Back from Tucson with a Trunk full of Wine

We attended the “Off the Vine” Arizona Wine tasting event and found many wonderful wines. We also added a new word to our vocabulary describing a few others; CACTUS PISS!

When I first wrote this column I stated that we would be conducting an Arizona wine tasting for our friends back in Ann Arbor shortly and would add the notes and comments on the wines at that time. In general, we were impressed with the quality of almost all of the wines; the prices are coming down a little as production grows. We actually only had one or two wines that didn’t meet our high standards. One winery that we did not see two years ago at this fair, Stache Wine Company (as in mustache) out of Elgin really stole the show. Every one of their wines was remarkably good. As we tasted through about 20 wines, we did start to get a feel for the SE Arizona terroir. It will be interesting to see to what extent our tasting group in Ann Arbor picks up on that element while away from the Arizona sunshine and clear dry air.

I do feel that there is an Arizona terroir evident in these wines. It might be described as Rioja-like though the interplay of oak and fruit is quite different. This is a very young wine industry and most of the wineries make less than 10,000 cases, several barely a thousand cases, so there is no economy of scale here. The prices reflect that as well as a nearly non-existent distribution system. So, yes, the prices are still on the high side. I threw in a clinker with each flight to see if these Arizona wines compare well to the Mediterranean wines that these grape varietals have made famous. As you will see, below, that is an emphatic YES! Fortunately, I dug through the trash to get the score cards because I made several mistakes in my initial tally. Below is the corrected results.

UPDATE: ARIZONA WINE TASTING June 3, 2022

We had three “warm up” wines served with hours d’oeuvres as people arrived. All were good. Here are a few of my impressions: COVE MESA VINEYARDS 2020 Picpoul Blanc WILCOX Rhumb Line Vyd, Cottonwood AZ 12.4% abv $30 had enormous aromatics. The big ripe stone fruit bouquet sets the stage for rich mouth coating texture with just enough acid to lift the finish. CALLAGHAN VINEYARDS “Love Muffin” 2020 Dry Grenache Rose’, Elgin AZ 13.5% abv $30 is a pleasant softly fruity rose with enough body and finish to accompany a variety of foods on a warm day. TWISTED UNION WINE CO. “Charm School” 2020 90% Sangiovese / 10% Tannat WILCOX, Elgin AZ 13.7% abv $31 is a special wine. It really has that terra cotta-like earth with exotic violets wafting up through a rich sweet oak essence. Several of the tasters commented favorably on this one.

FIRST FLIGHT: All contain either Grenache, Syrah, Petite Sirah and/or Mourvedre (Monastrell) ZARPARA VINEYARD Estate “Origen” 2018 57% Monastrell / 40% Syran / 3% Graciano WILCOX AZ 13.5% abv $22 might just be the best Arizona value here. It had the most frequent high scores and was one of the least expensive of the wines from Arizona. This is really fresh with very soft texture, class and balance. I gave it a SILVER; the group gave it GOLD 1764 VINEYARDS “8 Years Later” 2019 40% Petite Sirah / 30% Sangiovese / 30% Petit Verdot Wilcox, Cochise County AZ 13.6% abv $27 was one of my favorites. The Petit Verdot segment comes through with Bordeaux-like currant and blackberry. Yet, the Petit Sirah adds a lushness with juicy jammy cherries while the Sangiovese keeps it all soft easy and not too tannic. My score is GOLD; the group gave it GOLD also. DOMAINE LES GRANDES BOIS “Maximilien” Estate Bottled Organic 2018 50% Grenache / 35% Mourvedre / 15% Syran CAIRANNE Ste. Cecile les Vignes, So. Rhone FRANCE 14.5% abv $20 had a wide range of scores. People liked it or hated it. The nose is very perfumed and ripe somewhat like the “bubblegum” grapes you can buy in the super market while the body is quite ample, smooth and long lasting. I gave it a SILVER; the group gave it NO MEDAL. VINO STACHE WINE CO. “The Painted Lady” 2019 Garnacha WILCOX, Elgin AZ 13.7% abv $25 was another of my favorites. It captures the vivid fresh raw fruit presence that Grenache offers. I felt that if the goal were to make a wine that resembled Southern Rhone, the winery succeeded admirably. I gave it a GOLD; the group gave it SILVER. ARIZONA STRONGHOLD “Nachise” 2019 42% Syrah / 32% Grenache / 20% Mourvedre / 6% Petite Sirah WILCOX AZ 14% abv $30 comes from a winery that we have enjoyed and have brought back many bottles of from Arizona over the years. This bottling has lots to like starting with a fine red plum aroma, to a juicy almost sweet mid palate and a pleasantly soft balanced finish. I scored it SILVER; the group GOLD.

