When you think of the storied wine regions of the world, Utah doesn’t even land on the list. And yet, our wine narrative has a deep history in our red soil. Early pioneer settlers were sent by Brigham Young on “wine missions” to Southern Utah to cultivate vineyards and produce wine. The Word of Wisdom, created by Joseph Smith, was a health code barring alcohol (amongst other things), was more of a guideline rather than a commandment at the time. And at one time, wine could be used for paying tithing, was used in Sunday services, medicinally and generally enjoyed by the public at large. Since the Latter-Day Saint settlers were also entrepreneurial to their core, the wine they produced was also sold to miners and exported out of state for profit.

By all accounts, the “Dixie Wine Mission” wine was very good. Both in terms of quality and in terms of everyone getting a little too drunk. Which may have accounted for the tolerance early Saints had for alcohol evaporating. As the culture changed and the rules around drinking moved into a “thou shalt not” commandment territory, the vineyards were torn up and replaced with other crops and the wine making enterprises went dry. 

Like the earlier Mormon pioneers, we are fortunate to have wine enthusiasts and professionals, paving the way, bringing back Utah’s wine culture and stories against the backdrop of our unique liquor laws and a burgeoning community that loves a good sip. From wine educators, to restaurateurs, to wine bars, to wineries, Salt Lake City’s wine scene is uncorked.  

Salt Lake’s Wine Scene Decanted into Three Local Gems

• BTG Wine Bar

The name says it all. BTG (By The Glass) serves over 75 wines by the glass. Located in the speakeasy-like basement of Caffè Molise, the deep banquettes and wood bar make for a beautiful place to grab a glass of wine and tapas after work. Even the serious wine-loving couple from out of town will be impressed by the selection and lush atmosphere. 

If you go:
BTG Wine Bar
404 S. West Temple  |  btgwinebar.com

• Cucina Wine Bar 

An Avenues deli by day, fine dining and wine bar by night, Cucina pairs fantastic meals with wine. With an extensive wine list and a rotating menu, visit for a romantic dinner with your wine-loving sweetheart. Look for the menu’s section labeled “interesting wines.” These are curated by the globe-trotting owner and are guaranteed to be bold and surprising. 

If you go:
Cucina Wine Bar
1026 E. 2nd Ave.  |  cucinawinebar.com

• Bar à Vin

The new kid in town is Bar à Vin. Located on State Street, where The Republican shuttered, this up-and-comer has a selection of 120 wines served at the ideal temperature with special equipment to ensure perfect flavor profiles every time. They offer wine by the glass or curated flights like the ‘Poolside Pour’ and ‘For the Swifties.’ This is the place to bring the friend who is wine-curious. 

If you go:
Bar à Vin
917 S. State Street  |  baravinslc.com

Utah’s Wineries Resurrected

Utah pioneers are getting back to our roots with vineyards and wineries sprouting up around the state. Here are a few notables working to cultivate our wine culture. 

• Old Town Wine Cellars

Old Town Wine Cellars is not a vineyard, which means that they don’t grow their own grapes. They do however source “fine wines from top wine growing regions to blend and bottle in historic Park City, Utah.” Their wines are approachable and playful. With names like Townie Rosé and Outlaw Reserve, they evoke a sense of place. You can visit their bar and lounge, where you can try a flight, or their bottle shop if you want to bring a bottle or two home.

If You Go:
Old Town Cellars
408 Main Street, Park City 
otcwines.com

• Spanish Valley Vineyard   & Winery

Specializing in single-vineyard estate-bottled wines. Spanish Valley Vineyard and Winery tends the vines, grows the grapes, and handles fermentation and bottling from start to finish. They have four wines: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cherry (made with cherries from Payson, Utah), Riesling, and a Gewurtztraminer in sweet and dry finishes. Tastings are $20 per person, Tours are $50 per person. They also have a Bed & Breakfast, so you can stay at the vineyard. 

If You Go: 
Spanish Valley Vineyard & Winery
4710 Zimmerman Ln., Moab 
Text before you arrive to arrange a tour or tasting: (435) 634-1010
moabwinery.com

• IG Winery

IG Winery (once known as Iron Gate), is located in Cedar City. They originally opened in 2012, as the first commercial winery in the state. From selling their wine in a small shed to a beautiful tasting room in the historic downtown area, IG Winery paved the way for other operations. When you go, get a flight and find your favorite. Or make a reservation to visit their vineyard outside Rockville, Utah and have a private tasting to learn more. 

