As spring is fast approaching, we need to rejuvenate ourselves with warmer weather, a little color in the face and some great wines. As the health benefits of wine, especially red, continue to make headlines around the world, we need to take this seriously and look into how we can improve ourselves with the help of some good vino.
When the temperatures are rising and we again can sit outside on the patio, in the garden, on the balcony or in the parks for that matter, we need to consider the kind of wines that relate to that sort of mood. The flabby Chardonnays and the full-bodied reds are not the kind of wines that we necessarily associate with outdoors life. Rather, we should look towards some lovely crisp Sauvignon Blancs from New Zealand, of which there is now a myriad interesting and highly drinkable ones. While Cloudy Bay is the most sought after one commercially, it does not necessarily mean it is the best. A few good examples here could be Spy Valley, Nautilus, Nobilo, Allan Scott and Mount Riley.
The next category of wines that are absolutely attractive for this time of the year are the Rose wines and by that I am not talking about the pink-colored White Zinfandel, still so popular in America. I am talking about wines that have the natural "blush" color of having been made from red grape varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, Syrah or Cabernet Franc, but having had only a limited contact between the grape skins and the juice. This particular technique creates lighter pink to salmon colored wines that have the characteristics of the grape varietal, yet not the "body" weight and appear light and refreshing on the palate. Great examples can be found both from California, where Chimney Rock makes a really tasty Rose from Cabernet Franc, or from France where Chateau Routas makes a superbly drinkable little Rose wine called Rouviere from a blend of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre, all typical grapes found in the picturesque region of Provence.
Finally, what season would be complete without the drinking of good Champagne? Always a popular treat for picnics, which is a good sign that Spring has arrived, a prestigious bottle of Champagne not only provides superb drinking pleasure, but an air of romanticism at any picnic, garden party or mere birthday celebration. A bottle of Champagne that always comes in handy is the classic and very famous Dom Perignon 1996, which has received incredible reviews and praise from the leading wine critics around the world. While it is a recognizable brand name, the bubbly inside the bottle is absolute delicious, so if you missed it for New Years, this is truly the time to taste it.
One of the most perplexing human issues of all time has to be the pairing of wine with food. Many would say that a statement like this is absolutely rubbish, but I counter that when you factor in the amount of time we humans spend on either thinking about or consuming food, it is pretty much right up there with sex and money.
With food goes wine and that has been the case for millennia. History and the bible in particular are littered with stories and examples of how humans have pondered the correct choices of wine to go along with their food. The Greeks and Romans in particular made this a science and surviving wine lists from some of the great restaurants in Rome over 2,000 years ago had already taken this particular issue up by having wine suggestions with some of the exotic foods of the time. In the mid 1st Century A.D., estate owners on the outskirts of Rome found it profitable to raise pigeons and turtle-doves, then and still considered a delicacy, on a diet of wine-soaked bread. When these luxury birds were served up on the tables of the noble families of the time, it was specifically with the expensive wine pairings in mind. In fact, we owe today's sophisticated restaurants and wine lists to the Romans, who had it all sorted out that long ago.
Las Vegas is in particular a haven for food and wine pairings, with many of the finest restaurants, as well as other notable dining establishments, having pre-selected the wines to go along with each course in so-called tasting menus. Spearheading this drive is arguably Aureole at Mandalay Bay who has made it a mission to serve the correct wines with each dish and Wine Director Andrew Bradbury together with Sommelier Jamie Smith have created some fascinating choices in food and wine pairings. Master Sommelier Robert Smith at Picasso in the Bellagio also offers their famous Menu Degustation or Prix Fixe Menu with specific wine pairings, as does Master Sommelier Kevin Vogt at Delmonico in the Venetian Hotel, Resort and Casino. In places such as Fleming's Steak House in Summerlin, Wine Director Marian Jansen op de Haar has 100 wines by the glass and many are suggested pairings with their menu.
At the end of it all, we humans need to consume our wine with food, because that is why it was created in the first place. Almost all of the greatest wines in the world are made to be enjoyed with food and their owners will attest to that, so I leave it in your hands to continue this great tradition.
When Hae Un Lee arrived in the United States in August of 1980, he could not possibly have known what would lie ahead for him and his family. He had heard of the American Dream and that was one of the main reasons for his immigration to this great country. It was only a year later that he would start on the path that would eventually propel him to the level he is at today.
Lee's Discount Liquor was founded in 1981 with a modest store in an older neighborhood of Las Vegas. Mr. Lee, as he prefers to be called, worked day and night and with the help of his family made gross sales of $19,000 that first month. Today, Lee's Discount Liquor is a virtual wine and spirits retailing empire in the Las Vegas valley with seven mega-stores, plus one called Strip Liquor on Las Vegas Blvd. Gross sales are now roughly $3.5 million per month in his stores and he still works incredibly long hours with his family of three children and seven grandchildren, all born in the United States.
Mr. Lee has little private time in his own office, constantly seeing suppliers, agents, business people and politicians all wanting a minute of his precious time. He enjoys golfing probably more than anything else in his "spare time", but the cell phone is never turned off, even while teeing off on one of the many prestigious golf courses he visits regularly.
Mr. Lee has a vision that will take the Lee's Discount Liquor stores to the next level. By 2010, he wants to have 15 stores in total with an annual turnover of $100 million. He has already begun the process by acquiring two important pieces of land; one in the affluent Anthem/Seven Hills neighborhood on S. Eastern and one in Mesquite, about 90 miles north of Las Vegas, right on the Utah border. Those two stores will open in 2005 and he will be well on his way to what would be the second highest grossing chain of liquor stores in the entire country. One of the keys to this friendly Korean man's success has been his insistence upon always purchasing the parcel of land on which his stores sits. That enables him to be his own landlord and has turned out to be quite a savvy investment as well. He often builds other little shops in his strip malls and leases them out to other tenants, thereby getting a small return on his initial lay-out as well. With land prices in the Las Vegas valley having sky-rocketed in the past five years, the Lee's Discount Liquor parcels are now of significant importance in the valuation of the entire company.
Such is the dedication of Mr. Lee that his peers and the influential Market Watch Magazine named him the "Retailer of the Year" in 2002 for the U.S. and bringing him yet another accolade for his hard work. Mr. Lee is very active in community affairs and politics, regularly mingling with important political figures on both the local and the national levels. He is the Chairman of the Asian-American Business Association and member of the Asians for Bush group of important business people who helped raise funds and support for the Presidents' re-election. All of these high-profile positions and the fact that he owns one of the nations largest chains of liquor stores, would have one immediately think of a 280-pound loud-mouth maverick, but not Mr. Lee. At 62 and still going strong, he is a slender man with a very intuitive mind that always analyzes the person in front of him before speaking back in his heavily accented English. He rarely touches alcohol and does not smoke, instead enjoying exercise such as running and golfing and eating healthy food on a daily basis.
There have been numerous stories over the past decades of foreigners immigrating to America and creating great businesses, thereby living the American Dream. But few are as compelling and endearing as the story of the unemployed Korean man, simply known as Mr. Lee. His quest for greatness and a slice of the liquor business in the United States continues and as the city of Las Vegas grows, so does he, albeit with a much more modest appearance.
Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the boldest Cab of them all? Asking this question at this time of the year is pretty much what the doctor ordered. The days have become shorter and the weather has cooled down dramatically, so the time has come to seek out the big bold flavorful Cabernet Sauvignons of California and Washington States.
Tasting through about 25 of the very best Cabernets, without going into the stratospheric price category that encompasses the so-called "cult Cabs", I found a great deal of excellence, especially in the 2001 vintage. Cabernets from Altamura with its fragrant cassis nose and opulent palate, and Ristow with its huge nose of pure black fruit and massive concentration on the palate are among the leaders of a dozen or so Cabs that retail for $60 per bottle. Less expensive and impressive values for money are Volker Eisele's 2001 Cab with super ripe black fruit nose and incredible concentration on the palate, as well as the blockbuster Kamen Vineyards with its huge crushed black fruit nose and amazingly complex and deep palate with a great finish, both in the $45 range. From Washington State, there is the DeLille Chaleur Estate 2001, which is more of a Bordeaux blend, but with a majority of Cab in it, tasting like a superb concoction for discriminating palates and Quilceda Creek Red 2001, which again is more of a blend, but what incredible depth on both the nose and the palate with tons of fruit and concentration. At the upper end of the "regular" Cabernet scale, we find the superbly packaged Clark Claudon and Caldwell, both in magnificent looking bottles and both displaying a tremendous array of complexity with black fruit and cassis on the nose and superbly delineated palates with loads of structure and concentration. These blockbusters are usually retailing in the $85-90 category if you can find them!
As it is the holiday season, many of you might want to really go on a hunt and chase. Well, for those that have the means and connections, and still staying away from the "cult" category, which I will get to below, there are these highly rated treasures to look for: Philip Togni Cabernet Sauvignon 2001, which is 96 points by Robert Parker and is a mind-boggling concoction of black fruit mélange and complex layered fruit and spices and a pure dream on the palate. Behrens & Hitchcock Ode to Picasso 2001, which is a blended wine with Syrah and Cab as the principal components, again 96 points by Robert Parker and something of a dream mouthful for that special occasion.
Finally, if you have to have them, the Cult Cabs that are remotely available in restaurants from the 2001 vintage include the legendary Shafer Hillside Select, Harlan Estate, Dalla Valle Maya and Araujo Eisele Vineyard, all in the $500+ category on winelists. If you find and drink any of the above wines, you should indeed have a great holiday season.
