Address: 370 Elgin Rd, Elgin, AZ 85611
Phone: (520) 455-5582
Website: https://twistedunionwinecompany.com/
Google Reviews
Tucson has some amazing local wineries and one of our favorites is Twisted Union Wine Company located in Elgin, AZ. This amazing winery is a relative newcomer to the independent wine scene opening in the inauspicious year of 2020. Despite the setbacks of a pandemic Twisted Union Wine Company has soared above and beyond some of its longer-lived counterparts.
Winery & Tasting Room
Located on a 20-acre plot of land, they have planted 7+ strains of grapes including Reisling and Mourvèdre. The onsite tasting room is open Thursday through Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. Booking a tasting will cost you $18 dollars with a purchase of a Twisted Union glass or if you bring your own wine glass you can cut that down to $14.
They have both indoor and outdoor spaces to enjoy your glass or bottle of wine. All spaces are cleaned daily, not just for the sake of cleanliness but also to help slow the spread of Covid which is still very much a part of social life.
The Stay
If you want more than just an afternoon visit to Twisted Union Wine Co. there are 2 beautiful suites, you can rent to wake up in the vines! Okay well, maybe not “in the vines” but very close. You have the choice between a vineyard view suite or a mountain view suite. Both come with lush, comfy king beds, a private balcony, a snack station, and so much more!
Located in winery row between Elgin and Sonoita you are sure to love the sweeping panoramic mountain vistas as well as the relaxing feeling of country life. Slow down and enjoy a relaxing day or two at this amazing winery.
Events
Twisted Union Wine Co. hosts a Twisted Union Communion in March, previously known as the Southeast Wine Growers Festival. This is a two-day event featuring over a dozen Arizona wineries, live music, and food trucks galore! Everything you need to have an amazing time will be provided so make sure you buy your tickets in advance! General admission and VIP tickets are available.
Transcript (Unedited)
Tony Ray Baker
So today we’re here with Brett Wagner. This is a special occasion because this is the winemaker for Twisted Union. It is rare that you get to talk to or hang out with the winemaker. Darren and I are really super happy and grateful that you let us come down and play. Today we’re bottling the the 20 22, 20, 21 1, Joy Ride. One of 1 of our favorites was the,
Tony Ray Baker
because we like to buy that. And this is the bottle here. If you can see that, that’s the bottle there of Joy Ride that we love. And then well, first of all, congratulations. Looks like I was looking at all the wines again.
Brett Wagner
Yeah.
Tony Ray Baker
All the awards. What are those awards?
Brett Wagner
Yeah.
Brett Wagner
Well, through the Arizona Wine Growers Association, every year, we get to submit pretty much as many wines as we want into the competition to be judged by Somalias and people within the industry, and they kind of score it and kind of give medals to people who earn some of the top wines in the area.
Tony Ray Baker
And you submitted six wines, and all six took awards. Yes. Including you. One of them took a gold.
Brett Wagner
Yeah.
Brett Wagner
So the best in show. San Joe Pace in Arizona. So our charm school ended up winning that award. So it was a real treat to be able to see one of my wines be so highly recognized, so very about that.
Tony Ray Baker
That’s awesome. Okay, so tell me what goes into we have some video of us bottling the wine, and there’s all different processes and steps to get there to get to Bottling, which we’re doing today. What I’m most interested in is the recipe that has to be it’s in your head, right? It’s like, how do you decide when and what and how it’s going to be blended together? If you’re going to do a blend, give me some insight on this.