If you go: 
IG Winery & Tasting Room 
59 W. Center St., Cedar City
igwinery.com

• Water Canyon Winery

Nestled against the red cliffs in Hildale, Water Canyon Winery specializes in natural wines, which means they don’t add preservatives or non-native yeast during the winemaking process. They offer both estate wines with a vineyard on site, and blended and bottled wines. You can book a private tasting for $25 / person or host a private event or wedding at their beautiful location.

If you go: 
Water Canyon Winery 
1050 W. Field Ave., Hildale
Call before you arrive to arrange a tasting:
435-229-4747
watercanyonwinery.com

The classic cast iron Dutch oven is the “Official State Cooking Pot of Utah.” It is the utility cooking tool for Boy Scout campouts and family reunions. And that is how Marlin Bodily first started learning how to use a Dutch oven when he was recruited to help cook at a scout camp in 1989. Now, the owner of The Dutch Oven Shoppe, a traveling catering company, and the Dutch oven cooking instructor at Utah State University.

When Bodily started out, there was a bit of trial and error. “I did a little bit of cooking at scout camps with the young man. We’d have 8 or 10 boys, and so I would experiment on them using the Dutch oven,” says Bodily. “I mean, when you go out to camp, you’ve got to eat. And so that’s what we did.” It is universally accepted that Boy Scouts will eat just about anything and so make the best test subjects.

After 14 years of cooking for church members, friends, and family, Bodily started his traveling catering business and has run it with his family for over 20 years. It started with small dinners catered from the back of a pickup truck and has steadily grown to big events with 500+ people lining up to eat. If you’ve ever been to the Peach Days celebration in Brigham City, you’ve likely had Bodily’s famous Dutch oven peach cobbler.

Marlin has his family-sized kitchen set up and ready to go at a moment’s notice. When the Bodily family goes camping, all the meals are planned in advance, and the food is packed. “I have what we call a camp kitchen. It is a little box. It’s about the size of a foot locker,” he explains. “It’s got legs on it, and it holds everything in there that I need to cook with. It has my tongue, spoon, spatulas, lighter, gloves and lid lifter for the Dutch oven. I never use any of that equipment anywhere else. When I grab that box, I know I have everything I need when I go cooking.” The impression is that no one else is allowed to touch the camp kitchen box either.

Charcoal is the other component of Dutch oven cooking. Bodily doesn’t really cook over an open flame. A Dutch oven is an oven, first and foremost. One of the first things he is asked in his classes is how much charcoal to use. “I tell them it’s all from experience. But to give a guideline to get started, I use circle briquettes. Each briquette equates to about 25 degrees. If you have a number 14 Dutch oven, you want to put 14 coals on top and 14 coals on bottom, and you’re looking at a 350-degree oven.” 

Bodily had another particular tip for novice Dutch oven-ieers. “Cook inside a tent. I set up a 10-foot by 10-foot tent, and I cook inside there,” he advises. “You have to block the wind when cooking in a Dutch oven. If you don’t block the wind, that wind will take that heat away, and you’ll never get your food cooked.” 

What can you make in a Dutch oven? According to Bodily, you can make anything in a regular oven at home. Lasagne, pizzas, fall-off-the-bone ribs, cobblers, even cinnamon rolls. But it is best to keep the recipes straightforward. “I keep my recipes very simple. I have seen recipes with 20 different ingredients,” Marlin says. “Don’t do that. I don’t do that. I don’t think you can pick up the flavor from each one of those ingredients. And that’s how I tell them at school when I’m teaching a class. Keep the recipe simple, then you won’t get so overwhelmed.”

For a beginner, Bodily says to start with a smaller oven and a recipe you are familiar with. A ten-quart oven is a good size to begin with so that it isn’t too heavy, and you’ll get to experiment and see if you like using it before buying bigger ones. Anything over 14 quarts can be hard to move solo once they are filled. He prefers the Lodge ovens. But recommends that you buy all the same brand.  

“One advantage to having all the same brand is the lid will interchange,” he points out. “It doesn’t matter which size oven I have, the lid will fit. If you have a conglomeration of ovens, you got a problem.”

And the universal question: should you wash your Dutch oven? “Every time I use an oven, I wash it. I don’t always use soap, but I have hot water there,” Bodily says. “I’ll take a scraper, and I will scrape out all the big stuff and then wash out the oven until it’s clean, I rinse it and then let it dry. Once it’s dry, we spray it with the canola oil and wipe out the excess. Then that oven is ready for use next time.” He adds, “Sometimes you have to use soap in your oven, particularly if it’s a tomato-based product like baked beans or even barbecue sauce for ribs. Sometimes, you need soap to get that out of there.” Clean it right away, and the seasoning will stay intact. After all, that’s where the magic happens.

