the Pavle Milić show

Liliana Soto, press secretary and spokesperson for Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, talks about her path from Caborca, Sonora, to the Arizona State Capitol. She is a nine-time Emmy-winning bilingual journalist who worked for Univision and ABC15 and taught journalism at the University of Arizona.

Liliana grew up in Caborca, about 90 minutes south of Rocky Point (Puerto Peñasco). At 17 she was pregnant and left home for Lompoc, California, before family brought her and her infant daughter to Phoenix. She tells Pavle Milic how she got through Phoenix College while paying out-of-state tuition under Arizona’s Proposition 300. She took six credits a semester to keep costs down and pushed herself out of ESL and into English 101. From there she went on to ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

She describes working as a one-woman band for Univision in Austin, Texas, and being told to lose her Sonoran accent before she could anchor. She came home to Phoenix to report on her own community. At ABC15 she was hired as a producer and ended up on air after reporting an investigation herself. That investigation was into a Maryvale sobador accused of sexually assaulting women for years. It took close to a year, faced resistance from Phoenix Police over public records, and led more than a dozen women to come forward. The suspect fled the country and was arrested this year.

Liliana also explains why she took a call from the governor’s office even though she is a registered independent, not a Democrat. She talks about building the press secretary role with no playbook, what she learned from Jen Psaki’s book, and why treating reporters with respect matters in a polarized political climate.

In this episode:

• Growing up in Caborca, Sonora, and the border culture of Arizona and Sonora
• Immigrating at 17 as a young mother
• Prop 300, out-of-state tuition, and finding a path through community college
• Learning English and getting into the Cronkite School at ASU
• Spanish-language TV news with Univision in Austin and Phoenix
• Investigative reporting at ABC15 and winning Emmys for work in English and Spanish
• How AI and layoffs are changing local TV newsrooms
• Teaching broadcast and border reporting at the University of Arizona
• How she became press secretary for Governor Katie Hobbs
• How a former journalist works with the Capitol press corps
• Whether she would ever run for office, and what she would tell her 17-year-old self

Questions this episode answers:

• Who is Liliana Soto?
• Who is the press secretary for Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs?
• How does a journalist become a government spokesperson?
• What is it like to be a bilingual Latina journalist in Arizona?

The Pavle Milic Show is hosted by Pavle Milic, an Arizona restaurateur, vintner, and writer.

We talk with Denise Garner about the unlikely start of her wine career, from a Pennsylvania high school fermentation project that landed her in the newspaper to building a national consulting practice. We dig into how real wine quality improves when you pair sensory skill with hard numbers, strong fundamentals, and region-specific decision making. 
• how a phylloxera article sparks a winemaking obsession in high school 
• what it feels like to defend fermentation education to a school board 
• learning wine fault diagnosis through a wine improvement panel in Napa 
• why extension enology matters for wineries outside major coastal regions 
• the leap from Penn State to building DG Winemaking as a virtual service 
• how her coaching platform differs from traditional consulting retainers 
• why VA, pH, and TA cannot be managed by taste alone 
• nutrient timing, reduction myths, copper treatment cautions, and SO2 realities 
• managing malolactic fermentation and why process order changes outcomes 
• Brett in barrels, why you cannot truly sanitize wood, and how to limit spread 
• cold soak misconceptions, temperature targets, and when the technique makes sense 
• why West Coast winemaking rules do not always translate to other regions 
• what “Mega Purple” really means for ingredient labeling and style choices 
You can find me online, it’s the easiest way at dgwinemaking.com, Denise Garner Winemaking. I’m pretty active sometimes on Instagram. That’s also the handle at DG Winemaking. And you can find me on LinkedIn as well.

Links from the episode:

• Denise Gardner Winemaking: https://www.dgwinemaking.com
• Services (coaching and consulting): https://www.dgwinemaking.com/services/
• Learning Center (lessons, cellar tools, Q&A summaries): https://www.dgwinemaking.com/learning-center/
• Denise's podcast archive: https://www.dgwinemaking.com/podcast-categories/episodes/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dgwinemaking/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dgwinemaking/

Dominic Armato has spent decades at the center of Arizona's food scene — as a community food-board organizer, then as a non-anonymous dining critic for the Arizona Republic/azcentral.com (2015–2020) and Phoenix New Times (2023–24), and now as the writer behind the newsletter Something To Doux. In this conversation with Pavle, Dom talks about:

• Getting back into voiceover work after a decade away, and the grueling process of recording an audiobook where he ended up voicing over 50 individual characters
• Why total anonymity for critics is ideal but no longer realistic — and what it actually took to build trust with readers instead
• The collapse of "classic era" food media and how social media turned restaurant coverage into stealth advertising
• His take on Michelin finally reaching the Southwest, and why it's a specific — not universal — measure of quality
• Underrated Valley spots worth a visit, including a Ukrainian gem in Mesa and a Vietnamese standout at Mekong Plaza
• Why Tokyo is, without hesitation, the one city he'd choose to eat in for the rest of his life, and his advice for first-time visitors
• Hard truths for anyone hoping to make a living writing about food today

Find Dom's newsletter and archive at somethingtodoux.com.

