Tubac, AZ

In our last post, we neglected to mention one important subject. When we left Phoenix for Tucson, we decided once again to take a byway rather than the freeway. Along the way, we encountered a massive open pit copper mine, certainly the largest either of us has ever seen. It stretched for miles along our route and the immensity of it was overpowering. The destruction of the landscape was absolutely unbelievable. We later determined that it was the Ray Mine belonging to Asarco. The mine has been in operation for decades, producing 250,000 tons per day. Complete with concentrator and many other facilities, it has to be seen to be believed. We now have a much greater sense of why environmentalists tend to oppose such operations, obviously with little success.

After leaving Tucson, we drove down yet another byway which ultimately took us through Arizona wine country—that’s right folks, Arizona wine country. Ann had stumbled upon a writeup in one of the local tourist leaflets so we decided to take a look. The area around Elgin, AZ has been developing for nearly 15 years now. It is higher country and the soil is reputed to be similar to the Loire in France. After a slow start, some of the producers have now come into their own. Callahan, one of the wineries we visited, produces a wonderful white (its name is “Ann’s”!) that is a blend of chardonnay and sauvignon blanc. It sounds odd, but Robert Parker rated it 92 points, so we bought a bottle and consumed it over the next two days. What a treat – we sorely regretted that we couldn’t take a case to Mexico with us. There were other wineries with some very good offerings although not quite at the same level that Callahan has attained. The whole experience was reminiscent of Mendocino wine country 10 or 12 years ago.

We left wine country, regretfully, and continued on to our stay for the next two nights at Tubac Golf Resort and Spa, which was a rather hyperbolic description of a lovely golf course with an aging resort alongside. However, the rooms were clean and the gracious grounds made for some good walks.