SECOND FLIGHT: All contain Graciano and/or Aglianico VINO STACHE WINE CO. “The Boss” 2019 Graciano SONOITA, Elgin AZ 13,7 % abv $25 was my favorite of the tasting. Starting with the beautiful black-red hue to the powerfully aromatic floral bouquet that just keeps reinforcing itself throughout the palate finishing with a bitter sizzle to keep it fresh and demanding another sniff and sip. One can never tire of a wine that is more interesting with every sip. For me, this is an emphatic GOLD! and the rest of the group agreed; GOLD. VINO STACHE WINE CO. “The Redbird” 2019 75% Aglianico / 25% Graciano SONOITA, Elgin AZ 13.7% abv $25 was irresistible. I had promised myself I wouldn’t include more than one wine from any winery and here we are with three from Stache (as in mustache). Their wines are just so good and so clearly display the attributes of these lesser known Mediterranean varietals. Like it’s Italian counterpart, it is not a big showy wine but rather one that grows on you in its ability to deliver pure fruit, soft balance and a finish that embraces another sip. That seems to be a hallmark of this winery. Much as I liked it, maybe it suffered by following the “Boss”. I scored it SILVER; the group BRONZE. DOS GABEZAS WINE WORKS “El Norte” 2017 34% Syrah / 24% Garmacha / 15% Monastrell / 13% Petite Sirah / 7% Graciano / 4% Vranac / 3% Counoise WILCOX Cimarron Vineyard, AZ 14% abv $30 has a big rich earthy palate balanced by a ripe yet mineral laden bouquet of cherry and orange liqueur. I found it more interesting than many of the wines but the group was less enthusiastic. SILVER for me; NO MEDAL for the group. CHATEAU TUMBLEWEED 2019 Graciano WILCOX Cimarron Vineyard, Cochise County, Clarkdale AZ 14% abv $40 could be a tad pricey but I think patience will reward the consumer. Though I did not rank it at the top now, I think it has a lot of potential as did many of the tasters who gave it high marks. To me, at every juncture I found the wine to have exactly what represented the best of Graciano but it was just holding back at the moment. Give it a year or two in the cellar and I suspect it will really open up. So, my score was SILVER; the group BRONZE. BODEGA Y VINEDOS ILURCE “Rio Madre” 2017 Graciano RIOJA (Baja), Alfaro SPAIN 15% abv $10 is one of many Jorge Ordonez Selections found easily in wine shops, big box stores and super markets. They are always quintessential examples of their origin regardless of price. This is no exception with a pure ripe representation of classic blackberry fruit, terra cotta dustiness while finishing with a sweetness to soften the tannin. It doesn’t seem to need the oak of many other Tempranillo based Riojas. This was the overwhelming value of the bunch. I was solid GOLD while the group scored it SILVER.

If you happen to be out in Arizona, don’t hesitate to try the local wines. Especially if you are dining out, these wines perfectly match the strong farm to table movement in Tucson. Enjoy!

We had a harrowing drive out of Amarillo on February 12th. The temperature was close to 20 degrees with a full night of rain and snow. That part of Texas apparently doesn’t get that type of weather too often because they had no salt or sanding going on. They did have a few snow plows out, but they didn’t do anything to mitigate the thick sheet of ice all over everything. There were trucks, semis, cars, and trailers strewn across the highway lying on their sides, upside down, in the ditches, median and at one spot, a half dozen semis were clumped together with one lying on its side across both east bound lanes. We must have just missed this terrible chain reaction. I was more concerned about a truck sliding around or falling on us than the risk of going off the road myself. Quite honestly, it was worse to drive in than any Michigan storm I’ve ever experienced. It took us two hours to drive the first 30 miles and another hour to get to the New Mexico border. At several points I was driving less than 10 miles per hour. Anyone who has ever driven with me knows just how agonizing I feel about anything less than 80. When we got to the NM border, it was salted and sanded (oddly enough black sand) so we could go about 40-50 mph. Then, somewhere between Tucumcari and Santa Rosa, we came over a ridge and BAM!! the sun was out, the road was dry and not even a flake of snow was to be found. Then as we got closer to Albuquerque at about 7500 feet, we ran into some low hanging clouds which for a second looked like a Michigan white-out, but, thankfully the pavement was dry from there on to Tucson. On the way in, we stopped at our favorite hamburger joint, Sparky’s of Hatch. If you ever eat one of their world famous green chili cheeseburgers, you’ll know immediately why they are world famous.