Amando a Japón

Llegué a esta conversación a propósito sin guion y sin agenda—apenas con la cabeza llena de preguntas para una de mis personas favoritas en este planeta. Los que llevan tiempo en Phoenix se acordarán de Michele Laudig como la crítica gastronómica del Phoenix New Times, en la época en que yo andaba sirviendo vino en Digestif. Hoy en día se despierta en Tokio—nueve años ya—y sigue sonriendo de oreja a oreja.

La historia de Michele es uno de esos amores de fuego lento. Empieza en la Pensilvania central, semirrural: una niña con carnet de biblioteca, libros de mesa sobre moda y comida japonesa, una infancia entre la pescadería de sus papás, y un trabajo de colegio sobre el sushi con arroz de grano corto encargado por correo. A los dieciséis, mil quinientos dólares guardados en una caja de zapatos le compran un pasaje de avión. Su abuelo lo llama un viaje irrepetible, de una sola vez en la vida. Ella tenía otros planes.

Hablamos de sus años durísimos estudiando japonés en Columbia, de las señoras de la ceremonia del té en el Jardín de la Amistad Japonesa de Phoenix que le abrieron todo un mundo, y de la conversación en un aeropuerto, trabajando en Google, que finalmente—veinte años más tarde de lo planeado—la llevó a Tokio. Nos metemos en el keigo y su humilde gramática del respeto, en la diferencia entre santuarios y templos, en por qué uno hace la reverencia frente a la puerta torii, en el arte sagrado de guardar silencio en el tren, y en lo que significa que te digan "eres más japonesa que los japoneses" mientras aceptas que siempre serás, en alguna medida, una invitada.

Desde mi propio viaje a Japón con mis hijos, ese país no se me ha salido de la cabeza. Esta conversación es mi intento de entender por qué—con la ayuda de alguien que siguió ese llamado hasta el final.

Encuentra el hermoso Substack de Michele en quietcalling.com. Arigatou gozaimasu, mi querida.

Japan Lovin' with Michele Laudig

I came to this conversation on purpose with no script and no agenda—just a head full of questions for one of my favorite humans on this planet. Longtime Phoenicians will remember Michele Laudig as the food critic at Phoenix New Times back when I was slinging wine at Digestif. These days she wakes up in Tokyo—nine years in—still grinning ear to ear.

Michele's story is one of those slow-burn love affairs. It starts in semi-rural central Pennsylvania: a kid with a library card, coffee-table books on Japanese fashion and food, a seafood-shop upbringing, and a middle-school research paper on sushi complete with mail-ordered short-grain rice. At sixteen, fifteen hundred dollars saved in a shoebox buys her a plane ticket. Her grandfather calls it a once-in-a-lifetime trip. She had other plans.

We talk about her hardcore years studying Japanese at Columbia, the tea ceremony ladies at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Phoenix who cracked open a whole world, and the airport conversation at Google that finally—twenty years later than planned—landed her in Tokyo. We get into keigo and the humbling grammar of respect, shrines versus temples, why you bow at the torii gate, the sacred art of shutting up on a train, and what it means to be told "you're more Japanese than the Japanese" while accepting you'll always be, in some measure, a guest.

Since my own trip to Japan with my boys, that country has not left my mind. This conversation is my attempt to understand why—with help from someone who followed the pull all the way home.

Find Michele's beautiful Substack at quietcalling.com. Arigatou gozaimasu, sweet lady.

Rancho Castillo Winery | Brett Wagner | Arizona Wine | Sonoita-Elgin AVA

Brett Wagner didn't arrive in the Sonoita-Elgin wine region by accident. He's been drawn to the high grasslands of southern Arizona since childhood, and after a decade in law enforcement, four years making wine at Flying Leap Winery, stints with James Callahan at Deep Sky and Autumn Sage, and a winemaking role at Twisted Union — he's finally doing it under his own name.

In this episode, Pavle Milic sits down with Brett Wagner, founder and winemaker of Rancho Castillo Winery, a new Arizona winery launching its first commercial release in July 2026 out of Sonoita, Arizona. Brett talks about his path into winemaking, the influence of mentor James Callahan, his UC Davis viticulture and enology training, and the unconventional decision to start a construction company to fund his wine dream.

They discuss Brett's winemaking philosophy — neutral oak, varietal-driven, blending as craft — his fruit sources across the Sonoita-Elgin AVA and Willcox AVA, and a lineup anchored by Tannat, Blaufränkisch, Graciano, Petit Verdot, Chenin Blanc, and a dark, structured rosé.

