Southern Arizona Wine Country Cruise 21 November 2015 - Photos

The Fun Italian Automobiles of Tucson and Southern Arizona Pantera Club held their 2015 Southern Arizona Wine Country Cruise on Saturday 21 November 2015.  This year's theme was dubbed "El Tour de Wine Cruise" in honor of the El Tour de Tucson annual bicycle event.  The weather was clear and balmy - a perfect day for a top-down cruise and wine tasting tour!

We met up for breakfast at The Vail Steak House Cafe & Diner and then headed south on the first leg of our tour down AZ-83 to Sonoita where we met up with another member at Dos Cabezas Wineworks.  After sampling a few nice wines we began the second leg of the tour by heading east on AZ-82 to Lower Elgin Road and towards the hamlet of Elgin, Arizona. At Elgin we headed west on Elgin Road back to AZ-83 where we headed south to Lightning Ridge Cellars.  At this winery we sampled some truly Italian-style wines and had lunch at one of the outdoor tables they provide.  After lunch and taking a few more photos we jumped back onto AZ-83 on the third leg of the tour by continuing south to the intersection of AZ-83 and Elgin-Canelo Road.  On Elgin-Canelo Road we headed north back to Elgin and re-traced part of our earlier track onto Elgin Road to Kief-Joshua Vineyards.  This winery had a nice variety of wines to sample and also had some meats and cheeses and other "snacks" to purchase.  We had a nice surprise when an early 60's Chrysler-powered Cunningham - a Cobra-type car with 8 Weber carbs growled up to the winery. This car is one of 7 in existence!

Kief-Joshua Vineyards was to have been the last winery on our tour but we managed to squeeze in another winery after one of the members talked about an orange-chocolate port they sampled at another winery we visited on last year's wine country cruise.  So off we went to Wilhelm Family Vineyards. At Wilhelm we sampled a few more wines and ports (of course!) and pet their resident Weimaraner dogs and Pug.  With the sunlight turning everything golden as late afternoon approached we headed back towards Sonoita where a couple of members opted to stop for dinner at The Steak Out while the rest of us headed back towards Tucson on AZ-83.

There were no accidents, no break-downs, and no tickets.  Everyone seemed to have a great time while touring a few of the wonderful wineries southern Arizona has to offer along with great views and open roads.

There are a lot more pictures of the event available from the following links:

• Fun Italian Automobiles of Tucson event photos > select here.<
• Southern Arizona Pantera Club event photos > select here.<