Maynards Market & Kitchen uncorked the first bottle of its new private label wine on Friday, becoming one of only a few Tucson restaurants to offer their own wine to diners.
Maynards AZ Red is available by the glass ($9) or bottle ($35) at Maynards Market & Kitchen, 400 N. Toole Ave., and its sister Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St.
“It obviously is a big part of trying to stay with the roots of Maynards being a locally sourced business,” said GM Todd Hanley. ”If you can have great wine that’s totally locally sourced, it’s almost a no-brainer.”
Winemaker Rob Hammelman, who owns the fast-rising Sand-Reckoner Vineyards in Willcox, created the wine for Maynards by blending 63 percent Zinfandel and 37 percent Petit Sirah from fruit sourced from Golden Rule Vineyards at the base of the Dragoon Mountains near Willcox.
This was Hammelman’s first time creating a wine for a restaurant, he said in an email interview.
Maynards bottled 200 cases of AZ Red — 2,400 bottles in all — and is selling them at $18 a bottle in the market and hotel lobby through the month of February.
See the full story in Tuesday's Star.
