Northern AZ Wine Tour: Arizona Stronghold

Pam and Scott's daughter Dana is living in Phoenix, AZ these days, and has been doing some winery touring of her own. The following series of guest posts are from Dana as she tours and tastes at some of Arizona's local wine destinations.

As mentioned in a previous post, Maynard James Keenan, the lead singer of the band Tool, owns 3 wineries in our great state. The one that is most generally popular is Arizona Stronghold. While the vineyard is located in the southern part of Arizona, the tasting room is located up north in Cottonwood.

The tasting room is one to be admired. Not only can a customer come in and taste (a lot of) delicious wines, but they are encourages to pull up a chair or grab a seat on the couch and hang out for a while. Play a couple board games or chat with friends.

And definitely try the wine. They've got a lot of different varietals and blends to choose from, available in different tasting flights to fit your palette. And again, many of these wines weren't for me. They either didn't have enough flavor, or the flavor was too intense for my liking. My husband and I did take home a bottle of their rose, which was pretty delicious.

One of these wines that is a stand out, however, is their chupacabra. This is a blend of 18 different wine varietals and the flavors are so plentiful that one couldn't be pressed to list them all out. Definitely something to try.

If you're passing through northern Arizona and need a place to stop, relax, and have a drink, Arizona Stronghold is the place to do it.

And, Arizona Stronghold was recently announced as the official wine of the Arizona State Centennial in 2012.