Charron Vineyard - Senoita, AZ

On our way back home from Kartchner Caverns, Ashley and I decided to swing by a vineyard that wasn't too far off the highway. We have been interested in checking out a few of the local Arizona vineyards but haven't taken the time to plan a trip yet.


Charron Vineyards was 6 miles off of Interstate 10 on an exit heading towards Senoita, AZ. We pulled up to a small vineyard surrounding a house but noticed the gate was closed. It was around 5:30 and tasting time had passed for the day. We stopped on the dirt road to take a look at the hibernating vines on the 5 acre lot.

Just then the gate started opening as though it were inviting us to come in. We weren't sure what to make of it. There wasn't a car leaving but then we noticed a woman standing on the porch of the house looking out at us. So I decided we should drive in and see if they would offer any taste of their wine. The woman invited us onto their back porch to give their 2008 White Merlot a taste.

What a strange surprise to see a white merlot wine?! But I guess if you are competing against traditional wine country such as Sonoma and Napa that it would be smart to offer a wine that would be less traditional. It had a surprisingly sweet, yet not too sweet taste to it. It would pair perfectly with a grilled fish on a summer day.

Leo Cox was telling us about his wine and many of his life stories. He was definitely an entertaining guy.


We headed out just after sunset. It was a perfect little detour on our day trip.

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The New Phoenix Convention Center

The new Phoenix Convention Center is very impressive. I attended Imaging USA photography conference last month and was so surprised to see such a great building in downtown Phoenix.

Phoenix is Growing Up...Kind Of

Phoenix has finally joined the ranks or San Francisco, Washington D.C. and Portland with the new addition of light-rail to their public transit system. Its been years in the making but the trains are finally moving around the city. It has yet to become as popular as the systems used in other cities but they are working on fine tuning everything.


The stations definitely have a modern feel to them, although I am not too excited to see how these tiny shades perform during the summer time. Did they honestly think that it was smart to hire a designer from another state?


It's definitely nice to have another option on getting around town. I use it with my friends to visit the First Friday event each month in downtown Phoenix. The only issue that we have is that the last train leaves the station at 11pm which is way too early for a weekend. You would have figured with the strong enforcement on drunk drivers that they would keep the rail running at least until last call on the weekends so that these people won't be driving, but you would be mistaken. For now they will only extend the hours for special events, but even then they don't broadcast the hours properly so you don't have a clue when the light-rail stops running.

So until they start extending the hours, I can only use the rail for certain events. Hopefully they will open weekend hours soon, before they loose their chance to gain weekend users.