Aridus Wine Company was an unexpected discovery. What comes to mind when you think of Arizona?
We think of Saguaro – the tree-like cactus native to the Sonoran desert of Arizona. We think of Teddybear cholla cactus that one of us had an unfortunate desire to pet. Please don’t try. We think of Red Rock of Sedona. But we don’t think of red wine or white one!
Arizona wine doesn’t come up in wine classes or books, and 90-95% of American wine comes from California. Washington and Oregon are in a distant second and third place and near and dear to us.
So Aridus Wine Company was a completely unexpected discovery on our visit to Scottsdale, Arizona.
Paths Less Traveled By – Aridus
We always are on the lookout for everything wine when we travel. As we walked the Old Town in Scottsdale before our dinner reservation, we noticed the Aridus tasting room.
We had 15-20 minutes before dinner and decided to make a quick stop. We never had wine from Arizona, and even if it’s not a fantastic wine, we thought it would be an educational trip. Too bad it was our last day in Arizona, and we only had time to taste a limited number of wines.
With the help of Warchild, the tasting room associate, we picked six wines out of Aridus’s portfolio to try.
Aridus Wines
Their tasting list is quite extensive, and they produce wines from Arizona estate fruit and grapes from a vineyard in New Mexico.
2015 Malvasia Bianca
We started with white 2015 Malvasia Bianca made with fruit from New Mexico. It’s a simple quaffable white wine with aromas and flavors of honeydew and white blossoms, apricot, and sweet apple. It starts a little grassy, so you need to give it a few swirls in a glass to help it open up. Malvasia Bianca is a perfect candidate for a picnic and day on the beach.
2015 Aridus Chardonnay and 2015 Chardonnay Barrel Select
Next, we compared the 2015 Aridus Chardonnay and Aridus Chardonnay Barrel Select. As reflected in the name Barrel Select is the same as the first wine, only aged longer in the barrels.
Both are solid wines with a similar character of tropical fruit, oak, and heavy cream notes. While Barrel Select had more tempered fruit, it was more complex with aroma and flavors of coconut, vanilla, the spiciness of white pepper, and a touch of almond bitters.
2017 Aridus Syrah
Aridus Syrah 2017 is a lighter version of this varietal dominated by sour cherry, red plum, and blueberry both on the palate and the nose. The aftertaste had cherry and pleasant cherry pith bitter note.
2016 Aridus Merlot
2016 Aridus Merlot is a crowd-pleaser in the words of Warchild, who helped us pick the wines for tasting. If you’re into Californian fruit bombs, you might find it a bit light to your taste with its black currant, red plum, and leafy notes and sensible acidity.
2017 Aridus Petite Verdot
We finished with Aridus biggest wine, as per Warchild – 2017 Petite Verdot. It was pretty perfumed like an expensive men’s cologne with sweet sandalwood notes. Petite Verdot had a combination of berries of blackberry and black currant and savory toast along with cedar and oaky notes on the palate.
We must agree it was the most impressive of all wines.
Finish
It’s no secret that some sommeliers and wine professionals get kind of snobby and write off wines from places and wineries without a long-standing reputation.
We appreciate The First Growth Bordeaux reds or Grand Cru Bourgogne Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays, Barolo Granbussia or Gaja Barbaresco of Italy, Screaming Eagle of California, or Cayuse of Washington immensely. Still, we like to keep our minds open. Finding places like Aridus is a payoff for our curiosity.
The wine industry in Arizona is in its infancy, and we wouldn’t pit Aridus against big shots of France, Italy, California, or Washington. Still, the quality of the wines we tasted is solid.
From six wines we tasted, 2015 Malvasia Bianca was least impressive. It’s likely beyond its prime because Malvasia-based wines are typically meant to be consumed young, contrary to the common belief that old wine tastes better.
On the other hand, the most impressive was Petite Verdot, and we could compare it with some examples from Washington and California. We even liked it more than some Verdots from Washington.
We wish we had more time to go through the entire Aridus portfolio to write a more comprehensive review. Maybe you can help us? Please stop by their tasting room in Scottsdale, Arizona, and let us know what you think of their wines. You can share your thoughts in the comments under our post.
This is a professional and non-sponsored review. We were not compensated monetary or in wine for writing it.
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