The recent overhaul and renovation of the storied The Balboa Bay Club & Resort saw them return to form with the hosting of a brand new Food & Wine Festival. Now you may ask what Las Vegas has to do with this. The simple answer is that Las Vegas with its rise to culinary and vinous stardom is now home to some of the finest chefs and sommeliers in the country. It was a smart move on the part of this luxurious private club in Newport Beach to book several of our greatest names in food and wine, to headline this revival of an old festival. Julian Serrano from Picasso Restaurant in the Bellagio was there, cooking at the Spanish evening. Robert Parker, the world's most influential wine critic called his meal at Picasso last summer, "one of the greatest in the past 12 months", and further said: "This world-class restaurant is as good as any French three-star Michelin establishment." Getting Serrano in for the event was a near coup d'etat on the part of Maggie Feldman, who co-organized the event for the Club.
At the Spanish evening, there were several Master Sommeliers from Las Vegas to handle the wine side of things, while Serrano cooked up one of the greatest outdoor monster Paellas in recent memory. Robert Smith, who works with Serrano at Picasso and has put together the Wine Spectator Grand Award winning list, was there, as was Ron Mumford, who runs the fine wine division of Southern Wine & Spirits of Nevada and is an encyclopedia of wine knowledge. Ira Harmon, who works with Mumford at J&P Wholesale in Las Vegas and a specialist on Spanish wines, was there as well, lending a hand at deciphering the many delicious wines on offer, from selected importers and suppliers.
Among the outstanding wines there that evening was Bodegas Muga Prado Eneo, Tinto Pesquera Janus, Rene Barbier Clos Mogador, Borsao Tres Picos, Abadia Retuerta Cuvee Palomar, and a selection of delicious Sherries, the finest of which was the Pedro Ximenez 30-year old with a viscosity that resembled crude oil.
The Balboa Bay Club & Resort in Newport Beach may be on to something here using top talent from Las Vegas to enhance the experience of their Food & Wine Festival. Other cities, like Aspen and Jackson Hole have followed suit this past summer, but its only a matter of time before someone creates the ultimate food & wine event in Las Vegas proper and then all other events will pale in comparison.
For those of us who live through the sweltering heat of the summer months here in the desert, there is little respite from the soaring temperatures, except to stay indoors and drink refreshing wines. What we're naturally looking for are not just cool wines, but also wines that will cool us down. Such wines have to be light and airy and they include certain types of white wines, some rose wines and let's not forget the bubblies.
White Wines:The lighter types of white wines, should also be lighter in alcohol. Such wines include most German Riesling wines, Alsatian Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Blanc or Pinot Gris wines, Washington State Rieslings and Australian Rieslings. In the German Riesling department, you can look for anything that is not too sweet, meaning you want to choose a Kabinett or a Spatlese, both of which have some residual sugar, but usually below 9 percent alcohol. Producers to look for include Dr. Loosen, J.J. Prum, Diel, Donnhoff, Schloss Schonborn, Schloss Vollrads and Robert Weil. From Alsace, the top producers worth seeking out for their amazingly fruity and sometimes bone-dry wines are Zind-Humbrecht, Hugel, Trimbach and Leon Beyer. In Washington State, Dr. Loosen has a delicious wine produced as a joint-venture with Chateau Ste. Michelle called Eroica and this is really worth seeking out. Similarly the always quirky Bonny Doon makes a wine called Pacific Rim Riesling, which is in fact a blend of German and American Riesling wines, blended and vinified in California. And finally from Down Under, the superb Peter Lehman Riesling, as well as the Henschke Julius Riesling are absolute gems for the summer.
Rose Wines:The best place in the world for Rose wines is France and there are a number of fine wines produced in the Southern part of France, particularly in the Languedoc-Roussillon region, where many Grenache based Rose wines come from. Good producers include Chapoutier, Mas Daumas Gassac and La Grange des Peres. Don't forget that these wines have nothing in common with White Zinfandel wines from California, because they are dry "almost red" wines that are simply much lighter, due to the little time the grape skins were in contact with the must (or juice) and therefore make for excellent refreshing drinking. California's best Rose wine is the Chimney Rock Cabernet Franc Rose, which is absolutely incredible, both in taste and value.
Bubblies:Again, when choosing the perfect Champagne to cool off with, it is important to go for the lighter style of wine, rather than big and austere. While the Dom Perignon 1996 drinks like a dream right now and was just rated a solid 98 points (out of 100) by the world's most influential wine critic Robert Parker, you can also look for Champagne Dampierre "Cuvee des Ambassadeurs", Heidsieck Monopole's sexy looking Yellow bottle of Brut Champagne and the distinct Champagne Pommery's "little blue" called POP. From California, Francis Ford Coppola has just launched the smart looking "Sofia" named for his Oscar-winning daughter and sold in little pink cans.
There are plenty of wonderful summer wines to choose from; just remember to drink plenty of water with them, in order not to dehydrate.
Sexual orientation is not exclusive to the human race, but did you know that it was true for wine as well? There are both feminine and masculine wines, identified by their smell, appearance and taste. While we talk about looking at a wine in the glass, showing off its viscosity in the form of "legs" running down the sides of the bowl, we can say that a wine has pretty long legs and while this sounds very feminine, it is not the determining factor. A feminine wine is one that has a light body (not lithe) and aromas that are floral and fruity, then a taste which is light on the palate and with a rounded smooth finish. Examples of feminine wines can be some of the great Rieslings and Tokay-Pinot Gris of Alsace by producers such as Zind-Humbrecht, Weinbach, Hugel and Schleret. Also wines from Austria made from Gruner Veltliner and designated "Smaragd" can be very feminine, as can some of the finest and silkiest wines of Burgundy, both reds made from Pinot Noir and white made from Chardonnay. Producers that are known for making such wonderful and feminine wines are Domaine d'Auvenay, Leroy, Dujac, Anne Gros and the great Domaine de la Romanee Conti in some vintages. American Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays one the other hand are not very feminine as they are usually too angular and not very complex with rather short finishes, except for the crème de la crème of producers such as Peter Michael, Marcassin, Robert Talbott and Ramey.
If we look at masculine wines, by which most of the sturdier reds are classified, there are some down right muscular wines among these. A muscular wine is one that has tons of powerful aromas and complexity on the nose (smell), the full-bodied structure with lots of tannins (they can be smooth or fine too), with great balance between fruit, acidity and a long lingering finish. It is in other words a wine that really grabs your attention and plays a big Wagneresque opera on your taste buds with all the bells and whistles. Such wines are not too difficult to find, but again going for the best muscular and masculine wines you might want to look at big Bordeaux names like Petrus, Margaux, Lafite, Palmer, Haut-Brion and Lynch Bages in the best vintages (82,89,90,95,96,2000). Spain makes some distinctive muscular wines in a new style that has brought that country to the fore of the wine world with wines like L'Ermita, Clos Mogador and Pingus. Italy weighs in with the wines of Angelo Gaja, Sandrone and Giacosa and finally back in France's Rhone Valley you'll find plenty of muscularity in the wines from Rene Rostaing and Domaine de Vieux Telegraphe. Finally, Henschke Hill of Grace from Australia could easily be one of the most muscular wines made in the world and it is renowned for its ageability.
Have you ever thought of owning a wine cellar? It does not take a wine connoisseur to own a wine cellar. In fact, most people with a little bit of extra time and space can put one together in their own house, should they so choose.
Wine cellaring carries with it certain romantic and exciting connotations and certainly adds an air of sophistication to a home, as well as the quality of life for the owner.
A wine cellar is also quite a liberal term, with only a small percentage of homes having the luxury of a true underground cellar or even basement. For the ones that do; great for them. For all us other people who do not have such an option, and in fact most new homes don't, there is always the do-it-yourself deal. On another note, there are now many fine wine storage solutions that come in a ready-made format, perfect for the house, in the form of wine "fridges" or units. EuroCave and TransTherm are a couple of the high-end ones that will hold anywhere from 60-520 bottles under optimal conditions (55 degrees Fahrenheit and 70% humidity). These are usually beautiful to look at with wood paneling, sometimes a UV-protected double-pane glass door, with fine wood or vibration-free metal shelving, etc. They are available through www.leeswineclub.com There are also other cheaper solutions which will promise to keep your wines cool in racks or one shelves, but little else, and in such a case you might be better off just converting an old fridge to sit in the garage.
Then there is the more interesting solution, which is to convert a closet or even a small room to a proper wine cellar. This involves first of all sealing the room, perhaps exchanging the regular wooden door for a more robust insulated door, still on the same hinges and even installing a cooling/humidifying unit. The easy way to do this is to contact one of the many companies that specialize in wine cellar building. A good one is www.wineenthusiast.com ; you send them a drawing of the space in question, no matter how small, and they'll send you back an estimate with a nice drawing, showing the cost of shelving, etc. for self installation. They can also install it for you, but that'll add a tremendous number of dollars on the project.
Whichever way you decide to go, there is always a good wine cellar solution for you out there somewhere.
OK, so 2003 just whizzed by in no time as usual and now we're in the great Olympic leap-year of 2004. With a clean slate and an open palate, we can now begin to keep our New Year's resolutions of drinking even better wine this year than we did last year. We don't need a doctor to tell us to drink more good red wine and perhaps a little white too; we just need to set aside a monthly budget for wine and then drink a couple of glasses at least 3 times a week. It is a medical fact that it's great for your heart, your arteries, your skin, your longevity and your general health, but is it also good for love?
With Valentine's Day just around the corner, we can help make this semi-celebration something more than just Hallmark's biggest card bonanza in the calendar. We can actually go out and look for wine that will enhance this day dedicated to love and romance.
Right off the bat, there are some great wines to choose for that special romantic occasion, whether they be good red wines or sweet succulent dessert wines for your sweetheart. In Japan, Chateau Calon-Segur from Bordeaux is the absolute favorite for their Valentine's Day, because it has the outline of a heart on the label. Although the label designer in 1826 did not really consider Valentine's Day, the thought is romantic enough to enjoy a great Bordeaux wine dedicated to love (also in the bottle!).
