Update 01/02/2016. Much has changed since this article was first written. Most notably, the wines are much better. And there are a lot more wineries out in Willcox. For a look at the area around Willcox including information about its wineries, please see our page on Things to do in Willcox.
(October 2, 2011) Ms. Karen and I enjoy our backroad travels yesterday in Cochise County – Southeastern Arizona. Stopped at the Rex Allen Museum in Willcox for the first time. The crowd was celebrating Rex Allen Days. Definitely esoteric local history. Which, by the way, I enjoy. I meet a lot of interesting people going to events like this.
 The Museum: western memorabilia for those over the age of sixty. Ancient history to those younger. Whatever age-of-innocence existed in the 1950’s is long gone. Along with Roy and Gene, Rex was known as one of the singing cowboys. Actually, he had a pretty good voice. His movies? Well, that’s another matter. As I said, I meet interesting folks at events like this. Met Beckey Burgoyne who was signing her newly published book about Gunsmoke’s Miss Kitty, actress Amanda Blake. It’s entitled Perfectly Amanda. 
Haven’t read the book yet, but she has a killer website. Haven’t heard the theme from Gunsmoke (CBS: 1955-1975) in at least a hundred years. Stopped on a whim at Chiricahua Cellars tasting room out east of Willcox near Fort Bowie. For $5 you can sample 5 varieties out of perhaps ten that they sell there. We don’t know about the five wines we didn’t taste, but the five we did were terrible. It’s been 7 or 8 years since we went wine tasting in the wine country around Sonoita and Elgin, so sometime in the next few weeks, we’ll head down that way and see if anything has changed. Wine Spectator Magazine (not always the best authority) gave an OK rating to a couple of vineyards in Cochise County that I have not been to, most notably Dos Cabezas at Kansas Settlement. They moved their winery to Sonoita in 2003. If you find a wine made from grapes grown in Southern Arizona that you like, please let us know. I’ll report back soon as to our updated tasting experience.
Haven’t read the book yet, but she has a killer website. Haven’t heard the theme from Gunsmoke (CBS: 1955-1975) in at least a hundred years. Stopped on a whim at Chiricahua Cellars tasting room out east of Willcox near Fort Bowie. For $5 you can sample 5 varieties out of perhaps ten that they sell there. We don’t know about the five wines we didn’t taste, but the five we did were terrible. It’s been 7 or 8 years since we went wine tasting in the wine country around Sonoita and Elgin, so sometime in the next few weeks, we’ll head down that way and see if anything has changed. Wine Spectator Magazine (not always the best authority) gave an OK rating to a couple of vineyards in Cochise County that I have not been to, most notably Dos Cabezas at Kansas Settlement. They moved their winery to Sonoita in 2003. If you find a wine made from grapes grown in Southern Arizona that you like, please let us know. I’ll report back soon as to our updated tasting experience.
