Stops include a kayaking winery and dog-friendly brewery.
“We were both wondering what we could do next,” said Rebekah.
With her mom as a travel agent, Rebekah had always thought being a tour guide would be fun. “We knew that tours in Austin would take people on an hour-and-a-half drive to visit vineyards in Fredericksburg. The lightbulb came on when we realized such a tour from Prescott to the Verde Valley wine country didn’t exist. We could buy a bus. Ross is a mechanic and I’m a people person!”
Voila! Winebelly Vineyard Tours rolled onto the scene in December 2023. Very soon, the couple learned their guided vineyard adventures appealed to a large demographic: couples looking for something different to do; desert dwellers escaping the summer heat; friends celebrating birthdays; and ladies raising a glass at bachelorette parties.
But getting the men involved was a challenge. “The guys wanted to know if these places serve anything other than wine,” said Rebekah. So, Winebelly stretched to include Beerbelly and poured into its marketing efforts with the help of Northern AZ Social owner and marketing strategist Donna Werking.
Today, tours begin and end outside of the Back Alley Wine Bar on downtown Prescott’s Whiskey Row and last five to eight hours. “We try to spend an hour at each location so our riders can explore the winery, enjoy a brewery tour, get a bite to eat and, of course, sample different beers and wines,” said Rebekah.
On a recent tour with media representatives, stops hopscotched between breweries and vineyards, including Verde Brewery Company. Here, owner Alex Goetting serves up 20 different brews in his Camp Verde location behind the popular Starbucks just off Interstate 17.
In his mid 30s, Goetting is a seasoned craft beer artist who has come a long way from his first try at fermenting when he turned apple juice into alcohol. “It was disgusting.”
But now, locals and travelers stop in for his microbrews, including his refreshing Watermelon Sour, which offers a hint of watermelon, but surprisingly isn’t sour. His Hefeweizen appeals to Blue Moon fans. And Gold Bucket and Honey Lager are local favorites.
From his gleaming giant silver vats, he pours enough beer to service several pubs in Flagstaff including Hops on Birch, Mountain Top Tap Room and Pay-N-Take Beer and Wine Bar, along with a number of beer festivals and car club events in the region.
During tours of his brewery, he discusses the boiling process that sterilizes the beer and brings out the flavor, the CO2 release that creates the fizz and the grains that are good for you, like oats. His operation is a family business, where Mom and Dad help out and Grandpa reminds him that “Budweiser was once a local brewery, too.”
Using local honey, hops, fruit and wildflowers, Goetting says his craft beer is truly a taste of the Verde Valley – and the spent grain gets recycled back to neighboring farm animals. Fully committed to his Camp Verde community, Goetting loves partnering with local events and enjoys welcoming in hikers, cyclists and sightseers.
Beer lovers also can participate in his Brew for Life campaign, which offers “a beer a day for the rest of your life” with a $1,000 investment in the business.
Moving on to the oasis of Alcantara Vineyards, kayakers gently paddle along the Verde River and horseback riders explore the lush foliage of the 81-acre property. Here, winemaker and vineyard Manager Ron Brumley greets groups and leads them through the vines and into the winery.
“Everything is done by hand,” he said as he described the labor-intensive art of winemaking at the family-owned vineyard. He is thrilled to have volunteers join him in the harvest in August and September and notes that it takes five years from planting seeds to produce grapes and three more years to go from the vine to the glass.
Luckily, Alcantara was founded 20 years ago and there are barrels and barrels of wine to go around, as some 60,000 bottles are filled, corked and labeled here each year. Using a tubular tool called a wine thief, Brumley dips into a barrel of Alcantara’s own Chianti-style red, demonstrating that this wine rivals any from Chianti, Italy.
A short drive away is the Public Taproom in Cottonwood. Owned by Oak Creek Brewery, The Public Taproom is known for its dog-friendly atmosphere, live music on Fridays and selection of local craft beers. Friendly bartenders like Jamie Zimmer serve up beer flights as guests enjoy the laid-back vibe of the space that was once known as That Brewery.
Meanwhile down the road is Chateau Tumbleweed, a collaboration of four friends who left their day jobs to make wine and create one of Clarkdale’s first commercial wineries and tasting rooms. Chateau Tumbleweed doesn’t own vineyards, but partners with Arizona growers to source premium grapes.
“These tours make for wonderful memories and are a great way to see the diversity of the terrain while exploring something new and discovering Arizona’s quality wine,” said Rebekah, who requires a minimum of four guests per tour. “It’s a fun and worry-free experience!” QCBN
By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN
Courtesy Photo: Winebelly Vineyard Tours invited media representatives to explore the Verde Valley’s breweries and vineyards.
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