Arizona Vines & Wines was created early in 2008. My husband Josh and I created the publication as an extension of Josh’s budding “Vineyard Land” real estate brokerage, Moffitt Real Estate. At the time the industry was just starting to take off and we realized that there was no up-to-date resource to help visitors find Arizona’s tasting rooms. Our first issue was more of a brochure… eight pages with a few articles about Josh’s real estate business and no advertising. We printed 10,000 copies, distributed them at the wineries and figured they would last for the whole year of 2008. We found that the demand was much higher than anticipated and started receiving phone calls for more issues about two months later.
The dilemma was then about how we could afford to continue to produce this brochure. We realized it made sense to sell advertising and create a magazine about the Arizona wine industry. We have to thank a few very committed and trusting individuals who supported us by advertising in that first ‘real’ magazine issue. After the first issue we gained momentum and support which allowed us to quickly expand from 32 pages to 48. We learned a lot about the publishing industry by trial and error and by visiting with many other local niche publishers along the way.
This has really been a ‘mom-and-pop’ endeavor, and we’ve loved every minute of it. We have met (and become friends with) many of the people in the Arizona food and wine industry, attended many events, eaten more food and drank more wine than should be legal, and have loved helping support this ever-expanding industry that consists of many other ‘mom-and-pop’ businesses. The locavore movement happened right around the same time as the magazine so it’s been fun to also focus on local farmers and artisan products, local restaurants… small and large, as well as industries that have sprung up in and around the wine regions.
Our Fall 2012 issue expanded to 100 pages and has now morphed into a publication about food, wine and travel in Arizona. We, of course, will always have a central focus on the Arizona wineries, but love that our reach has grown and that we have the space to discuss other related topics.
This website, which was relaunched in May of 2012, will help us provide more timely information that the quarterly publication schedule inhibits. We have new content uploaded daily, including our home page featured articles, our guest bloggers (and my blog, too), our event calendar and much more. We intend to fine tune this site to keep our readers informed in the most efficient way possible. If you have any ideas for us, be sure to let us know!
We hope you enjoy our site as well as our publication for years to come. Go out and explore our beautiful state of Arizona with all the information we provide and, most of all, taste all the state has to offer!
Cheers,
Rhonni Moffitt
Media Inquiries… Contact publisher@arizonavinesandwines.com
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