View Northern Arizona Wineries Map in a larger map

Did you know that Arizona is home to 40 wineries and vineyards? It’s true. In fact, the Wall Street Journal recently acclaimed the Verde Valley as an emerging hotspot vying for Napa-like status¹. Prescott and the Verde Valley are home to hundreds of acres of vineyards, farmed by five distinct wineries. Go wine tasting in Arizona by taking winery tours to these Verde Valley area wineries, located within an hour’s drive between Prescott and Sedona in towns like Page Springs, Cottonwood and Jerome. Experience the wineries themselves or stay local and check out funky area wine bars where they serve Arizona wines. As the epicenter of Arizona wine country, the Verde Valley offers a tremendous opportunity for tourists and locals to taste some of the country’s best wines right here in one place.

Wineries:

Javelina Leap Winery and Vineyards
Tasting Room Open 11 AM to 5 PM Daily. Located 90 minutes from Prescott just outside Sedona in historic Page Springs valley on
the slopes of a volcanic mountain, overlooking Oak Creek.
1565 North Page Springs Rd, Cornville
(928) 649-2681
www.javelinaleapwinery.com

Page Springs Vineyards & Cellars
Tasting room open daily 11am-6pm. Nestled along the banks of the Verde Valley’s famous Oak Creek. Page Springs vintner Eric Glomski offers visitors unforgettable syrah, petite sirah, and more.
1500 North Page Springs Rd, Cornville
(928) 639-3004
www.pagespringscellars.com

Oak Creek Vineyards & Winery
Enjoy a spacious, gravious and newly renovated tasting room where you can sip wine, eat cheese and chat with the friendly staff. If you find something you love while you’re there, Oak Creek Vineyards offers a VIP Club and wines shipped right to you.
1555 North Page Springs Rd, Cornville
(928) 649-0290
www.oakcreekvineyards.net

Echo Canyon Vineyard and Winery
No scheduled wine tastings but visitors are encouraged to call or email for information. Visit their website for contact information and to order wines online. Located 90 minutes from Prescott.
3222 N Echo Canyon Rd, Cornville
Access via 2 mile dirt road
(928) 634-8122
www.echocanyonwinery.com

Granite Creek Vineyards
Open for tastings Friday-Sunday 1-5pm. Award winning, family owned winery located 20 minutes from Prescott in Chino Valley, Arizona. One of few U.S. 100% Certified Organic wineries.
2515 Road 1 East, Chino Valley
(928) 636-2003
www.granitecreekvineyards.com

Alcantara Vineyards
Tasting room open daily 11am-5pm. Taste 5 of Alcanterra’s outstanding wines. Check out Arizona winery tours and tasting with an outstanding selection of wines, made right here in Arizona.
7500 Alcantara Way, Cottonwood
(928) 649-8463
www.alcantaravineyard.com

Juniper Well Ranch Winery
Tasting room open every weekend from noon to 6PM. Juniper Well Ranch has planted over two acres of vineyards featuring the Spanish Tempranillo grape.  We are also growing Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Pino Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc and Malbec, many which were first planted in 2004 and harvested in Fall 2008. Enjoy seasonal events, bring a picnic or purchase one of the winery’s cheese plates and enjoy the Fiesta Patio.
10080 W. Tough Country Trail, Skull Valley
(928) 442-3415
www.juniperwellranch.com

Verde Valley Wine Tasting:

Jerome Winery
Located between Prescott and Sedona in historic Jerome, featuring over 30 local wines. Want a good story paired with a good glass of local wine? Head to Jerome Winery just off the main strip.
403 N Clark St, Jerome
(928) 639-9067
www.jeromewinery.com

The Art of Wine
Wine tasting 7 days a week in Uptown Sedona. The Art of Wine is dedicated to selling wines as stunning as the red rock landscape. All of their wines are produced locally.
Pinon Pointe Shops
101 N Hwy 89A, B-9
(877) 903-WINE
www.artowine.com

