Wine Tasting around Sedona

Thursday Oct. 29

We decided to take a break from hiking and go wine tasting. There are actually quite a few wineries within 40 minutes of Sedona.

When we first arrived in Sedona, we needed a bottle of wine quickly...so we visited the "Art of Wine" tasting room located next door to the Hyatt where we are staying.... We know we were in trouble when the sparkling wine was flavored with almonds and sweet. The next wine was an oxidized Sauvignon Blanc.... and I wondered if any good wine was made in Arizona...

So we began our search to see if our experience at the "Art of Wine" was typical of Arizona wine.....We decided to taste at 3 wineries clustered together on Page Springs Road.

After the snow on Wednesday, it was a bright sunny day with temps in the mid-60s.

Javelina Leap Vineyard:

Well we didn't learn anything about Arizona wine here as all their wines were made from grapes from Santa Barbara and made there as well as a "partnership" with a Santa Barbara winery.

None of the wines were that good, just OK.

We did learn that tasting in Arizona was going to be expensive as a tasting of 5 wines cost $12!! But you got a glass...just what we needed..

Notice the barber's chair in the bottling line...to shave off the hair on the corks??

Javelina is a kind of feral pig like a peccary?

Oak Creek Vineyard:

Taste of 8 wines with cheese and crackers $19!

Some of the wines were at least were from Arizona. The wines from Arizona tended to be light in body and flavors, e.g. you could tell the wine was a Viognier, but just barely. The viognier was their best wine. Grapes from southern part of Arizona near Tuscon. $26

The Zinfandel reminded me of the old green pepper Monterey character...and I learned later that local wineries are getting grapes from Monterey county.

The cheese wasn't even that good. Who serves a pepper jack for wine tasting!

Page Springs Cellars:

We could/should have started and ended at this winery. By far the west wines of the day, and the most interesting.

Taste 5 wines with glass $10..

2008 Vino Del Barrio Blanca: $15 {the neighborhood white}

A blend of SB, Malvasia, Gewurztrainer, and Viognier

And you thought I was the only one that made and blended Malvasia!

Light clean fresh, nice!

2007 Painted Lady Gewurtrainer {Monterey Co.} light and spicy $24

2008 Vino De La Familia Blanca 100% Malvasia $20. Light clean, good acid. Floral. Much lighter than my 2007 Malvasia.

2008 PSC Arizona Stronghold Chardonnay: from "Stronghold" vineyards southern Az near Wilcox. $35. Very very nice wine. in the light crisp style.

2008 "La Serrana" $30 a blend of Viognier and Rousanne: another very nice wine. Elegant light complex, crisp and lemony.

Doris tasted the "Pure" flight of reds. Most of the reds were from California grapes, thought there was a pleasant Grenache from Cochise Co. grapes.

So, yes Virginia, there is good wine made in Arizona...stick with the whites, light in body and varietal character, crisp.

Pink Jeep , Broken Arrow tour

Monday Oct. 26, 2009

We booked the Pink Jeep Broken Arrow sunset tour when we thought the weather was going to be good as cold and rain was forecast for later in the week.

As luck would have it, it turned cloudy and gray just before starting the tour, so my photos were flat and lacking in some jump.....The sun did break through late in the tour and finished with a glorious sunset.

The jeep ride was relatively tame until the end where they throw in every possible or impossible track they can find. My kidneys are still hurting.

Why is it that photos and video flatten out the terrain? Anyway "objects are steeper than they appear in the photos"

A fun tour, highly recommended, and if you should want to beat up your rental car this is a good place to do it!

Hiking Devils Bridge and Vista Trail

Wednesday, Oct. 28,2009

A storm is dumping snow in Flagstaff and the temps are dropping in Sedona today. But it's sunny so we decide to take a drive out to Boynton canyon and see what hikes we can take out that way.

We found the trailhead to "Devils Bridge" and decide to see what we can see...The trailhead is down a dirt road that has quite a few ruts and large rocks, so we leave the rental car and walk the mile out to the start of the trail.

The trail is fairly easy except at the top nearing Devils Bridge where it is very steep..but large rocks placed like steps make the trail much easier.

Temps were in the 40s but it wasn't cold during the hike.

A fellow hiker offered to take our photo out on the bridge... not sure I wanted to go out to the middle of the bridge..it looked stable, but then again...

When we started hiking out from Devils Bridge it started to snow very lightly.

Next we drove up Boynton canyon and started to hike the canyon trail near the "Enchantment" resort, but it was getting cold so we diverted to the "Vista" trail. When we got to the top of the vista the snow really started....

After the snow...we wanted to get back to a hot spa and a cold glass of wine. Dinner at the Elote restaurant ended a very fun day.