Index for Category - Pahrump Nevada

This page last updated on 01/09/2018

Click on a Title to View Pahrump Nevada Pahrump Museum Pahrump Valley Winery Sanders Family Winery

Sanders Family Winery

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This page last updated on 08/05/2016

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Directions: From Las NV-160 to Pahrump. Turn left on Manse Rd, then turn left on Hafen Ranch Rd. Go 2 miles and turn right on Kellogg Rd. Go 1.5 miles and turn right into the gate of the winery (Fig. 01).

Description: The winery is nestled on the southern side of the Town of Pahrump, about an hour from the Las Vegas Strip. It offers stunning panoramic mountain views. The Winery is bordered on each side by the beautiful Spring Mountains to the East, and the colorful Nopah Range defining the Nevada-California border to the West. The winery architecture is a renaissance period Italian Tuscan Villa with the nearly 12,000 foot high Mount Charleston as the backdrop. Visitors are welcomed at the gates by the statue of Teresa Lilianna, “The Wine Pourer”. The main entrance to the estate is lined with tall Italian Cypress trees (Fig. 02), flanked by two full production vineyards (Fig. 03). The long driveway brings you through the vineyards to the main tower entrance. There is plenty of parking.

Established in 1988, Jack Sanders founded the first modern winery in Pahrump. The Sanders Family continues to be committed to hand crafting each wine to finesse and perfect balance, bringing out the best in each vintage varietal and proprietary blends. The family has been growing grapes in Pahrump for nearly three decades. The first vineyard was our Valencia Road Property (Now Winery Road) with our newest vineyards located along the Kellogg Agricultural Bench on Kellogg Road. The tradition continues with the completion of our new stunning Renaissance Tuscan style Winery, Visitors Center and Performing Arts Amphitheater (Fig. 04). Much care and thought were involved in the creation of this immaculate facility. Its two home vineyards, located on the Winery property, are part of Sanders Winery’s strengths. The winery property is prime land for wine-grape growing. Other premium contract grape growers give our wine making team flexibility in creative wine production. The Kellogg Bench home vineyards were planted in 2004 in two blocks. The East Block contains Zinfandel Grapes and is located within 50 feet of a 25 year old Pistachio orchard. The West Block is planted with Petite Sirah. Both Vineyards require custom hand harvesting and crushing.

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08/05/2016 Trip Notes: At the end of the day, Bob Croke, Jim Herring and I came here for our last stop of the day, and yet another wine tasting. Though I did like its Renaissance Tuscan style on the outside, I was not impressed by the tasting room (Fig. 05), or its limited gift shop (Fig. 06). During our "tasting" the server made each of us a "spritzer" made with its Ruby Port. This wine has an amazing aroma and taste of rich plum jam and black raspberry preserves that is fortified to balance its sweetness and to keep the big rich flavors and long finish. It was outstanding. We were also told that it is great over Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream. Even though there wine selection is more limited than that of the Pahrump Valley Winery, it should be noted that they are all less expensive than those at the other winery. After tasting several wines, Jim and Bob both game out with several purchases (Fig. 07). Free wine tasting is available 7 days a week 10am to 5pm. We would definitely go back for another visit.

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Pahrump Museum

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Directions: 65 miles from Las Vegas, the Pahrump Museum is located a scenic one hour and ten minute drive from the Las Vegas Strip. Take Highway NV-160 west. Follow NV-160 through the town to E. Basin Ave. Turn left and drive approximately 1.5 miles, and turn left into the museum property.

Description: The Pahrump Museum officially opened on September 1st 2003. Inside the museum you will find several ales of glass enclosed exhibits (Fig. 02) containing Native American artifacts as well as artifacts from some of Pahrumps first Anglo settlers, prospectors, farmers and ranchers. They also have exhibits with war ephemera, fossils, indigenous animal species and rock/mineral samples. There also is an exhibit on both of Pahrump's wineries. There is a large room containing the "Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository History Exhibit". There are six touch screen monitors and two large screen television monitors that provide viewing presentations on the "Yucca Mountain Project". Hung alongside this extremely informational exhibit are photos from the "National Atomic Testing Museum". The have a small gift store with belt buckles, post cards, Nye County History Books, a book titled, "Waste of a Mountain", items from a local artist and extensive line of gifts and souvenirs, many free publications and much more. Outside there are several outbuildings, bronze sculptures (Fig. 03), a cactus garden and a myriad of farming equipment. Four of the museums outbuildings are furnished and open for you to go inside and enjoy.

