Annabel Sclippa

Being the first, the renegade, the bushwhacker, is native to Annabel Sclippa.

Along with being a winemaker 30 years ago, Sclippa was the marketing director and VP of the Cottonwood Old Town Association when it was instrumental in encouraging winemakers to select Old Town for the placement of their wine tasting rooms. Since then, Cottonwood has become a wine tasting mecca and destination.

When she moved to Old Town Cottonwood in 2006, Sclippa opened the first legal Bed & Breakfast in town. The city had to write their first B&B Codes. She won regional, state, and area B&B awards, wrote the cookbook, and then moved on. Her life has been one of constant fluidity. Like wine from vine to vino.

With a non-military childhood spanning multiple countries, states, and cities, Sclippa is no stranger to adventure. In her words, she likes to “Bravely Go Where Everyone Else Has Gone Before,” in her wheelchair, which she uses as a result of a car accident (not wine related) at the age of 17.

Miss Sclippa was born in Southern France not far from Limoux, the original location of sparkling wine. It was the renegade, the outlying terroir, and the beginning of something beautiful, such as the five outlier tasting rooms of the state of Arizona, which she writes about here in our section on Outlier Tasting Rooms and Wineries.