Rancho Castillo Winery is currently offering private barrel tastings by appointment. Public tasting room opening anticipated July 2026. Follow updates at Rancho Castillo Winery on Facebook.

Topics: Arizona wine, Sonoita-Elgin AVA, Willcox AVA, independent winemaker, Tannat, Blaufränkisch, Graciano, natural winemaking, small production winery, Arizona wine country, new winery 2026, Pavle Milic, Pav on Juice.

About four years ago, I wrote a blog post about Kent Callaghan—Arizona wine pioneer, longtime winemaker, and one of the people who helped shape the conversation around what wine from this place could become. Re-reading it now, the piece still feels completely evergreen.

I wanted to share it with you because Charleen and I are doing a winemaker dinner with Kent this coming Wednesday, and it seemed apropos to exhume the post and let it breathe again. Kent’s perspective, his body of work, and his place in Arizona wine still feel deeply relevant.

The best part of the original post is really the interview, which you can find here: https://pavlemilic.com/f/the-real-deal

El reconocido enólogo Raj Parr se une a nosotros en Wine World para compartir su extraordinario recorrido desde las vibrantes calles de Calcuta hasta los viñedos de California. Con el sueño de convertirse en chef, Raj se topó con el mundo del vino casi por casualidad, iniciando así un camino que redefiniría la enología estadounidense. Al recordar sus colaboraciones con figuras influyentes de la industria como Larry Stone y Michael Mina, Raj revela cómo sus primeras aspiraciones culinarias florecieron en una pasión por la pureza y la expresión del lugar en la elaboración del vino. Su transición a la industria vitivinícola lo llevó a cofundar Sandy y Domaine de la Côte, marcando un momento decisivo tanto en su carrera como en el panorama vinícola en general.

Nuestra conversación se desarrolla para revelar las colaboraciones literarias de Raj con el escritor Jordan McKay, ofreciendo una mirada a sus obras “Secrets of the Sommelier” y “The Sommelier's Atlas of Taste”. Profundizamos en sus motivaciones para dejar la bulliciosa escena de los restaurantes y abrazar una vida más serena —aunque igualmente desafiante— entre las viñas. A través de proyectos como Evening Land, Raj ha realizado contribuciones significativas al mundo del vino, abrazando la magia de la hospitalidad y el encanto del viñedo. Su historia dibuja un retrato de transformación, guiado por una profunda conexión con la naturaleza y el arte atemporal de la vinificación.

En este episodio escucharás:
• El recorrido de Raj Parr desde Calcuta hasta California, pasando de aspirante a chef a reconocido enólogo.
• Sus colaboraciones con figuras influyentes de la industria y la fundación de Sandy y Domaine de la Côte.
• El énfasis en prácticas agrícolas sostenibles y holísticas en Fallon Farms, en Cambria.
• La integración de ganado, incluidos perros maremma y ovejas, para la gestión del viñedo.
• La exploración de los desafíos y recompensas de dejar el mundo de la restauración para dedicarse a la vinificación.
• El compromiso de Raj con la creación de vinos que reflejen el terruño y su enfoque innovador dentro de la enología estadounidense.

Wine World is back on Congress in downtown Tucson after a sabbatical to open the Los Milics restaurant and tasting room. This return episode stays local—because Ursa is next door at 110 E. Congress. Pavle sits down with Chef Aaron to unpack the genesis story behind Ursa and the path that shaped it.

Aaron grew up in Calexico, a small California–Mexico border town where culture, family, and hard realities coexist. After high school he moved to Los Angeles chasing music, played bass in punk bands, and later opened an Echo Park art gallery. When art didn’t pay the bills, a barback job pulled him into hospitality, and he fell for the intensity of service. Farmer’s markets and unfamiliar produce sparked a fascination with transformation—how a raw product becomes something new—so he started staging in kitchens.

He chose Le Cordon Bleu Pasadena as something he could earn, then sharpened his chops in Los Angeles kitchens that prized creativity. In 2016, a reset took him to Oahu, where hiking and a different pace helped him rebuild. Hawaii also brought June into his life—his now-wife and partner, who had never worked in restaurants but became essential to Ursa.

Later, time in Austin and Southwest road trips pulled them back toward the desert. With foraging guides and a camera, they cataloged native plants and flavors and asked a bigger question: what does the Southwest taste like when you stop defaulting to the usual ingredients?

That inquiry became Ursa: a tasting-driven restaurant built around heritage and monsoon crops, fermentation, and a bar program with cocktails and NA drinks made from native ingredients. Aaron shares how Ursa first opened in El Centro on a shoestring, why it had to evolve, and how they opened in downtown Tucson at record speed. Pour a glass and settle in.

www.ursadesert.com

110 E Congress Street

Tucson, AZ 85701

IG: @ursa_az