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Wild To Wine

PHOENIX -- The familiar landscapes of the Arizona outback beckon: Red rock canyons, shaded creeks and rivers snaking through the scoured earth, trains chugging through Wild West territory along cliff edges, spectacular desert plateaus with names like Cathedral Rock, ancient stone dwellings built into cliff faces by prehistoric cultures, green golf courses sparkling like emeralds ... and lush vineyards.

Vineyards? In Arizona? Who knew?

The wine industry in the Grand Canyon State is maturing rapidly. The results are local, intimate, and yet so impressive is the quality of some wines that Arizona is shocking the snooty folks of California, who position themselves as the leaders of American viticulture. Combine that with the dramatic vistas of most of the tasting locales and wine tours are suddenly the hottest new item on the menu for Arizona-bound tourists.

While no expert (yet still an enthusiast), I have sampled wines at vineyards in Ontario, British Columbia, California and further afield in France, Hungary, New Zealand and Australia. But nowhere else rivals Arizona for combining wilderness adventures with the glories of the grape.

That is the treat: You can combine wine tastings with kayaking and/or hiking, mountain biking, birding, ballooning, outdoor yoga classes, quiet contemplation, golf, jeep tours, vintage train trips, and anything else that appeals to your sensibilities in the Arizona wilderness. That's the Good Life -- and it is a year-round activity not limited to a tourist season.

When you get outside a destination base such as Greater Phoenix -- which has its own unique relationship to Arizona wine -- three designated areas of wilderness-and- wine are easily accessible.

The industry's Arizona Vines and Wines organization recommends either the Northern Arizona Wine Tour that stretches from Prescott to Sedona; the Senoita & Elgin Area Wine Tour that sits cozily in the south, where most Arizona grapes are actually grown just north of the Mexican border; and the Southeastern Arizona Wine Tour, which sits in the extreme southeast corner of Arizona near the state's most famous birdwatching areas, including the Chiricahua Mountains.

My first adventure was part of the Northern Arizona Wine Tour itinerary. The locale was the Verde River, an ecologically significant part of the Verde Valley. The conveyance of choice for the day was kayak, courtesy the Verde River trips organized by Sedona Adventure Tours.

Petty | The Wild West

Technically, nothing was illegal in the brouhaha over a new road for Southwestern Community College. The road just happens to swing past a building named for Conrad Burrell. Burrell is chair of SCC’s board of trustees and a regional representative on the state Board of Transportation. Jack Debnam, chair of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners, didn’t think the action passed the smell test. There are other roads on the waiting list for funding, and the college has recently had two of its requests fulfilled. Burrell is in violation of no laws because neither he nor his family gained personally. The naming of the building is considered to have been likely, anyway.

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