By BRUCE KIRKLAND, QMI AGENCY
Posted 15 hours ago
PHOENIX — The familiar landscapes of the Arizona outback beckon: Red rock canyons, shaded creeks and rivers snaking through the scoured earth, trains chugging through Wild West territory along cliff edges, spectacular desert plateaus with names like Cathedral Rock, ancient stone dwellings built into cliff faces by prehistoric cultures, green golf courses sparkling like emeralds … and lush vineyards.
Vineyards? In Arizona? Who knew?
The wine industry in the Grand Canyon State is maturing rapidly. The results are local, intimate, and yet so impressive is the quality of some wines that Arizona is shocking the snooty folks of California, who position themselves as the leaders of American viticulture. Combine that with the dramatic vistas of most of the tasting locales and wine tours are suddenly the hottest new item on the menu for Arizona-bound tourists.
While no expert (yet still an enthusiast), I have sampled wines at vineyards in Ontario, British Columbia, California and further afield in France, Hungary, New Zealand and Australia. But nowhere else rivals Arizona for combining wilderness adventures with the glories of the grape.
That is the treat: You can combine wine tastings with kayaking and/or hiking, mountain biking, birding, ballooning, outdoor yoga classes, quiet contemplation, golf, jeep tours, vintage train trips, and anything else that appeals to your sensibilities in the Arizona wilderness. That’s the Good Life — and it is a year-round activity not limited to a tourist season.
When you get outside a destination base such as Greater Phoenix — which has its own unique relationship to Arizona wine — three designated areas of wilderness-and- wine are easily accessible.
The industry’s Arizona Vines and Wines organization recommends either the Northern Arizona Wine Tour that stretches from Prescott to Sedona; the Senoita Elgin Area Wine Tour that sits cozily in the south, where most Arizona grapes are actually grown just north of the Mexican border; and the Southeastern Arizona Wine Tour, which sits in the extreme southeast corner of Arizona near the state’s most famous birdwatching areas, including the Chiricahua Mountains.
My first adventure was part of the Northern Arizona Wine Tour itinerary. The locale was the Verde River, an ecologically significant part of the Verde Valley. The conveyance of choice for the day was kayak, courtesy the Verde River trips organized by Sedona Adventure Tours.
In what must be a world first, or at least a rarity, you can kayak safely with the current in a one-person rubber kayak (or Funyak), shoot small rapids (with your guide’s counsel), lounge in quiet pools, then land kilometres down-river at the base of a small ridge. Shake off the river water, saunter uphill and you find yourself at a pseudo-Tuscan estate called the Alcantara Vineyard Winery.
Other possibilities nearby include Page Springs Cellars, my personal favourite on the trip for its Grenache, which it produces with its partners at Arizona Stronghold, the estate famously owned by Eric Glomski and metal-head musician Maynard James Keenan.
“Grenache don’t get no respect,” Glomski says of this limited-edition wine, which is — like most Arizona wines — available only in the state.
“Like the fabled Pinot Noir grape, it is a difficult grape to farm and requires a little extra attention in the cellar. But, when it all pans out right, we think Grenache can also be just as supple, elegant, alluring and mysterious as Pinot Noir.”
In this case, he is absolutely right.
Other inviting vineyards on my tasting tour included Oak Creek Vineyards, Javelina Leap (across the road from the Audubon Bird Sanctuary) and the Pillsbury Wine Company in historic downtown Cottonwood.
In an eccentric twist, owner Sam Pillsbury is a former Hollywood B-movie filmmaker ( Free Willy 3) whose wines are A-class and whose demeanour is country-friendly. Arizona Stronghold also has its tasting house in Cottonwood, where you can sample until it’s time to hop on the Verde Canyon Railway in nearby Clarkdale for a four-hour, round-trip chug to the Perkinsville ghost ranch, where How the West Was Won was filmed in the 1960s.
Back in Phoenix — or more specifically at the luxurious, western-style Hermosa Inn in the town of Paradise Valley — there are more Arizona wine experiences to come. The Hermosa itself is an amazing moment of calm in the midst of a bustling urban sprawl.
In view of Camelback Mountain, which defies early morning hiking freaks to run up its slopes, the Inn is the former home of eccentric cowboy artist Lon Megargee, and many features of the main buildings incorporate elements of his original Spanish hacienda estate.
As for Arizona wines — as well as speciality foods of the region — Lon’s restaurant at the Hermosa gives them special attention.
Any day you can order Arizona wines off the Lon’s menu yourself. Sipping a Page Springs or some other Arizona wine while dining under the western skies on Lon’s outdoor patio is really just an exquisite way to enjoy an evening.
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Article source: http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3134662
