An Arizona winemaker who's best known for his day job as a rock band frontman is opening a tasting room in Old Town Scottsdale.
Maynard James Keenan — who rose to fame as the lead singer of Tool before starting the bands A Perfect Circle and Puscifer — told The Arizona Republic that he hopes to open the tasting room in early March in the space that previously housed Counter Intuitive, a cocktail bar, on Stetson Drive in Old Town.
"There's a bunch of locations down in that area, so I just felt like it was a good move to create a little bit of a wine trail in that area," Keenan told The Republic. "I just wanted to bring some of the northern Arizona (wines) down to that area to be there with the Sonoita and Willcox wines."
Keenan operates Caduceus Cellars and Merkin Vineyards, and the grapes used to make the wines are grown at various locations in the Verde Valley. The wineries already have tasting rooms in Jerome and Cottonwood.
In addition to Keenan's wines, the Scottsdale tasting room will offer a food menu built around Italian tapas, Keenan told The Republic.