Olive & Ivy Restaurant & Marketplace

The wine list reads like a greatest hits compilation from a corporate training manual — Veuve, Böen, The Prisoner — all the names that sound fancy to tourists but show zero personality. Sixty to eighty bottles with 18+ by-the-glass pours sounds promising until you see the markups and realize this is a canal-side patio play, not a wine destination.

The list leans heavily on crowd-pleasing California producers with a sprinkling of Italian and French standards to check boxes. You get the usual Napa Cab suspects, Monterey Pinot, and safe Italian whites like Pinot Grigio from Ca' di Alte and Girlan. There's a token South African Chenin Blanc from Beaumont and some Mosel Riesling to suggest range, but nothing shows real curation or depth. The Mediterranean cuisine deserves a more adventurous wine program — where are the Greek whites, the Lebanese reds, the Southern Italian gems? Instead, it's the same wines you'd find at twenty other upscale patios across Phoenix.

Eighteen-plus glass pours at $11-$23 means volume, not quality. The range includes basics like Scarpetta Barbera and Abadía de San Campio Albariño alongside the Böen Pinot and Unshackled Cabernet crowd-pleasers. It's perfectly fine for happy hour on the patio, but nothing here makes you want to skip the cocktails. Rotation seems minimal based on the set-it-and-forget-it vibe of the overall program.