Arizona Stronghold Vineyards Tasting Room
Tasting Room open 365 days a year.
Enjoy wines in a confortable, relaxing environment while exploring the eclectic shops, galleries, antiques, restaurants and cafes of Historic Old Town Cottonwood.
1023 North Main Street, Cottonwood
(928) 639-2789
www.arizonastrongholdvineyards.com

Pillsbury Wine Company North
Tasting Room Hours: 11am-6pm. Sun.-Wed.; 11am-8pm Thurs.-Sat., closed major holidays.
Serves delicious wines from Pillsbury’s vineyard in Cochise County and local wine from Freitas Vineyard in Cottonwood.
1012 North Main Street, Cottonwood
(928) 639-0646
www.pillsburywinecompany.com

Bitter Creek Winery
Located in historic Jerome. Experience exquisite hand-crafted wines while overlooking the Verde Valley.
240 Hull Ave, Jerome
(928) 634-7033
www.bittercreekwinery.com

¹_{Karp, H. (May 25, 2007), United States of Wine, Wall Street Journal}

Visitors are revving up to travel to North Scottsdale Jan. 15-22

Rev up your 2012 travel plans and come to the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction in Scottsdale January 15-22. More than 250,000 classic car lovers from all over the world flock to WestWorld of Scottsdale each year for “the world’s greatest collector car auction”; will you be one of them? Even if you don’t have six figures of bid money burning a hole in your pocket, you can enjoy all that Scottsdale has to offer away from the action of the auction block.  Kick back at one of the area’s resorts or hotels, enjoy luxurious resort spa treatments, great restaurants and bars, first-class shopping and championship golf.  The entire destination is sure to please auto enthusiasts and their friends and families alike. Read our Visitor’s Guide to Barrett-Jackson to find out where to stay, eat, expected weather and how to get around North Scottsdale near WestWorld.

Hotels and Resorts near WestWorld

(with approximate rates during Jan. 15-22)

• Scottsdale Links Resort – Rooms from $259/night
• Hilton Garden Inn North Scottsdale – Rooms from $234/night
• Fairmont Princess Resort Scottsdale – Rooms from $399/night
• Scottsdale Marriott at McDowell Mountains – Call for availability 1-888-559-2575
• Zona Resort Hotel and Suites – Call for availability 1-888-559-2575
• Residence Inn Scottsdale North – Rooms from $269
• Sleep Inn at North Scottsdale Road – Rooms from $229
• La Quinta Inn & Suites Phoenix Scottsdale – Rooms from $165

5 Places Locals Like Eat in North Scottsdale

Weather Forecast

Average January temperatures you can expect around during Barrett-Jackson around the state:

                      High / Low (F°)
Scottsdale 66° / 41°
Phoenix 67° / 46°
Sedona 56° / 28°
Prescott 51° / 21°
Flagstaff 42° / 15°
Grand Canyon
South Rim 41° / 18°
North Rim* 37° / 16°
West Rim 64° / 39°
Below the Rim 56° / 36°
Tucson 65° / 42°
Lake Havasu 66° / 40°

*North Rim is Closed Oct – May

Getting Around

Wondering if you should rent a car when you arrive in Phoenix or take a taxi/shuttle? Take it from a local, cabs here are pricey and Phoenix and Scottsdale are very large, spread-out cities. We’d hate to see you get stuck paying expensive taxi fares every time you venture out to the car auction, restaurants, shopping and golf courses. Save the cab fare and rent a car at the Phoenix airport and enjoy exploring Scottsdale on your own schedule. Sure, you won’t save enough cash to buy one of the collector cars at the auction, but you could treat yourself to a “long drive” on the golf course!

Jamburrito Goodness

Don’t miss “Food Truck Day” November 17th.   If you’re visiting or live in the area; take a break and have lunch.

If you are not sure what your hunger is craving, join the Phoenix Street Food Coalition and the culinary selections on Thursday.

Where:  In the parking lot of Whole Foods @ Raintree and the Loop 101 Freeway

Time: 11AM – 1:30PM

Food Truck List:  Short Leash Hot Dogs, Jamburritos, Sweet Republic, CarteBlanche Gourmet Tacos,

Torched Goodness,Beet Streat, Taste Rite, and the Hey Joe Truck will all be there ready to serve you.

