Arizona Wine Country Update
It is hard to believe that it has been six years since our first encounter with the wines grown southeast of Tucson.
As usual, our 2023 trip to Tucson started under a clear blue winter sky and temperatures in the seventies at the OFF THE VINE Arizona Wine Growers festival. It was significantly expanded this year to include many wineries from Phoenix and Northern Arizona. Although most of the vineyard property in Arizona is in the south, several of the wineries from Phoenix and up north did offer wines made from grapes grown in their locale. I did purchase a mix of wines at the festival from all over Arizona with hopes of conducting a tasting with our Michigan friends in the near future.
The highlight of the trip was our first visit to the Elgin/Sonoita wine region which is just northeast of Patagonia along the Mexican border, famous to birders for the diversity of seemingly endless bird species. We stopped at just such a spot which the owners of a small property have set up to attract birds with observation areas. Alice and I are not hard core birders and found the plethora of giant scopes and tripods more than amusing. Our good friends, Doug and Gay Scholma who winter in Tucson, were admirably equipped to take advantage of the sightings. After some bird watching, we settled into a wonderfully homey little cafe called Gathering Grounds in “downtown” Patagonia. The main street is complete with a raised promenade in front of the various store fronts, restaurants and an old hotel that could be used as an authentic set for a wild west movie. The food in the restaurant was among the best lunch/brunch type of cuisine that we experienced in Arizona. I had an avacado/artichoke/onion/tomato/lettuce/cheese melt topped with rich tangy grainy mustard on toasted bread. Served with a bright bitter IPA and peanut slaw, I was in culinary heaven!
On our way south off of I-10 Doug suggested to look around at the countryside and as we crested a ridge, to notice the change. The area right around Tucson, the Sonora Desert, has an amazing array of cactus and other spiny plants covering the dry valley floor. Yet, just a few miles away, somehing resembling Sonoma County California emerges as one goes over the ridge into the upland reaches along the Mexican border. Cacti give way to grasslands and forests. Even though the wine industry is just barely present at this point, there is no question that the feel of the place is pure “wine country”. We stopped at a couple of wineries. The first was Sonoita Vineyards which was founded by Dr. Gordon Dutt who is known as the father of Arizona wine. Today, his granddaughter is the winemaker. We stopped there to get a sense of the history of the industrly. This winery was one of the first wines of remarkable quality that we had encountered six years ago. Unfortunately, today, they either don’t have access to the same grapes that were used in the past or maybe the winemaking isn’t as meticulous, but, for whatever reason, the wines were pretty disappointing. Certainly good drinkable wine, but a long way down from the wines we remembered from years ago and not in the same league with the best of what we experienced at the wine festival. Ironically, they are among the most expensive that we encountered too. Next, we went on a real scavenger hunt to find the Vino Stache winery. It is one of the newer wineries founded by husband and wife team Brooke and David Ide. Brooke, former European Volleyball player, is the winemaker while her husband David, does marketing and, of course, has the “stache” as in mustache. Now if I were to say “in the middle of nowhere”, this place is 10 miles from nowhere! After a few miles of dirt road, cow catchers and a chained gate, we encountered a lonely bull keeping watch. Arriving at the winery, we tasted through the range of wines (mostly red) that they produce from grapes grown on or near the property. Without exception, every single wine was at the very highest quality attainable in this region. They specialize in grape varieties native to the Mediterranean along the Spanish, French and Italian coast including a Malvasia Blanco with such brilliant fruit purity that it could be mistaken for Alsace Muscat. As I already said, ALL of the wines are great, but, my two favorites are the Syrah and Tannat. The Syrah has a huge aromatic blast of black fruit such as berries and black cherries tinted with a chocolate-like scent that stays alive and grows in the super yummy mouth coating feel as it finishes. The Tannat has fine perfume and slight bittersweet pomegranate-like red fruit that stays and builds throughout the finish. While we were in the tasting room, a couple of horses made their presence known trotting in as if word had gotten out among the equine gang that a tasting of fine wine was not to be missed.
I’ll add more wine notes to this post once we have our tasting of the wines we brought back.
A few other fun experiences revolved around the food scene. This time around, our Casa was located in the same neighborhood as our first Tucson encounter so many of the restaurants we frequented were located in the foothills as well as the north side. One which we were looking forward to was Kingfisher. It just goes to show how short our memories are because we didn’t realize that we had eaten there six years ago but didn’t remember that until we were seated with an overwhelming sense of dejavu. We enjoyed grilled chilled gulf shrimp which consisted of six mammoth toasted shrimp with a really zippy lime and herb cocktail sauce. That was followed by eggplant tomato soup which had a sole to it like a good pasta sauce. We were surprised at the sea bass which we shared for our entrée. It was a very nicely prepared Atlantic sea bass like the one I once caught off the pier in Myrtle Beach not the Chilean variety which we had expected. We also enjoyed a bottle of 2021 Page Spring Cellars Mule’s Mistake. It was so light in color that when our waitress poured it, I thought we were getting a rosé which, considering our food choices would have worked. It was not a rosé, it was a big rich Rhone-style wine with plenty of acid, great fresh tantalizing mouth-feel that stays and would also be particularly refreshing if served cold on a warm day.
The real discovery was El Coral restaurant which many years ago was converted from a foothills ranch into a restaurant. Like one of our favorites here in Ann Arbor, Knight’s Steakhouse, this place went from deserted at 5:00 pm when they open to packed by 5:15. The clientele was mostly old people like us and the food was as comfortable as it gets. We ordered the Tamale Pie as a side to enjoy with a fillet and a prime rib. This looked like the kind of place that delivered the classics, and did not disappoint. The fillet was cooked just right, tender and tasty. The prime rib perfectly cooked served with au jus along with a very sprightly horseradish sauce and very fresh green beans. They have a massive rotating mesquite fired grill visible from the dining room similar to the apparatus at the Hitching Post out in Buellton CA. Everything including the wine (we had a bottle of Terrazas de los Andes Malbec) was reasonably priced. No wonder they are still in business after 81 years.
We thoroughly enjoyed a few dives as well. The highlight of our exploration had to be Rollies Mexican Patio where we ate and ate and ate more Birria Tacos washing them down with quarts of Corona in the brown bottle. We also splurged on a few Sonoran Hot Dogs served with authentic Mexican soda pop at a food truck parked in the lot of Ruiz los Chipilones. This is as authentic Tucson as it gets. At Alice’s Restaurant they served up the typical breakfast fare as well as a unique version of Huevos Rancheros as good as it was unexpected. Buenda Cafe turned out to be an excellent stop too. Years ago, it was a fine dining establishment housed in an old hot dog drive-in when it was called Wild Garlic. Today, it might just be the cleanest most comfortable little Mexican eatery in Tucson. We ordered a variety of Mexican specialties and everything was as good as it gets.
So long for now. Look for tasting notes in the next few months at this post in the future.
Enjoy in Good Health!
A Brian Cain, the Michigan Vintner
