Pavle Prunes the Vines -- and Keeps an Eye out for Rattlesnakes

By Pavle Milic Fri., May 25 2012 at 3:14 PM

In this occasional series, Pavle Milic will spill about his current mission to learn how wine is made -- literally from the Southern Arizona ground up. Today: pruning and weeding.
The alarm goes off at 4:30 am. I jounce out of bed in fear of pressing snooze to enjoy the proverbial "five more minutes" that can possibly turn into "oh my god I overslept minutes." Everyone is asleep for the exception of Lucy and Luna (our pound doggies) following me around the house wondering what's going on.

Today's itinerary:

Depart for Sonoita by 5:30 am; arrive at Pronghorn Vineyard by 7:45 am to see the pruning process (more on that later); conclude the tutorial by noon and head back to the Dos Cabezas tasting room and winery to pick up wine to bring back to Phoenix; before leaving, I have to stop and say hi to Tina, who owns a little Taco Truck called "K & A Mexican Food," to get me a Pollo Asado Burrito for the drive back; upon arriving in Phoenix around 3 pm I text (FnB chef) Charleen to ask her if we have any menu changes so I can print the evening's menu; put on the apron to get into character to wait tables at FnB; conclude dinner service around 11; wait for the dishwasher to finish while I finally look at Charleen and ask: "So, how was your day?"

Courtesy of Lamp Left Media

I met Todd Bostock ten years ago while working at Cowboy Ciao. I blind tasted him on an Argentine wine made from the Torrontes grape (a hybrid of Moscato de Alexandria and a native Criollo grape). He guessed Moscato.

Fast-forward to 2009. While I was performing research and development in preparation for the Arizona Wine list at FnB, Todd stopped by to taste me on his wines. I was very impressed by the wine and knew I had to include his offerings. (By the way, if you ever meet Todd, ask him about the "fly me to the moon" Chardonnay.)

Two and a half years later and I'm still pouring his wines at FnB.

Now I get to spend time with him through the whole cycle of wine making. Right now Todd is concentrating his efforts with his vineyard team pruning the Pronghorn Vineyard. This vineyard is located on Elgin road--same road where two of my favorites, Callaghan Vineyards and Canelo Hills Vineyards are located.