Arizona wine growers cultivated almost 80 varieties of grapes last year, slightly more red than white, but the number of niche varieties was higher than expected, according to a new Cooperative Extension report.

“Statewide, syrah is the number one grape we grow followed by grenache and then cabernet sauvignon, but the Verde Valley has a lot of minor and Italian varieties – barbera, alianico and sangiovese are big. The breadth of the different varieties that we grow is impressive,” said Matt Halldorson, Yavapai County Extension director and coauthor of the 2025 Arizona Wine Grape Growers Harvest Report.

Imagen

The report, based on data collected directly from growers, helps highlight the scope of the Arizona wine industry, which generated $351 million in economic output in 2023, according to a study conducted for the Arizona Office of Tourism.

Extension will produce the harvest report annually, giving growers a consistent decision-making tool they’ve never had, Halldorson said.

Six grape varieties – syrah, grenache, cabernet sauvignon, viognier, malvasia bianca and chardonnay – accounted for half of the 532 acres harvested, while several varieties, including gamay noir and lemberger, were grown on less than half an acre each. A statewide total 1,187 tons were harvested, the growers reported.

The harvest report will allow growers and the public to track the industry over time, Halldorson said.

“It's a baseline. We'll be able to see how the industry grows from year to year. Right now, we have one data point, but in 10 years we'll have a really nice trend as to where the wine industry is going,” he said.

Where the grapes grow

The distribution of vineyards also came as a surprise. The state has three American Viticultural Areas defined by the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau – Willcox, Verde Valley and Sonoita.

Imagen

It was no surprise that the Willcox AVA, which straddles the Cochise-Graham county line, is the top grape producing area in the state. But neither of the other two AVAs came in second. The second-most acreage was outside AVAs, Halldorson said.

The report details valuable information for the tourism industry and other non-industry stakeholders.

“They will know how to quantify what they've got, how to value the industry. They’ll know how to describe it, how to market it. What kind of wines do we sell? What kind of varieties do we grow? I don't think anyone really understood this,” Halldorson said.

Growers can use the information to guide business decisions.

“They can tell what's hot. What should they plant more of? What should they plant less of? It's also good for pricing. We have the average price of a ton of grapes, red and white, and if you're selling for way under that price, you might not be getting all the value out of your grapes. Or if you're a winemaker paying way more than that price, you may say, ‘Whoa, why am I paying so much?’” Halldorson said.

He estimates the 67 growers in the survey represent about 90 percent of Arizona vineyards.

Foundation of trust

This report was only possible because growers across Arizona trusted Cooperative Extension with their production data, which is anonymized in the report. It serves as a roadmap not just for growers, but for university research, said co-author Michael Pierce, an assistant in Extension and veteran winemaker for his family’s Bodega Pierce vineyard and winery.

“Extension’s role is to provide a neutral, research-based analysis that helps the industry better understand trends and make informed decisions. Collecting producer-reported data and providing neutral analysis is exactly the kind of role Cooperative Extension is designed to serve. In many ways, this first report also serves as a needs assessment that will guide future Extension research and educational programs,” Pierce said.

With a clear picture of which varieties growers are producing and how the grapes move through the system, Extension plans to include water use in future reports, which will illustrate grapes as a crop well suited to our dry climate, he said.

The harvest report is just one way Cooperative Extension is supporting the Arizona wine industry.

In 2024, the unit of the College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences conducted a sweeping industry needs assessment, and in recent years Extension founded the annual Arizona Wine Summit to discuss growing seasons and has hosted numerous workshops that connect wine growers with university scientists and their research.

Extension’s Arizona Metrological Network weather stations offer data at 15-minute intervals in some parts of wine country, and Climate Geospatial Environmental Modeling offers a monthly climate newsletter tailored for grape growers.