Since everybody loves to give chocolates or sweets to their sweeties, then perhaps the wines should appropriately match these things. There's nothing cooler than to give a box of fine chocolates and then a wine that goes along with them. It is a clear indication of being both thoughtful and having great class. Throw in a couple of quality stems of both roses and glassware and you're as good as gold with any partner. It is - one might say - the next level of Valentine's Day celebrations.
Depending on your budget, you should be looking for sweet wines like Ferrari-Carano Eldorado Noir, Castello Banfi Brachetto d'Aqui, Chambers Rosewood Special Muscat, Alois Kracher Muskat Ottonel TBA, Lake Sonoma Late Harvest Zinfandel and finally Chateau d'Yquem 1929 (super pricey!), which are all delicious with chocolate or chocolate based desserts.
Either way, you can only enhance the whole Valentine's Day experience with the addition of some delicious wine or as they said in Rome at their equivalent Bacchus festivals: Nunc Bibendum Est - Let's Drink to That!
Ah yes, it's that time of the year again. 2003 seemed to wiz by in no time at all, but maybe it's just that we've been indulging in so many great wines and champagnes during this hectic year, that it all seems like a flash in the bottle.
There's a new exciting event in town called Lee's Wine Experience and it will be held on November 22nd at the Treasure Island (now called T.I.) Hotel & Casino. It will involve some 80 wineries and suppliers pouring more than 300 wines and holiday bubblies from all over the world, so there should be more than a fair chance to discover what to buy for the busy holiday season. The whole shindig is for local charities and there's even going to be a celebrity hosted wine auction, as well as a silent auction. The best part of this event, is that you get discounts on all the wines poured until the end of the year at all Lee's Discount Liquor stores, so that should more than make up for your $35 entry ticket which is for sale at all Lee's Discount Liquor locations around the Valley. See also www.leeswineexperience.com for more details.
Now, if you go there and fail to find that special wine or bubbly for the holidays, you might just look for some of the following wines:
Best wines for Thanksgiving turkey and remember that cranberry sauce is a wine killer, but the traditional stuffing is sort of neutral like the mashed potatoes and gravy.
Red: Look to great Australian Shiraz-Cabernet blends or pure Cabernets from Down Under or wines from the Cotes-du-Rhone.
White: Look for something from Chablis in Burgundy (based on Chardonnay grapes) or perhaps a German Riesling if the condiments are on the sweeter side.
Bubbly: Great Vintage Champagnes from France in vintages 1989, 1990 or 1995.
Best wines for the Xmas table and it depends what tradition you adhere to, but in general:
Red: Here you might feel patriotic and go for something in California Cabernet Sauvignons, or if you're having traditional Roast, then an old Bordeaux wine would be beautiful with it.
White: Because of all the sweets for Xmas, you should be looking for dessert wines, such as wines from Sauternes in Bordeaux, Muscat de Beaume de Venise, Late Harvest anything from California.
Bubbly: On the lighter side, you can go with an Asti Spumante which is Italian and sweet or you can go really all out and look for one of the Demi-Sec or Demi-Doux Champagnes from France.
New Years Eve is the traditional end of the year, so if you have budgeted correctly for the Holiday season, this is the time to splurge and go all out with something like this:
Red: Great Bordeaux in vintages 1982, 1986, 1989, 1990 or 1995. Great Burgundy from a Grand Cru vineyard in vintage 1985, 1989, 1990 or 1995. Great Italian wines from Tuscany or Piedmonte in vintages 1997 or 1998.
White: Something superb from Burgundy that has the name Montrachet in it from 1989, 1990, 1992 or 1996. Great Bordeaux whites like Pavillon Blanc du Chateau Margaux, Haut Brion Blanc or Blanc de Lynch Bages in 1990, 1996 or 1998.
Bubbly: The ultimate rare Champagnes, such as Krug Clos les Mesnil, Salon les Mesnil, Bollinger Vielles Vignes Francaises, La Grande Dame or Dampierre Reserve de la Famille in 1982, 1985, 1988 or 1990.
All this should get you in good shape for entering 2004 on a particularly high note. Happy Holidays.
While you're reading this article, winemakers and vineyard owners all over the Northern hemisphere are beginning to think about harvest time. In France, Germany, Spain, Italy and California as well, if the weather has been kind, the vintage could be looking great and thus harvest typically commences in early to mid-September. One place that will not enjoy this period of time is the Champagne region, that lost close to 75% of their crop during a freak spring frost and thus there will not be any 2003 vintage Champagnes ever offered. It is sort of like the James Bond movies, where he famously orders Bollinger 1957 or Dom Perignon 1969, both of which do not exist. It was apparently a decision by Albert "Cubby" Broccoli - the producer of the long running blockbuster franchise - to not have James Bond mention an available vintage, as it would completely short the market for the bubbly. Good available vintages of Bollinger would be the 1988, 1989 and 1990. For Dom Perignon you should look for 1988, 1990 and even 1995.
On the "home" front, we are just getting thrilled to see the arrival of the fabled 2000 Bordeaux vintage, with most of them now having arrived in stores around the country. It is an unprecedented vintage and wines of the highest possible quality. Even warehouse retailing giant Costco got in on this one and there's now an entire internet based "cult" who spend all their time tracking and figuring out when whatever Costco gets a case or two of the legendary wine in, only to have someone in the area pick it up literally within minutes of it arriving on the dock, let alone sit on the shelf for any period of time. I would tell you to go and try to purchase some Bordeaux 2000, but then you'd probably have a hard time finding it. If you however see any, it is a safe bet to "invest" in and just keep for 5-10 years, as the value is bound to increase dramatically over that time span, and even if you have to pay a pretty penny right now. Try to find the following Chateaux: Pichon-Lalande, Cos D'Estournel, Angelus, Fontenil, Canon La Gaffeliere, Pontet Canet and Lagrange, which should all still be "reasonably" priced.
The 2000 vintage from California was unfortunately not so "hot" and while the wines are now arriving in the market, most of them will appear overpriced and will find few buyers, thanks to some very negative press bestowed upon that vintage. There is however some outstanding wines even in this vintage and you could try to find (all Cabernet Sauvignon based blends): Clark Claudon, Etude, Chimney Rock Elevage, Quintessa or Opus One. The other way to go with the 2000's from California would be to purchase good Zinfandel wines like Robert Biale, Turley, Harrison, Hendry, Nalle, Seghesio or Raffanelli.
So while the harvest is in full swing at most vineyards, let's drink something good while we wait 3-odd years for the 2003's to come to market and don't' forget: Life is too short to drink bad wine!
Two things happen when the thermometer threatens to hit the 120 degree mark in our scorching desert summer; we have a desire to drink lighter cooler and fresher wines and we have access to the best crops of berries and fruits of the year. You may ask what these seemingly unrelated things have to do with one another, but the answer is clear: This is the best opportunity to explore the scents and senses and use that newfound knowledge to apply to your wine tasting skills. I am therefore recommending you to try a little Summer Wine Project, which in all its simplicity happens to be not only fun, but also healthy and explorative.
The idea is to find as many fruits and berries as possible in your local grocery store and they are in "true" season now, meaning they have been naturally ripened by the summer sun, instead of being tasteless and insipid greenhouse produce that have no taste, nor smell. Then once you have acquired a relatively large number of different sorts of fruits and berries, you should line them all up in bowls or on the table, then proceed to crush or mash each one and then smell the ensuing notes emanating from these fruits and berries. I think it will surprise many that relatively few fruits have any smell whatsoever when not crushed, so it is essential to go through this step. Your nose has two nostrils that can each distinguish up to 400,000 different so-called olfactory senses or smells. We don't have names for all of these things, but our brain processes the smell and we can store that information for the next wine tasting for example. When I describe a wine to have a nose of crushed black fruits of the forest, including blackberries, black currants and the like, I am really talking about the scent of these berries crushed at room temperature. You will also note that fruits that have been stored in the fridge do not have much of a smell to them, much like wines that are too cold and therefore are not "showing" all of their fruit and/or finesse. At room temperature, you will discover this new universe from a different angle than for example when we were kids and went berry picking with grandma in the forest or her backyard. I believe that when done right, you should be able to add dozens of recognizable smells to your olfactory memory "library" and when you are at the next wine tasting, it is time to call upon that memory and use the descriptors from the many different crushed fruits, whose smells you are now intricately familiar with. Failing this, you can naturally just go back to describing a wine as "interesting" with a lovely forward nose and some complexity on the palate. That sentence pretty much covers 98% of all wines you may taste and it sounds very learned to most people when employed at the right moment, but it essentially doesn't mean anything. Better learn it the hard way and that will turn out to be much more fun as well. Happy fruit and wine hunting!
Lighter, fresher and cooler wine recommendations for the hot months: Anything Pinot Grigio served at 52 degrees Fahrenheit (Lots of Italian or American ones) A French Grenache-based Rose wine, again served slightly chilled (Various producers) Alsatian Gewürztraminer from producers like Hugel, Zind-Humbrecht or Trimbach. Buy any desert wine and stick it in the freezer until it becomes slushy, then serve.
A touchy subject throughout the world, wine etiquette always seem to stir emotions, raise discussion volume and offend some individuals. That does not have to be case however. Wine etiquette is rifled with urban legends and myths about how and what to do. I aim to keep things simple and will say this: There can be only one! That is: Wine etiquette. There is only one way to hold a glass for instance; hold it by the stem, always. Why?, because if you don't, one of the following three things will happen: You will either heat the bowl of the glass up with your palm as you attempt to hold the glass by the bowl, thereby rendering the wine too warm for comfortable consumption. Or you will loose balance of the glass, as it is near impossible to attempt a proper swirl of the wine inside the glass (to get the aromas out) and finally you will not be able to admire and appreciate the color of the wine properly, as your hand is in the way. Really very logical reasons for always holding the glass by the stem. We have all seen far too many Hollywood movies and Television sit-coms where the actors pretend to drink wine or even know about wine and they almost in every single case hold the glass by the bowl, which is really a statement of them not applying the proper wine etiquette.
