For this month’s event, we had a different type of tasting, more akin to the type of tasting you would experience it you spent a day touring the wineries of a particular location. In this case, the location was Southeastern Arizona in the Sonoita (4900ft) and Wilcox (4300ft) appellations. Thanks to a connection with hosts Bob & Sandy Simoni, regional wine expert Jay Bileti, former Membership Director for the national wine organization called the American Wine Society, and regional wine-maker James Callaghan picked 8 of the region’s top wines for us to taste and led us on a virtual tour of the region as we tasted these wines.
This was the first time sampling Arizona wines for most of the 21 tasters from Bay Area and another 5 or so from Lake Tahoe, and everyone seemed to be surprised by their quality. Wine-maker James answered a wide range of questions such as how is global warming affecting the region (causing more extremes) to whether or not they’ve tried growing Portuguese grapes (yes to a small extent). Since the wineries have such small production, they’re not part of a national distribution system. So if you want to taste these wines again, you’ll need to either order directly from the wineries or make the 1 hour drive from Tucson to Sonoita to visit the wineries the next time you visit southern Arizona.
| Rank | Points | Wine | Price | Bottle |
| 1 | 29 | 2017 Dos Cabezas Aguileon (Tempranillo, Graciano, Petit Verdot) | $30 | 6 |
| 2 | 40 | 2018 Callaghan Aglianico | $40 | 8 |
| 3 | 46 | 2016 Deep Sky Constellation (Syrah) | $30 | 5 |
| 4 | 45 | 2017 Deep Sky Eclipse (Malbec, Syrah, Petite Sirah) | $28 | 7 |
| 5 | 55 | 2017 Callaghan Petit Manseng | $35 | 2 |
| 5 | 54 | 2018 Rune Wild Syrah | $48 | 4 |
| 7 | 61 | 2019 Rune Viognier | $28 | 1 |
| 8 | 66 | 2017 Deep Sky Supernova (Mourvèdre) | $25 | 3 |
11 different people voted on the wines, and the club favorite was the 2017 Dos Cabezas Aguileon blend (55% Tempranillo, Graciano, Petit Verdot) at $30 followed by the 2018 Callaghan Aglianico at $40. Aglianico is a relatively unknown southern Italian grape. Note: the Callaghan winery is not related to the wine maker James Callaghan.
Here’s a link to the Powerpoint document used during the tasting:
The hosts: Bob & Sandy Simoni
ORIGINAL ANNOUNCEMENT
Fellow Cellar Society members and preferred guests, I am the organizer of the our next event and have planned something different, but something I think you may all enjoy. This will be a tasting of 8 different wines (2 white and 6 red) from the mile high plateau of Sonoita, Arizona which is just south of Tucson. Through my membership in the American Wine Society, I’ve become friends with a very knowledge oenophile who moved to this area 20 years ago when wine-making was just taking off. He became an expert in this area and wrote the attached article about it a few years ago. Last November, Sandy and I took him up on his offer to visit and receive a guided tour of the local wineries, and really enjoyed that experience.
He has offered to lead a tasting for our group and has also enlisted the help of one of the winemakers in the area. I am planning for a double pour with the Gibsons already volunteering to be the SF/NB ambassadors. For the East Bay, I will pour the wines from my garage in Hayward, so hopefully one or more of the East Bay contingent can meet me there.
The cost will be dependent on the number of attendees, but if we have 25, then it’s just $20 per taster. This is obviously not a blind tasting, and voting will be optional, so if you just want to focus on listening to the wine descriptions as you taste without scoring, you can do so. But for those who want to vote, a group favorite will be announced at the end.
If you are interested, please reply to this email with the number of tasters and where you would like to do the pickup.
Looking forward to a great tasting!
Cellar Society of San Francisco 