“I didn’t even know I was nominated until I got a letter from the Arizona Tourism office saying I had won,” she said.
For her decades of work in the Verde Valley wine industry and helping to elevate Arizona wines to the global stage, Paula Woolsey has received the 2024 Tourism Hall of Fame Award.
“We raise our glasses to toast Paula as this year’s Arizona Tourism Hall of Fame Award honoree, as her vision and hard work have been instrumental in making Arizona a rising star in the world of wine,” said Arizona Office of Tourism Director Lisa Urias.
As owner of the Cellar Door Unhinged, a sales and marketing business, President of Verde Valley Wine Consortium, adjunct professor at the Yavapai College Southwest Wine Center, wife, mom and grandmother, Woolsey’s glass is certainly full.
“I didn’t even know I was nominated until I got a letter from the Arizona Tourism office saying I had won,” she said.
“Decades ago, when there were few wine producers in Arizona, Paula both visualized a prosperous future for Arizona’s wine industry and, more importantly, got to work taking the steps to craft that vision into reality,” said Urias.
Woolsey found her home in Cottonwood when the city boasted one stop sign and no traffic lights. “That was in 1988 and, by the way, there was no wine industry,” she said. “I worked at various resorts in Sedona doing food and beverage and my husband, Eric, who has a degree in nursery management, worked at a local nursery. We then moved into the restaurant industry and opened up the Asylum Restaurant in Jerome. We ran it for 10 years before selling it. I wanted to focus more on Arizona wine.”
Although she says she didn’t appreciate it at the time, wine was in her genes. Her father was an importer of wine in the ‘70s and ‘80s. “I was born and raised in Los Altos, California. After my father retired from Hewlett Packard, he became a wine importer. He also built wine cellars for wealthy clients around Los Altos. My grandfather would come out from Chicago during the summer. He planted a small vineyard. He would make one barrel of wine in our garage.”
In a short video viewed at the Arizona Governor’s Conference of Tourism, Sedona Film Festival Executive Director Patrick Schweiss reminisced with Woolsey about her efforts.
“Sedona was a smaller town back then. I knew a lot of people and Paula knew a lot of people,” said Schweiss in the film. “Everything we needed was a phone call away. She has arranged and provided every drop of wine for every event, fundraising, film festival – you name it, she’s done it. Paula realized a partnership with the film festival was valuable for everyone because they come here as tourists and locals come here and watch films and party and then taste the wines grown and produced here in the Verde Valley and come back for more. Paula has been involved in everything wonderful about the wine industry here in the Verde Valley. She’s so worthy of this award.”
MJ Keenan, owner/winemaker with Caduceus Cellars & Merkin Vineyards, also commented about Woolsey in the video. “It took people like Paula to get Verde Valley on the map and basically force people to try our wines. Paula is a bully; she’ll make you try the wine. Her being able to tell the story accurately has been critical. For her to be able to get out into the state and actually be considered for an award like this means that we’re doing something right and that she’s doing something right. She is the cornerstone of that approach of storytelling.”
As adjunct professor at Yavapai Community College, Woolsey taught the first wine classes there and was instrumental in raising funds to develop the Southwest Wine Center in Clarkdale.
“It was a long haul. We didn’t have a lot of support and had to earn every dime. A lot of businesses and individuals donated,” said Woolsey. “It took a long time, but it now pays for itself. It makes me happy.”
The Southwest Wine Center now has 300 graduates from the program.
“Yavapai College is only one of three in the country that does what we do, from planting the grapes, pruning to crushing to labeling and then teaching how to sell at our wine-tasting room,” said Woolsey. “Other colleges do not have actual vineyards on site like we do.”
She also notes that grape growing is a low water usage crop and that next to Argentina, Arizona has the biggest diurnal shift in the world.
“Some people don’t even know we have wine in Arizona, but we do, and it tastes great,” said Woolsey, who has served on the Sedona Wine Fest committee, an event that climbed to the second most popular wine festival in the state, according to a 2023 Arizona Wine Tourism Industry Growth and Opportunities report.
“Spending by wine visitors has grown by an astounding 677% since 2011, from $31 million in 2011 to $241 million in 2023. That increase doesn’t happen without advocates like Paula promoting Arizona as a premier destination for award-winning wine and wine experiences,” stated Urias.
WHO I ADMIRE
My mother. She was an artist, grew up in Chicago and made beef tips at the original Stouffer’s Restaurant. She moved to California, went to college and was an art teacher. She had three kids in four years. When I hit 14, she had opened one of the first antique stores in 1970. It was the biggest antique shop on the West Coast.
FAVORITE SAYING
“Live long and prosper,” by Spock (Leonard Nimoy) on Star Trek.
MY SUPERPOWER
I’m a Nana. I have a lot of superpowers, but that’s the best.
LAST TIME I PUSHED MY BOUNDARIES
I went to a concert about three weeks after a knee replacement in a wheelchair and walker.
FAVORITE VACATION DESTINATION
Los Barriles on the Baja California Peninsula. Our dad bought a compound on the Sea of Cortez. I love to just sit on the beach. FBN
By V. Ronnie Tierney, FBN
Photos by V. Ronnie Tierney, Fresh Focuses Photography: Gregarious Paula Woolsey is recognized for envisioning a prosperous future for Arizona’s wine industry and taking the steps to make it happen.