You have also seen the Sommelier at the restaurant carefully open the bottle in mid-air and then after uncorking it, producing the cork for you to sniff at. Do not attempt this at home! You will always want to open a bottle of wine standing firmly on a table or countertop, while you - with a solid grip around the neck of the bottle - open it. Whether you use the conventional corkscrew or a more sophisticated so-called Screw Pull device, having full control over the bottle standing straight up, is definitely preferable. Forget about smelling the cork, because unless you have world's most sophisticated nose, it won't tell you anything. Many a great wine have been uncorked with the cork smelling rather foul, moldy or vegetal, only to reveal a phenomenal wine inside and conversely, a sweet or "nice" smelling cork has revealed to contain a bottle of absolute rubbish wine, either cooked, corked or otherwise undrinkable.
There is another thing that is worth keeping in mind: A wine does not have to be old and fine for it to be decanted. You may even prefer to decant wines that are very young, because it can "open" them faster for you to enjoy. Some young wines tend to be very "tight", not revealing a whole lot on both the nose and the palate, but by pouring them out of the bottle and into another glass vessel - which does not have to be a fancy decanter - you essentially help the wine "breathe" and thereby open up all the nice flavors and scents it may have been hiding coming straight out of the bottle.
Wine etiquette is not as complex as it might seem and with a little practice, you can all be experts. Just remember that rule number one is to always hold the glass by the stem.
In a sense, we are all entertainers. That is to say, we like entertaining people, guests, family at our houses and typically we like to serve some form of alcoholic beverage, whether its beer, wine or liquor. When it comes to beer and liquor, it's very straight forward, but with wine it gets a little trickier than just going for the Red or White, also known as House Wines.
One of the things people ask me a lot, is "how do we get to the point where we can pick some 'safe' selections to serve at home?" My answer is always to follow the golden rule of wine drinking and thereby service. Large numbers of people for example like to drink a "Merlot" in red or a "Chardonnay" in white, hence these wines have become the most sold in their respective categories. But, you don't necessarily have to serve a wine made from Merlot to satisfy the taste of most people; you can quite simply go for a taste which mimics the taste of Merlot, with lots of fruit, soft tannins, medium-high alcohol and so forth. The same goes for the Chardonnay, where you can serve a white that shows plenty of fruit, like apples and pears, then with some soft, almost buttery flavors and a again a smooth finish.
We quickly discover that people like "smooth" wines. It is not pleasant for anyone to drink a wine that bites the tongue in the case of tannins in reds, or fries the taste buds with acidity in the case of whites. It is only natural that we want a pleasant experience when drinking wine, so do unto your guests what you yourself would like to drink. I can remember many times, showing up at very high-end parties and people serve very lousy wines, sometimes in plastic glasses [Horror!] You always serve wine in proper glassware, even if you have to rent it.
I am going to give you some "safe bets" in the form of wines that you can serve to guests or family alike at any upcoming occasion and although many are not expensive wines, they are superb in their respective categories, price and vintage notwithstanding. These are wines that will be loved universally by anyone who drinks wine and by people looking for that smoothness and pleasantness.
In reds, you can look for Falesco Vitiano from Umbria in Italy, Ca Del Solo Big House Red (appropriate) from Bonny Doon in California, Chateau Bernadotte from Bordeaux, Penfold's Koonunga Hill Cabernet-Shiraz Blend and Escudo Rojo from the Rothschild family in Chile.
In white, you can look for Gloria Ferrer Sonoma County Chardonnay, Robert Mondavi La Famiglia Pinot Grigio, J & F Lurton Pinot Gris from Argentina, Sokol-Blosser Evolution and Brancott Vineyards Gisborne Chardonnay from New Zealand.
I would be surprised if you get anything but compliments for serving any of these at your next party or get-together and always remember: Life is too short to drink bad wine, always use proper glassware and always hold the glass by the stem, not by the bowl. Happy entertaining.
It is a new year again and we have spent all our money over the holidays on wonderful gifts, hopefully some on great wines. What to do next? Why not go hunting for little gems on the many great wine lists or in our well-stocked wine retail stores this winter.
We have all been faced with the average 800-1000 wine list in our many nice restaurants both on and off the Strip and we tend to like to order the wines, whose names we are familiar with; hence more people seem comfortable ordering wines from California. I'd like to recommend looking beyond the names and go hunting for some real great value-for-money wines, also known as wine gems. What qualifies a wine to be in this exalted category, I hear you ask. It is quite simple, really. If a wine meets the criteria of being an outstanding quality wine that let's say retails for $20 and you can find it on a list for $40-45, then it is a great deal and a perhaps a real wine gem as well.
Then there's the no-brainer, which is Rosemary's Restaurant on W. Sahara, that every Sunday night just gives you 50% off anything on their wine list, with the exception of a small handful of wines, but their list is both interesting and they don't have Strip mark-ups on wines, so it should be absolutely easy for anyone to go in an order anything off their 300+ selection wine list. Price-wise you can't go wrong.
We again have to mention Aureole, because they just have some very esoteric things on their list and they don't beat around the bush when it comes to "moving" some of these things. There are the obvious 100 point wines (by either Wine Spectator or Robert Parker), most of which are gems just by being so highly rated by 2 respected critics, but there are also plenty of interesting wines, such as Spanish wines from Artadi, Italian wines from Allegrini or French wines from the Rhone Valley from Chapoutier. These are all gems, but also very reasonably priced on Aureole's list and you're basically drinking world-class wines at a fraction of what you pay for the "big cult" Cabernets from California, who in most cases are overpriced already from the winery.
One of the best keepers of true wine gems is Shawn LeWinter, the owner of Rosewood Grille and Alan Albert's Steakhouse, both on the Strip. Shawn's father started what can best be described as an awesome wine collection and today Shawn has a good 30,000+ bottles in the vault, many of which are exceptional gems, but also at exceptional values. His father purchased great Bordeaux wines in the 70's and early 80's at super prices and not being the greedy type, Shawn now has these on the list for under half the market value. Talk about honesty!
Believe it or not, several of the restaurants in the Bellagio actually offer some great wine gems at really great prices. In the Bellagio, there is always a fine list of wines in any of their dining establishments, but there is also the "House" list, which is a well-kept secret. In fact, in most of the Strip properties, you can always ask for the "Captain's List" or the "Hotel Master List" and these are usually stocked with super wines, some at very good prices. At Bellagio as I said, you can find wines like Cornas from the Rhone Valley in Prime Restaurant at less than $70 and this is a dream with any of their fine steaks. Likewise, even the revered Picasso restaurant has an Hermitage Blanc from 1996 for under $100 which is nothing less than a bargain. Upstairs, Circo has a screaming deal on their list in the form of one of Italy's greatest wines: La Massa Giorgio Primo Chianti at under $75.
I could go on and on, but in the end, we might want to just enjoy some of the great wine gems in the comfort of our own home and for that reason, you should always look towards a visit to Lee's Discount Liquor stores, especially on Sunset in Green Valley, Lake Mead in Summerlin and their Flamingo store, all of which have well-stocked wine cellars full of excellent deals on wines from all over the world.
Let your taste buds and sense of adventure lead the way in finding those great little wine gems and if worst comes to worst, you can always read my weekly column on Wednesdays in the Las Vegas Review Journal to get the edge in great value wine gems.
With the Holiday Season creeping up on us fast, we are all beginning to think about those special bottles of wine that we will open up with our friends and loved ones at one of the many dinner parties, Thanksgiving party or Christmas party. Traditionally, people don't necessarily drink wine for these events, but trends are changing quickly and it is now more fashionable than ever to pop that great Champagne as an aperitif or that great bottle of Chateau Palmer 1983 for a memorable Holiday dinner. This time of the year is the perfect time to splurge a little more on a good bottle of fine vintage wine or even open that special bottle you have been keeping in your wine storage or cellar for ages.
I like to tell people that life is just too short to drink bad wine. Bad wine does not necessarily mean cheap wine, but can be a number of different things. When looking at good wines, they don't need to be very expensive either; they just need to have that edge, which the "other wines" don't have. Vintage plays an important role here.
In looking for that perfect bottle of wine, it might be useful to read up on great vintages, as they provide a good guide as to the general quality level. There are small handy pocket sized vintage guides available at most wine retail stores. You can also equip yourself with that mini bible of wine, called "Hugh Johnson's Pocket Encyclopedia of Wine", published by Mitchell Beazley and found all over at a reasonable $9.99. This book contains everything you basically need to know about wine vintages. You might also visit www.winevegas.com where you'll find a huge wine vintage database, giving you the insights to the greatest vintages of basically any wine.
If we were to just quickly run down a list of desirable vintages to look for from different wine regions, which are still available in retail stores, you might want to look for Cabernet Sauvignon based wines from 1991, 1994 or 1997 from California. Here names like Robert Mondavi Reserve, Caymus and BV Georges de Latour are worth checking for. Or you could perhaps find good Chateau bottled wines from Bordeaux in vintages 1989, 1990, 1995 or 1996, where Chateau Pichon Lalande, Chateau Cos D'Estournel or even Chateau Angelus from the so-called "Right Bank", where the 1998 was also a spectacular year. The obvious big splurge choice is always the First Growths, including Chateau Lafite, Latour, Mouton Rothschild, Margaux and Haut-Brion. These wines are always great, but very pricey. Here you might want to check for something from the 1997 vintage, because while the vintage was generally not considered great, these wines are, and they're available at very reasonable prices around $150-175 per bottle in most fine wine retail stores. Finally, in Champagne, you want to get something from the 1985, 1988 or 1990 vintages and among the classics, you will find Dom Perignon, Cristal and Krug, which are all still available, but you could also go for the more reasonably priced Champagne Dampierre, which is really excellent and comes in a beautiful package for that extra special Christmas or party gift idea.
