'We have to be creative from all angles': What Arizona winery is doing in face of climate change

The Arizona wine industry has been steadily growing for the last two decades or so, near the Verde Valley east of Sedona, as well as in the sky islands of Willcox and Sonoita in the southern part of the state. But today, they’re facing the same threat that most of the world’s winemaking regions are staring down: climate change.

For one of the earliest trailblazers in the industry here, the challenge is the whole point.

Todd Bostock, owner of Dos Cabezas WineWorks in Sonoita, joined The Show to discuss, saying it holds true to its nickname: The Wild West of the wine world.

Lauren Gilger/KJZZ

Full conversation

TODD BOSTOCK: Yeah, I think it is, and I think that's part of what makes it exciting, you know, I grew up here and the idea that you could be a part of a place figuring out what it tastes like, I think, is a rare and unique opportunity in the world. So yeah, it's challenging, but I think that's the whole point, right, is that it's, it's distinctive, it's adding to the conversation, it brings something new to the table.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah, OK. So we have seen climate change really impact us a lot in Arizona. A lot of people will say we're on the front lines of climate change, right? We're seeing these record high summers, we're seeing record dry winters. You're not here in the valley, but how is climate change affecting what you're trying to do there? The grapes are temperamental, right?

BOSTOCK: Yeah, things are different, even in my short lifetime, you know, hail used to be a rare occurrence, and now it seems to be a regular occurrence. The vineyard we farm in Elgin, you know, five out of the last 10 years, we didn't have a crop to make wine from, and I think folks would assume it's because of you know, it's too hot or too dry, but typically it's cold and wet.

So late spring frost, early fall frost, extreme cold, hail, those are the issues we deal with, and they seem to be more frequent, and I don't think we're alone there. I think you see folks around the world, you know, using things like hail netting is becoming a more common necessity in the vineyard. And so yeah, it's happening.

GILGER: Is it getting less predictable? That tends to be one of the hallmarks of climate change in Arizona.

BOSTOCK: You know, I think it is part of what makes what we do kind of possible is the monsoon, and we complain about it because it brings water in the middle of ripening season, which can be challenging to deal with, but it also slows things down and, and, it's become seemingly more unpredictable, you know, I think the last two years we didn't have much of it at all and it compressed our season and we're bringing in, you know, we were used to bringing in fruit over the course of say two months, we, we're bringing it in, you know, over the course of a couple of weeks. I think we went, we picked for two weeks straight last year, which usually, you know, there's, we can count on some days off.

GILGER: So everything ripens at once and earlier it sounds like.

BOSTOCK: Yeah, that seems like the trend, especially without monsoons. And so what we have to do is learn how to adapt so that we can, we can hedge our bets and continue to do what we do and so we can, you know, look at what folks in California and in Europe are doing. But you know, when they talk about some of the farming practices they're putting into place, that doesn't necessarily work here. You know, good examples, folks talking about increasing biodiversity in the vineyard, making a more durable farm, but if you're talking about grazing animals, if you have no rain during the offseason, what are your animals going to graze on?

But that's one of the challenges. That's the point. I mean, if we wanted this to be easier, we could have done it any place where they, they've already figured out a lot of the big things in there, you know, we're trying to figure out how to adapt as we're also creating the legal framework to exist in Arizona and creating the market for the wine in addition to dealing with this, this problem.

GILGER: Yeah. Let me ask you about the implications of this, like the impact of all of this on you. You said five out of the last 10 seasons, one of your vineyards has had no grapes you can use. Like, what does this do to the business?

BOSTOCK: Yeah, it's challenging, you know, so, for what it's worth, we've, we're looking at redeveloping that vineyard so that we can learn some things and diversify so that if a grape crop does get wiped out, we still have some income from our activity for the year. So we have to be flexible and try to become, you know, very durable so we can survive.

