Arizona winery damaged by 88 mph winds and hail during severe storm
Arizona winery hit by 88 mph winds
Old Pueblo Cellars in Willcox is recovering after severe weather damaged vine structures and collapsed silos. FOX 10's Steve Nielsen learns more about the storm damage that occurred right before the annual harvest.
WILLCOX, Ariz. - An Arizona winery faced hail and damaging winds on Aug. 3 just before the grapes were set to be harvested.
What we know:
The morning after the storm, Mark Phillips walked around the Willcox farm, home to dozens of acres of grapes.
"There's a whole bunch of silos that collapsed a lot of power poles down on the road," said Mark Phillips of Old Pueblo Cellars.
Phillips is the winemaker for Old Pueblo Cellars, and the farm is where they have grown their grapes.
"14 different varietals and they all picked at different times in the logistics of the schedule. The rooms, the winery, the rains tornados and other things get in the way of your harvest, and you just have to deal with it," Phillips said.
The Storm:
He said "tornado," but the National Weather Service said it was not a tornado. But instead a severe thunderstorm caused the damage, with winds up to 88 mph.
"I see a torrential flood coming down and then, at this point, the visibility is pretty low, so I can't really see what's going on," Phillips said.
Storm Damage:
The storm caused plenty of damage across the property.
"The wind knocked down a couple of our rows. Grapes are grown in long rows, and we have some structure in there to keep them all upright, so we had a whole row that was bent over 90- degrees and not just the plants themselves, the actual metal structures were the things damaged by the winds and it just tipped it right over," Phillips said.
The hail did the worst of it.
"While there was a little damaged fruit we had to work through, it wasn't that big of a deal, but it did actually damage the canopy of the vines and that makes them shut down, so if my fruit hadn't already been ripe that would have been a problem, so all things considered very blessed that it wasn't that bad," Phillips said.
Dig deeper:
They picked the grapes just a few days later and they are already fermenting.
"We were so excited about getting our first harvest out of all of them and then, wham bam, a storm comes in and totally alters our plans," Phillips said.
Thinking Positive:
Phillips likes to turn lemons into lemonade, or rather, grapes into wine.
"Wines are made by vintage and the wine itself tells a story of how those grapes are grown that year. Maybe some disasters, even your own personal feelings and emotions, can be felt throughout that product, and it's kind of crazy, but these are things we really care about," Phillips said.
The Source: Information in this report was gathered from Mark Phillips, Old Pueblo Cellars, and the National Weather Service.