Here’s a wrap-up of the trip with some vignettes of the folks at Charron and Dos Cabezas, who graciously opened their wineries to me and shared their stories.

Everything in AZ winemaking is exactly the opposite of what you expect. In the Sonoita AVA, the problem isn’t too little water, it’s too much at the wrong time. The problem isn’t the baking heat and desiccating winds, but winter cold and spring frost. Of course, you’ll find a few expected challenges when making wine in the extremes of Arizona: snakes in the barrel room, for one.

And here you’ll also find winemakers working without a net. They’re defining a region, building it from scratch, trying to find what varietals will work the best in some of the country’s highest, driest and southernmost vinifera vineyards. You’ll find folks like Susan and Milton Craig of Charron Vineyards, who purchased a merlot vineyard between Tucson and Sonoita, where vines are tended next to prickly pear cacti. They’re refugees from the world of IT where they faced a constant struggle against “outsourcing” and “offshoring.” Making Arizona merlot is a job that can never be shipped overseas.

And in Sonoita, you’ll find Dos Cabezas Wine Works where Todd Bostock and his wife Kelly run a family operation with big ambitions, not only to create a legacy in wine for future generations of the Bostock clan, but also to prove that world class wines that evoke the unique character of the landscape where they were crafted are possible in Arizona. They want to prove the value of an entire wine region. And if releases like their Pronghorn Vineyard “El Campo” blend are any indication, they’re well on their way.

We’ve captured some great stories in Arizona and discovered that it’s a region with even more stories to tell. I’ll look forward to another opportunity to talk to folks in this region down the road.

But Michael isn’t easily discouraged. In fact, he relishes the challenge. We just wrapped an interview with Michael where he describes his journey from home winemaker to becoming the resident expert on doing things the hard way.

This interview was a first for us as well, since we conduced it via Skype. I was at home in Oregon and Kansas City photographer Max Wagner was in the the tasting room with Michael.

This shoot highlights the amazing new possibilities that are available for filmmakers when you combine Web technology with Final Cut Pro and DSLRs. At every part of the process, from preproduction through distribution, there are tools that filmmakers just didn’t have 10 years ago. The footage from Max’s Canon 5D will perfectly match what we’re doing, and we were able to save the expense of traveling to the Midwest for this initial interview. We’re able to stretch the geographic reach of our film even though we haven’t yet raised much money for the project. Even if we don’t get the funding we’re seeking, we’re still going to be able to make a solid project.

Michael’s story is a great addition to our film, and we’re looking forward to sharing it with audiences.

In September we plan to launch our campaign on Kickstarter, and investors at the $250 level will receive a bottle of the best of the 24 wines we tasted last Sunday.

It also helps to immerse yourself in the landscape. When you travel by bike, you start to see things differently. You get an immersive perspective, rather than just a look at a place out the window.

And here’s a still of the Fiechter house from when we were scouting locations for a place to use as Jake’s house. Of course, we decked it quite differently than Davee’s film, with empty cans of Pabst strewn across the porch, broken lawn chairs, a cooler and pairs of old boots. Not to mention Rhett the dog.