GILGER: Durable and flexible, absolutely. There's also the issue of water in rural Arizona, right? Like groundwater is dwindling in many places. There's often no regulation on who can pump and how much they can pump in many areas. There is regulation in your area where you are. What do you think you would like to see on that front as somebody involved in agriculture here and as this kind of policy debate over how we regulate groundwater in Arizona rages on?

BOSTOCK: Yeah, so without dissing any of our agricultural neighbors and just talking about us, you know, I think grapes are a great crop for Arizona because they're low water use and they're, they're high value. And so it's very rare I think that you see anymore where the community realizes the value of the water pumped out of the ground and with grape vines, you see that because it gets turned into wine in the community.

People come and spend the night, they get restaurants, they fill their carts up with gas in the community, they gave up the water, where some of the other larger commodity crops, those products are shipped far, far away, and the true value of the water pumped is realized outside the community.

You know, I'm not a policy guy. There are people that are way smarter than us that can figure this out, but there has to be some way that water can be managed and allocated so that it's there for a long period of time and that it benefits the community. You know, we've done some things in Wilcox where our irrigation is subterranean, so we've got subterranean drip irrigation, the water's being, you know, metered out in the ground near the root system to minimize evaporation and loss. And, you know, I think there's other things that our industry can do to create value for the community of the water that gets pumped out of the ground.

GILGER: Are you mostly relying on groundwater or is this, can you capture rainwater? Can you use other sources?

BOSTOCK: Yeah, absolutely, I, you know, I think we can do more to increase our water holding capacity. That being said, I, I don't think at this point we could survive without irrigation, but we are able to create a lot of value for the limited amount of water that we pump out of the ground compared to some other crops.

GILGER: OK, so we talked a lot about the challenges involved in trying to grow grapes in a climate-changed Arizona, right? But it sounds like you also really see this as an opportunity, which is sort of counterintuitive here. You, you do what's called regenerative agriculture, right? Like what does this look like on your farm?

BOSTOCK: We're working towards it. So, but we see tools like that as the future. You know, the whole goal for us, it's all in service of making bottles of wine that taste great. But if we can do these other things and do a better job and do a better job with the resources we have, then I think that's a good thing. I know it's going to be a necessary thing. So yeah, I think that that's a great tool kit.

And then, you know, I think on the wine side, we now make a sparkling wine that we use a perpetual cuvée system, which allows you to kind of smooth out the vintages. So we, you know, we're going to release a wine, it's called Tegresa, and it's 95% perpetual cuvée, which means there's wine in it from 2015 all the way through 2020. And, it allows us to take those extremes and smooth them out and make something that tastes delicious and kind of consistent.

GILGER: So you're, you're regulating it on the back end.

BOSTOCK: Yeah, I think we have to do, I think we have to be creative from all angles.

GILGER: So one of the things that strikes me as difficult about this, right, is that it comes at a time when the Arizona wine industry is really blossoming and like and has been growing for, you know, a couple of decades here. You've been a big part of that.

Does it feel like it's frustrating to kind of get to this moment in making wine in Arizona and making it something that, as you said, like tastes like this place and, and then get hit with all of these curveballs?

BOSTOCK: Maybe, maybe like for the first, maybe the first year when we were so green we didn't expect to take those punches, but I'd like to think that we're, we've toughened up a bit. And it's part of the, it's part of the challenge. I mean, it's part of why, why, why we do it. And so yeah, I mean, I think we saw during COVID, especially in our county, in Santa Cruz County, that our industry was one of the few, maybe the only one that actually grew during that time. And so there's enormous opportunity, but I think it'll just be, it'll be naturally limited, which I don't know is such a bad thing.

GILGER: Really. Why not?

BOSTOCK: I mean, I think if you look at what's going on in wine in the U.S., you know, you see what's coming down from the FDA, you know, talk about like warning labels, talk about younger folks aren't drinking wine, but the truth is, I think these are all things that keep an industry healthy, that it keeps people from getting complacent and pursuing quality and not just coasting.

GILGER: Not just coasting.