Arizona has red rocks and red wine

aDuring a recent visit to Arizona I discovered the state's fastest-growing industry isn't solar panel farms - they harvest the sun and produce a lot of clean energy - but wine.

Yes Virginia, they can grow grapes and produce wine in the desert.

Seems the state's higher elevations around Tucson in the south and Sedona in the north produce the perfect growing conditions - hot air during the day and cool desert air at night to go along with the area's red clay soil which apparently is similar to that found in Burgundy, France where they've been known to produce some pretty good vintages over the centuries.

Not being much of a wine snob - it all tastes good to me - I thought the Sedona branch of the Arizona wine industry produces some pretty good bottles - lots of fruity taste but a bit too much alcholol. Apparently my wine snob friends tell me that's because the vines are too young.

They are flabbergasted to learn, as I did on this trip, that Arizona's wine industry dates back to the 17th century when missionaries from Mexico and South America planted vines so they could have wine for religious ceremonies. The latest crop of wineries began sprouting up in the 1970s.

Sedona - I always get that place named mixed up with California's Sanoma - is where hippies and healers dropped out in the '70s amidst some of the most beautiful mountain scenery anywhere. Most have turned into old hippies with money - thanks to the cottage "healing" and bead industries they started and got rich off. And now they're using their new found wealth to start up
vineyards.

The small town of Cottonwood - sounds like a town out of an old John Wayne western (many of the Duke's movies were actually filmed in this area) - is where most of the best Sedona wineries are located. The town is a throughback to the U.S. Prohibition period and according to townfolk, there's lots of tunnels crisscrossing under main street where illegal booze was once stored.

Pillsbury - the winery, not the doughboy - and Stronghold were my favorite Arizona vintages.

A restaurant in Scottsdale called FnB - the food is excellent and the owners are even better - serves only Arizona wines and they turn people away at the door most nights - if that's not a good endorsement for the state's wines, nothing is.

FnB held a wine tasting event a few years ago and Arizona wines topped the competition, beating out French, Italian and California vintages to take top spot in both the red and white catagories.

"Must have been a blind taste test," grumbled a fellow journalist and wine snob from Vancouver who wasn't much of an Arizona wine fan.

Well, like I said, it tastes pretty good to me so if you get a chance to sample I'd love to know what you think of Arizona wines. Please leave a comment.