Professional Wine Educator Matt Zarka spoke with Calvin Arnold, National Sales Director of Caduceus Cellars and Merkin Vineyards.
Transcript
Matt Zarka: Welcome to the First Press Fine Wine Festival Podcast. My name is Matt Zarka. I’m a wine enthusiast. I have a certification Level 3 through the Wine & Spirit Education Trust and have a professional wine certification educator through Napa Valley Wine Academy. First Press returns this year, which is great, on Saturday, February 20th, from 1:00 to 4:00 PM, and they’re doing it again at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix. I was there last year—it’s a fabulous venue.
Today I have the pleasure of introducing Calvin Arnold, who’s the National Sales Director of Caduceus Cellars and Merkin Vineyards. And it’s great they’ve agreed to be at First Press this year, which I’m also very excited about. The wineries were founded by Maynard James Keenan, who, as many of you know, is a real popular progressive rock star, and he moved to Verde Valley in the ’90s. I’ll let Calvin talk about that a bit, and he launched his wineries in Verde Valley in 2001. So, Calvin, I’m interested to know: why did Maynard choose Arizona, the Verde Valley, Willcox area to grow some grapes and make some wine? How did that all come about?
Calvin Arnold: So, you know, Maynard got here in 1995. A little back history on Maynard: he was born in Ohio, raised in Western Michigan, and when he finished high school, ended up going into the Army. And while he was in the Army, through testing he actually tested into West Point and declined the appointment. Basically, his goal was art school, so he says the U.S. Army sent him to Fort Hood, Texas, to think about his decisions.
So while he was in Fort Hood, it wasn’t too far away from Austin, so he would find his way heading down to Austin on the weekends, kind of getting off base, and he would find himself in clubs and just enjoying that time in his life. Afterwards he went back to Grand Rapids, then made his way to Boston, and then from Boston ended up in L.A. in 1989 where he met up with a few guys and started the band Tool there.
And then after a few years of living in L.A.—he was only there for about six years—he had met another musician who told him about Jerome, Arizona. And it’s funny because in his book, he talks about a recurring dream of seeing this small Mediterranean town on a hillside. And so Maynard being how he is, by the time he came out here, he saw the place, and by the time he left, he had a driver’s license and a P.O. Box. So he got here in ’95. And then after traveling the world with his bands, he would see places that look like Arizona, places in Spain or Northern Italy. And so he came back with the idea that we can grow grapes here.
Matt Zarka: Oh, that’s wonderful. And he’s got Italian heritage, correct? Didn’t his relatives make wine in Italy?
Calvin Arnold: He did. His great-grandfather, James Spirito Marzo—we have a wine called Marzo and we also have a vineyard called Marzo. But the interesting story is that Maynard didn’t make that connection until after he had begun making wine. He and his wife were on their honeymoon in Italy, and they were kind of going through the small village where his family came from, and they were showing him, “Here’s the bakery, and here’s the wine shop, and up there, that’s where your great-grandfather made wine.” And at that point, he had already been making wine. So it was kind of this unspoken thread through the family and in the DNA.
Matt Zarka: That’s great. So did that influence him at all even after he found out as far as the wines he made or the style?
Calvin Arnold: Probably not so much in the way of family, because I don’t know how much wine he had on his table growing up. His introduction to wine really started to spark around his time in Boston, and then later on with some success in music. But when you look at Maynard’s style, it’s definitely a bit more Old World—lower alcohols, earlier pick wines.
Matt Zarka: Oh, nice. Okay. And your winery does have—he has a philosophy of low yield, high density, low intervention, and sustainable farming. So how does that all come together with your wines, and what influence does that have?
