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Tool frontman opens wine tasting room in Arizona ghost town
July 20, 2009
 By Lucy Shaw
Maynard James Keenan, frontman of multi-platinum-selling US rock band Tool, has opened a wine tasting room in Jerome, Arizona.
The Caduceus Cellars & Merkin Vineyards Tasting Room opened its doors on 4 July and will be open 365 days a year.
Keenan, whose great grandfather made wine in Northern Italy, owns Merkin Vineyards and Caduceus Cellars in Cornville, Arizona, home of US Senator - and presidential candidate - John McCain.
The singer is also a partner of Arizona Stronghold Vineyards, an 80-acre site in Sulphur Springs Valley in the state, which he co-owns with winemaker Eric Glomski.
Jerome was a copper and gold mining village in the late 1800s before becoming a ghost town after a series of miners' strikes. It dipped to a low of 50 inhabitants in the late 1950s. The population today is estimated to be around 343.
The town is thought to be one of the most haunted in the United States and was hailed 'the wickedest town in the West' by the New York Sun in February 1903.
A documentary about Keenan and Glomski's desert winemaking venture, Blood Into Wine: The Arizona Stronghold, is currently in production and set for release next February.
Keenan is a prolific musician, best known as the lead singer of heavy rock bands Tool and A Perfect Circle, with whom he has released seven albums.
Caduceus Cellars takes its name from the staff carried by Mercury, messenger of the gods. A merkin, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a form of pubic wig, popularised in the 18th century.
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Unlike a lot of celebrities with their branded wines, Maynard is a true wine lover and I wish him all the best in his new venture. I'm glad to finally see some coverage of Maynard's wine business in Decanter.
Tim Webster
I have been a fan of Maynard's bands, Tool and A Perfect Circle for years and have been following the progress of his Caduceus project for some time. I believe that this year is the first time that he's making wine that come from grapes grown exclusively on his newly-planted vineyards in Arizona. On a recent episode of Gary Vaynerchuk's Wine Library TV, Gary travels to Arizona to speak with Maynard about this project. Among others, Maynard has Gary taste a white wine that comes from an unidentifiable grape variety; from a singly old vine on a lady's property. Maynard hand-crushed the grapes in a bucket and fermented it in a small demi-john. Very cool.
He is extremely passionate about his wine and should not be thought of in the same way as other "celebrity vineyard-owners" where the celebrity has little or nothing to do with the actual WORK of growing and making wine. Maynard is a true farmer, artisan and a champion of locally-produced, artisan products. His disdain for the commercial in music and art extends to wines. Unfortunately, his wines are not available in Europe, but the next time I go back to the USA, I plan to seek some out - only problem is that production is REALLY small and the wines are REALLY expensive...
Best of luck to Maynard and his friends in their efforts to put Northern Arizona firmly on the map as a world-class fine wine producing region.
Dave Marra, Ireland
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