Content area
Full text
Blazing Arizona sunshine. Desert winds. Saguaro cacti. Farmers working their crops. Bur when harvest time comes, it won't be cotton or alfalfa they hold in their hands. It'll be grapes.
Not quite what you'd image in the dry Sonoran Desert, but with about 14 wineries and vineyards active and in startup stages, the industry has a $20 million annual economic impact in Arizona. Sales of local wines totaled about $5 million last year. And the vineyards attract 15,000 visitors to the state each year, according to the Arizona Wine Growers Association.
It is an industry that, since its beginnings here in the early 1970s, has become an attractive business venture for wine enthusiasts, including several who are planning to open vineyards in the near future.
Grape growers and wine makers here believe this blossoming industry should be in the forefront of wine lovers' minds when seeking out fine wine.
"The quality of Arizona's wine has skyrocketed," said Todd Bostock, vice president of the Arizona Wine Growers Association and wine maker at Dos Cabezas Wineworks in the southeastern Arizona town of Elgin. "Also, Arizona wine is reasonably priced from under $10 dollars to the most expensive at around $40 dollars."
Apparently, others agree.
Last Fall, Wine Spectator...