I recently visited the Caduceus Cellars tasting room in the old mining town of Jerome, Arizona while on a road trip through the region. I’d enjoyed several of their wines over the years but it had been awhile since I’d tried them so this was a perfect opportunity to do that. Kristin Kordish at the tasting room poured me five wines, three under the Caduceus label and two under the winery’s Four Eight Wineworks label. All five were made from grapes grown in the nearby Verde Valley AVA (not far from Sedona) at vineyard elevations ranging from 3,350 to over 3,800 feet in a variety of soil types. The wines I tasted had modest alcohol levels of 12.8% to 13.6%, not what many people might expect for Arizona wines.
The wines I tasting were:
Four Eight Wineworks White (Malvasia Bianca)
Caduceus 2023 “Nagual del Marzo” Rosé (Sangiovese)
Caduceus 2022 “Airavata” Garnacha
Caduceus 2022 “Primer Paso” (co-fermented 75% Syrah, 20% Malvasia Bianca, 5% Durif)
Four Eight Wineworks Red (66% Dolcetto, 33% Syrah)
All five wines were good, with my favorites being the Four Eight Wineworks White, with citrus and toned-down floral character, Caduceus “Airavata” Garnacha, with savory red fruit and great acidity, and Caduceus “Primer Paso” – inspired by Côte-Rôtie – featuring a bolder and darker-fruited profile with floral undertones.
The tasting room is a pleasant space in a brick building dating from 1898 along the main street of Jerome. I really enjoyed visiting the historic and scenic old town, and if you happen to be in the area, I’d certainly recommend checking out both the whole town and the Caduceus tasting room there.
I should add that I’d met Caduceus owner/winemaker Maynard James Keenan – well-known as vocalist for the band Tool – in 2013 during a wine event in San Francisco, and a few months later he generously sent me two bottles of his 2011 Nebbiolo to include in an informal tasting of American (nearly all California) Nebbiolos organized by Tom Hill. We organized the wines into several blind tasting flights and the Caduceus was the consensus favorite in its flight among our group of experienced Nebbiolo growers, winemakers, and wine lovers – an impressive showing.
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Encounter any of the flooding?
Bill, I was very fortunate with the timing of my road trip (last week of October). If I’d gone a week earlier or later I probably would have been in the middle of the rainstorms and flooding in a few of the places I visited or passed through. I did see some minor flood damage from the previous week’s storms in a couple of places.
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The town of Jerome sits up on the side of Mingus Mountain, and was relatively unscathed by the severe storms last weekend. However, the nearby town of Cottonwood (down at the base of Mingus), was well as other towns in the Verde Valley such as Cornville, Camp Verde, Rimrock, etc, were quite heavily impacted. Basically, anything near the Verde River, Oak Creek, or smaller creeks like Wet & Dry Beaver Creeks saw extensive flooding and property damage. Also, Highway 89A through Oak Creek Canyon (the scenic route up to Flagstaff that folks all tour through when they visit here in Sedona) is still closed all the way through the canyon due to numerous impacts along the road.
Most of us in the area came through it with little direct impact. However, the locations that were impacted were really hit hard…
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Caduceus is certainly one of the higher quality producers here in the Verde Valley. And Mr Keenan has definitely invested heavily in supporting the wine growing and wine making infrastructure around here, as well as in the wine tourism business in Cottonwood.
That being said, I really struggle in my assessment of the wine ecosystem in this area. There are a number of producers who are producing well-made (if not especially distinctive…) wines. However, I just so frequently find their pricing is severely “aspirational” relative to the quality of the juice in the bottle. Good wines, but pervasively poor QPR.
I try to approach this with a bit of grace, as it’s certainly still a fledgling industry around here. I’m not sure they’ve really figured out what their long-term competitive advantages will be. I think there’s great potential around (as well as in Southern AZ) for Spanish varieties, but I’m not sure how well that would translate into commercial success.
The fact that Sedona and surrounding areas have such a dominant tourism industry seems to me to be a bit of double-edged sword for the local wine business. It may allow them to price higher than the overall quality selling to the tourism market; however, that might handicap them in the long run in terms of broader competitiveness. Guess we’ll see…
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That seems like very perceptive analysis of the wine situation in the region, Michael - thanks.
Maynard has been a great influence to the AZ wine scene. As new producers enter the fray, my hope is the quality of wine continues to improve. In the end, our terroir and climate are not the best.
