Winners of the Arizona Wine Competition

A hailstorm wiped out the crop from Kent Callaghan’s vineyard in 2020. To make wine, Callaghan needed to buy fruit grown by his neighbors in southern Arizona, the ones who through the years had sought his advice and who credit him for spurring along the state’s wine industry.

One of those wines, a Mourvedre made from fruit purchased from Cimarron Vineyard in Willcox, owned by the proprietors of Dos Cabezas WineWorks, was named the best wine in Arizona in the 2023 azcentral Arizona Wine Competition.

“It’s a credit to them more than me,” Callaghan said. “It was great fruit.”

The wine was fermented in whole clusters, leaving it on the stems, a decision Callaghan made as soon as he saw the fruit.