Whenever you go out to buy or drink great wines during the Holidays, just remember to look for wines from the right vintages, do a little research, as if you were buying a new car and you're basically set for a spectacular finish to the year 2002. Happy Holidays.
Las Vegas has a unique attraction for most people. Whether it is the gambling, the shows or the great restaurants, almost 40 million people choose to come here for conventions, vacationing or extravagant dinners. One of the most overlooked parts of that whole scene is the wine side. Las Vegas is now home to some very sophisticated wine lists that show a completely different side of this relatively young urban sprawl. California is still the king when it comes to wine lists here, but that is changing fast, with the ever growing popularity and availability of Australian, Spanish, Chilean and naturally the overwhelming quality selection from France, Italy and Germany.
Aureole Restaurant inside the Mandalay Bay hotel, under the guidance of its wine director Andrew Bradbury, has implemented what can easily be said to be the most sophisticated wine list in the world. They have little tablet computers with touch screens on them, containing the entire wine inventory, that enable the restaurant patron to quickly and easily find a wine for their taste and budget by pressing a few commands on the screen. The order is transmitted instantly via intranet to one of the beautiful "wine angels" that work on the ropes in the translucent wine tower and the wine is not only delivered to the guests table in a matter of minutes, it is also immediately added to the bill and subtracted from inventory. People can even visit their website www.ewinetower.com and pre-order the wine for their visit, as the website is a mirror image of the information and prices contained in the tablet computer wine list. The entire system is patented and Mr. Bradbury is destined for the big league, as he will become the Bill Gates of wine lists.
The Venetian is playing host to one of America's seriously big wine events on October 17-19, when Wine Spectator rolls into town with their California Wine Experience. Thursday and Friday nights are the Grand Tasting evenings, where any member of the public are invited to participate in tasting over 200 of the very top California wines from the best producers during nearly 4 hours of a free-for-all wine fest. That it naturally after you have paid the admission of $175 per person. But you are in for a superb tasting event that includes not only the greatest wines from California, but also food prepared by some top restaurants, cigars and coffee. You also get a chance to really spend time learning more about the wines and as most of the owners of the vineyards are there themselves, you can have a chat with them about their craft.
Another recent addition to Las Vegas is Lee's Wine Club, where members either receive or pick up two really interesting and often very hard to find wines that are not sold anywhere else in Nevada. In addition, club members have exclusive membership offers backed by the vast selections at the Lee's retail stores and even earn club points when buying wines at the various Lee's locations. Check out www.leeswineclub.com for more information. It is a great concept known from both the East and West coasts, but now that is here, it moves Las Vegas a little closer to being considered seriously on the wine map.
Most people who are told that there is a winery not more than 50 miles from the heart of Las Vegas, would dismiss it as a mere joke or at best a great fantasy story. Not only is there a winery just across the mountains in the Mojave Desert called Pahrump Valley Vineyards, but there is also now a real vineyard growing on 3 acres of some of the most prized land in the Las Vegas Valley. Let me clarify that: The owners of Green Valley Ranch Casino, which is 50% owned by the Station Casino chain and 50% by the Greenspun Group, decided that part of the landscaping in front of the beautiful property overlooking the entire valley and city, should have something as authentic as a real growing vineyard.
Pahrump Valley Vineyards was founded by Jack Sanders who was looking for a place in the desert to make wine. Knowing full well the proximity that Pahrump had to Las Vegas with its 38+ million visitors a year, Jack Sanders had a great idea. He would build a winery right in the middle of the desert, but would not have to pay the outrageous sums of money they charge for acreage in California and he would get tons of visitors. He based his entire venture on a vision and a feasibility study which shows that you could indeed produce wine here. Some 50 years earlier, a couple of settlers had tried their luck with growing vines in the Pahrump Valley, but needless to say, it was a miserable result and it never got any further. Jack Sanders thought that he could make it work and although attempts to grow actual vines with useable grapes are still not happening to the standards of modern winemaking, he now imports the grape juice from Californian vineyards and makes the wine right there at the winery in Pahrump. Although it might not qualify for real Nevada Appellation wine, it is still wine made in Nevada. The primary and secondary fermentations, called alcoholic and malolactic fermentations take place in the winery, as well as maceration, ageing, fining, filtration and finally bottling. They have a number of different varietals, all of which are interesting in their own right, but none of them would make it very far if they were actually grown there in the desert. There are naturally the old favorites, such as Merlot, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon varietal wines, but then there's also wines like Desert Blush, which presumably must be White Zinfandel, and Symphony, which is made from a little known and rather obscure white grape varietal. There's even a Burgundy, which would be a Pinot Noir and then a Sherry, which is fortified and made in the traditional style, whereby the wine's primary fermentation (sugar converted to alcohol) is "arrested" with the use of a pure spirit, such as brandy or grain spirit. It is a tremendous line-up of different wines and they are all for sale at the winery for between $7 and $16 per bottle and also in Las Vegas retail stores such as Lee's Discount Liquors for about the same. Pahrump Valley Vineyards will even create a bottle with your personalized label on it and have many fun gifts for sale in their showroom. They also do free tours on a daily basis. To book, call 1-800-368-WINE.
Back in Las Vegas and the Green Valley Ranch Casino sits high up in the foothills of Black Mountain at the very South of Green Valley, next to the new beltway at I-215. It is an impressive property, which is not only well designed, but full of cool and happening restaurants and clubs. The most striking feature, without a doubt, is the outdoor pool area, designed by Michael Czysz for Rande Gerber, the famous nightclub owner, who operates the trendy Drop Bar in the middle of the Casino and the hip Whiskey Sky. Outside of that club, is the most beautiful looking pool area in Las Vegas, dubbed Whiskey Beach and surrounded by a 3 acre vineyard. This vineyard is completely integrated into the surrounding landscaping and is professionally planted with actual growing vines, which will one day yield good fruit to be made into an undoubtedly interesting wine. The vineyard at Green Valley Ranch was planted by a serious wine consultant from Napa Valley and although it was difficult to get in touch with him for this article, it is believed to be a grape varietal called Alicante Bouchet. It is a grape varietal most suited to desert growing, as the vines flower, bear fruit and mature quite fast, on account of the harsh, dry and scorching desert temperatures in the summer. As the vines were planted "from scratch", meaning brand new baby vines and not grafts on existing rootstocks, it will probably be about 4-5 years before any serious wine can be made out of it. I showed the vineyard to a couple of top Bordeaux Chateau owners, who commented on how interesting it was to see these little vines growing with such a tremendous view of Las Vegas. Said one of them: "If they tend it right and ensure that only one bunch per year of the age of each vine is left after pruning, they should be able to make a decently drinkable wine in 4 years' time". While we wait for that to happen, we can enjoy a glass of Pahrump Valley wine and look forward to the day when we can drink Green Valley wine.
The connection between Bordeaux in France and Las Vegas has grown stronger in recent months with the opening of the Caudalie Spa inside Sterling Club at Turnberry Place, close to the Convention Center. Hailed as the first spa of its kind in the United States, specializing in Vinotherapy, Les Sources Caudalie is not just your average spa; it is an alluring and interesting health spa, devoted to the life-enhancing and anti-ageing qualities of French wine. More specifically the qualities found in the skins and seeds of the red grapes from the well-known Bordeaux Chateau Smith Haut-Lafitte, owned by Florence & Daniel Cathiard. Their oldest daughter Mathilde graduated with a degree in business and quickly found a way to use the by-product of her parents' vineyard to create a brand name and line of cosmetics, called Caudalie, all based on and made exclusively from the beneficial qualities found in the antioxidants called polyphenols which are a natural part of red grape skins and seeds (pips). Caudalie is in itself a vinous term referring to a measure for wine's aftertaste on the palate. As the cosmetics line began to take of and soon surpass the turnover of the winery itself, the idea was born to create the world's first "wine spa" - a health resort where visitors could feel encouraged to not only drink wine, but also soak in it, wrap up in it and apply it on their skin as part of a vino-therapeutic experience for the body and mind. The principles of Vinotherapy are quite simple in their premise and can naturally also be quite delicious to indulge in. As has now been firmly established by highly respected research papers, wine is very good for you in all sorts of ways, from helping promote a healthy heart and blood vessels to anti-ageing qualities and great to imbibe as a beverage. One of the most powerful anti-oxidants is the grape skin pigment known as polyphenols, which has now been shown to inhibit the production of a peptide called endothelin-1, a potent blood vessel constrictor that contributes to the hardening of the arteries.
Sterling Club at Turnberry Place, which houses the Caudalie Spa, is an entirely new "look and feel" for Las Vegas, mostly famous for its extravagant and luxurious mega-hotel casino and resorts. It is built in the style of an old-world mansion with magnificent inside decorations featuring Carrara marble floors, mahogany wood paneled rooms and ornate ceilings with the most exquisitely tasteful frescoes. There are a couple of beautifully appointed bars, one with the feel of an old English Club and another with an elegant turn-of-the-century French feel. There is a large gorgeous dining room where many great dishes and wines are available to club members and there is even a great Board Room where private dinner parties can be held. In the basement is where Caudalie Spa is located and it looks and feels like a million dollars right from the moment you set foot in it, till how you feel after having gone through a reinvigorating Vinotherapy treatment. Sterling Club and thereby the Caudalie Spa is only open to members or residents of one of the high-rise Turnberry place condominium towers. Memberships currently run at $5,000 and are expected to go up with time and can therefore be said to be a pretty decent investment. It is also the first city club in Las Vegas to offer the kind of amenities they do.
