Merkin Cellars - Real Deal or Cover Up?

Watching a show called "The Wine Show" with a couple of British actors and on one episode they headed to New Mexico/Arizona.

Now my New Mexican wine knowledge is pretty much limited to the odd bottle of Gruet, who make very decent sparkling wine.

The winery featured in the show was Caduceus Cellars with winemaker Maynard James Keenan, who also makes Merkin wines with oddball names like Shinola, Chupacabra (goat sucker....), The Diddler, and others.

Caduceus makes wines largely from Italian varietals - sangiovese, nebbiolo, as well as some Rhone and Spanish varietals.

There are an amazing number of wineries there now, and a lesser number in Arizona, and I know nothing about them. I expect that if you live in California, the incentive to visit either of the other states except for comic relief would be minimal, but thought I'd ask if anyone has personal knowledge of these wineries and wines and could comment on quality.

Great title.
I've had one taste of Caduceus/Merkin, though it was ripe but ok for modern, till I discovered it was $75/bottle or something.
I think the novelty factor/Tool fans drive the market

I spent a fair amount of time exploring the Sonoita region in Southern Arizona back between maybe ten to fifteen years ago. There were only a handful of places back then, with Callaghan Vineyards being the standout. Kent Callaghan knows his stuff and has experimented with a number of varieties to see how they do in the area. It's a tough place to grow grapes, with late frosts being potential killers. (I believe he lost his entire crop a few years back to one of these.) He'll bring in grapes from California to supplement those from his own vines. His wines are well made, ageable, and quite interesting. The last time I was back there, the number of wineries had shot up and it's now a full-on wine tasting zone, with glitzy wineries all set up for weddings, "passport weekends", and all that other stuff. We went to four or five places and (except for Kent's), found the wines to be fairly boring and overpriced but the wineries packed with visitors. The Callaghan prices had also gone up to the point that I couldn't really afford to pick up more than a couple of bottles (although they weren't at all overpriced compared to the competition's). That was the last time I was out there and I don't plan on going back unless I'm feeling flush enough to pick up a bunch of Kent's wine.

I'd be curious to hear if others who've been out there recently agree with that assessment.

Bill -- great thread title !!!

Watching a show called "The Wine Show" with a couple of British actors.

British? One with a beard is (when shaven) 'The American'

80% of all grapes in Arizona are grown in Willcox, South-Eastern Arizona.

I visited a winemaker in Jerome AZ who grows more than 100 varieties in his vineyards in Willcox workling which varieties best suit.

Also bought in a restaurant Grand Canyon Petite Sirah from Cochise County which I enjoyed with a Filet Mignon, but Jo found a tad jammy

Didn't taste a bad wine but surprised at just how much they cost.

I've not had any of the Merkin wines, but when I've tasted Caduceus wines I've found them mostly over-oaked and highly tannic. The exceptions to that were two Nebbiolo wines, one of which was rose. I didn't think either was $50 nice. All the others were dearly priced as well to the point I wasn't going to buy any to see if the oak and tannins would resolve to something drinkable over time.

I like Kent's wines but don't find the often in the stores around Phoenix. Page Springs Cellars, Pillsbury Wine and Keeling-Schafer are all producing good wine with Rhone grapes coming out the best. Page Springs makes a Grenache from its Colibri Vineyard that is consistently good, always showing what is known as Colibri spice. The others also are making drinkable Grenache with very little to none of the strawberry cotton-candy that some show.

Most of the other wineries in the state seem to be hit or miss, sometimes turning out good wine and sometimes not so much. Often too, the wines are priced a bit high for what they are. I'm not sure if that's winemaker ego, cost of production for small yields or a bit of both. I think Page Springs, Pillsbury and Keeling-Schafer wines are usually fairly priced.

Not a fan of Merkin or Caduceus wines as I've found them hot, over-extracted, and flawed. I did like one special release chenin from Caduceus but at $50 there are so many less expensive Vouvray that I'd rather have.

Most of the AZ wine that I like is from the southern part where it is much cooler vs the Cottonwood north areas.

Callaghan, for sure. Very solid across the portfolio.

I had the opportunity to spend last weekend at an event where the booth next to us was shared by Pillsbury and Dektown Cellars. I've had lots of Sam's wines and do like them. They are reasonably priced and always show true character. He does mostly Rhone varieties. I had never had Dektown wines. Kimberly focuses predominantly on Italian varieties. Her barbera and sangiovese are lovely and priced well at around $28. She also has a cab/merlot blend (which blend in general that I usually avoid at all costs) but hers is quite good. She raises in neutral Hungarian oak so the grapes really shine. All her wines are from natural yeast.

Sand-Reckoner is another to look for, albeit on the pricier side of things. The S-R malvasia has been my favorite of the AZ whites that I've had.

Burning Tree has some labels that are pretty big and bold but others that are more nuanced. Stylistically they are all over the map but all of their wines that I've tried have been good for one reason or another.

Topic title of the year. Mic drop.

Jason

All the way from Australia...

I found some 2012 Caduceus on sale here, and tried the Sangiovese blend last weekend out of curiosity. It was nice enough, but reminded me of the way Priorat presents in Australia - well made warm climate style, but expensive compared to local options. This was on the shelf at $A125.

Watching a show called "The Wine Show" with a couple of British actors.

British? One with a beard is (when shaven) 'The American'

Matthew Goode is English.
The one with the beard is Matthew Rhys, a Welshman, which still counts as British even though he acts in The American (as a Russian, as it happens)!.