If there’s one thing Brian Ruffentine dislikes, it is pretension. This strapping former fireman is well aware that in his new line of work — the wine trade — this is something of an occupational hazard. But not at Garage-East, the airy, timber-lined Phoenix wine bar he runs with his wife Megan. Here, he explains, they are forging a distinctly Arizonan appreciation of wine.
“We’re the cowboy state, the gunslingers,” he says. “We pronounce our wine ‘rose’, not ‘rosé’. We have the freedom to say, we’re going to squeeze some juice and add it to wine and carbonate that and put it in a can, and if that blows your mind — welcome to Arizona.”
And with that, Ruffentine cracks open a tin of sparkling white mixed with peach and grapefruit juice. Should you call it a mimosa or a bellini? Ruffentine chooses neither, having no time for fluty European designations: the label on his can reads “Breakfast Wine”. I take my first sip gingerly, braced for an alcopop-style sugar hit, only to find it surprisingly light and pleasantly tart. “Here’s the deal,” says Ruffentine approvingly. “This stuff is good.”