Before I start, I want to say first that we had a great time. I now want to go to every wine walk in the future. Also I am going to write about our whole experience from what I can remember best. This is merely as a way for us to remember. If we ever want to get some wine or check out a cool bar/restaurant downtown we will have this post as a reference. And of course, it serves as some sort of entertainment/education for you readers.
I had gotten an early start on my own wine tasting the night before. Thus my friend and I stayed up late and didn't get to attend the wine walk as early as we would of liked. So around 2pm, her and I get dropped off at the closest light rail stop. We purchase our all day passes for the light rail and wait for the rail car to arrive. Within minutes our ride comes, and about ten minutes later we're already in downtown Phoenix. We enjoyed the fact that we didn't have to drive, didn't have to worry about traffic, nothing. It was relaxing already.
We looked over the map and wine list countless times and eventually decided on a route, that changed as the day progressed, but was overall quite successful. My job for the day was to direct us, to label the map based on the order of places we visited and which wines we tried, and to write a comment down next to each place we visited that would allow us to remember our experience there.
As for the restaurant itself. It wasn't full at all, however it was barely 2:30pm. There were about 3 other pairs of people sitting along the bar for the wine tasting. This is when we realized that we are the youngest people doing the wine walk. We did not get carded either, a little detail I paid attention to all day. We originally wanted to find a place to eat while we were drinking because we were starving and hadn't ate yet. We realized we didn't care so much for the restaurant and decided to drink at some other places and then see if we want to eat there. This place also had a little cool glass enclosed cigar display in one of the walls/pillars.
This stop was highly successful, for they also had chocolate, fruit, and tasty flatbread available for us wine walkers. We realized that these snacks were quite sufficient in combination with the wine so we decided to continue on with the wine walking and get food afterwards. This is where the whole event started to get more fun. We were really enjoying ourselves. Plus one of the waiters came over to us several times. First to compliment my hair, second to point out my Alex Grey/Tool tattoos, then to tell me stories about his experiences seeing Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer in concert. He seemed pretty excited to talk about it all and told me some interesting things which I will not share online at this time. I just thought it was all funny because here I am drinking Maynard's wine too. Anyways, I would definitely love to come there to eat again and to get some drinks too.
B got a cup of water for us and continued to spill it everywhere already. Bear in mind that we are not intoxicated whatsoever and I kept making jokes about how I hope we don't spill wine at all. Also, all these samples throughout the day were only 2 ounces.
The restaurant and hotel itself was gorgeous but so packed that we didn't really get to enjoy it. But the good news is that that was the best Riesling we had for the day.
When we first arrived, we actually went to use the bathroom, in which we had to follow long hallways to get too. There was a little waiting area that was decorated very IKEA-like, which tons of books on shelves, cute chairs, patterned carpet, cool lights, and pretty paintings. We arrived to the bathroom in which both stalls were occupied. To pass time we admired the design of the bathroom. There were little lights above the sink that were from IKEA. B decided to touch one and caused the light to turn off or burn out. Couldn't fix it, so we just giggled like little girls. After we both finished in the bathroom, I was using the automatic paper towel dispenser and it broke some how. It only gave out one sheet of a paper towel and wouldn't work after. We exchanged confused looks, giggled some more and left.
There was water and snacks available here as well. There was a waitress that would come around with different little appetizers every other minute. The first snack we got was a pico de gallo and salmon mixture on a fancy spoon. This spoon had the handle bent backwards with a flattened bottom that allowed the spoon to stand up just like this. We were amused by the spoon as well as the food was tasty. Next we saw her bring out some crunchy puffy ball of something in which she ran out of before she got to us. She came out again and brought us some flatbread with sausage. As she bent down to offer the food to us, she says to me "Are you a Scorpio?" For whatever reason this startles me briefly, then I answer her and ask if she is too. [This happens to me somewhat often because of my necklace]. She is a Scorpio, which provokes me to ask when her birthday is. November 4th, the same as me. Pretty bizarre because I've never met some stranger who had the same birthday as me, usually they have a different day. She was very pretty too.We realize at this point that we're actually getting kind of full, especially after ALL that cheese we ate at Icon. As a result we probably don't need to go eat somewhere, while the snacks and wine will suffice.
