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Pahrump Valley Winery, Pahrump Nevada
Jun. 7th, 2010 11:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
devilcA few weekends ago, the Dear Husband (DH) and our friends Rob and Drea paid a visit to Nevada's oldest winery, Pahrump Valley Winery, founded in 1990. (As an aside, one of the peculiarities of Nevada State Law is that while grapes can be grown in any county, only counties with less than 100,000 people can have wineries.)
For many years, PVW was something of a big joke. The first vines planted around the winery? Destroyed in 1993 when a herd of wild Mustangs trampled them. (The vines were replanted, but mostly just kept for decoration. They weren't actually harvested until 2005, but more about that below the cut.) The wine? Made 100% with grapes and juice imported from California? Eh, at best and bleargh! at the worst.
In 2003 as part of helping out a family member with a real estate deal, the current owners, Bill and Gretchen Loken (who had zero previous winemaking experience) took over and discovered that they liked running the winery and making wine. So much so that they bought it outright in 2005.
And Gretchen turned out to be pretty damn good at making wine, but more about that below the cut.
( Wine tasting notes and several pictures. )
For many years, PVW was something of a big joke. The first vines planted around the winery? Destroyed in 1993 when a herd of wild Mustangs trampled them. (The vines were replanted, but mostly just kept for decoration. They weren't actually harvested until 2005, but more about that below the cut.) The wine? Made 100% with grapes and juice imported from California? Eh, at best and bleargh! at the worst.
In 2003 as part of helping out a family member with a real estate deal, the current owners, Bill and Gretchen Loken (who had zero previous winemaking experience) took over and discovered that they liked running the winery and making wine. So much so that they bought it outright in 2005.
And Gretchen turned out to be pretty damn good at making wine, but more about that below the cut.
( Wine tasting notes and several pictures. )
