Thursday, Oct. 16, 2003 | 8:12 a.m.
PAHRUMP Carroll Pistole is a nomad, a whiskey-sipping romantic living out his dream in a luxury motor home.
On the highway since 1996, he and wife Barbara travel the West Coast and its inlands.
As "full-timers" the Pistoles live year-round in a circuit of private RV parks owned by Western Horizon Resorts.
If they don't like their neighbors or the view, they pack up and leave. Pistole sells his mystic wood carvings to pay for the diesel.
Theirs is a world of retirees and snowbirds potlucking their way across America. "It's a good lifestyle. It's an inexpensive lifestyle," Pistole said, while standing stocking-footed outside his $249,800 motor home at Charleston Peaks in Pahrump.
"The time will come when the good lord will say, One of these days Carroll and Barbara, you've gotta stop moving.' Until then, we'll live within the system as much as we can," Pistole said.
Essentially, they lay down their doormat wherever they want.
So when Western Horizon Resorts bought the slumping Pahrump Valley Winery, revamped its restaurant, refined the landscaping and built an adjacent RV park, Pistole was unimpressed by its uniqueness.
"I'm not a wine drinker," he said, looking off into the mountains, then placing his hand on his stomach. "Too much tannic acid. But I'm not against wine or drinking. "In fact, I'm having a whiskey right now. Ya wanna come in?"
In a town where brothels neighbor churches and a nearby resort specializes in self-defense and firearms training, a combined RV park/winery is not that unusual.
"For us it gives us 400 to 500 new people visiting a week," said Bill Loken, general manager of Charleston Peak and Pahrump Valley Winery, in reference to the relationship between the winery and RV park.
To introduce its new site, the private resort company, which bought the winery more than a year ago, even packaged some of its finest blends and sent cases to its member RV parks for sampling.
But the chance of an RV park/winery drawing a rolling caravan of motor-home drivers hooking up to savor the $8 and $13 bottles of Pahrump wine, then strolling the miniature Zinfandel vineyard is, well, perhaps a little improbable.
While recent renovations make for a more appealing visit to Symphony's, the winery restaurant considered one of the more high-end restaurants in town, RVers at Charleston Peak are not doubling their trips to the wine-tasting counter in the gift shop.
Nor are they sipping their Pahrump wine in lawn chairs outside their motor homes, where the view of the surrounding mountains is nearly breathtaking.
In fact, from the registration desk to the small private swimming pool to the doors of high-end RVs, it's difficult to find a group of wine conoisseurs -- or even dabblers.
"I will enjoy a Budweiser before I enjoy a glass of wine," said Jack Anderson, a hospitable, retired truck driver staying at Charleston Peak with his wife, Joy.
"These people who do this traveling, they're not interested in that. It's just not why you're here," Anderson said. "They should have built a golf course, now that would have been better."
Hmmm. Is it that the RV crowd is too highbrow for a Pahrump winery, or that the Pahrump winery is too highbrow for the RV crowd? Or are they just traveling down separate highways?
Possibly the latter.
"We never expected people would flock to the winery," Loken said, referring to Western Horizon's many retired RV members. "I believe, in that age group, about 8 percent of the population consider themselves to be wine drinkers.
"If the winery wasn't here, the park would still do fine."
So why buy the winery?
"They always like to have something unique near the area, a lake, mountain," Loken said, referring to Western Horizon Resorts. "And a winery, that's never been done before.
"We're not aware of another RV winery in America."
Cleaning house
Already the Pahrump Valley Winery on Winery Road off Nevada 160 boasts more than 100,000 visitors annually.
Created in 1990 by Jack Sanders, a visionary from California, the winery produces thousands of cases a year and offers daily tours and wine tasting in its gift shop.
Western Horizons paid $2.5 million for the winery and has since invested another $2.5 million in its refurbishing, Loken said. This includes a 6,000-square-foot addition to the hacienda-style clubhouse to accommodate RVers in the 200-site lot immediately next door to the winery. Because of its uniqueness -- a winery in the desert -- the winery enhances Pahrump's tourist industry. For locals it offers an annual grape stomp and outdoor concerts. Its restaurant, recently renamed Symphony's (after its best-selling wine), caters to locals, Las Vegans and tourists, some of whom are flown in from Las Vegas via helicopter.
Wine is processed on site, but the grapes are shipped in from California. The winery's small vineyard, featuring several hundred Zinfandel grape vines, is more for effect than for production, Loken said.
Its eight varietals include Chardonnay, Charleston Peak (a dry white wine named after Mount Charleston, which incorporates apples and pears), Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Bottle prices range from $8 to $14.99. To raise the quality of its wine, Western Horizons plans to add two more high-end selections.
Customers can have personal labels made for the bottles they purchase. The bottles are a hot seller because of the Pahrump novelty.
"It makes a very good Christmas present," said Sue Weippert, a two-year employee who works in the gift shop.
"For $12 you can get a nice gift for the neighbor down the road. At Christmastime it's a zoo in here. We get five tour buses a week."
Referring to the RVers, Weippert said, "Most people come out to see us. They'll buy a bottle of wine. They'll say 'Gertrude's watching our canary. Let's buy her a bottle as a gift.'
"And as they're learning of the wine business, I'm learning of the RV business."
Wine or camp
Western Horizon Resorts, owned by Loken's brother Jim, lists 22 parks on its website and touts its "luxury resorts" as offering first-class amenities and quiet communities.
The "full-timers" live in the parks year-round, making treks from state to state meeting their nomadic neighbors at various parks.
Paul Collier, who was up to his neck in chlorine at the Charleston Peak's new pool, said some of the RVers in the circuit are known for specific skills.
"A lot of people remember us because I sharpen knives and scissors," Collier said "We'll go into a park and two to three people come in and ask, 'Where the hell have you been?' "
Members often volunteer around the grounds at the check-in counter, hold potlucks, gamble at nearby casinos, tour area brothels and talk about the big news of the day.
"There was a tortoise that came in the park the other day," Connie Collier said. "They think now it might have belonged to someone."
The Andersons, who jokingly say they've left California seeking political asylum from the then-pending recall election, are waiting for a new house in Pahrump to be built.
Though not a wine connoisseur, Joy Anderson said she has made repeat trips to the winery.
"I've been down there about three times for the wine," Joy said. "I like the Desert Blush."
The Andersons, however, said in hushed tones that they found a nearby brothel tour far more interesting than the winery.
RVer Al Sloan was the first to come clean, admitting he drank wine, loved it, loved the idea of an RV park attached to the winery, and suggested it would be a draw.
"It's probably going to take awhile before it evolves," Sloan said. "But it was a good choice to open it next to the park.
"I lived a lot of my life in North California. It's as good as you'd find in Northern California."
Regarding his neighbors, Sloan said, "They're closet wine drinkers. I've been in enough RV parks to know that there are wine drinkers in RV parks."
Sipping wine outside her motor home with husband Jerry, Ethel Daniels of Calgary, Alberta, is sure the wine will turn out to be a clever marketing tactic, drawing in RVers who are part-timers.
"It will bring people definitely," she said. "The tourists, definitely."
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