Hope to see you for lunch…

Northern Arizona University’s Lumberjacks football team may have lost their homecoming game to Montana this past weekend, but my Saturday stay in Flagstaff was a winner.

My husband and I drove the scenic two-hour drive from our home in Scottsdale to Flagstaff on Saturday morning. As an NAU alum, he was jazzed to return to his college town and relive his glory days… twenty years later. After a quick lunch at Buster’s Restaurant & Bar – our traditional spot for watching football and good eats in Flag – we checked into the Little America Hotel, our lodging for the night.

The Little America is an elegant, upscale hotel located minutes from the downtown Flagstaff area. Although clearly an older hotel, this classic fixture of Flagstaff lodging has been nicely updated with flat-screen TVs, elegant decor, large bathrooms & guestrooms. I’ve stayed at the Little America about half a dozen times and I’m never disappointed. The staff is friendly, polite and thorough; the front desk and concierge consistently deliver four-star service. The hotel is immaculate and very reasonably priced – a tremendous value for the dollar.

After the homecoming game, our Little America concierge made reservations for us at Pasto, a fine-dining Italian restaurant in downtown Flagstaff. The perfect romantic dinner spot for my husband and me, Pasto’s exposed brick walls and simply candlelit decor fits in well with the Flagstaff downtown vibe. Pasto’s upscale and ecelectic menu of traditional Italian fare mixed with a selection of artisan cheeses & breads, game birds & other unusual proteins, and appealing flavor profiles made browsing the menu like watching an episode of “Top Chef.” While we fancy ourselved “foodies,” my husband and I were in the mood for a fairly light dinner, so we settled on a “create-your-own” antipasto to start and had house specialty entrees of portebello mushroom ravioli and jumbo prawns in a tomato-cream sauce. A nice wine list and desserts (we shared the chocolate & volipicello crema… essentially a rich chocolate pudding infused with red wine – divine and rich!) topped off our night.

Sunday morning, we headed for home early. After a quick stop at Starbucks on Milton Road, we hit the highway leaving behind another set of good memories to add to my husband’s college-days nostalgia and my Arizona travel mental scrapbook.

THE DEAL: Caravan Tours’ 8-day escorted Grand Canyon tour takes you from Phoenix to Sedona, and on to the Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, Monument Valley, Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, and ends in Vegas. Price includes hotels, tour escort, 12 meals, and activities such as a Jeep tour of Monument Valley and a boat cruise in Antelope Valley. Tour dates: October 8, 17, 24. Note: Price does not include airfare. For more information, go to www.caravantours.com or call 800-CARAVAN

On your tour…
WHERE TO EAT: In Phoenix, Pizza Bianco is the go-to place for some of the best pizza in America. Bronx-born chef Chris Bianco took home a James Beard best chef award not so long ago for his crisp-crusted pies. The downside is the wait — they don’t take reservations, and it can be hours. There is, however, a bar right next door. If, on the other hand, you don’t want to hang around, there’s a branch of Brooklyn’s own Grimaldi’s over in Scottsdale. (Pizza Bianco; 623 East Adams Street. Patsy Grimaldi’s Coal Brick-Oven Pizzeria, 4000 North Scottsdale Road)

WHAT TO SEE: The premier American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, made his home in Scottsdale, at Taliesin West, which also served as the master’s office. The complex is open for tours. For more info, go to www.franklloydwright.org.

WHERE TO SHOP: Check out the galleries and shops in the artist town of Sedona; pick up Native American pottery and jewelry at the trading posts on the itinerary.

WHAT TO ADD ON: Once you’ve seen the natural wonders at the Grand Canyon, take a look at the manmade wonders on the strip in Vegas, and add an extra few days to your trip, gambling on luck and seeing a show or two.

Roaring Fork plan is to become chain

Howard Seftel
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 25, 2006 12:00 AM

Two of the Valley’s top chefs are out of work. A high-powered developer is trying to put together an ambitious downtown restaurant plan. The new owners of a nationally acclaimed, chef-driven restaurant want to grow it into a chain. And the dots are all connected.