Another interesting fact about all this, is that it has also been discovered that the answer to the so-called "French Paradox" lies within wine and its beneficial qualities. Americans had long wondered how an entire nation of high-fat diet based on hearty buttery dishes, bread and other cholesterol-laden foods, would not cause the French to have a high propensity for heart disease, but the difference lay in the wine consumption. As Americans are now drinking a lot more wine per capita than even ten years ago and most of it red, there is good reason to believe that we will see a decrease in heart disease in this country. If the Caudalie Spa takes off and lays the foundation of a chain of such Vinotherapy spas, then we can also assume that we will not only feel healthier and thinner, but also look it. I have often traveled in the Bordeaux region for regular wine tastings and visits to some of the famous properties and marveled over the great look of the Chateau owners, especially their facial skin. I know of many well-known Bordeaux ladies in their 70's and 80's who look at least 20 years younger on account of their daily intake of high quality wine from their vineyards.
The treatments offered at the new Caudalie spa in the Sterling Club are the exact same as are offered at the original Les Sources Caudalie in Bordeaux. There are the all-over Body Wraps which contains wine yeast extracts, herbs and fine honey to improve the skin and the body. Then there are the Wine Baths, which feature a by product of fresh grapes called 'marc' which also contains essential oils and mineral-rich hot spring water. Next is the Grape Pip Massage, where skilled masseuses will apply grape pip oil in the form of exfoliating facial scrubs and body lotions designed to retard the skin ageing process by neutralizing free radicals absorbed through pollution, dust, sunlight and second-hand smoke. There is a health bar where they serve herbal teas enriched with grape pip polyphenols, which will help restore the body and finally there is the age-old and well-tested method of simply drinking a couple of glasses of delicious red Smith Haut-Lafitte daily as a precaution against heart disease, strokes, stress, Alzheimer's and late onset diabetes. The choice is yours, but if you adhere to the old motto of: "Life is too short to drink bad wine", then you should at the very least feel pretty good about yourself.
A new year is upon us and it is time to look forward to drinking exciting selections from the great wine regions of the world. As many of us promised ourselves at New Year to stay true to our credo of "life is too short to drink bad wine", we must go on the hunt for undiscovered, delicious offerings and what better place to start off the year than to look to the New World.
New World wines are becoming increasingly interesting. We know the Old World wines as those who come from France, Italy, Spain and Germany; in other words Europe, where quality wine has been made for thousands of years. It was the European settlers who left the continent to go in search of untold riches, bringing with them many of their eating and drinking habits and in most cases, curiously enough, vine cuttings or budding little vines, planting them wherever they went. This resulted in new viticultural areas being established in places like South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, California, Chile and Argentina. In most cases the vines they planted were the well-known French varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, but also Syrah, Malbec and Riesling made it to new areas. These areas are collectively called the New World and the wines made here are called New World wines.
What is interesting about the development in the quality of these wines is that they have almost followed the same path as their Old World brethren, becoming better and better as time has gone by. That is not to say that the wines have become better with age, since many are not that age worthy (yet), but the winegrowing areas and their soils have been developing, aided by new technology, to such a degree, that they can give some of their Old World "cousins" a real run for the money. Prime examples of this can be found in primarily California and Australia, but also Chile and certain areas of Spain breaking with old traditions, are coming along nicely. I thought I would focus on these great wines, to give you a sense of the quality now being produced outside of the traditionally held high in esteem areas such as Bordeaux, Burgundy and Tuscany.
Starting in California, a near revolution in winemaking techniques and investment, strongly aided by the almost insatiable domestic American market, has produced a number of highly regarded and highly priced wines, some even being afforded the status of so-called "cult" wines. This is something which has largely been happening within the last 10-12 years, although always great California Cabernet Sauvignon based wines, such as Robert Mondavi, Heitz Martha's Vineyard, BV Georges de Latour, Diamond Creek and Dunn have been benchmarks for top wine production in California for up to 100 years. Along the road over 20 years ago came Caymus, Opus One, Dominus and Rubicon, followed by the now latest addition and pricey over-hyped wines such as Bryant, Grace, Colgin, Screaming Eagle, Dalla Valle, Shafer and Araujo fetching upwards of $500 per bottle wholesale!
In Australia it has been a similar occurrence of there being only a couple of wines considered truly great up until about 8-10 years ago. It all started with the legendary Grange Hermitage (now only Grange) and then Henschke's Hill of Grace. Then came Penfold's Bin wines, Leeuwin Estate, Hill of Content and D'Arenberg paving the way for the illustrious modern "blockbuster" wines such as the extremely pricey wines of Jim Barry and Astralis being made in very limited productions with an almost fanatical group of followers prepared to pay almost anything to get them. Arguably the biggest success down under has been the adaptation of the famous Syrah grape varietal, best known from the Rhone Valley in Southeastern France, where it has been the backbone of the famous Hermitage and other top Cote-du-Rhone wines. In Australia it is now called Shiraz despite being genetically identical to its French sibling, with the exception being that it accounts for some of the greatest modern day wines made in that country and has also proven to be thoroughly age worthy.
New Zealand has had the greatest success with white grape varietals, primarily the Sauvignon Blanc, but also to some extent the Chardonnay, making good to outstanding wines in areas such as Marlborough, Gisborne and Hawke's Bay. The Sauvignon Blanc wines from Marlborough on the Northern tip of the Southern Island are some of the most fragrant and fruit laden in the world and top estates such as Cloudy Bay, Goldwater, Nobilo and Stoneleigh have proven that it is possible to produce notable wines in this rugged and cool climate.
All told, the wines mentioned above are certainly worth seeking out and if you don't mind paying a pretty penny for them, it is entirely possible you will be turned on to the New World style of winemaking, which is tantamount to huge extraction, big black fruit and super oaky palate pleasers, made to be drunk young and give you a big bang for the buck literally. The alternative is naturally to stick to the known quantity of complex, elegant and classic wines from Bordeaux, Burgundy or Tuscany. The choice is yours!
Soon the holidays will be upon us again and it is time to look at what wines we would most want to be drinking this time of the year.
Let us begin with that great storied Thanksgiving dinner at the end of November, where we traditionally serve turkey with all its stuffing and accoutrements. Many people do not drink wine on thanksgiving, which is certainly strange, although it can be hard to choose what goes with this type of food. The immediate choice is to have something that can balance out all the sweetness of the potatoes and the richness of the gravy, the tartness of the cranberry sauce and then the relative neutrality of the turkey itself. For this we need to look at the red wines made from the Pinot Noir grape, which when it is at its best, meaning from its origins in Burgundy, can do service to all of the above. Great wines from Burgundy (especially Grand Cru) have a certain delicate nature that makes them too fine for a big steak for instance, but for the turkey it should work wonders. There's also enough body and structure in these wines to perfectly compliment the gravy, the potatoes and even the cranberry sauce. Look for wines made by the venerable houses of Louis Latour, Joseph Drouhin or Comtes de Lafon. The best vintages of red burgundies recently are the 1985, 1989, 1990 and 1996's.
Another choice here may be to look at a wine from Alsace in the Northeastern part of France. Here we find wines made primarily from Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris grapes. They are white wines that show great complexity at their best with wonderful fruit and again enough acidity to stand up to the rich thanksgiving food. Again, the Grand Cru designated wines are naturally best, with producers such as Trimbach, Zind-Humbrecht and Hugel leading the pack. Most Alsace wines are available in recent vintages only, so look for 1996, 1995 and 1994's if they're available.
Once Christmas rolls around in December, we have recovered from the feasting of thanksgiving and are now ready for new food and wine adventures again. Christmas food may be turkey, ham or prime rib, but the common denominator for them all is not so much the main course, it is all the different traditional accoutrements that go along with it. It is however a time of the year for great celebration and this is when we should be pulling out that old bottle, we may have saved for a special occasion or perhaps fork out some extra money on a great bottle of wine. Depending on what food we eat, there is naturally a plethora of choices, but in order to look for something really good, we need to visit the Bordeaux section of the wine store. Here you should be looking for the great red Grand Cru Classe wines from the communes of Pauillac, Margaux, St. Estephe and St. Julien, all in the Medoc area in vintages 1982, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1990 or 1995. Also there are the great wines of Pomerol and St. Emilion, which you should be looking for in vintages 1989, 1990, 1995 or 1996 depending on what age you want on your wine of choice.
Another typical tradition for the festive season, and again because of all the sweet foods and goodies, is to drink Port wines. Port wine is a fortified wine from Portugal, made under strict traditional guidelines from fine wines that go through fermentation and then at the point where the wine is still sweet with grape sugar, but not yet real wine, brandy is poured over the mix to "arrest" the further development of the wine as such. This retains the sugar levels in the wine and now adds alcohol, making it a so-called Fortified Wine. There are different levels of Ports in the market, but the best are the Vintage Ports. You should look for wines made by Taylor-Fladgate, Dow, Warre or Croft in vintages such as 1963, 1970, 1977, 1985 and 1994.
Finally, there is the big year-end celebration of New Years Eve. The classic drink for this night of revelry and celebration is clearly Champagne, meaning wine made in the Champagne region of France and not anywhere else. There are many producers of wonderful sparkling wines around the world, but none match the richness, style and classic proportions of real Champagne. It is a tiny area Northeast of Paris with the villages of Reims, Epernay and Ay being the center for the production of the greatest Champagnes. Again the finest and rarest for this special occasion are the vintage champagnes from such renowned houses as Bollinger, Dom Perignon, Louis Roederer, Krug, Salon and Tattinger among others. The current vintage released is the 1994 in most cases, but go hunting for the legendary 1982's, the 1985's and the 1989's & 1990's. When you find these and have been drinking the other great wines throughout the holidays, you know you are going to finish this first year of the new Millennium in style.
