Sedona Wine Tours

Last weekend on our trip to Sedona, my husband and I really wanted to check out some of the wineries that they have in the area. Jerome and Sedona wine tours are like the top thing to do for wine lovers in our area, so it was a must for us on our little getaway.

There are actually quite a few companies to book through it you do not want to just tour on your own, and actually want the full experience of a group wine tour. We went through Arizona Winery Tours, and I am so glad that we did! Our driver was absolutely the best and the group of 16 others that we went with really made the who experience more fun.

On this tour, you get to stop at three different wineries in the Sedona/Page/Cornville area, and on our tour we also got a picnic lunch in between (which a lot of companies don’t offer). After all of that wine, food was a necessity!

Not only that, but there were mimosas on the bus as soon as we got on in the morning, and cheese plates for the drives in between! It was really a great time.

I picked up a bottle of wine from each of the wineries that we visited and I will be reviewing each of those next week on Wine Wednesday. 

Sedona Wine Tours

The first winery on our tour was Page Springs Cellars. This was the largest and the most commercialized of all of the wineries that we toured, and I think it was the most enjoyable experience overall.

The staff member that helped us was probably one of the sweetest girls ever, and she just so happened to be extremely knowledgable about each and every wine.

We got to taste 5 different wines each; either all whites, all reds, or a combo of the two. I chose the combination and my husband did the reds. Neither of them disappointed us, although I am a much bigger fan of the reds than whites in general. 

The grounds were gorgeous. We got to walk around and see everything for ourselves, which was nice. I am not a huge fan of guided tours where you don’t get to see much. The views from their patio and from the start of the vineyard were just stunning. 

The next place up on our tour was Oak Creek Vineyards Winery. This one was probably the smallest operation of the three, but it was neat because the atmosphere was much different.

Here, they only age their wine in stainless steel barrels, not in oak. This was something that I hadn’t heard a lot about so it was really interesting to taste the wine. We, again, got to pick 5 different wines to try out off of their lists of reds, whites, and dessert wines. 

This one had the most charm, in my opinion. They sold a lot of different wine-themed items like t-shirts and napkins, which I loved! They also had a lot of fun signs like this one hanging all around. The grounds were a little bit smaller here and we could not walk around to see as much. 

The final winery that we stopped at was Javelina Leap Winery. This may have been the most memorable because I learned so much out of this visit. 

They had a few buildings including the tasting room, the cellar, and a small restaurant area. I loved the atmosphere that they had built. 

Here, they do their tastings individually. You can pick however many you want out of all of their wines, and then they pour them in the order that they think goes the best depending on the flavors. We tried all of them:)

The best part of the experience here was getting to tour the cellar and hear more about the wine making process. Our tour driver, who again was just amazing, lead us and another couple through the cellar and explained how their wine aging and storage process works. 

Some fun facts we learned while we were there:

• A sommelier tastes the wine. The winemaker tastes the actual grape.
• White wines convert to lactic acid in the body.
• Winemakers look for about a 3.4 on the acid scale for a good wine. They also look for grapes that contain about 25% sugar, because this will give them the ideal 14% alcohol.
• When looking for a grape that is ready, they only choose those that have brown seeds, no green seeds.
• Oak barrels are usually used for up to 4 years. After that, they can be broken down and remade into new barrels with the same oak. The person that does this can also make miniature barrels of that oak at the same time.

The wine tour was hands down one of the best parts of our trip. If you are in the area, I highly suggest checking a tour like this one out for yourself. We had a really wonderful time, brought home some great wine, and met some amazing people!

Have you ever been on a wine tour?

*Cheers to a day spent in bliss, drinking wine*