The Desert Wine Guy - The Wineries Of Jerome Arizona

Passion Cellars

                                                                                                        
    Today's article is going to be about some small Wineries located in a small, tiny, kind of creepy, but yet nice town named Jerome Arizona. Jerome is located in the Black Hills of Yavapai County in Arizona. It is a 5 hour drive from Las Vegas and is 100 miles North of Phoenix. There will actually be a surprise ending to this review so read on. The town is actually built on the side of a Mountain and is 5,000 above sea level. It was built in the late 19th Century and when you arrive you will verify that this is accurate right away because it doesn't appear that anything has changed since then.....at all. There are actually three levels to the town and everything is within walking distance. There also seems to be this macabre fascination with The Day Of The Dead....all year long. Every shop you go into has Day Of The Dead memorabilia and from what I understand during Halloween the town explodes with activity. I guess that my daughter (A.K.A Angel Vineyard) and I are the last people to know about this town because when we arrived the town was very busy with plenty of Tourists walking around and shopping. One resident I talked to told me that the town was an "artsy town" and is well know for its artists and being "free spirited". On to the Wineries now.
   From what I saw there are actually 4 Wineries located in Jerome, this was a pleasant surprise because I had only heard of one being there. We visited all four wineries and they were all fairly  nice inside  and up to date. None of the Wineries grow any grapes in Jerome so don't expect to see any Vineyards. Two of the wineries are actually next door to one another and all are within walking distance from one another. All the wineries however seemed to be way overpriced and the wine for the most part was really nothing to speak of. I did however find a nice 2012 Black Hills Zinfandel at Passion Cellars http://passioncellars.com/ that I purchased for $27 . There was also a Winery located right next to Passion Winery. I actually don't recall the name of it (sorry by this time I was tired) but if you find Passion Winery you cant miss this one, as I said it's right next door. When we walked in I noticed there were wines lined up on the counter all of the 2004 vintage and when I talked to the person behind the counter who, by the way is also helping in Passion Winery he informed me that hey had just taken over for the owner who had owned the winery for a long time but injured himself and is selling off his wines. I tasted some of their wine and I decide to purchase the 2004 Echo Canyon Estate Syrah. This wine was one of only two wines that struck me as something more that ordinary and so I had to buy a bottle. The people working there also seemed to be the friendliest and more open to talk then the other two wineries. The other winery there that my daughter and I went to was Cellar 433. This places prices were crazy with wines starting in the high $20 range and topping out at $52, yes that's right $52 for a wine with grapes grown strictly in Arizona. The wine was nothing special and certainly not worth $52. To make matters even worse I believe there was a $12 tasting charge that was NOT given back if wine was bought and the glass was NOT yours to keep.  The other Winery was nice inside buy again they must have thought they were selling Gold or something because once again the prices were out of this world high.

Passion Cellars

   In finishing this article I wanted to say that I am in no way saying that Arizona can't grow great wine grapes or make great wines for that matter. What I am saying is that Arizona is not Napa or another area that is well known for it's wine and to charge from the high $20 up to $52 dollars for a wine, along with that kind of tasting fee and on top of that be stingy and not give a tourist a memento like a cheap glass is to me, crazy. By the way to be fair all the wineries in Jerome have what I think are high tasting fees and no free glass nor do the tasting fees go toward a purchase. I think this is without question out of line. Bottom line here is the drive is way to long for wine that for the most part is not that good along with prices that are way to high. Now for the surprise ending that I promised you. I definitely recommend that you visit the town and when you are there hit up Passion Cellars and the winery next door but hurry because when the wine they have is gone at the winery next to Passions it is gone and you must have the 2004 Estate Syrah. My Daughter and I had lunch at Bobby D’s Bar-B-Q Pit http://jeromechamber.com/businesses/bobby-ds-bar-b-q-pit/ and the service and food was AWESOME. We also had some Espresso drinks at The Flatiron http://jeromechamber.com/businesses/the-flatiron/ where the service was VERY friendly, the Espresso very good and the ladies were very pretty might I add. I recommend that you also visit this town for the experience there are some museums and some nice shops and the few people we talked to seemed to be friendly. The drive itself was long yes, but from Vegas it was surprisingly green with areas of lush rolling hills and there are small towns along the way to stop. The temperature actually averaged in the low to mid 80s and  was nice. O.k, here is the warning. The town is big on The Day Of The Dead and the town and goes nuts for Halloween, I think ill leave before night fall thank you. Just kidding, it is a nice place to spend the day.

Cellar 311

www.facebook.com/DesertWineGuy?fref=nf

https://twitter.com/DesertWineGuyLV

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgCUb3w1n2S_UGU2yYRkFYQ/videos                                                             


                                                                                                                    The Desert Wine Guy