The year is slowly beginning to change into fall and now is the time to get serious about wines we are tasting and drinking, so that we know what to serve once the holiday season is upon us. It is pretty clear from statistics that most wine is sold at both restaurant and retail level in the last 3-4 months of the year and there are not only the holidays involved, but also people's savvy. We taste and drink wines throughout the year, but we tend to be more mindful about what we drink once the season gets real "serious". We want to show our best wines during this time of the year, as we now know what we should be drinking, tasting and serving. This brings to mind the fact that there is serious fashion in wine as well. There are wines considered the Haute Couture of the wine business and then there are high fashion wines. Some of these get picked out during the year and some are always great favorites. They have one thing in common however; they are all highly rated (as in points awarded to them on a scale of 100) and they are pricey.
Las Vegas is on the cutting edge of these wines, not just because we have over 35 million visitors a year here and any wine shown to that many people, must be good for the marketing and PR aspects of it. No, we also have some of the great restaurants in this country and being what they are in many cases, which is expensively decorated, lavish and able to sell more wine than most other places in the nation, they are the perfect placement target for these so-called fashionable wines. In the better restaurants in Las Vegas, they can sell over $4 million worth of wine in any given year and that is tough to find elsewhere. It's not just the extensive and often fabulous wine lists that make this happen. It is the high level of wine service and knowledge behind coming up with the great "cult" wines that everyone is looking to experience on a trip to a given high-class restaurant and the very fact that they are available and often at prices which are below market price.
In the fashionable/Haute Couture wine category, there are several sub-categories. One is definitely "Cult" wines from California, which is close by Las Vegas and most people, have either heard about them or know about them from the high ratings they have been getting. They include such wines as Harlan, Grace Family, Araujo Eisele, Shafer, Biale, Dalla Valle, Screaming Eagle and more, all in the best vintages, such as 91, 94 and 97 especially now.
Then there are the Great Classics that are always in fashion, where most come from Bordeaux and naturally include the First Growths from the Medoc or "Left Bank", such as Latour, Lafite, Mouton, Haut-Brion and Margaux, but there should definitely also be added to that Petrus, Cheval Blanc and Ausone from Pomerol and St.Emilion on the "Right Bank" and these have to be slightly older, with 1982 clearly being the most prestigious and available vintage to drink, then followed by 1989, 1990, 1995 and finally 1996. Although 2000 is the greatest vintage in history, we still have to wait some 10 years before we can add this to the category.
Next is wines also coming from Bordeaux, Rhone or Burgundy, but now we are talking serious "Cult" wines, such as Le Pin, La Mondotte and Tertre Roteboeuf from Bordeaux, Chateau Rayas and Hermitage from Rhone and Montrachet, anything DRC (Domaine de la Romanee Conti) or Corton from Burgundy. And what they all have in common is very limited quantities made and very high prices.
Finally, there is a category of fashionable and highly desirable wines coming from Italy (especially Tuscany and Piedmont), Spain (Ribeira del Duero and Priorat), Australia and Chile. From Italy there are such illustrious names as anything made by Gaja, Solaia, Ornellaia, Sassicaia, Tignanello and Masseto, as well as a number of new up and coming wines which are characterized by being "Bordeaux blends" and known as IGT wines (generic term for Indicazione Geografica Tipica). From Spain there is the old classic and highly sought after Vega Sicilia, then Tinto Pesquera, Rioja Alta, Clos Erasmus and anything from Alvario Palacios. From Australia, the great Grange, but also Hill of Grace, Henschke, Greenock Creek and Elderton. From Chile, there is Alma Viva which is a joint venture between Rothschild and Concha y Toro and a serious wine to be drinking.
Now you got all the great names and you need to find them. Well, your best bets in Las Vegas for these and more wonderful and fashionable wines would be the following superb restaurants: Picasso at Bellagio, Valentino or Delmonico at Venetian, Aureole at Mandalay Bay, Napa at the Rio, Tremezzo at Aladdin, Renoir at Mirage and a couple of "independent" restaurants, such as Andre's French downtown, Rosewood Grille on the Strip and Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steak House on Paradise.
Happy hunting………
With summer and its high temperatures upon us, it is time to look for lighter style wines that can readily be consumed during the hotter season. It is obviously easy to rely on white wines for that sort of relief as they are typically enjoyed at a cooler temperature than reds. They also tend to be lighter in style and most people are not into heavy wines during warm temperatures. We crave something crisp and fruity, and psychologically white wines usually provide the answer to this. Many times, however, white wines are served too cold and that is unfortunately a common problem in restaurants across the board. A good idea when ordering white wine, which are usually placed in an ice bucket next to your table after the bottle has been opened and the first glass poured, is to leave it for about 10 minutes there and then insist on it being removed from the ice and placed on the table. That way you are sure the wine won't get overcooled and thereby loose its scent and flavor. The fact is that if a wine is too cold and one was blindfolded, it would be nearly impossible to tell whether it is a red or a white wine and that clearly explains why it is important for a wine to be served at a correct temperature. White wines are best served at around 53 degrees Fahrenheit and reds at around 58 degrees, with Rose wines right in the middle at 55 degrees.
Besides white wines, there are several Rose wines produced in countries with hot and arid climates. These should not be confused with White Zinfandel (known as Blush wines), which is almost exclusively a product of California and responsible for many Americans being introduced to wine drinking in the first place. No, these Rose wines are typically made from grape varietals that are not only red, but also most commonly associated with big powerful and long-lived red wines. They include Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Cinsault and perhaps a Spanish version named Garnacha. The best come from southern France and some are even made in California and Australia. Rose wines should also be served slightly chilled and have a tendency to be excellent with almost anything eatable.
Let's us take a closer peek at what we should be looking for in terms of wines to drink both for home consumption and in the restaurants. Las Vegas is a very warm and dry during this time of the year and we need to start with some good crisp dry white wines, such as wines made from Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio. The greatest Sauvignon Blanc wines in the world are arguably from the southern part of Bordeaux, in an area called Pessac-Leognan. Here we can find brilliant examples of elegant and rich wines that go well with lighter fare such as seafood, chicken, cheese and even fruits. Great ones include such big names as Chateau Haut-Brion, Domaine de Chevalier and Smith Haut-Lafitte, all usually available from restaurants with big wine lists, such as Valentino, Aureole and Rosewood Grille. Other very good white wines made from Sauvignon Blanc are from New Zealand, including Cloudy Bay, Wairau Peaks and Nobilo, which are widely available in both finer wine retail stores, such as Lee's Discount Liquors and also in select restaurants, such as Prime or Aqua at Bellagio, Delmonico or Lutece at Venetian and Emeril's New Orleans Fish House at MGM Grand.
You might also want to look for wines made from Pinot Grigio, a crisp and dry, yet very fruity and lovely wine typically made in Italy, but now also made very well in California and other places. Look for the world's best selling Pinot Grigio Santa Margherita or the excellent Peter Zemmer Pinot Grigio from Italy, or go hunting for Robert Mondavi La Famiglia Pinot Grigio from California, which is a wonderful example of a successful adaptation of this grape varietal to American soil. All of these are available widely in fine dining restaurants on The Strip and also available in most retail stores.
Great Rose wines are typically found in the Provence area of France, where many inexpensive and tasty examples can be enjoyed with the delicious seafood specialties served there throughout the summer. Several of these have made it to the shores of this country and although they are not typical finds on a wine list here in Las Vegas, there are still some available in restaurants such as Mon Ami Gabi or Eiffel in Paris Las Vegas Hotel, or downtown at Andre's French Restaurant, where they carry a few selections. In California they have also been experimenting with this type of wine, again as mentioned not a blush, but rather a nice blended Provence style rose wine. The best example of this, is the interesting and inexpensive Vin Gris de Cigare from Bonny Doon Vineyard. This is a superb example of how well Syrah and Grenache in particular, adapt so well to the climate of California. The wine is fruity, yet dry and very thirst quenching served chilled on a hot summer night, especially with anything Pasta or Salad, perhaps even meat grilled on the barbeque and is available widely in both wine retail stores and restaurants in Las Vegas. Altogether it should not be difficult for you to find one of these wines to enjoy during this time, whether you are just looking for something to drink at home with a light meal or you may be finding yourself scrutinizing one of the great wine lists Las Vegas' restaurants are now becoming so famous for.
It’s time to take a closer look at what really makes great wine work. When we go out and about in restaurants and bars ordering from among the enormous selections that we have now become accustomed to here in Las Vegas, we need guidance and insight. Most people tend to go for grape varietal first, then price and finally the name on the bottle, such as producer, label or bottler. In terms of grape varietals, in this country, Chardonnay is the most ordered wine, followed by White Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon and then Merlot. It is all right to order by varietal, but it also says something about the style of wine that we like. There is an education process involved in moving from ordering by varietal until we get to the stage where we effortlessly can place a wine order with a sommelier or wine professional using the name of the producer, Chateau, vineyard or the like. One cannot expect the average wine drinking person to be able to decipher a wine list that at least contains some 200 selections, as is the case in most restaurants, but often up to 2,000 selections. Here the sommelier acts as a guide through the maze of wine selections, but wouldn’t it just be great to be able to at least identify a couple of great bottles on the list and then order by name? It is certainly not too hard to imagine that once you have identified the grape varietal you like, such as Merlot or Chardonnay depending on whether you lean more towards drinking white or red wine, that you then start taking note of the names of the wines you are being offered or guided towards. I know from personal experience that it is perhaps not a bad idea to take some small notes of the wine you select or get offered in a restaurant and then you can either have a small pocket book with these notes, or consolidate it into a larger more comprehensive book. All this gives you a good idea of the different wines that you have consumed and can help steer you in the right direction in the future. There are some restaurants that list wines by grape varietal first, then divided into red and white and finally by country, such as Spago in the Forum Shops, Postrio in the Venetian and Trattoria del Lupo in Mandalay Bay. The common denominator is that Wolfgang Puck and his partners own them all and the wine lists have been complied by Greg Harrington, who is their resident Master Sommelier. His approach is that people know the taste of a particular grape varietal and will thus order their wines accordingly.
