Out of sight in Utah: The Black Desert Championship, Black Desert Resort, Ivins, UT October 10-13, 2024
Call me geographically challenged if you want but when I first saw this week’s event would be taking place in Ivins, UT I did a double take. Like, where in tarnation is that? And is it even worth considering the idea you can find a good bottle of wine there? Turns out Black Desert Resort is just under two hours NE of Vegas, so it’s not an impossible day trip if you’re up for it. But if you’re going to be in Ivins or the greater St. George area, it’s possible all is not lost. Proving that turned out to be a little challenging, but we gave it our best shot.
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Unlike anywhere else we’ve covered, we’re going to start at retail, because there at least it’s kind of out in the open. You see, Utah has a state liquor monopoly (DABS) and they call the shots. There are two DABS outlets with the colorful names #32 and #39 not far from Black Desert. Now comes the hard part. There’s no way to know what they actually stock without calling them! Links to the stores default to the DABS master website. Like a good public sommelier, I mean servant, the DABS site will tell you everything you could ever want to know about Utah’s wine program, except what products are where. Nonetheless, here’s a link to their entire October 2024 inventory in a downloadable Excel spreadsheet.As you start to parse it, they have access to a respectable number of high quality wines, Brunello being a good example. Can you get them and where? Sorry, I can only do so much diligence on my meager salary. Don’t use up all your luck in Vegas and who knows?
There are a handful of restaurants in St. George near Black Desert Resort and the Resort itself has a variety of onsite dining options. The problem is no one posts a list so we can’t really comment. At the Resort they don’t even show sample food menus and barely mention wine. We can only hope they are being modest.
Here are some other restaurant possibilities in the area that fall into our “No-see-um” category. Good, bad or indifferent you’re kinda on your own. The Painted Pony claims to stock over 400 wines. Would it kill them to say a little more? Wood. Ash. Rye. “Voted best wine selection in Southern Utah 3 years in a row.” If you click on Adult Beverages you go straight to their Red Bull inventory. I’m not even kidding. I clicked my way through a dozen other options and there’s just nothing to hang your hat on. Hope the golf is better. How much is an Uber to Vegas?
