Keeling Schaefer Vineyard

I’m not rating this by how cool the wine room is or how friendly the service though both were up to Napa standards of the late 80s and early 90s (not crowded, reasonable tasting fee, keep the glass, cool funky art, etc) though the town is tiny and rustic. I’m from CA and I was a wine rep in the past with significant number of wine classes under my belt. I have to say that the 2012 Shiraz is some of the best wine I’ve had. The nose is divine with cocoa and smoke. The initial flavor is complex with dark berry and cocoa again. It’s smooth with perfect mouthfeel for a dark red. And the finish lasts forever. Kudos to the wine maker. I don’t know what this one scored with wine spectator but I’m betting it was 88 or higher. I liked the 2013 Syrah and 2013 Petite Sirah also. I put my money where my mouth is and bought a case to take back to CA. 6 Shiraz, 3 petite and 3 Syrah. I have to say that I didn’t expect great wine in AZ. A few other wineries were good but couldn’t compete with CA Sonoma/​Napa/​Central Coast, but this one wine could hold its own with those wines and probably beat the pants off most.

The wine, 100% from locally grown grapes on the side slope of the Chiricahua Mtns. is only surpassed by the quality people that represent this fine winery. The wine is as good as we have had anywhere (and no, we’re not wine snobs) and you can always get the ‘back-​story’ of the local wine industry from the owners and their well trained staff. We just returned from a wine club event at the vineyard where samples were freely poured, concise explanations of the product were offered, the food catered by Café’ Roka of Bisbee was first rate. All told, a great experience and looking forward to doing it again.

We stopped in for a wine tasting and really enjoyed the ambience. My favorite pick of my tasting session was Best Friends it has an understated sweet smooth taste. The building has history and charm.

I like this place! Neat building that used to be an old bank in the 1900’s. Kind lady at the counter. Wine not bad either!

Came to Willcox specifically to check out Keeling Schaefer Vineyards tasting room with our Amazon Local deal. The tasting room is inviting and artsy and our deal got us a tasting for two which included 4 tastes each, 2 wine glasses to keep and a bottle to take home.
Our hostess wasn’t particularly enthusiastic and perhaps her lack of, influenced our opinions but we didn’t find anything in the tasting that was worth purchasing. Of the wines available for tasting, M and I agreed that the 2012 Rock Creek Rose was the best however it was not available to take home as our free bottle. We ended up selecting the 2009 Farmers Rhone Blend which was pretty decent.
Keeling Schaefer doesn’t do sweet wines which is fine by me since I’m not particularly fond of them myself, however they serve a variety of Kokopelli sweet wines in their tastings for those patrons who enjoy a sweeter wine.

Keeling-​Shaefer has an amazing tasting room right in the heart of historic downtown Willcox. I am looking forward to the opening of the other tasting rooms on the same street which should happen in the near future and which will be a great reason to visit again.
We showed up in the evening a few minutes before closing and the woman running the tasting room apologized, but had to close a bit early. We came back the next morning and she was great– very informative and helpful and we had a great tasting. I am really happy we had time to go back– it would have been a shame to miss this room. I don’t think these were my favorite wines in Willcox, but they do have a good variety on their tasting flight. Nice Syrahs.
If you bring your glasses from the other tasting rooms in the area you get a slight discount on your tasting.