Maggie's Birthday Extravaganza by way of Southern Arizona Wine Country

A few weeks ago one of my dearest friends turned 30! And to celebrate a small group of good friends headed to Southern Arizona wine country! I didn't know we had wine country in Arizona, but we do and it is pretty tasty.

The drive to Sonoyta and Elgin is not very long, but we decide it was appropriate to have trucker handles as we caravaned through the beautiful, at that time snow covered landscape.

Larissa, Kristy and I: Triple Trouble (Obviously a bit windy)

Maggie and Nicole: Big Spanky (All bundled up)

And Robert: Dirty Bertie (So handsome)

We arrive at the hotel ready to freshen up and begin our tour of the local wineries. Their are seven or more wineries on the tour, yet only one hotel in Sonoyta.

Our first stop, once we found where we were going was The Villiage of Elgin Winery. Apparently this place used to be a brothel. It feels like a cramped trailor and is not at all what I had expected when I thought of a 'winery tour.' But they had several bottles of wine to choose from and so I was content. Unfortunately Maggie and I started with the Cheeky Monkey, which tasted like, well, cheeky monkey. It was not good, but several of the wines that followed were. We purchased a few bottles and headed down the road to our next wine tasting destination.

On a side note, I would like to give you a few examples of the descriptions of the wines that we were tasting, and I am not even making this up;

"...teeth coating with a peachy finish..."

"...the essence of sausage and mushroom..."

"...known for its delicate meaty nose..."

I am only recently becoming a wine connoisseur, but I am pretty sure that "teeth coating" and "meaty" are not desriptions that make anyone think, "yes, that wine sounds delightful!"

Anyhow, wine tasting is like Beerfest, except with wine and driving. There are no actual tours of where grapes are grown or bottles corked. Instead you pay two dollars at each winery and get to sample 5 or 6 wines. You even begin to see the same people at the different wineries, and each time everyone seems a bit more friendly. All in all, wine tasting is really fun, and I was feeling pretty good by about our fourth stop. We all purchased a few bottles of our favorites and headed back to the hotel for happy hour.

After several hours of wine tasting and happy hour it was time for dinner. Our hotel package included a certificate to the famous steak house next door. I had the veggie burger w/ cheese, and it was not so delicious. However, Maggie and I shared a piece of sweet cherry pie for dessert and it was heavenly! Besides the food being so so and over priced, the restaraunt had a severe horror movie feel, and we were all a bit creeped out. Sitting next to us was a ditsy bleach-blond with gigantic....personality and the "locals" didn't seem to be so pleased that we were there.

After dinner we headed back to our room, exhausted by the eventful day. At this point it was only about 7pm though, so Kristy and I decided we should probably enjoy a bottle of wine down by the fire.

Eventually we all headed off to bed and rested up for the drive back to Tucson in the morning. On our way out of Sonoyta we stopped and had a delicious breakfast and when I arrived home I had a nap.

I have since enjoyed my bottles of wine purchased on our wine tour and they were as delicious as the memories of Maggie's Birthday Extravanganza!!!