Things to Do in Tucson, Arizona

Tucson OKAy

Wineries

By the first 100 years A.D., wine was being exported from Italy to Spain, Germany, and France. It wasen't long before these countries ended up developing their own vineyards. Over the next few centries France had become the dominant producer of wines on the world market. Monastaries are known to have been reponsible for establishing several of the most sought after wines in the vineyards of France. Exploration and settlement brought wine to Mexico, Argentina, and South Africa in the 1500's and 1600's. Considered to be the father of the California Wine Industry, Jean-Louis Vignes planted the first European wine vines in northern California. He founded the Buena Vista Winery in 1857, which boasts 1,000 acres of vineyards in both Sonoma and Napa counties, and produces over half a million bottles of wine per year!

Made from fermented grape juice, wine is classified into 3 basic types: Natural, Sparkling, & Fortified. Natural wines may be Red, White, & Rose, and be classified in taste as Dry, Medium, or Sweet. Sparkling wines are given a 2nd fermatation in which added yeast eats up the sugar in the wine and produces carbon dioxide to give the wine a carbonated nature, much like soda pop. Tiny bubbles noticed in sparkling wines are from this natural process, while larger bubbles indicate carbon dioxide was added by machine. Fortified wines, such as Port, Sherry, Marsala, Vermouth, Maderia, Muscat, and Sangria, were made to have a longer shelf life. While there are spirits that are made from wine, the fortification process is created by when alcohol is added to the wine, thus killing the yeast before the fermintation process is completed, which leaves residual sugar. The higher levels of alcohol and sweetness help to preserve the wine longer. Wine is usually aged for several years in wood barrels, allowing the wood to influence the characteristics of the wine from taste, color, depth, complexity, and so on.

Pick a City

Chandler (2) Elgin (3) Nogales (1) Sonoita (1)

Tucson (1) Willcox (3)

Akron OH	Albany NY	Albuquerque NM	Allentown PA	Asheville NC	Atlanta GA
Augusta ME	Baton Rouge LA	Birmingham AL	Boise ID	Bridgeport CT	Buffalo NY
Burlington VT	Cape Coral FL	Chattanooga TNL	Charleston WV	Charlotte NC	Cincinnati OH
Coeur d'Alene ID	Colorado Springs CO	Columbia SC	Dallas TX	Daytona Beach FL	Des Moines IA
El Paso TX	Fargo ND	Flint MI	Fort Worth TX	Fresno CA	Grand Rapids MI
Greenville SC	Greensboro NC	Hartford CT	Houston TX	Inland Empire CA	Jackson MS
Jacksonville FL	Knoxville TN	Lexington KY	Long Island NY	Los Angeles CA	Louisville KY
Madison WI	Manchester NH	Mesa AZ	Modesto CA	Napa CA	New Haven CT
New Orleans LA	Niagara Falls NY	Norfolk VA	Oklahoma City OK	Omaha NE	Palm Bay FL
Portland OR	Poughkeepsie NY	Providence RI	Reno NV	Richmond VA	Riverside CA
Rochester NY	Sacramento CA	San Antonio TX	San Bernardino CA	San Diego CA	San Francisco CA
San Jose CA	Santa Barbara CA	Santa Clarita Valley CA	Savannah GA	Seattle WA	So Cal Beaches CA
Spokane WA	St. Petersburg FL	Stockton CA	Syracuse NY	Tallahassee FL	Toledo OH
Tucson AZ	Tulsa OK	Ventura CA	Virginia Beach VA	West Palm Beach FL	Wichita KS
Wilmington DE	Winston-Salem NC	Worcester MA	Yakima WA	Yonkers NY

Chandler (2)		Elgin (3)		Nogales (1)		Sonoita (1)
Tucson (1)		Willcox (3)