This stunning Arizona wine destination is getting a new tasting room. Here's how to visit

Corrections & Clarifications: In an earlier version of the article, Morris Garfinkle's first name was incorrect. Also, Willcox was misspelled.

Pavle Milic, who co-owns the award-winning restaurant FnB in Scottsdale and Los Milics Vineyards, is opening a tasting room in Elgin this summer that represents the culmination of a lifelong dream. It's also likely to be one of the most architecturally stunning structures in southern Arizona wine country.

“I remember driving south on Silverado Trail in Napa Valley," he said of a 2004 trip. "The sun was hitting those bucolic vineyards in just the right way and I dared whisper to myself, ‘One day, I don’t know how or when, I will be in this business.’”

Since then, he's done just that and his general passion for wine evolved into a specific excitement for Arizona wines, which he brings attention to at FnB.

In 2014, he added his own label to the mix and in 2018 he opened his winery, Los Milics.

Wine lovers will be able to sample the unique southern Arizona terroir when Milic opens a modern tasting room at his picturesque estate vineyard.

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"I didn’t come from money," he said. "I’m a college dropout, but when I speak about the project, it’s the end point of something that seemed unreachable."

A child of immigrants, he knew his dream was far-fetched. “I didn’t come from that tax bracket or even that world,” he said.

Milic’s father is from Montenegro and his mother from Colombia. He grew up in Queens, New York and started working at restaurants when he was a teenager, mostly in front-of-house roles.

In 2009, he opened FnB with Badman and developed a wine program that focused heavily on Arizona wines.

"I had just moved back from Napa and had some major separation anxiety from wine country," he said.

He said that when he began researching Arizona wine he was so impressed by what he found that he built the FnB wine program around local bottles and even created his own label in 2014.

“This was a way to channel the fantasy of being in the satellite of wine atmosphere,” he said.

He selected blends and learned the vernacular of winemaking from people like Todd and Kelly Bostock at Dos Cabezas WineWorks in Sonoita.

The work paid off. In 2017 and 2020, the FnB wine program was nominated for a James Beard Award for Outstanding Beverage Program.

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Morris Garfinkle, an attorney, aviation consultant, wine enthusiast and regular at FnB, offered to back Milic if he ever wanted to start his own vineyard.

Milic shrugged his comment off: “I had heard too many no’s and was jaded.”

But Garfinkle persisted and in 2018 the pair acquired 43 acres of land in Elfrida, Arizona, south of Willcox.

"The feeling I got was a visceral one," he said. " As you pass Tucson and cross border patrol, an undulating bucolic grassland opens up. And the skies are 180 degrees. It’s like nothing you’ve seen before. After the monsoon, the grasslands turn green and it’s like the opening scene from the "The Sound of Music." In Arizona, no less."

Milic chose the area for his tasting room, not only because of the natural beauty, but because of the soil that makes the wines so distinctive. He said he finds their rusticity interesting.

He selected grapes with a proven record of growing well in the region — Tempranillo, Graciano, Grenache, Monastrell, Syrah, Montepulciano, Petit Verdot, Petit Manseng, Vermentino, Vranac, Tannat, Teroldego, Carignan.

'The harder you work, the luckier you get'

Milic and his wife Ita, a native of Chile, began producing wines on the plot in 2019.

Ita was a medical laboratory technician in Chile. When she moved to Arizona with Pavle, she too became fascinated by Arizona wines and decided to pursue enology with local winemakers.

She complemented her Arizona training with courses at the University of California, Davis, and learned hands-on harvesting in Chile with the Villard family, owners of Chile’s first premium boutique wine company. Now she is involved with the entire process of winemaking from pruning to bottling.

“We are at the mercy of Mother Nature, the economy and supplies,” Milic said. “I have never gesticulated to the sky as much as I do now. But, the beauty of this country is that regardless of schooling or tax bracket, the harder you work, the luckier you get.”

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What to expect at Los Milics tasting room

In 2019, the Milics purchased 20 acres in the foothills of the Mustang Mountains, at 4,900 feet elevation. They built an estate vineyard and plan to open a tasting room in mid-July.

“We did not want this to look like a building, nor did we want to take away from the beauty of the scenery,” said Tommy (Thamarit) Suchart of Chen + Suchart, the husband-and-wife architect team who designed the tasting room.

From the parking lot, columns of chartreuse vines framed by the vast blue sky lead to a row of steel pillars which Suchart said will change to a rusty color as the elements affect them. Reflective windows overlook the vineyard like an art installation.

At first glance, you can't tell what’s inside. Up close, the columns frame a pathway to the tasting room, obscuring part of the landscape. Once you're inside, the building’s triangular shape is “like a megaphone to guide your eyes to the breathtaking landscape, the Mustang Mountains and The Biscuit,” said Suchart, added that 'The Biscuit' is what the locals call the northern peak of the Mustang Mountains.

The 28-seat tasting room is an open space with multiple seating areas, including a lounge in a three-window bay so close to the vines that guests feels as though they could reach out and touch them.

Down a long corridor, a private tasting room can be reserved or used for special events.

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What's on the menu at Los Milics tasting room?

The minimalist design and dark colors are meant to guide guests' eyes to the landscape and focus their attention on the wine.

Tastings are offered as four 2-ounce portions. Price is $18 for a souvenir crystal glass, $15 for a stemless plastic glass and $12 if you bring your own glass.

Wines are also available by the bottle and glass, including Hannah's White Blend 2021, their inaugural Marsanne with notes of chamomile and mandarin and a hint of lemon flavor from Picpoul Blanc.

They will pour Ita's Rose 2021, composed of Grenache and Tempranillo that is light with puckering acidity, and Stephanie's Monastrell 2019, aged in neutral oak for a light, herbaceous and earthy flavor. Renato's Tempranillo 2019 boasts a silky texture with aromas of dark cherry, bay leaf and a hint of fig, and is recommended for Pinot Noir fans.

An onsite kitchen will prepare simple foods to pair with the wines, like salmon rillettes, croque monsieur sandwiches and charcuterie plates.

The tasting room is expected in open in mid- to late-July. In the spring of 2023, they plan to open nine luxury casitas with nods to the Southwest, such as tubs shaped like horse troughs overlooking the mountains.

Details: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays. 423 Upper Elgin Road, #824, Elgin. 520-221-0180, losmilicsvineyards.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona wine country: Los Milics Vineyard opens an Elgin tasting room