The anticipated result? A distinctive new restaurant corridor downtown and at least two more high-end restaurants in Scottsdale.

Robert McGrath, the James Beard award-winning chef of Roaring Fork, has sold the restaurant to partners Guy Villavaso and Larry Foles, who founded Z’Tejas Grill, Eddie V’s and Wildfish Grille.

The 52-year-old McGrath is “all fired up” about the new place he hopes to open in Scottsdale next year, a contemporary classic restaurant that he says will be a cross between two shuttered landmarks: Scottsdale’s Golden Door and the Plaza Hotel’s Oak Room in New York.

“One door closes, another opens up,” he said.

Villavaso plans to bring a second Roaring Fork to north Scottsdale and to plant Roaring Forks throughout Texas.

Meanwhile, developer Bill Smith, chairman of the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau and a partner in Stoudemire’s, down the street from US Airways Center at Second Street and Jefferson, is aiming to make his mark on the downtown food scene.

Smith is negotiating to take over two storefronts in the rotunda alongside Stoudemire’s, then combine their space into an Italian restaurant by the end of the year. He has tapped Patrick Boll, McGrath’s right-hand man, as his corporate executive chef.

Next month, another Smith project, an “American pub,” will move into the hard-luck address around the corner on Washington, between First and Second streets, a space that housed Oregano’s and most recently Taste of N’Awlins. In a couple of years, Smith envisions a gourmet marketplace and high-end restaurant downtown, as well.

The idea is to create a downtown food “corridor,” similar to what the La Grande Orange group is doing in Arcadia.

Boll will also be revamping the menu at Stoudemire’s, which leads to another dot. Earlier this year, Smith brought in celebrity chef Eddie Matney to run Stoudemire’s. But Matney and Smith are now parting.

Matney and Stoudemire’s seemed like a mismatch from the beginning: One of this town’s most creative foodie minds has been spending his days churning out an assortment of sports-bar standards like battered calamari, sliders and roast chicken.

Matney said he wants to get back to doing his own food in his own restaurant and reports he’s “actively looking” for a place to resume his career.

L’Auberge de Sedona has announced Jonathan Gelman, a consummate food and beverage professional, as the new Executive Chef of Sedona’s four-star gourmet L’Auberge Restaurant.

L’Auberge de Sedona (Arizona) has announced Jonathan Gelman, a consummate food and beverage professional, as the new Executive Chef of Sedona’s four-star gourmet L’Auberge Restaurant.

Jonathan Gelman brings to the resort 20-years experience with luxury hotels and resorts and premium winery restaurants.

Chef Gelman recently served as Executive Sous Chef at the Arizona Biltmore Resort et Spa. Previously he was the owner and executive chef of Napa Gardens Catering in Napa Valley California. Jonathan’s menus feature cuisine with French et Mediterranean influences, focusing on locally grown products, and seasonal ingredients. Other notables in his background are his tenure as the Executive Chef of Michael’s at The Citadel in Scottsdale Arizona, Monarch Bay Resorts in Laguna Beach California, and Sous Chef of “The Dining Room Restaurant” at The Ritz-Carlton Laguna-Niguel.

“We’re excited about the energy Chef Gelman brings to the restaurant,” said Maury Kepley, restaurant manager of L’Auberge Restaurant.

This spring and summer, L’Auberge Restaurant will highlight a series of exquisite wine dinners in L’Auberge fashion. These events will feature tasting menus paired with fine wines, some of which will feature the wine maker or a representative of the winery. Weather permitting, L’Auberge offers the unique experience of creekside dining, along the banks of Oak Creek.

About L’Auberge de Sedona
Located in Sedona, Arizona, L’Auberge de Sedona is one of Arizona’s premier resorts. The resort was recently listed as “one of the top 75 hotels in the U.S.” by Conde Nast, and as on of the “500 Best Hotels in the World” by Travel + Leisure readers. For more information about L’Auberge de Sedona Resort and L’Auberge de Sedona Restaurant visit www.lauberge.com.