Sorso Wine Bar [February 2021]

I remember heading to a shopping center called The Scottsdale Quarter this day. The Quarter is an absolutely beautiful [as seen below] luxury, upscale, open-air shopping center in Scottsdale. We had a balloon friend in town visiting, Chad Cassell. He needed to stop by an Apple store and there just so happened to be one at The Quarter. I heard or read about another self-pour wine bar in this very shopping center, so I thought why not kill two birds with one stone!! While Chad was in the very long Apple line, Shawn and I scoped things out and found where Sorso Wine Bar was located.

We then went to lunch at Sorso when Chad finished his business at Apple. The patio was beautiful, [as seen in the second photo down] I think we really enjoyed our food, and the company was superb!! Haha!! However, I have to say I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to get a card that allowed me to go up and grab my own tasting pours. I’m not sure if they were having trouble with the machine or what was going on, but they had you fill out a ticket with your wine choices and they brought them to you. I guess the end the result was the same, I got to enjoy a lovely wine tasting.  

Mark and Lauren Teahen opened Sorso Wine Bar in March of 2014. They did a lot of traveling before deciding to settle back in Scottsdale, Arizona. You see Mark played Major League Baseball for about 12 years with the Kansas City Royals, Chicago White Socks, and finally the Toronto Blue Jays. He was thinking about extending his career in Europe which led the Teahen’s to Italy. They wanted to check out potential homes and soak up some of the local the culture there, but this is where they made the decision to follow a totally different dream.

Upon deciding not to further his baseball career, it was an almost sad ending to their Italy dream. But they aspired to bring some of the lifestyle from Italy home with them when they started making plans for Sorso Wine Bar. They wanted to provide great service offering warm hospitality to draw the Scottsdale community together. To offer a place for friends and family and a place to enjoy a touch of Italy, "one sip at a time." The same feeling they had when they drank wine at Enoteca Falorni, a little place they found in Tuscany. This is where they were introduced to the wine dispenser system.   

They boasted having 125 wines from around the world, with 32 wines to choose from a self-serve dispensary. As I said though, they really did not allow you to serve yourself. I am not sure the reason, but it looks fine to me. Look at the photo below and see if you don’t agree with me!! HA!! In addition wine bar access, the Teahen’s also offered patrons a semi-private wine room. They called it Cellar 24, and it was a separate, more private room to host events. The same great service and full menu, but a more exclusive setting to host your parties, bridal showers, or meetings.

Unfortunately, [and as I hinted in last week’s blog] Sorso Wine Bar has closed its doors early this year. [in the present year of 2025] I was lucky enough to go back before they closed, as I had insider knowledge. Haha!! My friend, Katrina [who I mentioned working with at Thunderbird] has a daughter with a job working at Sorso’s and she knew the date of thier upcoming closure. This gave Katrina the heads up she needed to make plans for us to have our April book club here. It was bittersweet knowing it would be our last time there, and knowing how good the food was.

The closure came as a surprise since they were really the only wine bar in The Quarter, and they always seemed to be pretty busy. When Mark and Lauren made the announcement, they stated that it was due to the [ridiculous 40%] increase in rent. They also stated that usually rent increased about 3% per year and the big jump was a disappointing and unrealistic number that they could not recover from.

Well, next week Wine with Wixy will be visiting The Sicilian Butcher. This is more like a restaurant that serves wine, rather than a tasting room or a wine bar. I actually debated about if I should even write about it, but I loved it and I think you will see how it fits into my blog when I introduce you to it!!

Cheers to you my wine loving friends, and TTFN!!