Brett Wagner
You’re like a chef. Yeah, well, I really tell people that I take a culinary approach to a lot of the blends that I have. Initially, when you’re done fermenting and everything, you don’t have a true idea of the individual flavor profile of each wine in each barrel that you have. But let’s just say a year after everything is processed, you get a little bit better idea of what the end flavor profile is. And sometimes there’s a single varietal that stands out to be so magnificent that you don’t want to blend it. The grate does all of the work as long as you keep up with sanitation, sterilization, and keeping up with topping, preventing oxidation, and anything that can break faults to it. But outside of the single Brians, you know, every single barrel that I have, I treat as if it’s a different spice on the spice rack. And when I’m coming up with the initial blend, I really come up with a vision. I try and stylistically go in a single direction. So we’ll talk about what we’re doing today, the
Brett Wagner
Super Tuscan. So a lot of times it’s a San Diego base. It’s when the Italians were trying to rock boat and not just use Italian bridles and try and get more things incorporated in there and make more complex blends. So, yeah, it was kind of the wine when the Italians were trying to break the rules. I love that because I love breaking rules and doing things that a lot of people wouldn’t think about. But with this joyrider. It’s a base of san. Joe vese. So that’s the main variety. But looking at that, I also put in Cabf Franc, and this year it’s not the previous year. In place of tanaught, I used Tease Rock. I just wasn’t able to source it this year. But when I’m making these blends, I try and break up a wine in the beginning, middle, and end. And with this one in particular, the San Joe Vese gives it a nice cherry note up front, the good acidity. Then it moves into the Cabernet Franc, which gives it a little bit of that earthiness to it. And then the tana, like the Petite Sarah before, it
Brett Wagner
a bigger, robust varietal that really gives it a nice, long finish. So the whole entire time you’re sipping this wine, you’re going through this journey, and in this journey of all of these different flavor profiles, it really just comes out to be something amazing. And it’s just so interesting how you can incorporate so many different flavors from these simple grapes. So a long story. Kind of long, a little bit short.
Tony Ray Baker
I think it’s awesome, but, yeah, it’s interesting. I love that that’s with the blends. Yeah, I love how you do that. So, cheers to the new joy. Writer you know where Harry’s
Tony Ray Baker
the winery is located? Down in Elgin. Technically. In Elgin?
Brett Wagner
Yes, we’re in Elgin.
Tony Ray Baker
Sonya and Elgin are just about 40 minutes, probably 45 minutes away from Tucson. And what is the address for the twisted Union Winery?
Brett Wagner
It’s 370 Elgin Road in Elgin, Arizona.
Tony Ray Baker
Okay. And then if somebody wanted to buy wine and they don’t live in the area, can they buy that online and have it delivered depending on the state or?
Brett Wagner
Most definitely. So we deliver in a couple of different options. Within Arizona, we use wine to you, who does Flabberate shipping anywhere within Arizona. And then outside of the state, we utilize Vino Shipper, which is a third party shipping company that allows us to ship to many states outside of Arizona. There are the select few that we can ship to for the different legal reasons within each state, but for the most part, we can distribute all throughout the United States.
Tony Ray Baker
So someone lives in California, could they do a variety pack and say, just, can I get a box of six different ones and try them out and get yes, yes.
Brett Wagner
In California, we most definitely can. Yeah.
Tony Ray Baker
So I would recommend Mood swing, enjoy riders. And you have a new one, mother Trucker.
Brett Wagner
Yes.
Tony Ray Baker
But you’re running through that pretty fast.
Brett Wagner
Well, we’re running through it fast. Yeah. The Mother Trucker is one of my favorite wines that I’ve ever produced. It’s a tana and Fatisse Rob lens. So it’s a big, bold, deep tannic wine, but it’s a very soft Tan into it, so it’s very approachable to most anybody. I’ve had beginner wine drinkers to some of the top level Somalias. Try it and really enjoy it. So, yeah. It is something that definitely has been selling really good, really quick, and I’m.
Tony Ray Baker
Calling them all by the wrong names, but you have the greatest labels on these wines. They’re really cute. I’m not a white wine drinker, but there’s one that has I call it Bumblebee, because it’s got a Bumblebee. That’s a really good white wine to me. It has the slightest little kiss of the bee on it, like and it’s just one of the rare white wines that I will drink.
Brett Wagner
So, yeah.
Brett Wagner
Congrats on that.
Brett Wagner
Yeah.
Tony Ray Baker
Thank you. So thank you. Yeah. So thanks for having us. We’re super excited that we’re going to go back and finish another palette. Right. We’re doing over 2,000 models today, I.
Brett Wagner
Guess we are, yeah. So doing probably our well, no, most definitely our largest red wine production today. Of the joyrider. This is our third vintage. It’s been something that people have followed and really seek to add to their wine collection, so I’m trying to increase the volume of that to be able to allow other people other than Tony and Darren to have it, since they like to buy.
Tony Ray Baker
Let’s not tell everybody I want it.
Tony Ray Baker
Taylor should be working.
Tony Ray Baker
Cool. Thank you. Cheers.