Calvin Arnold: Well, one way to kind of look at it, just to give an example, is that we have several vineyards across the state. We grow all of our own fruit, but if you look at the Al Buhl Memorial Vineyard located down in Willcox, that vineyard is on six-foot spacings. And around 2016, 2017, he was looking at dropping fruit before the fruit really begins to ripen, dropping fruit so that we’re at one to one-and-a-half clusters per shoot. That way, all the energy, all the nutrients are all kind of concentrated in the clusters that you have. It also helps in the way of airflow because without so many clusters on the vine, when we have monsoon come in, some of that airflow allows for the fruit to dry out so that we can pick it, bring it in, and harvest it.
But if you look at our newest vineyard—we noticed the yields kind of drop a little bit, obviously, when you go through and drop fruit and the vines are on six-foot spacings. If you come up to our newest vineyard, which is the Galileo block located in Old Town Cottonwood, you’ll notice that this vineyard’s on three-foot spacings. So that way, we can still do one cluster per shoot; we’ve just tightened up the vineyard a little bit.
Matt Zarka: What are the benefits and challenges of growing grapes and doing that wine production in Arizona? What have you found out that way?
Calvin Arnold: Well, one of the things that we found is that the common go-to ideas of challenges are kind of the opposite. People think, “Oh, you deal with heat.” Well, the way that we deal with heat is that we choose varieties that are accustomed to this climate. We do really well with things like Tempranillo; Sangiovese does well here. We don’t do so much in the way of Pinot.
And cold—everybody thinks it’s so hot, but we actually deal with cold much more than we deal with heat because of the high elevation. If it wasn’t for elevation, we couldn’t do what we do in Arizona. So that has a lot to do with it.
And water: people think, “Well, there’s no water in Arizona.” Well, one good thing about grapes is that it’s a low water use crop. In fact, in the late ’70s, when they were doing studies in Arizona to figure out what is a good crop for our state where we can still be good stewards of the water, grapes was that industry that we leaned into.
Matt Zarka: Good choice, yeah.
Calvin Arnold: So there were absolutely people definitely doing it well before Maynard. Even in Jerome, there was wine pre-Prohibition where a lot of the miners would migrate to the West and bring vines with them. And then Prohibition came and kind of hit the reset button for Arizona, so we were playing catch-up.
Matt Zarka: Cool. So you guys have two labels, Caduceus and Merkin. I’m curious to know why Maynard has two labels and what does that do for the public and for you guys?
Calvin Arnold: Well, right now Maynard’s actually producing under four. He’s producing under Caduceus Cellars, which is going to be predominantly Northern Arizona fruit—so one of our vineyards up here in the Verde Valley. And the aging regimen is a little longer on that: you’re looking at 18 to 24 months. Typically, people know who we are; it’s a slightly higher price point, but they know who we are at that point when they’re looking at the Caduceus wines.
Merkin Vineyards, that’s more of a shorter aging regimen, fresher wines. We get those from our vineyard in Southern Arizona. You’re looking at 8 to 10 months in barrel for those. And the idea behind Merkin Vineyards is that it’s kind of a daily drinker and an introduction to Arizona wine. Once we get outside of the state, it’s hard to say, “Have you ever had Arizona wine?” and they say no. We go, “Well, here’s a bottle for $50 or $60,” and they go, “Well, I don’t know.” So when we can offer something at that $25 price point and introduce people to our region, we feel like it really helps build the region.
The two other labels that we produce under are Queen B, which is our canned wine—we also do mead and cider under that label, which kind of coincides. We also have a record store, we roast our own coffee, we have a cafe, and we just opened a new sushi location—all of that is under the Queen B umbrella. And with so many people coming to Arizona wanting to travel, be in the outdoors, and hike—we’re so close to Sedona—the idea was that it was something they could pack in and pack out; they’re not carrying glass bottles.
And then the last label that we do is a label called 48 Wine Works, and that initially started as a bit of an incubator. For us, region is so important in telling the story of Arizona wine. So we found ourselves in a location and in a position where we had two production facilities. One of them was predominantly where all the fruit was fermented and barrel-aged, and then it would go to where the bottling line and case good storage was. And at that location, we had extra forklifts and extra barrels, and so we started working with the Southwest Wine Center at Yavapai College. As students came through the program, they were able to submit an application and we would give them a place to make wine.