“The interesting thing,” finishes Bodily, “is you take, for example, lasagna. I can do lasagna in a Dutch oven, and it’s great. And you do lasagna in the oven at home, and it’s good, but there’s a different flavor to it. And I think that’s because of the Dutch oven itself and the seasoning in it that makes it special.” There is something special about a time, a place, and friends gathered ‘round a Dutch oven that adds another layer of seasoning.  

Find more tips on cooking with flames with Park City chef and restaurant-owner John Murcko.

A new cafe and restaurant concept from Leave Room for Dessert Eateries is coming to the heart of Sugar House in early 2025. The brand new restaurant is the latest addition to the group’s award-winning roster, including Park City’s Hearth and Hill, and downtown Salt Lake’s Urban Hill whose Chef Nick Zocco was previously named a James Beard finalist for ‘Best Chef in the Mountain Region’ category. 

Construction of the property is officially underway after a groundbreaking ceremony hosted by the LRFDE collective and development partners Lowe Property Group. The ceremony offered a sneak peek at the space which includes a 6,000-square-foot restaurant that will serve upscale casual lunch and dinner options, and Hill’s Kitchen; a 3,000-square-foot cafe with plenty of grab-and-go options, fresh pastries, pizza and more. While still in the early stages of the interior build-out, it’s not hard to picture the warm gatherings that will take place and the no-doubt delicious meals that will be savored. “Our mission is to inspire our associates, thrill our guests and enrich our community,” says Heath & Hill’s co-founder Brooks Kirchheimer. “We take that very seriously, and are really excited to be able to do that here in Sugar House.” 

The forthcoming restaurant will join the ranks of Sugar House’s evolving dining community, but it hasn’t been an easy road. In October of 2022, the still-under-construction Sugar Alley was engulfed in flames and burned for days on end. Well-versed in putting out our proverbial restaurant-related fires, Kirchheimer remembers getting the late-night call with the heart-stopping news that the building was on fire. While the building burned, residents of the adjacent SugarMont complex were evacuated and some nearby businesses were forced to close for up to two weeks. The fire, of which the cause has been officially reported as “undetermined,”  resulted in $59 million dollars in damage. “In the end, we’re just grateful for our fire team and the great work they do for the community, we can’t thank them enough.” The team of firefighters who worked tirelessly against the fire that night were in attendance during the groundbreaking ceremony and received a warm round of applause and gratitude from the entire Hearth and Hill team. 

Sugar House residents might start enjoying Hearth & Hill’s telltale hospitality as early as next year. Until then, the neighborhood’s construction woes will continue as projects have been slated to continue well into the winter and through 2025. At least there will be some delectable meals waiting at the end of the long, orange cone-littered tunnel. 

Wine takes flight in the garden at Tracy Aviary 

Jim Santangelo, the owner of Wine Academy of Utah is like everyone’s favorite wine uncle. When he shows up to run an event, he is the perfect mix of emcee, comedian, sommelier and cheerleader. His knowledge of food and wine is vast. But he manages to make wine “fun, educational, and entertaining,” in his own words. “So there’s this light-hearted goodness with it. I’ll do a deep dive with somebody, if they want, on a dramatic characteristic or a winemaking technique during the presentation.” 

But don’t be fooled by jovial Jim. He also teaches Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Certification classes. Which is serious business. “It’s funny because when I shift over, I’ll have  people who go to my wine tasting events, and then they’re in the certification class, it’s like, Oh, that’s Jimmy, the teacher now,” says Santangelo. “The fun and the entertainment is lower because I’m accountable for you to pass an exam. I want to provide you with the proper education and the tools necessary. I’m light-hearted about it, but it’s definitely different. One person told me, ‘I loved it, but I just didn’t laugh as much.’”

In addition to providing a professional certification, you can also find Santangelo hosting various wine tasting events throughout the summer, including the Wine Take Flight event at Tracy Aviary on the third Thursday of every month through August. When it comes to wine tasting, Santangelo has some strong feelings, “Wine events are no longer sit down, be quiet, listen to me, formal settings. They have evolved into experiences where you can come in and you’re shown how to assess the wine, how to look at it, smell it, put it to the palate. We lead you in those aromatic characteristics. Engage with you and see where you’re at with it,” says Santangelo. And then a good instructor will back off and let you enjoy the wine and the setting and the person you’re with. We’ll drink to that!

Find out more:

Visit wineacademyofutah.com, Santangelo also talks food and drink with Radio from Hell host Bill Allred on the Let’s Go Eat and Drink podcast. letsgoeat.podbean.com