Meet Ann Roncone of Lightning Ridge Cellars

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ann Roncone.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I was born and raised in the SF bay area. As an adult, winemaking was a hobby. I call it my past-life, but while making garage-wine, I had a regular office job, in a regular cubicle office. After a few years of hobby-winemaking, it occurred to me – hey, it’s only a two-hour drive to UC Davis. But, because I had a mortgage and two small children, there was no way to up and quit a sound job (mechanical engineering) to pursue winemaking.

So over the next few years, while still working and making garage-wine, I took as many UC Davis enology courses as I could. Also, for about five years, there was a local winery located in Saratoga CA that I worked at during harvest season. Taking two-three weeks off in Sept each year, I worked as a cellar rat to learn a real winery’s operations.

Wow, talk about learning a ton. (nothing like seeing a flatbed tractor-trailer pull up with 14 tons of fruit that needs processing. On almost a daily basis). Let’s just say, you get good at cleaning equipment and tanks.

Within those few years, I had been bitten with the winemaking and viticulture bug pretty badly. I finally told my husband: this is what I want to do! Forget engineering. He was cautious to the notion, but understanding. In looking around CA for someplace to start up a small winery of our own, we couldn’t afford anything. (and we were only looking at land). Sheesh.

My husband had done his Optical Sciences grad work at the University of Arizona. So he knew Tucson. When we discovered an AVA (recognized viticultural area) just south of Tucson, we thought: let’s check it out. Finding the beautiful rolling grasslands in the Sonoita/Elgin region of AZ, it was easy to fall in love with the area. And – the significantly lower land prices were a definite plus.

Fast forward thru our many spreadsheets of how-do-we-pull-this-off(?), and my husband securing a job at Raytheon (in Tucson), we purchased a 20-acre parcel of grazing property and made the leap of moving to AZ in 2004. My new career was underway.

Starting from scratch on a vineyard and winery can be bittersweet. On the upside, when you absolutely start from scratch, you know every inch of your property. On the downside … you know every inch of your property.

We planted the initial 7.5 acres of vineyard in 2005 and opened in 2009. Since then, we’ve planted another three acres. Not actually planning for our 2009 opening to be on Halloween weekend, it’s worked out to be an easy anniversary to remember. This year’s Halloween will mark 10 year’s for us. Pretty excited about celebrating.

In keeping with specializing in Italian varietals for our wines, we’ve recently planted some olive trees. (all things Pizano, as it were). Although our burgeoning olive grove is quite small, we look forward to having our 1st crop of olives this year, and making estate olive oil, along with our wines.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Haa, smooth? No. But isn’t that part of the charm of starting and running your own business?

The biggest struggles have been on the farming side of things. I dare say, it’d be much easier if the business was winemaking, bottling/winery operations, managing a tasting room, and marketing. But throwing in ten+ acres of farming and dealing with Mother Nature – now you’re talking about a whole different level of work.

With a vineyard or any farming operation, water is key. Turns out, water was the 1st stumbling-block struggle. Our spreadsheets of factoring in start-up costs for the vineyard had definitely included: drilling a well, casing a well, a well pump, etc.

Plus, we had done our homework on the property we purchased and the strength of neighboring wells, which were quite good. But – we quickly found, when you’re dealing with Mother Nature, there’s no guarantee of what’s underground. Cutting to the chase, we had budgeted for drilling ‘a well’. It turns out we finally hit water on the 6th drilling.

As struggles go, that has been one of the doozies. Others have been on a much smaller scale.

A few years in from the original planting, I found a herd of deer munching away in the vineyard one morning. Deer can do tremendous damage to the vines, so had to stop everything and extend the fence to 8 ft around the whole 20 acres. Nothing fun or convenient about that. But now quite adept with fencing tools and tighteners.

Other struggles have been with irrigation pumps, frozen irrigation pipes, and underground irrigation leaks. Again, things that have to be fixed at the time they break. Although never good timing, each fix has been a learning experience.

That said, I genuinely wish I wasn’t as well versed at fixing PVC as I am now…

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Lightning Ridge Cellars – what should we know?
Lightning Ridge Cellars specializes in Italian varietal wines. That particular theme alone sets us apart from other wineries.

Some varietals we produce are more well known than others. Sangiovese and Muscat Canelli for example, are better-known wines. Other not so recognized red varietals are Montepulciano, Aglianico, Nebbiolo, and Sagrantino. Recognized varietals or not, we love providing Italian wines from our southern Arizona growing region.

My original plan was to be known for Sangiovese. However, Sangiovese proved to be challenging to grow because of being a relatively early budding vine. (our Elgin region has April frost issues, and vines that bud out early can get significant crop damage from spring frost).

Fast forward, the Sangiovese vines are now doing well and thriving. But in the time it took to find just-the-right spot in the vineyard for the Sangiovese vines to succeed, the Montepulciano took off and is actually our flagship wine. We’re quite proud of our Montepulciano and, over the years, have won many awards for it.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
We’re a very small operation. Not sure if there’s a category for smaller-than-boutique winery, but that’d be Lightning Ridge Cellars.

Our success is making quality wine. So although our production is on a very small scale, we’re thrilled to provide our Italian heritage wines at a local level for Arizona.

Pricing:

• In general, our prices run on the modest level. $18-$24 for white wines. $24-$30 for red wines.

Contact Info:

• Address: 2368 Hwy 83 Elgin, AZ 85611
• Website: www.lightningridgecellars.com
• Phone: 520-455-5383
• Facebook: Lightning Ridge Cellars
• Twitter: LRCellars

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