Arizona.  You immediately get a mental image of cactus, Sagauro cactus with the big arms reaching up to a punishing sun.  Well, it does get awful warm there (I should talk, I live in Texas), but like the other 49 states, they grow grapes and make wine.  So, why am I talking about wine and Arizona. Well....

Angie and I recently visited our granddaughter, daughter and son-in-law in Vail (just outside of Tucson). One of our outings took us to the Sonoita/Elgin wine area about 30 miles South.  Sonoita/Elgin is one of three major growing regions in the state and the only one designated as an American Viticultural Area (AVA).  While the area is considered to be desert, it's high desert around 4500 feet above sea level.  Altitude is key.  It's hot during the day, but the vines get to relax at night as the high desert temperatures drop.  This change allows the grapes to build and maintain their natural acidity.  Another key to success for any wine growing region is matching the varietal to the terrior.  In south-eastern Arizona, the grapes of Spain, France's Rhone Valley, and central Italy (Tempranillo, Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, and Sangiovese) have adapted nicely.

Since our time was limited, I had to keep the tasting room visits to a reasonable number.  Also, If you are tasting like a tourist rather than a professional (in other words, you don't deposit any wine in the spit bucket), three is an appropriate number, even with a designated driver.  My choices were Dos Cabezas WineWorks, Callaghan Vineyards, and Kief-Joshua Vineyard.  I picked them based on the variety of wines available in their tasting rooms.

We had a great time, tasting four to seven wines per stop and picking up some souvenir glasses for our collection.  I didn't take any wine notes while tasting, but we did purchase one or two bottles of our favorites at each winery.  Since we drove on this trip, there was plenty of room to bring a case or so back to Helotes.

Recently, I've tried a couple of the reds:  Dos Cabezas 2008 El Campo and the Callaghan 2008 Padre.  Both are young wines and need time to breath.  I opened each and let it sit in the decanter for a couple hours.  Neither offered anything exciting at this point.  However, I vacuum corked each bottle and placed it back into the wine fridge.  The second day, the wines were much richer.  Now, I picked up red and black fruit flavors, black coffee and spice that you would expect from blends of the above mentioned varietals .  Two thumbs up for each.

It's comforting to know that states other than the big five (California, Oregon, Washington, Texas and New York) are producing very drinkable wines.  A vacation