My Wine of the Month for January is Jerome Winery Pinotage 2012 from Arizona, USA.
In 2016 I was invited to present at The American Wine Society National Conference in Coast Mesa, California.
Before the conference we took the opportunity to drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, and after a few nights there to the Grand Canyon for a couple of nights, then south to stay at Sedona in order to visit Jerome, before heading to Temecula Valley and back to Costa Mesa.
Jerome, said in 1903 by New York’s The Sun to be “the wickedest town in the West”, was created to support the copper mine that excavated Cleopatra Hill. The mine shut in the 1950s and the town, which is effectively three parallel streets perched up on the side of a high hill, is now a tourist destination of shops, restaurants and wineries
Jerome Winery is a label of Cellar 433 which has its winery on the edge of the town with a steep drop behind it. It is owned by John McLoughlin who makes the wines and grows the grapes in the family vineyard on Dragoons Mountain, about 300 miles south east of Jerome, in the Willcox AVA.
I was lucky when I called in meeting John (above) on one of his infrequent visits to Jerome and he gave me a tasting. Unfortunately I have mislaid or lost the notebook I used, and after this time it has still not turned up I opened the wine, perhaps having left it too long.
Its pale red colour gave that initial impression, but it had a delicious delicate taste, with spiciness and a long finish. A gorgeous wine.