  The entire region is in a high altitude valley, with a floor around 3500 feet and some grape fields over 5000 feet.  This layout is the basis for the difficulties that are common to all of the wineries in this area.  They have cold winters (springtime budbreak is often killed by frost), hot summers (bakes the thin-skinned grape varieties), drought (it is a desert!) and strong hail storms that can destroy a crop in a few minutes.  Two winemakers told me they have the largest diurnal variation (difference between daytime and night temperature) in the country.  I would image that it will be difficult to reliably grow grapes to full maturity in this region.  I was certainly curious to see how the Arizona guys addressed this collection of challenges.
One solution to the various climate challenges would be to get grapes from other areas.  Most places I visited grew grapes on site, but it also seemed common to import grapes from Wilcox AZ, where the climate is presumably more favorable.  Thinking only of the locally grown grapes, the first two places I visited had wines that used grapes that were picked on the younger side of maturity.  These less-ripe grapes yielded wines with lighter body (thin and watery), lower alcohol (mid 12%), and fewer mid-mouth expressions of flavors.  I expect the wines will get better with practice.  Then, I found two wineries who had solved the multiple climate challenges and produced fully mature grapes with excellent wine flavors."

​You know from previous writings that I love to explore the endless variations of wine flavors as expressed by various clones.  For a fuller understanding of clones, see my “About Clones” article in the “About” Section of scwineryreviews.com.  Briefly, think of purebred dogs.  A Pointer will be a great hunter, and a Retriever will be very sociable.  If you want to maximize your exposure to one of those traits, go with the purebred.  If you want to create less distinct traits but more of them, do some genetic blending.  Well, I like to explore the maximal expression of the traits, so I like clones (“purebreds”).  Page Springs Winery let me do that like never before!  Most wineries make wine from one, or maybe two Syrah clones.  So, for me to study the dozen Syrah clones in worldwide production, I end up buying one or two from multiple wineries and then have to deal with differences in weather, winemaker style, etc.  Page Springs made it easy.  They produce six clones of Syrah, and I got to side-by-side taste and compare.  It was heavenly!"

"​I tasted Syrah clones 99, 174, 470, 471, 474, and 525 (which was co-fermented with 8% Malvasia Bianca in a Cote Rotie style).  Let me start with the similarities.  They were all 2019 or 2020 vintage, priced between $45-$55, and very good value for the price.  They were medium-to-full bodied, well balanced, and had alcohol content between mid 13’s and low 14’s.  They were prepared in predominantly neutral oak (10-15% new French or Arizona oak), so the grape expression was very clear.  The differences came purely from the various clones.  The differences could be tasted in the composition and intensity of the flavor profile.  Clone 99 opened with a huge black pepper presence.  Clone 470 had white pepper coupled with baking spices, and earth flavors.  Clone 525 had a very silky mid-mouth feel of glycerol.  And Clone 474 had the additional fruit flavors of red cherry.
My experience with these wonderful clones got more complex a few days later.  As you can imagine, a small “tasting pour” permits comparisons among the wines.  But the pours don’t last long enough to show how the wines evolve while they breathe.  The weekend after my Sedona trip, I served four of the clones to family members with great palates, and we watched as the flavors (principally the spice profile) increased or decreased after the wine was in the glass.   This could be a great topic for me to teach at my next wine tasting class.
Page Springs also has a large offering of white wines, several reds (Mourvèdre, Barbera, GSM), and local brandy to try."