Sonoita Wineries

It was too fine a day Wednesday to spend it all indoors, so we took a scenic drive down to Sonoita with a plan to find one or two of the wineries that are supposed to be in the area.  We found them; they are closer to Elgin than Sonoita and are mostly open Thursday to Sunday, but we looked in on a two which were open.

Our first stop was the Kief-Joshua vineyard, where we met the winemaker and sampled half a dozen wines. Elfrida was particulary interested because she was formerly a wine-sales manager for the Denby's winery in Surrey.

The Kief-Joshua Winery; vines in back.

Kief Manning, the winemaker

The Winemakers' dog catching some shade...

And then some sun...

 Our favourite was the 2011 Pinot Grigio, which we bought and will enjoy soon.


The next stop was a little farther south:

Sonoita Vineyards

where we had a less informed and more impersonal tasting, but came away with a nice 2010 Cuvee Blanc which I think Barb will like, and a Cochise County Columbard which was Elfrida's favourite.

Our drive back to Tucson was via the scenic Highway 83.  We got stopped by Customs and Border Patrol at their usual checkpoint on 83 just north of Sonoita.  They just looked in the car and told us to have a nice evening.  (They seemed to have dropped the semi-rhetorical "American citizens?" question that is problematic for us Canadians.) 

We decided to stop for a Sonoran Hotdog on the way back.  Our TomTom GPS stop working (touch screen seems damaged) but I remembered the location as Oracle and something major (Grant? Speedway?) near downtown.  So I got off at Speedway and headed east, to pick up Oracle, and then head north until we found it.  Nice plan; too bad that Oracle doesn't go all the way down to Speedway, which I didn't figure out until we were a few miles too far east, in rush hour traffic.  So the extra 10 minutes to get a dog turned into an extra hour.  Grr.