A first in Nevada: Pahrump Valley vineyards

Wines & Vines, July, 1991 by Philip Hiaring

Nevada is a gambling meccca particularly mushrooming Las Vegas - and that may be why Jack Sanders is betting more than a million dollars on the first winery in the Silver State. But maybe he isn't a high-roller; maybe he is just smart.

Sanders, a 53-year old business consultant who formerly lived in California, opened in 1990 on Route 160, 50 miles from Las Vegas and 60 miles from Death Valley. He's in the Pahrump Valley west of Mt. Charleston and six miles from the California-nevada border.

Last year he drew 100,000 visitors and this year he forecasts 250,000. He told Wines & Vines during a visit to his winery-housed in an impressive Old World-style building that Sanders designed himself-"our market is tourism. "

Smart consultant that he is, Sanders hired Dmitri Tchelistcheff (who lives in Wellington, Nev. in Tahoe country) as his enological expert. Dmitri serves him well; a 1990 varietal Symphony Dry table wine won a silver medal at this year's Western Wine judging in Reno and a Symphony Medium won a bronze.

Thus far--and for about 10 years more - the wine is fermented at the winery from juice purchased from Delicato Vineyards in California from grapes grown in the Manteca-escalon area.

But Sanders last May planted seven acres of Symphony cuttings supplied by Delicato's Bill Nakata. The holding is 40 acres at about 3,000 feet elevation. Water is supplied by a well fed by an aquifer that Sanders said would support a population of 100,000; there are about 12,000 now. He plans experimental plots of red varieties, including Rhone types and Zinfandel.

Drip irrigation is installed for the first vineyard, with laterals in place for sprinklers if needed. That would be if spring frosts prove damaging. Lower in the Pahrump Valley spring frosts can be severe. Sanders' land is on an alluvial fan with stones resembling Graves in Bordeaux and parts of the Livermore Valley. Lower down at Pahrump, wells are artesian; Sanders went down 210 feet to get a well delivering 500 gallons a minute. Soil pH is high and plans are to add sulfur as a remedy.

The Pahrump Valley (pa-rump is an Indian word) is 28 miles long and 18-20 miles wide. Irrigated crops have been grown for years; rainfall is only 4-5 inches annually. Cotton was the big crop formerly, now it is alfalfa, but of late about 200 acres of pistachios have been planted. If Sanders can prove that wine grapes can be grown he hopes to convince the alfalfa men to plant varietals. He even would like "a couple more wineries."

The Pahrump Valley is far from a sleepy desert community any more. A land company is offering 1 and 1/4-acre lots for $14,000, and there are two new 18-hole golf courses. Sanders estimates that "40,000 future residents already own land in undeveloped residential tracts." The virtue of the area is "clean, fresh unpolluted air" and a few people already are commuting from Las Vegas.

Light snow is experienced in winter and in July and August temperatures can get over 100 degrees. The winery bench is 10-15 degrees more temperate than the valley floor, which Sanders estimates is a Region IV-V.

Actually, the winery is not the first in the state, or even in the Pahrump Valley. Before prohibition, a rancher named Frank Buel (or Buhl) and commonly called "Pop" raised grapes (probably labrusca) in Pahrump and made red wine he called Chateau Buel for sale to the Furnace Creek Inn in Death Valley and also (possibly true) to posh hotels in Los Angeles.

Sanders has a 50-50 partner, Peggy Shaner, formerly an internal auditor in California. Financing was by the Valley Bank of Nevada. By the time a 12-suite bed-and-breakfast dwelling is completed next year the estimate is that the outlay including vineyard will be a million five. Already, besides fermenters and 15,000 gallons of storage, the facility includes a 44-seat gourmet restaurant, a tastingre-tail room, guided tours, gift shop, art gallery, historical walk and museum, a gazebo for weddings and picnics, and proprietary wines for charity auctions. In the plans also is an amphitheater for bluegrass festivals and theatrical performances.

Demand has been such that the place will be forced to increase to a projected 50,000 gallons in 1992. Sanders has Southern Wine & Spirits as his distributor. He recently won Nevada's Award for Economic Development. He commented: "Nevada as a state is relatively open to development; the bureaucracy is approachable."

This was borne out in a 1991 law passed by the Nevada legislature. Before the law, the only way Sanders could sell wine at the winery was to first sell it to a distributor, and lease his tasting room to a third party who would buy from the distributor. Last winter Rep. Gaylin Spriggs from Hawthorne introduced a bill to allow wineries to sell wine on the premises (she got 37 co-sponsors). The law licenses a winemaker $75) and allows a winery to import Juice (or wine) from a bonded winery in another state to be fermented (in the case of juice) or aged in a suitable cellar, or both, plus sell at retail or serve by the glass on its premises wine produced, blended or aged by the winery. The Nevada state tax on table wine is 40 cents a gallon.