विन में दिने में, लोदी विन, रॉक न रोल विन, विन इन लॉस Vegas

Las Vegas wine info.,
California wine experience educates a wino-newbie.

(wine in Las Vegas, inexpensive wine info., California
wine mention)


Wine me dine me.
By Christine A. Justice,
aka
Xtine

Freshly back from a vacation to the central and central-northern California
coast, I'm inspired by wine. I'd like to wine about wine a bit.
Over 90% of the wine that is produced in the USA is grown in California.
As soon as you drive over the state line from Nevada to California you may notice there are billboards for vineyards,
you see the farms with the vineyards of grapes everywhere the eye can see from the highways, and you note there is much media attention given to the home-grown crop in California.
Once I made it to the midway destination of our summer California trip, the in-laws, with the kiddos in tow, I decided to make a quick trip over to the Grocery Outlet to pick up a few things so I wouldn't negatively impact the 'food bank' of the family. While there I thought "Well I should probably buy some wine to go with dinner. Maybe I'll get some California wine since it's grown here." I found myself wondering if it was too good to be true that a wine that cost $3.99 could be good or award-winning like the store's signage stated, but I shrugged it off and said what the heck. Diabolique Merlot of 2007 from E2 Family wine of Lodi, California with the artistry of Chris Spencer on the label was the wine that I purchased and brought home to sip. The kids made fun of mom and her $3.99 wine.
While we were on our many cities and activities family vacation I caught a glimpse of an article in a Sacramento newspaper that reported that for a second time a wine that costs $1.99 in retail outlets won the highest awards. The article stated that there are many wines less than $30.00 that win awards. I started to think. Think about wine. Laugh out loud about the film "Sideways" where the actor Paul Giamatti says "I'm not drinking f*)k)ng Merlot!" I also thought about the stand-by wines in-case-someone-comes-for-dinner-unexpectedly, the 2 buck chuck wines from Trader Joe's that we keep on-hand. I really thought about the saying that the best wine is one that tastes good to you.
We're getting a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood market in our neighborhood to replace where the Rite Aid pharmacy has closed down. I wondered what type of store Fresh & Easy Neighborhood market is. After doing a bit of research on the "2 buck chuck" types of wine, I have learned that Fresh & Easy is like Trader Joe's. Yeah! It's going to be great to dash over to our Fresh & Easy to get some inexpensive wine. I browsed the blog for the chain, which is part of a company called Tesco. I noticed that Fresh & Easy claims to use a Master of wine to choose their wines. Apparently there are fewer than 300 Master of wines world-wide. They sell about 65 types of wine, many of which are less than $30 a bottle and two that are only $2.99 a bottle in their stores in Nevada and Arizona. In California the same wines sell for $1.99. I can only imagine that it's due to the competition from so many wineries in California that contributes to the price reduction.
While doing some research for this blog posting I ran across an interesting web site called "Appellation America." I learned that "Appellation" means "Origin."
The web site is dedicated to informing the public about the over 300 officially designated wine regions in North America. That wine may seem confusing to people because it's known in this preferred order: Appellation/ Origin, Producer, then grape.
Not to mention price and paring with cuisine. And Awards!
With many drinks dished out in the state of Nevada, something like $50 billion worth annually state-wide I wondered what the wine drinking scene is like in Las Vegas. I have had the privilege of tasting some great wines at a few local charity events such as Taste of The Nation in The Las Vegas Convention Center, a benefit for Share Our Strength food program, Splendor in the Glass, a benefit for KLVX, Las Vegas' PBS station, and UNLVino has been doing an event for scholarships and higher education philanthropy in Las Vegas for 32 years(usually in May).
For locals and tourists alike there is a valuable resource in the local media to help guide you to where the wine is by way of The Las Vegas Review-Journal's Gil Lempert-Schwarz.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/dining/wine
Mr. Lempert-Schwarz is the chairman of The Wine Institute of Las Vegas which serves to inform and educate Las Vegans about wine. I noticed that there are events on a monthly basis in Speiedini in the J.W. Marriott in Summerlin that pairs several wines with several courses of fine cuisine. Viaggio in Henderson, NV offers wine tastings with appetizers often as well. On the Las Vegas strip there are many restaurants that have earned awards from Wine Spectator for their wine selections. I noticed that the Bellagio has six restaurants that have the Wine Spectator's seal of approval. You shouldn't be afraid if you end up in a 'chain' restaurant such as Smith & Wollensky or Ruth's Chris Steakhouse while in Las Vegas if you want some great wine as they are on the award-winning list as well. There are two Asian restaurants that earned the Las Vegas wine list awards: Chinois in Caesar's Palace, and Dragon Noodle and Sushi Bar in The Monte Carlo Hotel.
The Orleans buffet will sell you a whole bottle of wine for as little as $5.00 and cork it for you. If you're not driving,i.e. taking a cab, travel van, bus, limo, etc. you can take it home or to your hotel/ motel or friends house. You can have open alcohol in Clark County if you're not the insured/ licensed driver of the vehicle that the open alcohol is in. When you consider that many times a bottle of water can set you back $5.00 it makes sense to get into drinking here!
My girlfriend and I went to a Rock N Roll wine event a few months ago in Studio 54 in MGM Grand. There were tons of people there. Jeremy Cornwall performed. I loved his sets of music! There was wine from all over. The tickets for the event are $20 or $30 in-advance. Local radio station 94.1 FM MIX sponsored the event. The headliner entertainer was the lead singer Patrick Monahan from the band Train (single "Drops of Jupiter". People often ask me while I'm out and about in the clubs especially, "Where are all the women in Vegas?" I can assure you that the local girls go to events like the Rock N Roll Wine Events.
Las Vegas women repeat after me: Wine me dine me.
Respect, Peace and Light
Xtine on the sin city scene