Small Town News

Cafe incorporates vineyard

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The big wooden poles on State Route 89A in front of Kurt's Main Street Cafe are for the owner's vineyard.

Under fall's waning Sedona sun, owner and chef Kurt Jacobsen nurtures roughly 60 vines on the West Sedona plot.

The cuttings are from the first vineyard in Arizona, clipped from Henry Schuerman's original vineyard of the 1890s.

As repayment for a $500 debt, Schuerman received 160 acres on Upper Red Rock Loop Road in 1884. It's there that he started his first vineyard a decade later and became well known for supplying wine throughout the Verde Valley and Prescott until Prohibition.

Jacobsen and his friend Steve Schwartz, who nurses 150 vines compared to Jacobsen's 60, researched the story and decided they needed the original.

They found one vine left, from the original 40 acres, but it was in bad shape, he said.

The men pruned it anyway and so far so good.

Jacobsen will leave these vines for Schwartz to sweat over, while he tends to other vines on his Cornville property.

With the Cornville vines, the chef plans to make a house wine for the restaurant, which will be ready next year.

"There's nothing better than a meal prepared with the right wine," he said. "That's what it's all about."

While Jacobsen's house wine will be ready in a year, the baby vines outside of Kurt's will have to wait.

The vines will bear fruit next year, he said, but the grapes won't be ready for picking for three more years.

For the best quality of grapes, Jacobsen plans a canopy for shade. As the grapes get closer to ripening, the canopy will be removed, so more sun reaches the fruit, producing more sugar.

"The amount of sugar in the grape determines the ripeness," Jacobsen said. "And you want the maturity and the ripeness to occur as close to possible. That's why you control the canopy, because keeping the sun off it controls the sugar production."

It's clear that he isn't new to wine production.

Growing up in Sacramento, he spent a lot of time in Napa Valley, and has been drinking wine since he was "too young to drink."

A few years ago, he had 1,000 vines in Camp Verde and produced Red Neck Rouge at Page Springs Cellars.

His love for wine follows him into his restaurant, where he is preparing a new menu with wine suggestions next to the meals.

Jacobsen admits that his two loves seem like a natural fit.

"Wine is food. I do food," he said. "What's not to like?"



Copyright 2009 Sedona Red Rock News, Sedona, Arizona. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2009 Sedona Red Rock News Sedona, Arizona. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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