If you’ve been up to Cottonwood recently, you’ll know that we recently opened a seven-acre property here on the hillside in Old Town. And so we ended up leaving that other facility, licenses changed, and the tenants that were part of 48 Wine Works have either opened up their own tasting room or moved on—they’ve done whatever they’re going to do, but Maynard always made wine under that label.
Matt Zarka: Okay, that’s great. Kind of as a segue into the Verde Valley and all that, he was really a champion for getting an AVA, was it in 2001? What did that do for you guys? What did it do for the wine community as a whole in Verde Valley and Arizona? I mean, that’s quite an accomplishment to get an AVA.
Calvin Arnold: You know, it kind of goes back to building a region. For us, even though we make wine under a couple of different labels, it’s one producer, it’s one brand. And the idea here is to—I heard him say one time in an interview that what we’re doing now will outlive us. We’re trying to set the foundation for future generations in Arizona for grape growing and winemaking. And so the focus is not so much building a brand and getting our wines around the world, but letting people know that we can grow grapes and make wine in Arizona. So when it came to the AVA designation, I think it just adds to the legitimacy. Much like this facility that we are at here on the hilltop, we’re kind of planting our flag and saying this is something that can work here, and we’d like to see this survive for future generations.
Matt Zarka: That’s wonderful. So as far as First Press goes, you’re going to be serving some wines there, which I’m personally really excited about. Why does Caduceus and Merkin, why does Maynard like to support public radio and First Press?
Calvin Arnold: Well, to be honest with you, Matt, it’s a little selfish. I like going down and pouring at that event. I like seeing Nate, I like going to the MIM, and I like getting our wines out there, and we’re among really good company. But when it comes to supporting public radio, Maynard being an artist and being a musician, a few years ago seeing some of the funding issues, we want to do everything that we can to help keep that program alive.
Matt Zarka: That’s great. No, that’s just wonderful. So can you share with us some of the wines you may be pouring at First Press? For example, let’s say you have a beginner wine taster—maybe suggest some wines for that individual versus some other folks? That’d be great.
Calvin Arnold: So we’re planning on taking our Chupacabra Blanca, which is a white blend. It’s a blend of several different varieties that come off of the Al Buhl Memorial site. We’re also going to bring the Chupacabra Red, which is predominantly Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, but there’s a dash of Cab and a dash of Merlot in there as well. Once again, a site blend off of that site.
And on the Caduceus side, Maynard’s been experimenting with adding a little more Malvasia into our Syrah, and so it’s something we’re super excited about. When it comes to wine and talking about wine, we just wrapped up harvest, so we’re super excited about these things that we’re doing in ’25 and ’26. But we’re still also pouring wines from ’22 and ’23, and so that’s something that we’ve been doing. We like the characteristics of it.
It’s great being in Arizona in a region like this where the rules haven’t necessarily been established. So if we want to add a little more Malvasia Bianca to Syrah, then that’s what we’ll do, and it really is a treat to bring that out and pour it at something like First Press.
Matt Zarka: So for those that are not totally informed, what would the Malvasia do with that kind of heavy, peppery Syrah? How does that profile out?
Calvin Arnold: It absolutely lifts up the aromatics quite a bit. And we found that even with some of the co-fermentations that we did, it kind of darkens the color just a little bit.
When it comes to Arizona and people ask about what grapes and varieties do well here, Spanish and Italian do really well. We do well with Tempranillo, Sangiovese. But even with this one with the Syrah, the wine is called Primer Paso. It’s the first wine that Maynard produced in 2004, so it’s the “first pass” or the “first step.” And it was kind of an homage to Côte-Rôtie. So it was Syrah, Petite Sirah with a dash of Malvasia. And now it’s like, “Well, what happens if we put a little more Malvasia in it?” And we really like the results that are coming out of it. It stays fantastically balanced, but you still get a lot of those aromatics on the nose.
