Cottonwood Part 2.
Industry and Locale
It would be possible to take a classic Zane Gray or Louis L’Amour paperback, substitute tasting room for for the word ranch, and grapes for cattle and you pretty much have the story right.
Some claim as many as sixty bonded wineries statewide in Arizona, with the earliest planting dating to 1976. This is somewhat disingenuous in that initial efforts involved Concord table grapes, not for wine. Most wine grape vineyards seem to date from about 1990.
Still, twenty-five years is an old vine.
The vineyards, from what information is available to a short term visitor, rage from five to two hundred acre plantings. A guess might be between seven and twelve thousand acres under vine or in progress for producing plots, state-wide. Wine tourism brings in between twenty-two and twenty-three million annually, supporting a little over four hundred jobs statewide. Many wines sell for twenty-five dollar per bottle retail, although limited quantity production,. high quality runs may reach forty to one hundred twenty per bottler and sell out early, or pre-release through subscription.
Leave it that there is serious cash flow involved.
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