Ten years ago the phrase “Arizona wine” got a polite nod. It doesn’t anymore. The state’s three growing regions make wines that win in blind tastings against California, and the wineries, which are three hours from anywhere, solved their distribution problem by opening tasting rooms in Old Town, within a few blocks of each other. The result is one of the best walkable wine afternoons in the West, and most visitors have no idea it exists.
The three regions, in one paragraph each
Sonoita and Elgin, southeast of Tucson at nearly 5,000 feet, is Arizona’s original wine country and its first federally recognized growing area, in 1984. High, cool nights; graceful reds, rhone whites, wines with acidity.
Willcox, in Cochise County in the far southeast corner, grows the majority of the state’s grapes on a high desert plain with volcanic soils. It was recognized as its own appellation in 2016. Bigger, sunnier wines: syrah, grenache, mourvèdre, petite sirah, tempranillo.
The Verde Valley, around Cottonwood and Jerome two hours north of Scottsdale, is the newest appellation, from 2021, and the one you can visit on a day trip. Smaller, scrappier, more experimental.
Most Old Town tasting rooms represent Willcox or Sonoita estates. Ask where the grapes grew. It’s the whole conversation.
The tasting rooms
The cluster sits along Main Street, Marshall Way and Stetson Drive in the Main Street Arts District and along the canal, all within a ten-minute walk. Several of the rooms cooperate on a passport program marketed as the Scottsdale Wine Trail; pick one up at the first stop.
- LDV Winery on Stetson Drive pours estate wines from its Willcox-area vineyard in the Chiricahua foothills: syrah, grenache, petite sirah, viognier. Polished, well-run, the best first stop for someone who thinks they don’t like Arizona wine.
- Carlson Creek Vineyard on Marshall Way is a family Willcox estate with a bright, busy room and a broad list that runs from a crisp rosé to serious rhone-style reds. Good for groups.
- Aridus Wine Company on Main Street, from a Willcox winery with a big custom-crush facility, pours a wide range and is the room most likely to have something odd and interesting open.
- Salvatore Vineyards, near the Waterfront, is a smaller Willcox producer with an Italian-leaning list. Quieter than the Main Street rooms.
- Su Vino Winery on Main Street is the urban winery that lets you blend and bottle your own; the wine is beside the point, the afternoon is the point, and it’s the right stop for a group.
Two rooms that defined the scene are gone. Merkin Vineyards Old Town, the Verde Valley winery’s restaurant and tasting room owned by a rock musician, was the loudest ambassador Arizona wine ever had until it closed in 2024. Kazimierz, the unmarked wine cave behind Cowboy Ciao, taught two decades of Scottsdale to drink with curiosity before it closed in 2018. Both pages are worth reading for what the neighborhood learned from them.
The wine bars with the state’s best lists
The tasting rooms pour one producer. These pour the state.
FnB in Craftsman Court has the most important Arizona wine list anywhere: all-Arizona, curated by a co-owner who has spent fifteen years arguing for the state’s wines and winning. Tell the staff “all Arizona, your call” and let go. The food, from a James Beard Award winner, is the reason the list has a national audience.
The Living Room at Market Street in DC Ranch runs a self-serve wine wall of thirty dispensers with live music most nights, and pours plenty of Arizona alongside the rest. Sorso at Scottsdale Quarter works the same way, dozens of wines by the ounce on a card, in a room built for grazing. Postino off Scottsdale Road is the Valley’s default first date for a reason: approachable wines, bruschetta boards and the weeknight bottle deal.
A walkable afternoon
Start with coffee on Fifth Avenue (Cartel), then walk south into the arts district around 1:00 when the rooms open. Marshall Way to Main Street to Stetson covers Carlson Creek, Aridus and LDV in an easy hour and a half with gallery browsing between, and our Old Town walk covers the streets you’ll be on. Finish at FnB for dinner and the list. Thursday is the day to do it: the ArtWalk opens the galleries from 7:00 to 9:00, and the tasting rooms ride along.
Tasting-room etiquette, Arizona edition
Flights are modest and worth it; buying a bottle usually waives the fee. The rooms are small, so a group of more than six should call ahead. Ask about the vintage; Arizona’s growing seasons swing hard with the monsoon, and the staff love the question. And buy a bottle to take home. Almost none of these wines leave the state, which is the best argument for drinking them here.
The events
The Kierland Fine Art & Wine Festival and the Waterfront Fine Art & Wine Festival pour dozens of wineries under tents in season, and Uncorked is the state’s own showcase. The Gold Palette ArtWalk pours free wine in the galleries about seven Thursdays a year, which is a fine way to start.
The verdict
A decade ago we’d have told you to drink Arizona wine out of politeness. Now we’d tell you to skip the California list at dinner and order the Willcox syrah, because it’s better and it grew three hours from your table. The tasting rooms are how you find out which one. Start at LDV, end at FnB, and bring a bottle home to prove it.