Sonoita

Located at 3450 Highway 82, Sonoita, AZ 85637
Open Thurs 10a-4p; Fri-Sun 10a-6p
http://azhopsandvines.com/

This is the 4th and final entry of my story, “A Rainy Day in Sonoita & Elgin.” Make sure to catch up on Part 1 here, Part 2 here and then Part 3 here.

It was just after 4pm when I reached the Hops and Vines vineyard in Sonoita. The gray skies were getting darker and I knew that whatever passed for daylight on this day wasn’t gonna last much longer. The entrance to the place was marked by DIY-type signs that were vastly different from the polished looks of the other tasting rooms I had visited that day.

I had heard Hops and Vines described as a cool, laid-back vineyard that organized fun, social events about once per month. They attract a pretty big crowd and they’re the young, hip vineyard on the block which is a nice complement to the older, more established places in town. It sounded exactly like the kind of place that Rosario would frequent. But none of the hip kids were out on this rainy day. The grounds were desolate and the tasting room was empty except for a handful of people.

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Located at 3248 Highway 82, Sonoita, AZ 85637
Open Thurs-Sun 10:30a-4:30p
http://www.doscabezaswineworks.com

Part 1 of a thrilling, 4-part story called, “A Rainy Day in Sonoita & Elgin.”

The small town of Sonoita can be found an hour south of Tucson if you’re heading east on I-10 and about two hours away from the state line if you’re heading west. This is Arizona’s oldest wine country along with the neighboring town of Elgin. There are almost a dozen wine tasting rooms in the area and most of them are within ten minutes of each other.

Before we continue I’ll mention that I use the word vineyard quite often on this site without ever mentioning the word “winery.” A vineyard is the field where grapes are grown (a “yard of vines,” so to speak) to be harvested for wine production. A winery is the place where the production actually happens; where the grapes are crushed, fermented, bottled, etc. For this project I’ll be visiting places that have tasting rooms where you can sit and drink wine as well as buy bottles. These places may only be wineries that actually produce the wine while their vineyards may not be on site. Dos Cabezas, for example, produces wine harvested from several vineyards, a couple of which are in separate towns. And ultimately I’ll be using the word “vineyard” to describe all of these places because I just like the way the word sounds as opposed to the word “winery.” I just wanted to make sure you knew I knew the difference.

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