Wine Dinner Features Haut-Medoc Giscours and Le Petite Vice at Aureole Restaurant Las Vegas
For a special client elegant wine and dine dinner we went to the fabulous Charlie Palmer restaurant Aureole at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino with
its spectacular wine tower and wine angels who actually suspend from cables in the four story
glass enclosed wine cellar to pull selected bottles (shown left), the avante garde menu and elegant chic setting.
A consistent winner of the highly acclaimed Wine Spectator Grand Award winning wine list, the collection features over 50000 bottles of the world's best wines, sourced from several private collections.
A visit to Aureole to see the wine tower and to peruse the extensive wine list is a must for the wine lover - classical Las Vegas sensationalism.
Dining at Aureole is a special priority for me when I am in town since I had the chance to collaborate with the Wine Director in their early days of building out the cellar, and developing their then innovative high tech tablet based on-line wine list.
Their extraordinary wine list features the best of my (or anyone's for that matter) wine cellar, but offering deep vertical selections in addition to the breadth and depth of offering - top vintages of the top ranked producers - from Bordeaux, the first growths, Palmer, Leoville Las Cases, Pichons, my favorite Napa Valley Cabernets - Caymus, Dunn, Silver Oak - to special labels such as Penfold’s Grange and Chateau d’Yquem.
Being a business client dinner, I had to adhere to my company expense policy realities, so more modest wines than the exclusive entra-ordinary premium selections, but the extensive list offered much from which to choose.
Before dinner we had BTG - by the glass, the Le Haut-Medoc de Giscours. It was so tasty that I started with that for our opening dinner wine with entrees. We then turned to a larger, more intense Napa Valley Cabernet from an here-to-for undiscovered boutique producer, Vice Versa, that resulted in great comparison tasting with similar tasting profiles albeit different styles.
The wines were great accompaniments to our extraordinary haut cuisine dinner selections - bone-in filet, crusted filet with foie gras, bone-in ribeye, and porkchop.
http://www.charliepalmer.com/aureole-las-vegas/
Le Haut-Médoc de Giscours Grande Réserve 2009
The 2009 vintage of Bordeaux was so good that the second or even third wine of quality producers were great drinking wines. This modest priced wine, relatively speaking to the Aureole upscale ultra-premium wine list, provided good QPR - quality price ratio, worthy of the dinner for our casual wine drinking guests.
This blend of 50% Cabernet, 50% Merlot was dark garnet colored, medium bodied, black berry and black raspberry fruits with hints of spicy cinnamon and clove, on a smooth polished moderate tannin finish.
RM 89 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1450733
This quality proprietary red is the second label from an emerging premium producer, with fruit blended from some of Napa Valley's top vineyards - Beckstoffer, Las Padres and Dr Crain.
Vintner's Notes: Le Petit Vice 2010 exhibits beautiful complex aromas and rich intense flavors suggesting red and blue berries, sweet spices, coconut and Valrhona chocolate. Extraordinary balance, superb weight and silky tannins.
My notes: Dark garnet/purple colored, full bodied, forward, black berry and black raspberry fruits with tones of anise, black tea, dusty earth and hint of flinty leather on a clinging tannin finish.
RM 92 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1584151
http://www.viceversawine.com/
A consistent winner of the highly acclaimed Wine Spectator Grand Award winning wine list, the collection features over 50000 bottles of the world's best wines, sourced from several private collections.
A visit to Aureole to see the wine tower and to peruse the extensive wine list is a must for the wine lover - classical Las Vegas sensationalism.
Dining at Aureole is a special priority for me when I am in town since I had the chance to collaborate with the Wine Director in their early days of building out the cellar, and developing their then innovative high tech tablet based on-line wine list.
Their extraordinary wine list features the best of my (or anyone's for that matter) wine cellar, but offering deep vertical selections in addition to the breadth and depth of offering - top vintages of the top ranked producers - from Bordeaux, the first growths, Palmer, Leoville Las Cases, Pichons, my favorite Napa Valley Cabernets - Caymus, Dunn, Silver Oak - to special labels such as Penfold’s Grange and Chateau d’Yquem.
Being a business client dinner, I had to adhere to my company expense policy realities, so more modest wines than the exclusive entra-ordinary premium selections, but the extensive list offered much from which to choose.
Before dinner we had BTG - by the glass, the Le Haut-Medoc de Giscours. It was so tasty that I started with that for our opening dinner wine with entrees. We then turned to a larger, more intense Napa Valley Cabernet from an here-to-for undiscovered boutique producer, Vice Versa, that resulted in great comparison tasting with similar tasting profiles albeit different styles.
The wines were great accompaniments to our extraordinary haut cuisine dinner selections - bone-in filet, crusted filet with foie gras, bone-in ribeye, and porkchop.
http://www.charliepalmer.com/aureole-las-vegas/
Le Haut-Médoc de Giscours Grande Réserve 2009
This blend of 50% Cabernet, 50% Merlot was dark garnet colored, medium bodied, black berry and black raspberry fruits with hints of spicy cinnamon and clove, on a smooth polished moderate tannin finish.
RM 89 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1450733
Le Petit Vice Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2010
This quality proprietary red is the second label from an emerging premium producer, with fruit blended from some of Napa Valley's top vineyards - Beckstoffer, Las Padres and Dr Crain.Vintner's Notes: Le Petit Vice 2010 exhibits beautiful complex aromas and rich intense flavors suggesting red and blue berries, sweet spices, coconut and Valrhona chocolate. Extraordinary balance, superb weight and silky tannins.
My notes: Dark garnet/purple colored, full bodied, forward, black berry and black raspberry fruits with tones of anise, black tea, dusty earth and hint of flinty leather on a clinging tannin finish.
RM 92 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1584151
http://www.viceversawine.com/