B is trying to overcome the bad taste of her wine while I'm trying to enjoy my small bit. We decided that we wanted to visit every place on the map, but we only have an hour and a half left to visit about 7 more places. So we chug our wine and we're on our way.
Here I realized that you can never get away with cheap white wine. I can drink cheap red wine any day and not really have an issue, but cheap white wine is almost never good.
Stop number 6 brings us to Brick Pizzeria & Wine Bar at the Arizona Center. Although I cannot find a decent picture to reveal so, the inside of this place was cool and they had really funky but comfy bar chairs. Here I decided to order a Malbec since I don't think I've ever tried it. This time I had to make sure it was red wine first. So I ordered a 2009 Malbec from Zolo. B ordered a 2008 Pinot Grigio from Benvolio.Before I discuss the wine, I need to tell you about our experience at the place. First, our waiter was a beautiful man that had some feminine qualities. He was a short, skinny Native American or of some Asian descent with long beautiful jet black hair. He had large loop earrings, cool jewelry, a pierced septum, and some tattoos. When he brought our drinks out we realized that our wine glasses smelled like soap. They were freshly washed and still kind of warm. This ruined the whole wine experience because we couldn't smell our wine at all, let alone really taste it. However, I did love the Malbec but my experience was still diminished due to that horrible soap smell. Unfortunately, B hated her Pinot Grigio, which she definitely says is in part to the soap, but still unpleasant. We left this place pretty fast because of the aforementioned circumstances. However there was tasty flatbread with roasted tomatoes and avocado.
Behind us were snacks, crackers, lunch meat, sauce, and grapes. It was getting to the point where I was getting quite full of wine and food, no longer really hungry. However I did eat some grapes. For the most part we weren't really pleased with this place, particularly the service, as a result we left pretty fast.
The sangrias were super delicious, we both finished the red one quickly and saved the white one for last because that one was just so good! We were also drooling over the homemade chips, much like pork rinds with cinnamon, sugar, and chili powder that combined to make the most awesome sweet and spicy mix. The salsa was also incredible. We couldn't stop talking about how good it all was. They had white chocolate wrapped in the paper the use for tamales, also very tasty. We definitely want to come back and check out that place.
We sat outside on their deck where a giant industrial fan blew air at us that felt incredible as we noticed a man with long cool traditional style dreadlocks. We left in a hurry because neither of us cared for our wines as much and we still had two places to visit in such a short time.
Stop 11 brought us to our final place, as we decided so during our walk there. Kincaid's Fish, Chops and Steak House. We had one other place we intended to go to, The Arrogant Butcher, but decided not to since we already went there for First Friday this month. I chose this picture above because we sat in the left-most booth. I was amused by the antlers. We were quite exhausted by this point, especially with this place being at the end of several flights of stairs. We decided to relax a little. I also decided to finally get two samples as I been meaning to. I ordered a 2009 Cabernet by PenFolds Rawson's Retreat and a 2008 Shiraz from Oxford Landing. Both of these are Australian and both are delicious. B also ordered the 2008 Shiraz, we both liked the Shiraz very much. I preferred the Shiraz although the PenFolds wine was still pretty good too. Speaking of this awesome wine, here's a little blog post I found about the Shiraz and these super smart Australians.I liked the way the place looked, the whole setup. It made me feel like we were in a fancy ball room...or more so a billiard room. Something from an older generation. It also had a nice touch that overcast in the sky had started as we were arriving to the place. So the window view to the darker sky was cool.
The great thing was that the waiter brought us our check but charged us for 2 samples rather than 3, thus making one of my samples free. B looked at the check first, scoffed and set it back down. I was concerned but then I saw what he did and commented about how it was about time that finally happens today. I generally get lucky at places I go to, whether it's for alcohol or food, something ends up being free at some point. I left a bill down under the check for him. When he came by he did an awkward grab for the check and looked at me. He was more so looking at my chest then up to my face, as his hand kept slipping of the check. He finally grasped it on his third try. It was pretty hilarious and then we were out the door and on our way to the light rail stop to head home.
I will assure you that we did not get drunk, more so we were full and exhausted by the end. We seriously did have a blast and a lot of good laughs at every place. We both definitely want to check out more similar events. It's also fun being the youngest of the crowd, makes us feel more like adults in a comical way. I honestly wish I could do something like that every weekend. I hope you enjoyed this epic wine and restaurant review post.