After watching the Super Bowl (glad to see Matt Stafford get his due) we went out for a drive and some shopping Monday morning. After eating lunch, we got into the car and the warning “Charging system malfunction; Service Immediately” came on the screen. Yes, we had thrown a pair of fan belts and needed a hydraulic belt tensioner. As soon as the service manager said “hydraulic” I knew we were in trouble. It took a few days to get it fixed so while the car was in the shop we attempted to find a rental car; not a single one in the city of Tucson! I finally got a Lyft out to the airport and got the last car left. And, of course, Alice had a hard time getting used to a different car. As you can imagine, it was easily mistaken for any old car in the lot.*

The golf course we normally play, El Rio, was in the best condition I’ve ever seen it. Normally, this time of year it is so dry that they paint the fairways green with food dye. Not this year. The fairways were as green and lush as Michigan in June. Not sure if the great conditions at El Rio was the result of winter rains or maybe a new over-seeding regimen, but the other course we played, El Dorado, was pretty dry with greens as fast and as hard as a putt putt course. We met Doug and Gay Scholma who winter in Tucson and are avid rock hounds and birders. They took us to the Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area to see the sandhill cranes fly in. We do have gigantic sandhill cranes around Ann Arbor so we were familiar with how they look and the eerie pterodactyl-like screech and clucking sound that they make. However, seeing 20,000 of them in one place was very unexpected. The sky was so full that it looked like airplanes circling for landing at a very busy airport. Layer after layer of these majestic birds some just tiny specks in the sky thousands of feet up were waiting for their turn to land. Unlike the flamingo congregation viewing area in Spain, the viewing area here is very close; less than a hundred yards from the birds themselves. No binoculars needed. Just in the hour or so that we were there, you can see how the amount of birds just about doubled. We have been told that they start to come in about 11:00 am and and continue to land until early afternoon. While out in that neck of the woods, we stopped in old Bisbee and had lunch at the Bisbee Breakfast Club. It was a very worthwhile stop with fresh homemade food. Old Bisbee itself is worth a stop. There is an air of Twilight Zone or The Day the Earth Stood Still to it. And, right on cue, an old homeless person walked on by as if he were the world’s only survivor of some sort of apocalypse.. We asked him where we could find the Bisbee Breakfast Club. As far as we can tell, it is the only business still in business in this four or five block section of town and from the outside, that is not easily discerned. He looked at us as if straining hard to recall things long ago and told us he never heard of it.

Of course, we enjoyed some of the same restaurants that always lure us to Tucson like Feast and Rendez Vous but we also discovered a few new ones. We had been meaning to try Taqueria Pico de Gallo, a small mom and pop place voted for several years now as the best Mexican food in Tucson. I loved it because it really did remind me of the food we enjoyed in Mexico City but, Alice is not a big fan of Mexican food so the more authentic it is the less she likes it. So, for a change of pace we finally did Sullivan’s which we were told years ago that it was a must go place for a great steak. It was good enough but as steak houses go, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. My Lyft driver, who was from Uganda, recommended North Italia. Based on the fact that she didn’t look like a person who eats a lot of junk food, we decided to try her suggestion and it turned out to be really good. We all ordered some form of pasta though they have many different offerings. Everything was very good but the bread with some kind of balsamic sauce on it really got the juices flowing. Another place in the same foothills neighborhood was another Italian restaurant called Vivace. It had the look of a mountaintop Italian castle with a spectacular view of Tucson. Normally when a restaurant serves huge portions, it is to make up for a lack of food quality. Not here. We shared a pork parmesan and had enough for lunch the next day. Yes, four servings from one entree. It was very tender and tasty with a deliciously fresh side of pasta primavera. We also split a large gorgonzola, pear and walnut salad; again, fresh with good quality cheese to boot. Another gem was the Cup Cafe in the Congress Hotel. As soon as I walked in I could sense that this is the kind of place the late Bob Long would love. I could almost sense his presence. He surely would have convinced Ruth that it was essential to his business interests to stay there, and, of course, she would have agreed. The Cup Cafe made an excellent hamburger and fries that we split. Alice enjoyed a very exotic Cactus Mule while I enjoyed a local brew.

Enjoy in good health,

Brian Cain, the Michigan Vintner

*By the way, the blue Lamborghini was not our rental car. We actually ended up with a drab grey Nissan Versa that was no fun to drive and very hard to find in a large parking lot.