Elgin & Sonoita Wine Tasting Adventure – Arizona Wine Tour Recap (Jan 2026)
ELGIN WINE TASTING – JANUARY 2026 It was a dark and stormy night as the eight of us crept through the small village of Sonoita, AZ in search of the elusive SE Arizona wineries hiding from us…..OK, it wasn’t stormy or even night. It was around noon and we didn’t creep through Sonoita. Hard to do in white stretch limo. But it was definitely cold (47 degrees), overcast and wet. It had rained quite a bit the evening before. You know – The Dark and Stormy Night Before. Enough of the dramatics. Let’s get to the wine. CALLAGHAN VINEYARDS I always suggest to people when planning a wine tasting excursion, do your homework first and select the best winery to go to first, even if you drive past 2 or 3 to get to it. You can always backtrack. You want to taste the very best on a clean palate. And that’s what we did by going to Callaghan. One of the oldest wineries in AZ and the second oldest vineyard. Interestingly, Callaghan buys all the grapes from the oldest vineyard down the road from it. I had spoken with the owner/wine maker, Kent Callaghan the day before but he told me he couldn’t be there but his daughter, Waverly, would be handling the tasting. Waverly was a gracious host and very knowledgeable about Callaghan wines. So let’s list a few: WAVERLY’S 2023– Yes, Kent likes to name wines after his daughters. Primarily Grenache with slight taste of citrus. A nice round red and a Gold Medal winner. Unfortunately, there were a few other reds that I enjoyed a little more (and in one case, a lot more). Sorry Waverly, both daughter and wine. CAITLINS 2019- 55% Petite Verdot and 45% Cabernet Sauvignon. A very big bold wine. Both my nose and palate enjoyed this wine. There’s a little spice to this wine but not over whelming. A double gold winner. I’d recommend taking this wine home and laying it down for another 2-3 years. RHUMB LINE AGLIANICO 2022. Another big bold wine and a gold medal winner. It has a slight spicy citrus element to it. Would match up nicely with a variety of meats, Spanish cheese and, yes, even fowl. Like Caitlins, I’d lay this one down for a few years. NORTH AND SOUTH – This was the group’s favorite (but my #3). But what’s not to love about this red blend of 50% Syrah and 50% Grenache. A beautiful round wine to be savored. Don’t worry about matching it with food, it’ll be most likely gone before dinner. MOURVEDRE 2023 – My favorite. WOW! What an exceptional wine. This was a double gold winner and the recognition is well deserved. The grapes were crushed with the stems which add a wonderful flavor of herbs to the wine. There were a lot of strange looks when I told the group that this was a chewy wine. What I mean is that the essence of the wine stays on your palate to savor and taste for a few lovely extra seconds. This is a rare quality only special wines have. I opened this one at home and my wife and I just relaxed and enjoyed every drop. Why worry about dinner when you can drink this wine instead. BARRETT’S SPARKLING ROSE – Another award winner. I’m not a big fan of sparkling wines with a few exceptions. This turned out to be one of them. A lot of roses like to overwhelm you with fruit but not this one. Just the right touch of fruit in this dry sparkling wine. An excellent sparkling wine to serve guests prior to the meal. My wife enjoys sparkling wines and this one zoomed to the top of her favorites. Well, did our group enjoy the Callaghan wines. Let’s just say that I helped carry out 3 cases of wine to the limo. I’d say that was a very big YES! LOS MILICS VINEYARD Being a young winery, I wasn’t expecting to taste award winning wines like Callaghan’s, but the tasting room has received a lot of positive press. Unfortunately, the tasting room was a large restaurant and bar. Even on a cold and rainy afternoon, the place was crowded. This seemed to be the place to be seen in Elgin. Considering co-owner Pavle Milic’s background as a restaurateur, this was to be expected but it didn’t lend itself to proper wine tasting. You didn’t have 2 or 3 knowledgeable individuals serving and explaining each wine in detail, you had waiters serving meals and offering a 10 second overview of the wine. I’m sure they all had to memorize the same information. And they weren’t about to take questions. The tasting flight arrived late, half way through lunch, making the white and rose wines impossible to judge. But the printed descriptions of the wines were interesting and bizarre at the same time. We were told to look for tastes of Asian pear and Yubari, a rare Japanese melon (I’ve never tasted either one of these, so how could I look for them). Another one mentions cherry hibiscus and kalamata olives. Why would anyone want to taste olives in their wine. But let’s review 2 wines that had some merit. OLIVER’S 2021 – A Syrah blend. Oliver’s is a medium body wine with just the right amount of fruit. Not spicy like a lot of Syrahs can be, but with a nice smoothness to it. This was the wine we were to taste the olives. Thankfully, no olives in my glass. MO’S 2022 – Named after the co-owner Mo Garfinkle, this is a Tannat blend. I like big bold red wines and I enjoyed this wine. A wine to match up with a hearty meat dish- steaks, hamburgers and ribs. So how did our group feel about Los Milic’s wine. Well, we left with 0 bottles in our hands. What more needs to be said. RUNE WINES Rune Wines is a very interesting
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