Matt Zarka: I’ll make sure I taste that wine. That sounds great. So you guys have done First Press before, right? Any favorite memories doing that? Anything that struck you at all?
Calvin Arnold: There are so many different wine festivals that happen here in the state, and all of them kind of have a different feel. I’ve always loved the format of First Press. The setting is nice, the folks who are there to enjoy wine and taste wine are eager to learn about our region, learn about our brand, and what we’re able to do here in the state. So whenever we can be there, we’d like to be there.
Matt Zarka: Oh, that’s wonderful. Thanks so much for doing that. So, I’m on to the personality questions or quickie questions—these are just short-answer things. What do you think is the most underrated wine in Arizona?
Calvin Arnold: In terms of variety or producer?
Matt Zarka: I think just the variety.
Calvin Arnold: Variety, I’m going to say I think sometimes people sleep on our Tempranillos. I think our Tempranillos are fantastic across multiple producers. There’s several people in the state working with Tempranillo, and when people sometimes look at West Texas and some of the things they’re doing there—I really think that if somebody’s first coming to Arizona and wants to try an Arizona wine, check out a Tempranillo.
Matt Zarka: Okay, that’s great to know. Which wine in your portfolio would you drink on a Wednesday just when you’re trying to chill after work? What do you like?
Calvin Arnold: I’m a big fan of our Chupacabra Red—or Shinola Red, excuse me. It falls under the Merkin Vineyards label, and it’s going to be Sangiovese with Montepulciano, and it just goes well with anything. I mean, if you’re having a quick pizza on a Wednesday night, or throw together some pasta or a little salad, it always does the job.
Matt Zarka: That sounds great, that’s great. If there was a grape that is not in Arizona now that you think has potential for being produced here, which grape would that be?
Calvin Arnold: We really found that we had more luck with Spanish and Italian varieties. But when you start looking at the contrast between red varieties and white varieties, Malvasia Bianca really kind of rises to the top. So we’re looking for other white varieties that want to be here. We have planted, and I’m looking forward to seeing, Fiano and Falanghina, and just see what happens with those particular varieties in the state. We should have those ready in the next few years.
Matt Zarka: That sounds wonderful. That sounds great. Do you have anything else you’d like to talk about as far as Caduceus, Merkin, and your enterprise?
Calvin Arnold: Absolutely. I mean, come check us out. We’ve got the Caduceus Cellars Tasting Room up in Jerome, which opened in 2009. That’s more of a bottle shop atmosphere where you can get more of our archive wines.
We also have the Merkin Vineyards Hilltop Winery & Trattoria with a 270-degree view of the Verde Valley where you can come by for a bottle of wine and a pizza.
We also have—it’s the room that I’m in now—a private dining experience called the Ventura Room. It’s a hosted experience that’s an hour and a half long. There’s a private chef, we open library wines, and take you all the way through the history of our brand.
Like I mentioned earlier, we roast our own coffee, so we have the Queen B Vinyl Cafe & Coffee Roaster. We just opened Queen B Sushi. So there’s no shortage of things to do up here in the Verde Valley if you’re looking for food and wine.
Matt Zarka: That’s wonderful. I haven’t—I saw your facility when you were under construction on the hill there, but I haven’t seen it in person since. I know it’s finished now, so I’m going to be up there soon for sure.
Calvin Arnold: Please do let me know when you’re coming; we’d love to show you around.
Matt Zarka: That’d be great. Okay, I think this has been wonderful. I’d like to introduce your wines, and I’m excited you’re going to be at First Press. Once again, for folks out there, it’s going to be on Saturday, February 20th. Tickets for that are at FirstPressArizona.com. And thank you for supporting public radio; it’s important for us, it’s important for the community, and it’s important for Arizona. Thank you very much.
Calvin Arnold: Thanks for having me.