Get Educated at the Southwest Wine Center
Want to taste the future of the Arizona wine industry? Sip through a flight of five student-crafted (and award-winning!) wines at the Southwest Wine Center at Yavapai College in Clarkdale, where budding enologists learn the trade at the Center’s 13-acre estate vineyard and on-site teaching winery. During your tasting, be sure to ask the students about sustainable and low-impact winemaking practices — the future vintners are instrumental in developing best practices as they nurture the vineyard’s tempranillo, cabernet sauvignon, barbera and more from vine to wine.
Wine, Dine and Unwind at Los Milics Vineyards
The modern, minimalist tasting room at Los Milics Vineyards in the Sonoita Wine Region is one you’ll never want to leave. The good news? You don’t have to — or at least you don’t have to go far. The winery offers nine one-bed, one-bath casitas nestled into the heart of the vineyards, each with a private patio and views over the vineyards and on toward the shadowy Mustang Mountains. Settle in for a flight in the tasting room, then head to on-site restaurant The Biscuit for a wine-paired, Sonoran Desert-inspired dinner prepared by Chef Ana Borrajo — you’ll be glad you only have a few steps to navigate back to your abode.
Go Off the Grid at Rune Wines
Winemaker John Callahan at Rune Wines in the rugged Sonoita Wine Region prizes a low-intervention, hands-off approach to his wines, letting Mother Nature (and wild, native yeasts) do as much of the work as possible. It’s no surprise, then, that his tasting room is solar-powered, and that tastings occur under a shade canopy with panoramic views of the landscape he aspires to capture in his syrahs, viogniers and grenaches.
Paddle Up the Creek to Alcantara Vineyards
For a change of pace, go from the water to a wine tasting with Sedona Adventure Tours. Their “Water to Wine” tours begin with a 1-hour kayak trip down the Verde River lined with cottonwood trees to Oak Creek. (No kayaking experience necessary.) Along the way, watch for bald eagles and great blue herons soaring overhead, mule deer along the shore and beavers building dams. You’ll put in near a gravel path that leads to Alcantara Vineyards, where you’re given a $20 credit to sample wines or purchase a cheese and antipasto platter.
Escape to the Mediterranean at Rhumb Line Vineyard & Lavender Farm
Fragrant lavender fields, trellising grapevines, wind-worn olive trees — blink twice and you’ll swear you’ve been transported from the Willcox Wine Region to the scrublands of Provence or the hills of Andalusia. It’s fitting, then, that the 60-acre Rhumb Line Vineyard & Lavender Farm specializes in Spanish, Italian and Rhône varietals, and that the on-site Olive’s Vineyard Café features pistachio bruschetta and focaccia pizza. Extend the temporary trip to the Mediterranean by reserving one of the two Quonset huts that have been turned into suites, complete with covered patios, a fire pit and world-class stargazing.
Taste the Region ... On a Pizza
Todd and Kelly Bostock of Dos Cabezas WineWorks in the Sonoita Wine Region take Arizona terroir seriously — and not just in the wines they pour. At their on-site Pronghorn Pizza, which operates out of a woodfired oven stationed on the winery’s crushpad, sourdough pies feature preserved local lemons, meat sourced at the 4-H auction, honey from a family member’s bees, feta made by friends, indigenous ingredients — you get the picture. What began as a COVID project has endured, turning into the perfect pairing — wildly Arizona wines married with singularly Arizona pizzas.
