Wealthy Theatre showcases “Blood into Wine”

Thursday night, Wealthy Theatre showed its love for wine. Nearly 200 people attended “Blood into Wine” — an event featuring food, wine and a winemaking documentary — making it the most attended event at the theatre since last June.

The documentary, titled “Blood into Wine,” featured Arizona winemaker (and Tool frontman) Maynard Keenan. Full of comedy, what really got me into the film was the fact that Keenan had no previous experience before he got into winemaking in the early 2000s. Today, his wines are amongst the elite in Arizona.

In addition to the documentary, the event featured six wines available for sampling, all from Keenan’s Arizona Stronghold and Caduceus collections. “We had such high hopes for this, our first wine tasting at Wealthy Theatre, and we exceeded our wildest expectations, many times over,” said Theatre Director Erin Wilson. “At least a dozen patrons asked, ‘What’s the next one going to be?!?’

Due to the success, Wilson mentioned that Wealthy Theatre is looking into more wine tastings in the future with movies being shown.

“The ‘Blood into Wine’ event was an unqualified success; it’s a rare privilege to make people happy, expand horizons, provide laughter, delight the senses and create a platform for continued discussion about sustainable agriculture, of all things!”

We had to try the wines for ourselves. Poured by Art of the Table and Wines of Distinction, I tried three of the wines that were presented. The first was the Arizona Stronghold Tazi White. While I’m getting more and more into red wines, the Tazi White was a much-needed refresher from the hot sun. The mix of Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling and Malvasia complemented my appetizers quite well. It was a great drink to sip on at the back of the theatre, while munching down on some great (but light) food.

The other two wines were the Arizona Stronghold Nachise and the Caduceus Primer Paso. While I’m anything but a wine connoisseur, these two reds were deep with flavor, and were the perfect two wines to round out my tastings with.

And then there was the food. While we got there a little late, we were still able to sample most of the food available, provided by Electric Cheetah. The food we tried included a vegetable wrap, as well as a flatbread with fresh pico de gallo (pictured right).

“Blood into Wine” was a complete success, and I’ll be looking forward to future events at Wealthy Theatre. The food, wine and documentary came together well to create an event that will be remembered for quite a while.