Much has changed since the early days, most notably the construction and opening of the current Soboba Casino Resort last year. “By the end of the night she had finished the bottle.The Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians fought long and hard to open a casino on Tribal land a quarter of a century ago. “She tasted it and she looked at me and said, ‘this is wine?’,” Mortazavi said. He said he remembered a time at an Italian restaurant at a Vegas resort where he used to work, where a woman told him she did not like wine, so he brought out a bottle of the low-alcohol Rosa Regale. Mortazavi said there’s stories behind many of the bottles of wine he selected. Some of the wines in the wine room include Cask 23 from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars in Napa, Mille e una Notte from Donnafugata in Sicily and Rosa Regale from a Banfi Wines-owned vineyard in Piedmont, Italy. He said that when he carries the wine out to guests parallel to the inside of his arm, so as not to agitate the sediment that might be on the bottom of a more aged wine.

He said that before being served, the red wines are allowed to warm up by 10 degrees and the white wines are chilled by 10 more degrees. In a 55-degree room, Mortazavi gleefully showed off his wide assortment of red and white wines. “I would say there is not anyone with a better list than ours in Riverside County.” He said he hopes that with more than 250 wines from within California and across the world, that people would will be able to find something they like, no matter their tastes. “What we would like to see is a bottle of wine at every table,” Mortazavi said. The bar features cocktails, including more than 30 kind of martinis and small plates of food such as bacon-wrapped dates, surf ‘n turf sliders, a charcuterie board and smoked lamb and goat cheese enchiladas. Canyons boasts a bar area that will open one hour before the restaurant at 4 p.m.

Soboba casino opening