08/05/2016 Trip Notes: After a great lunch at Symphony, at the Pahrump Valley Winery, Jim, Bob and I spent more than an hour touring the Pahrump Museum. The museum's curator answered all of our many questions and provided much information about the history of the museum and the town. We learned that back in the late 1800's the town started as a grouping of several cotton ranches that stretched across the valley. Over the years more and more ranchers caused the town to grow, but didn't have electricity until 1963. After perusing the inside, we went outside to tour exhibits on the grounds. First we toured the Raycraft Railroad Tie Cottage (Fig. 04). It was built on the Raycraft ranch in 1947 by Stanley Ford, as a vacation cottage. the building is constructed of railroad ties from the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad (TTRR). Scattered between the various buildings, the grounds displayed many period instruments and machinery used in the farming of cotton (Fig. 05). Next we toured the interior of the old Pahrump Store (Fig. 06). Next was an old one-room schoolhouse (Fig. 07). The little red schoolhouse was originally located in Clay Camp, Amargosa. It was still in use as a school house in 1945 when it was moved to the Pahrump Ranch. At this point, we cut our touring short due to the unbearable 105 degree temperatures, and found our way back to the car.  We would like to come back here in the fall when the temperatures would be more comfortable and spend more time roaming the property. Before heading home we then drove to the Sanders Family Winery for yet another "wine tasting" session.

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Pahrump Valley Winery

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This page last updated on 04/13/2017

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Directions: The Pahrump Valley Winery is located a scenic one hour drive from the Las Vegas Strip. Take Highway NV-160 west. You will take a right at the first stop light (Winery Road), then half mile to winery on the left.

Description: This estate vineyard is located here at the winery and consists of Zinfandel and Syrah. Planted in the early 1990's, this Zinfandel vineyard is also Nevada's oldest commercially producing red grape vineyard; it produced the state of Nevada's first commercial red wine in state history when it was harvested in 2005. You can imagine how delighted we were when these first 100 cases of Zinfandel, released in 2008, won 7 National Wine Awards, including a Gold! The 2006 vintage followed with another award winning year. It's easy to see that southern Nevada is becoming "Zinfandel" territory. In 2009 they added 1,200 Syrah and Zinfandel vines to their 3 acre vineyard. All the new vines were planted on drought resistant root stock and placed on a (VSP) vertical shoot position trellis system. In March of 2014 they released their first "estate" Syrah, our 2011 vintage. This wine exploded with juicy flavors and spice and it we won "GOLD" at the Tasters Guild International wine competition. It quickly became the fastest selling dry red wine in Nevada history. Both their Syrah and Zinfandel have been awarded GOLD medals in National Wine Competitions. They now partner with several other vineyards around the Silver State. In 2015 the combined efforts of these growers harvested nearly 30 tons of Nevada grown wine grapes. The combined efforts of these growers have contributed to the Pahrump Vallery Winery's 2 Double Gold, 13 Gold, 35 Silver and 20 Bronze medal winning wines! Capital challenges aside, the Loken's have renovated about 90 percent of the winery since they took it over in 2002. They gutted the restaurant and rebuild it from the ground up so it was 100 percent new. They then installed all new plant equipment, tanks, bottling, you name it. They renovated the tasting room and expanded the gift room. Last year they added a beautiful glass-in dining porch around the entire Zagot awarded restaurant and continue to renovate the surrounding grounds. Symphony's restaurant has received five Zagat ratings and is the only Pahrump establishment to have a Zagat rating.

Trip Visit Notes: Over the past several years I have visited the Pahrump Valley Winery (Fig. 01) on at least five occasions. Sometimes for a wine tasting, sometimes to have lunch in the Symphony restaurant. The first time I visited was in 2010 with my friend Jim Herring. When we got there we signed up for a tour of the grounds, the vineyards and the vine making operation inside. The lush grounds are well landscape and provide walking paths, water fountains and a gazebo (Fig 02). Today (08/05/2016), I made another visit with friends Bob Croke and Jim Herring. We started today's visit with another tours of the vineyards (Fig. 03) and always seem to come away with more information about the property. We were surprised to learn that about a 1/4 acre of vines (Fig. 04) could yield as much as a 1,000 bottles of wine. Including the grapes they import from other wineries, they produce more 100,000 bottles of wine a year (Fig. 05). (Figure 06) is a picture of the wine bottling machine. One things we learned today was that they use three different types of oak barrels (Fig. 07) for aging some of the wines. Some of these are barrels come from the US and some come from Italy and France and range in cost from $500 to more than $1,000 per barrel. And, that after being used for three harvests, they have to be thrown away. As of 2016, they have now produced more than 1 million bottles of wine. Since 2006, their NEVADA Wines have won 83 National Wine Awards; 18 Gold, 42 Silver and 23 Bronze (Fig. 08). (notes con't below)

