TOOL Frontman's Winery Battles Climate Change

According to The Pulse of Radio, the weird weather brought about by global climate change, including torrential rains in some parts of the country and unseasonable temperatures in others, has taken a toll on the Arizona winemaking business of TOOL frontman Maynard James Keenan. In a lengthy update at his winery's website, Keenan described how he and several other vintners in the area had to wage an ultimately successful battle against recent unusually freezing temperatures in the Arizona Valley.

Using rigged sprinklers, fires in oil barrels, and portable heaters, Keenan and his colleagues managed to save the majority of their crop as temperatures dipped to between 26 and 31 degrees in late April and early May. As a result, Keenan wrote, "You will all have the opportunity to drink 2010 Arizona wines because of these efforts."

Keenan told The Pulse of Radio when he launched his Caduceus Cellars winery in Sedona, Arizona that the area was a good one for wine: "These are world class grapes. This is a perfect area. This is very similar to parts of Spain and Tuscany and Portugal and Hungary and southern Rhone . . . it's a perfect spot for grapes."

"Blood Into Wine", a documentary about Keenan's wine-making efforts, is screening around the country and arrives on DVD on September 4.

Besides tending to his vineyards, Keenan has been recording and touring with his side project, PUSCIFER, for much of the last year.

TOOL will begin a short summer tour on June 19th in New Orleans, and a recent post at the official TOOL web site indicated that work was underway on a follow-up to 2006's "10,000 Days".