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Monsoon Vintage

Notes on Arizona wine

Section 2 of 3

Grapes and growing

The vines, and the weather they have to live through.

3 notes, 2026

A grape that ripens well in California can struggle in Arizona, where spring frost, June heat and monsoon downpours can all arrive in the same growing season. This section is about the varieties that manage it and the work of bringing them in.

It covers which grapes growers have settled on and why, a good number of them from warm parts of Spain, France and Italy, and how the calendar runs from bud break through the monsoon to a harvest that can begin as early as late July. One piece follows the Spanish grapes, Tempranillo the best known of them, that have taken root in Arizona vineyards.

2026 3 notes

  1. Spain's grapes in Arizona, and the price of the second loan

    Four grapes from Spain's hot, dry country now ripen at four and five thousand feet in Arizona. In Spain the same grapes bring a harvest season whose first wage comes weeks after the work begins.

  2. Harvest in monsoon season: how Arizona picks between storms

    Most wine regions hope for a dry harvest. Arizona's arrives in the middle of its rainy season, and growers plan the whole vineyard around that.

  3. Which grapes suit Arizona's high desert, and why

    Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon cover the most ground, yet the long list behind them says more. Arizona growers are still finding out what a desert summer allows.