One of the most famous Lucille Ball episodes on the long-running, very popular “I Love Lucy” TV sitcom was the Italian trip, grape stomping show. Right here in Kingman, the is an annual opportunity to climb into a grape vat and do your own grape stomping scene.
The third annual Wildcatter Winery in Valle Vista had its run over the weekend. To be truthful, there was more wine tasting, music listening, and vendor shopping than stomping. However, one intrepid adult, Lauren Weber, and two young girls did answer the “call of the stomp”.
As I, you may be wondering, how is it there is a winery in Valle Vista. In fact, according to Wildcatter owner Micah Spencer there are two wineries and 8 vineyards. He explained why the area is positive for grape growing.
“It’s dry, similar temperatures to the inland valley of Southern California. Like the temperatures in Temecula, which is a big California wine region, plus we have okay soil. You never want the best soil. The grapes need to struggle. That helps them bear more fruit. Our area is good because we get a lot of dry weather and sun.”
Micah shared his background in the early stages of his history with wine grape growing, “Initially, when we moved here and bought it, I was just moving here as a petroleum engineer. After we got here, I went to Yavapai College in Clarkdale, that’s the only college in Arizona with a degree in viticulture and enology.”
So that explains the vineyard name…Wildcatter…as in someone who independently drills for oil, as a petroleum engineer would. Viticulture is the study of growing wine grapes, and an enologist is the person that makes wine from the grapes.
In the wine world, you name use the name of the region as long as at least 75% of the grapes used are of the variety grow in that locality. Micah seemed very pleased with the idea that the vast majority of the grapes used in his wine production actually come from the Kingman vineyards.
“We do everything on site, and last year for 20-24, 90% of the grapes are from Kingman. We’ve worked really hard on that. When we took over, more than half of the wine grapes were from California. We’ve worked really hard on getting it all to be Kingman wine.”
Now that you know there’s grape stomping in Kingman, you might mark your calendar for the early part of September, 2026 for the annual Wildcatter Winery Grape Stomp. In the meantime, when you think of wine, think of Friday through Sunday when their tasting room is open.