Another great wine program and perhaps one of the finest in the world right now, is that of the Bellagio overseen and put together by Jay James, the Director of Wine. All the restaurants in the Bellagio are essentially connected through their wine programs, as they are all owned by MGM-Mirage, but operated by different famous restaurateurs and chefs. Starting with a huge master list, Jay James and his team has assembled an eclectic and interesting group of wines, now numbering well over 900 selections. Each restaurant has had their wine list tailored from this master list and has a number of wine selections specific to their particular type of cuisine added individually. Great restaurants such as Picasso, Prime, Le Cirque, Osteria del Circo, Aqua and Olives all in the Bellagio has a number of wines that are all the same throughout. The lists are mostly organized in the classic style with color, country, region and producer as is the case in Picasso, Le Cirque and Prime to the more mundane by color and grape varietal in Olives and Aqua. Again, each list has been based on the savvy of their clientele and the skills of the wine professionals working there. Taking a cue from David Maffey, Manager of Wine and the right hand person to Jay James, there is a nice Newton Red Label Chardonnay 1999 from Napa Valley that they believe is a great expression of that particular grape varietal and thus available in all the restaurants. In Cabernet Sauvignon there is the Robert Mondavi Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1997 and the BV Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon 1997, both tremendous and powerful as representatives of that varietal. Interestingly there is also the Robert Michel Cuvee de Coteaux Cornas 1996 from the Rhone Valley which is a Syrah based red wine and a fine well-priced example of great classic Syrah, as well as the E. Guigal Condrieu 1996, which is a soft fragrant expression of a white wine made from Viognier grapes. There is the Ceretto Barolo 1996 from Piedmonte in Italy, being an excellent statement for that particular and superior red grape varietal known as Nebbiolo. Also, the Fontodi Chianti Classico 1997 from Tuscany is a marvelous wine for money and a great example of good Sangiovese grapes. Finally, the Bertagna Marsannay 1999 from the Cote de Nuits in Burgundy is an outstanding wine in its class and a most interesting and expressive example of Pinot Noir made in a rose or blush style. As mentioned, any of these wines can be ordered and recommended in all of the restaurants at Bellagio, so all that remains is to wish you happy hunting!
Many who read about wine tasting wonder what it would be like to taste more than 200 top wines in one week in the greatest wine growing area in the world. Every year around this time of year, the world's top wine journalists and trade people, descend on Bordeaux in the Southwest region of France and arguably the greatest wine producing area for quality wine in quantity in the world. They come to sample young unfinished wine in half bottles tapped straight from the vats at each Chateau winery and try to predict with more or less accuracy what this young wine will turn into. I am there to try and get a feel for what Las Vegas will want to drink in the next few years. It is not only the 2000 vintage that will be on display, but also the 1999 in its second year in barrels and 1998's that are now being bottled and getting ready to be shipped to the market.
There is always a lot of talk about whether the harvest and thereby the vintage in question is more successful on the "Left Bank" or the "Right Bank". The Left Bank refers to the Medoc Peninsula North of Bordeaux and includes St. Estephe, Pauillac, St. Julien, Margaux and smaller appellations. The Right Bank refers to the area in the vicinity of Libourne, East of Bordeaux and includes predominantly the St. Emilion and Pomerol appellations. Finally, one must consider the Graves area to the immediate south of Bordeaux as well as Sauternes, which produces late harvest sweet wines.
The 2000 harvest was "easy" according to Jean-Guillaume Prats, President and CEO of Chateau Cos D'Estournel, who on a recent visit to Las Vegas, was able to show samples of his 1998 vintage, as we were one of the first places in the US to experience it bottled. He further said that the 2000 Bordeaux vintage is going to be one of the great classic ones and perhaps able to rival the great '45, '61 or '82's. The incredible weather in August and September with high temperatures and lots of sun makes the 2000 vintage one of the rare occasions where all of the appellations have experienced extraordinary harvest conditions and thus will produce monumental wines.
As most of the Chateaux in the Medoc use a majority of Cabernet Sauvignon, whose qualities and ripeness are all-important for the wines, as well as a percentage of Merlot, there's a lot to look forward to here. In St. Emilion and Pomerol, despite some early adverse weather having affected some of the greatest estates, the wines are going to be gorgeous and concentrated, following up on that 1998 blockbuster year in fine style. Graves will again produce superb wines, with the top ones such as Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion being fantastic. Sauternes, which includes Chateau Yquem, harvests its grapes much later in the season and has again got incredibly concentrated fruit and will make marvelous wines, comparable to the greatest vintages.
It might indeed be worth buying into Bordeaux futures this year, which means that you can buy the wines starting from next month, 2 ½ years in advance of their release and make a bet that your investment into them has been a sound one. This has been a very successful way to buy Bordeaux wines and one of the better investments one could have made, with the right wines naturally. For the 2000 vintage, there will be an offering available locally through Lee's Discount Liquor stores, who just got into this business last year. They even have some 1999 wines left that are still available as futures. Most of the hotels and restaurants wait for the wines to come out and then are more concerned with offering the customers readily drinkable wines from older vintages, while they keep the younger ones for later "releases" in their establishments.
Las Vegas has seen its fair share of visits from Bordeaux recently, with Owners from Chateau Pichon Lalande, Cos D'Estournel, Angelus, Pontet-Canet, Lafon-Rochet, Smith Haut-Lafitte, Gazin, Canon La-Gaffeliere, Branaire-Ducru and many more having visited our exciting city and presented their latest vintages, as well as some rare old ones. We are involved in a concerted effort to show them and Bordeaux that Las Vegas is now truly making a serious mark on the world map of wine and is a force to be reckoned with in buying, selling and drinking their beautiful wines. In addition, the pairing of their wines with some of the world class cuisine that Las Vegas has to offer, represent an exciting prospect for the future and the continued growing reputation we have as a wine and dine destination.
Much has been written about Las Vegas as one of the greatest wine & dine destinations in the United States, but arguably the majority of the stories have focused on the incredible number of top chefs and their restaurants that have steadily opened up here. What about the wine side? Many people have asked me and legitimately so, if the wine scene has kept pace with the dining scene. Having been out in the Las Vegas market and studied the wine lists of all the major restaurants and seen the growth of wine selections in smaller establishments that opened up with a conservative and rather cautious list, only to rapidly expand the number of wines offered, I think I can comment with some authority on the subject.
The realization for many restaurant operators has been that, not only are people coming in droves for the superb food, they are also here to enjoy great wines with that food as part of the experience. Pioneering the foray into having a quality wine list with depth, is Andre's French Restaurant in downtown Las Vegas. The owner, Andre Rochat has not only built what I believe to be the only underground temperature and humidity controlled cellar in Las Vegas, maintaining a constant and ideal 55 Fahrenheit and 70%, but did so already in the early 80's. That was way ahead of the pack and at a time when most people would come here for buffets and cheap well drinks. Little did anybody know that he was right on the money and not only that, but he was buying great wines for his collection when they were very cheap. That is why you can find selections such as the remarkable Chateau Pichon-Lalande 1975 for under $180 on their wine list, which I consider the broadest and most in-depth in Las Vegas when it comes to French wines.
Now the greatest wine lists in Las Vegas, apart from Andre's are found at Piero Selvaggio's Valentino Restaurant in the Venetian Hotel with more than 1,400 selections and perhaps one of the best offerings of Italian wines anywhere. Look for an excellent Falesco Vitiano by the glass in the bar and ask for a bottle of Chateau Canon La-Gaffeliere 1996 from St. Emilion to go along with that beautiful Lamb they serve. Also, Napa Restaurant in The Rio where a massive collection of wines, mainly from auctions and worth maybe as much as $15 million was accumulated, where they have almost too many wines by the glass at the bar, but the Caymus Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1996 is excellent by the glass and you should be able to find a special price on Chateau Cos D'Estournel 1995 on the list. Then there is Aureole inside Mandalay Bay and home to the famed glass wine tower and a very extensive list of rather unusual and exotic wines numbering over 2,000. Here you might just feel like trying a bottle of Chateau Lafon-Rochet 1996 for the main course and then finish off your meal with an excellent sweet Trockenbeerenauslese from Alois Kracher among a number of Austrian wines. Also worth a mention, is the interesting list of wines found at the Rosewood Grille across from Treasure Island on The Strip. It is an old and well-reputed surf n'turf establishment run by the LeWinter family for over 40 years. They were also buying great wines for their sizeable cellar and laying them away for the future and that's why you have to look for the remarkable Chateau Lafleur 1976 from Pomerol, that at under $100 is a steal of a deal with dinner.
Yes indeed, the wine scene has changed rapidly in Las Vegas over the past 3-5 years, but there's still much more to come. As more people arrive here expecting to be able to maintain their current lifestyle, from places like New York, Los Angeles or Washington DC, they also begin to look for depth in the selection of wines to go with their food. It is only appropriate that the proprietors of other fine dining establishments in Las Vegas, currently offering extensive but “narrow” wine selections, discover that they need to build a much broader list beyond California wines and famous labels. We will see one day in the near future where Las Vegas is not only the undisputed dining capital of America, but also the wine list king of the continent. A Las Vegas, where you can have almost any wine from anywhere across a wide spectrum of restaurants and at prices that make people consider Las Vegas a definite destination in the World of Wine.