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Visit Notes Continued: While waiting for the tour, we sat in the leather couched, fire-placed lounge. One end is covered all of its award winning wines and the other end is its classed in wine storage area (Fig. 10). After the tour we enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Symphony's restaurant. This Zagot rated establishment is an up-scale casual restaurant that serves both lunch and dinner. On white linen clothed tables, in a very quiet, elegant atmosphere, the fine food is beautifully served, and is reasonably priced. Dining here is worth the trip to the winery all by itself. Since my first visit here, they have even improved the restaurant by adding more seating including an closed-in outside patio with a lovely, relaxing view (Fig. 11). The picture in (Fig. 12) shows a side view of the building and its glassed-in porch. After a very relaxing lunch, we bellied up to the wine tasting bar (Fig 09 -up) and sampled more than a half dozen different wines. Every visit we make here, we always end up buying several bottles of wine. Today some of us even bought olive oil and some jellies from the gift shop. The last picture (Fig. 14) is of an old vintage truck once used for hauling wine barrels.

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Ref - Town of Pahrump Nevada

(Fig. 01) The Pahrump Valley Winery

Geology and Climate: Pahrump is an unincorporated town in Nye County, Nevada, United States. As of 2010 the population was 22,441, making it the largest settlement in the county. Pahrump, Nevada is located west of Las Vegas in the southeast corner of Nye County. It is bordered by the Spring Mountain range to the north east and the Nopah Mountain range to the south west. Pahrump has a total area of 297.9 sq miles. Summers in Pahrump are generally hot and dry, with occasional pushes of monsoonal moisture beginning in early July. Being at a similar elevation to Las Vegas, daytime highs in summer average within a few degrees of Las Vegas.

History:  Pahrump was originally inhabited by the Southern Paiute. It was slowly inhabited by settlers in the late 19th century. They reportedly chose the name for Pahrump after the original indigenous name Pah-Rimpi, or "Water Rock," so named because of the abundant artesian wells in the valley. Because of the artesian wells, the new inhabitants of Pahrump Valley began a number of large ranch-style holdings, mostly over 1000 acres in size. On the ranches, alfalfa and cotton were grown, and livestock were raised.  However, as Las Vegas grew, real estate speculation became more popular in the area, which led to increased interest in Pahrump. The rapid growth of Las Vegas sparked interest in Pahrump’s real estate during the late 1960s. Until the 1960s, Pahrump had no telephone service except a radio transmitter phone in a phone booth next to the small market, and there were no paved roads in or out of the Pahrump Valley. This led to the introduction of telephone service and the construction of a paved highway, from Las Vegas to Pahrump, during the late 1960s. Later, this road (NV 160) was extended from Pahrump northward to US 95, near Amargosa Valley. A second paved road (NV 372) was introduced that went from Pahrump to neighboring Shoshone, California, which provided a link to the Death Valley area, as well as a shorter route to those wishing to travel to Los Angeles or other areas in California. Since the late 1970's, Pahrump has grown exponentially, increasing from approximately 2,000 residents in 1980 to 22,441 in 2010. A wealthy Las Vegas casino owner, Ted Binion, buried a large treasure of silver in a secret underground vault in Pahrump. In 1998, Binion died under suspicious circumstances, and one of the parties accused of murdering Binion was apprehended while digging up the vault in Pahrump. Much of its urban features are visible from Highway 160 – five bright casinos, plus the local coffee houses and tasting rooms at the Pahrump Valley Winery and Sanders Family Winery are busier than ever. There is a museum just west of downtown Pahrump. Modern day Pahrump is one of the fastest growing communities in the west.

(Fig. 02) Sanders Family Winery

(Fig. 03) Pahrump Museum

Points of Interest: I have either visited or passed through Pahrump on many occasions. Either visiting its two vineries, the Pahrump winery [Pahrump Valley Winery] or the Sanders winery [Sanders Family Winery], or its excellent museum [Pahrump Museum]. You actually have to pass through Pahrump on your way to Ash Meadows [Ash Meadows National Wildlife Area], or Death Valley National Park [Death Valley National Park]. I've also done several 4-wheeling and hiking trips up into the Spring Mountain National Recreation Area (SMNRA) such as Wheeler Pass [Wheeler Pass Road], Trout Canyon [Carpenter Canyon Fire- Atermath] and the Lovell Canyon area [Lovell Canyon Spring Mountains].

(Fig. 04) Lovell Canyon

(Fig. 05) Wheeler Pass Road

(Fig. 06) Trout Canyon