Sunday, October 15, 2017

Arizona Wine Country


Cottonwood Arizona is the heart of the Arizona wine county.  Well, the northern half of the Arizona Wine Country.  There is a big section of wine country in the south of our state too.  When I took that road trip last July, I made a two day stop in Cottonwood so that I could explore that area a little bit.  One of the places I visited was the Pillsbury Wine Company official tasting room.  I've mentioned Pillsbury before on my Phoenix Daily Photo site when I first met Sam Pillsbury the winery's owner.


Sam wasn't there the day I visited but, I did pick up three bottles of his tasty wine while I was there.  


The winery tasting rooms are all centered in the old part of Cottonwood in an area that is also home to lots of wonderful shops and galleries.  There was a lot of character in this part of town, including many old stone structures like this bridge I found on edge of the downtown area.


There were also many older homes that have been lovingly maintained.  This one I found especially attractive with all the plants and the wonderful big tree out front.


In the early evening I enjoyed walking along the streets and stopping in unique shops to browse and a few art galleries where I saw some amazing paintings and sculptures.


Finally I settled in at the Merkin Vineyards Tasting Room and Osteria for some dinner.  They have created a beautiful dining room and a menu with an Italian inspiration.  I had a wonderful pasta dish that I thoroughly enjoyed.  

In a future post, I'll visit another winery that is located a few miles from Cottonwood.

5 comments:

Lowell said...

Very interesting. We received an email yesterday from a friend who's moving from Kingman to Sedona and she mentioned driving through Cottonwood, but she did not mention anything about the wine. I didn't realize wine was made in Arizona so appreciate your gorgeous photos very much!

Silver in AZ said...

Thank you for teaching me so much about my future state!

Lois said...

What a wonderful looking town. I just love that stone bridge!

William Kendall said...

It's that stone bridge that really catches my eye.

Catalyst said...

When we lived just a couple of miles west of Old Cottonwood back in the mid 90's it was nothing like it is today. If there had been that much life in those days we'd probably still be there.