Check out this really cool documentary made about how the Red Mountain AVA came to be. Here are a few of our favorite quotes from the film:
I love to tell you the story about how we came to Red Mountain and sniffed the air and tasted the dirt and stomped on it and said this is the place but of course, that’s not at all what happened it was an entirely different story. We just had a bunch of sagebrush in the middle of nowhere and that nowhere was so extensive that when you think about it in retrospect even the Native Americans stayed away from that area of Red Mountain, not because it was a bad place but because it had no interest. But that was good, cause it was cheap. – Jim Holmes
Well let me tell ya, the road was all sagebrush. – John Williams
And we threw as much gravel on that road as we could afford which wasn’t very much. – Jim Holmes
We learned to run a backhoe and through this process, we learned to run all kinds of heavy equipment cause we couldn’t afford to hire anybody. We were working night and day. And you’d think how tedious. How awful. It was fun. It was exciting. It was my gosh look at what we are doing. We’re building a trench. And that’s silly, isn’t it? I mean, a couple of guys who didn’t know they could build a trench getting excited just to find out they can. – Jim Holmes
Well it took a little while, in fact, I used to come out here by myself after school with an old Ford 8N tractor and a chain and I would pull sagebrush one at a time. – Scott Williams
…they were so indicative of the character we see on Red Mountain. They were pioneers. They were visionaries. – Bob Betz
The Williams and the Holmes had proven that they had the right place to go. They took the brunt. They took the effort and the great risk. We just came here and kinda walked in their steps. – Dick Shaw
Turns out that because we are in the desert and water is so valuable we were growing and watering grapes the way you were supposed to way back when and the grapes grow really well because of that. – Scott Williams
One of the effects that you get on Red Mountain that makes these wines special is this dichotomy between weight and ripeness and restraint and sort of a rugged, attractive tannin profile. Because of the acid and because of the cool temperatures that come on in September and October there’s this restraint in there that generates this sensation of tension on the palette and it engages your brain and it commands your attention. – Brian Rudin
We’re all intertwined with each other here on Red Mountain, the vineyards are….I think it makes it really interesting because you’re farming as a community really, more than just as an individual. – Marshall Edwards
And to have that develop the Red Mountain AVA and be a part of it has been really satisfying. And there’s a great comradery in neighbors… – Tim Hightower
We have had multiple opportunities to sell this place on Red Mountain and actually become rich. We have chosen not to do that because we want to create and build something that will be here a hundred years from now. – Scott Williams
Whenever you have a first-generation business passing on to the second, it’s sort of this new territory so you don’t really know how to do it well… – Sarah Goedhart
Daughters making the wine. Does a great job, fabulous job. She’s got good business sense. She’s got artistic sense. She’s a hard worker. We’re lucky. – Tom Hedges
JJ has done a very good job of running this winery the last 10 years and he’s learned a lot from his old dad and I think about that when I”m here working at 7 o’clock a night and he’s already gone home for the day. – Scott Williams
…And he (Tyler Williams) is frothing at the mouth to take over and I can’t wait to have him do that. – Scott Williams
I think that we’ve opened the door for the young people. There’s no ceiling where they can go. It’s the beginning of something really grand. – Dick Shaw
When you drink Red Mountian, you feel like you are drinking a place. – Tom Hedges