Sedona

Doc Ed's review of the wineries in Sedona was so enticing that my wife and I decided to go there ourselves.  We stayed in Sedona rather than in a hotel near the wineries.  The picture above is from the driveway of our hotel.  Need I say more.
On day one of our trip we skipped the usual tourist visit to the local vortices and headed out to the mountain town of Jerome.  Not being mountain goats, we found it best to move to flatter land and, most important, Chateau Tumbleweed.  I half expected us to spend only a short time there, but, well, they had so many great wines…
If you are really interested in learning about wines, Tumbleweed is a great place to visit.  They offer a large variety of different varietals, sourcing grapes from all over Arizona.  Most important is the wine label.  As shown below, the winemaker tells you all about how the wine is made, including the day the grapes are picked.  Absolutely fascinating.

​Our visit there proved to be quite a nice experience, and our first time tasting a wine made from the Spanish grape Graciano.  This red grape is found mostly in Navarra and Rioja regions of Spain, and often used as a blend for its aromatic character.  One reason for its rarity is that the Graciano vines are very susceptible to mildew, and it is a low-yield variety.  Now I would suspect that mildew is not a very great problem in Arizona, so maybe this grape will become a fixture there.
Chateau Tumbleweed makes three versions of this varietal, using grapes from three different vineyards.  So, naturally, we did a horizontal tasting of the three.  The differences were quite noticeable.  One had a fair level of tannins and clearly needed more aging.  One had a similar tannin level but the tannins were softer, with great balance overall – a truly quality offering.  The third, from the Dos Amigos Vineyard, was for us a real treat.  Very fruit forward with soft tannins, perfectly suited to drink with spicey foods.
Of course, they had some other great offerings, including the Italian reds Montipulciano, Sangiovese, and the very rare Refosco.  We wound up leaving Tumbleweed with seven bottles of wine.

​From there we travelled to the other winery Doc Ed liked, Page Springs.  It was a really nice day, and, well, Page Springs is pretty well-known in the area, ergo, the place was packed.  Somehow, we managed to taste three of their Syrah clones and a Syrah/Malvasia blend.  This last is co-fermented, and in high demand, so we could not buy a bottle of it.  We did, however, find a way to come home with three bottles of their 474 Syrah clone.
On day two we visited the town of Cottonwood.  Not quite a touristy as Jerome, but flat.  We were nicely surprised to find a wine tasting room for the winery Carlson Creek, as the winery is located in Wilcox Arizona, a long way from Cottonwood.  I am not a fan of the white wine varietal Malvasia, or at least was not a fan of this wine until I tasted Carlson Creek’s version.  Somehow it made it home with us…