This new wine bar is one of the only in the U.S. that offers a barrel-to-glass experience

When you make your way through the pastel green door that lines up against the building of the historic train depot, you’ll notice crowds of people sitting around with slate boards in front of them.

Five small glasses filled with dark red and white liquid are neatly placed on the boards. Next to them sits a beaker that people meticulously pour the liquids into, swishing them around and taking a sip before jotting down notes and moving onto the next combination.

Don’t let the beakers and glass jars fool you, this isn’t a scene out of "Breaking Bad." This is just another Friday night at Vertigo Wines.

Vertigo Wines, located at 410 N. Toole Ave., is not only Tucson’s newest urban wine bar, it's also one of the only places in the United States that offers wine blending and a barrel-to-glass experience.

“We wanted to do something different, as opposed to a traditional tasting room that pours from the bottle,” owner Kristel Johnson said.

Before Vertigo Wines was a thing, Johnson and her husband owned Isabella’s Ice Cream which later merged with Hub Ice Cream during the pandemic. While working with Hub Ice Cream, she began to branch out, offering ice cream pairings with different beers and wines — and she even made a frozen rosé.

After leaving Hub Ice Cream, Johnson landed a job with Sand-Reckoner, an Arizona-based vineyard that had a tasting room in Tucson at the time.

“I started working at Sand-Reckoner Wines doing business management, marketing and growing the wholesale side of the business,” Johnson said. “But of course, with wine you get sucked into all aspects of it. So, then I started working in everything from helping with harvest, helping crush, helping down at the winery at Willcox, bottling, barrel tasting and all the fun things.”

Wine was always something Johnson romanticized, but one experience in specific is what really sealed the deal for her.

When she lived in a tiny town in Italy, people would visit a local place to fill up whatever apparatus they had with wine that came straight out of the barrel.

It was something Johnson had never seen in America, which prompted her to start toying with the idea of making her own spot where people could serve themselves straight from the barrel.

“Barrel tasting at vineyards is usually something very exclusive. You're invited and there's something kind of really special and romantic about it, I've always loved that,” Johnson said. “Tasting wine directly from the barrel is so different than tasting it in the bottle and I wanted to make that accessible to everyone.”

Johnson took that little part of Italy with her and brought it to Tucson's historic train depot. She transformed the space into a cozy yet sophisticated atmosphere. Pink, white and green floral wallpaper covers the back wall — light hits each petal thanks to the bejeweled chandelier that hangs on the ceiling.

Couches, stools and chairs are found throughout the space, ensuring everyone is comfortable while they sip on their burgundy-colored wine. The final touch is a marble bar that has the bottoms of glass wine bottles incorporated throughout.

But what really draws your eyes are the barrels and barrels of wine displayed on the walls, each with their own spout that comes out the front.

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Each of these barrels holds 59 gallons, which weighs about 600 pounds when full. That meant Johnson had to use forklifts just to get them mounted on the wall.

Not only is it difficult to get these barrels through the doors, the real issues come to play when oxygen gets involved.

One of the reasons we don’t see many barrel-to-glass wineries is because oxygen oxidizes wine. Once that bunghole comes out and the spout goes in, it’s already been exposed to oxygen, Johnson said.

Johnson spoke to several local wineries about her vision and many told her they thought it would be an impossible task. But Johnson was determined: she’d seen it work in Europe and knew she could make it happen.

That’s when her research led her to a fourth-generation winemaker from South Africa who owned a winery in La Jolla, California. He had developed a system that he had been using for more than a decade that solved the oxygen issue. Johnson reached out to the winemaker who later became her mentor.

With that problem solved, now Johnson got to do the fun part: choose which wines she wanted. At Vertigo Wines, Johnson said the wine selection will be 80% local. As you scan the barrels on the wall, you’ll notice many of them come from Cochise County, with one lonely Napa barrel sandwiched between.

“I love focusing on local,” Johnson said. “That’s what I want to do: be able to provide varietals that we can grow in Southern Arizona to everyone and have them have some cool exposure for it. One of the most important things for me as well is making sure that all of the grapes are sustainably farmed.”

Not only can you get your wine served straight from the barrel, but you also have the opportunity to come up with your own blend.

A special tasting gives customers a board with five carafes that each come with two ounces of the wines you choose. From there, you get to mix and match those wines in a beaker, figuring out what tastes good and what doesn’t.

You can even buy a bottle of your wine creation, which comes with your very own Vertigo Wines label that lets you check off which wines you combined together — kind of like a Build-A-Bear Workshop but for adults! 

So, the next time you’re hosting a dinner party, don’t forget to show off your very own Vertigo Wines bottle, boasting to all your friends that you made your own wine through a very scientific process.

“It's so funny. Everyone's like, oh my gosh, I feel like I'm playing with science,” Johnson said.

Non-alcoholic spritzers, various cheese boards and light snacks are also on the menu here.

Vertigo Wines officially made its big debut last month. Three minutes after opening, Johnson thought no one was coming by to celebrate their big day. Fifteen minutes later, the space was completely full. That same enthusiasm was seen all opening weekend.

In fact, it was so busy, they are already working on getting their patio up and running so more people can enjoy the Vertigo Wines experience.

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