Reasonably priced wine of the week: Leaping Horse Vineyards Chardonnay

Wine and cheese night!    Time to break in our new Eiffel Tower wine glasses and a new reasonably priced Chardonnay.   
 Described as a delightful "new wave" Chardonnay that features flavors of apple, citrus and pear.   We thought that is was a decent Chardonnay - but not one of our favorite.  This wine is from the Napa region and as described did have a clean finish, but not the smooth buttery qualities that we enjoy from our favorite Chardonnays .   It still made for a good night while enjoyed with a three cheese plate we whipped up at home that featured a hardened drunken goat cheese (that disappointed), some Swiss and a nice Blue Cheese.

This wine at Lazy Acres.



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Wine Adventures with the 2 Dollar Wine Connoisseurs: Things almost got Hostile at the Hostile Grape in Las Vegas….or how I almost got screwed out of $18.

As a part of my Birthday and Valentine’s Day we headed to Las Vegas for the weekend in order to see the Eagles at the MGM Grand.  On our list of places to go was The Hostile Grape at the M Resort,  which is located just off the freeway as you enter into Las Vegas.   We had looked it up online and thought that it looked like a really cool wine bar to visit.   We found the Hostile Grape and almost exited before our adventure began because it sounded like there was a stand up comedian inside and we didn’t want to walk in mid act.

I said that we should push on and so we ventured inside.   It ended up being a musician that looked like a Johnny Depp impersonator that they had found wandering the streets of Vegas.   He was actually decent playing a wide range of songs that included an odd version of Like a Virgin on the guitar.   We overheard a couple of guys talking on the way in about how it was the assisted living wine bar, since the crowd was  much older.    We sat down at an open table and waited….and waited until finally deciding that maybe they don’t come to your table here.  It was the kind of wine bar that had the self serve machines that we had enjoyed using previously at the Splash Wine bar in San Diego and the Las Vegas Hilton.  

  

                

We purchased a $50 wine card –that also had a onetime $5 card activation fee  (if you come back again you just bring the same card).

We ordered a cheese plate which wasn’t on the menu that night (since they were having a special Valentine’s Day menu featuring food from the Steak House Anthony’s).   The cheese plate was actually pretty good especially the hardened goat cheese with honey comb.    

We began to wander around to sample the over 100 wines available in search of a good Chardonnay.  We didn’t really find one that we liked.  The tastings were overpriced  compared got compared to similar wine bars that use the  same type of machines.

My favorite wine was a sweet Moscato called Sip and a Cabernet from  Faust winery that we both enjoyed.

About $32 into our card it stopped working.  I had to go up to the bar and let them know that is was giving me an error message and that I should have about $18 left on it.   The bartender told me that has never happened before and that I had used up the card.  He was able to pull up on the screen and tell me what the last wine I had sampled was and continued to argue with me that the cards had never malfunctioned before and that I had used the card up.    I continued to argue my point.   At this point I was basically being called a liar by the bartender .  He asked if I would like to talk to the manager. 

  " Sure" I said  and then suggested-"If your machine can tell you which drinks we have tried it should be able to tell how much we have used".    He added up the amounts and then finally admitted that we should still have $18.25 left on our card.  The manager came over and told him that they had been having problems with cards today.    The manager then fixed the card adding the amount left back onto the card.    I didn't get an apology for basically being called a liar about the issues with the card.... which was really annoying. 

We thought that maybe that is where the bar got its name the Hostile Grape from,  since they argue with the customers.  We joked that maybe it should be called the Angry Grape.    Our original plan was to get another glass of wine once the card was used up,  but after this incident we decided to just finish off the card and head to our hotel.    Unfortunately this wasn't as easy a task.   The card died again at about $9.00 mark and we had to wait a good 10 minutes for the manager to finish gabbing with a set of customers.    Upon bringing the problem to his attention again --we were given a new card....which we used up and then left.   No apologies,   no I'm sorry for your inconvenience twice,  nothing.   The $5 activation fee was a waste---since I don't think we will be returning due to the bad customer service  from this place that we had really high hopes for.   Let's hope that our next wine adventure goes better.......

Stay tuned for some of our 2013 adventures that we are slowly getting around to writing about.

Wine Adventures with the 2 Dollar Wine Connoisseurs: Return to Rio with mixed results

Revisiting the Rio Wine Cellar with mixed results.

       In one of our first wine adventures about 4 ½ years ago we visited the really swanky Wine Cellar at the Rio in Las Vegas.  It was one of our first wine tasting adventures together and we loved it.  The Wine Cellar is a gorgeous wine bar located downstairs in the Rio hotel and casino.  You walk down a staircase into what looks like a traditional wine cellar.  The look and feel of the place is really cool.  There is seating throughout the meandering pathways amongst the crates and rows of wine.  The very first time we came here as wine novices (not that we aren’t still novices) we totally loved the place.  So we decided it was about time to revisit it (now that we have a wine blog)

        Upon our return in February of 2013….

we weren’t as impressed with it as the first time around.

The style and decor of the bar is spot on (If money wasn’t an option I would probably build something that looks just like it in my basement if I had one). Unfortunately the mood of the place didn’t match the abience.  In a stylish wine bar one expects to have music that matches the environment that helps set the mood. The location of the Wine Cellar at the Rio doesn’t lend to this being a possibility.  It is located right below the Rio Sky stage show, which features really bad loud versions of Britney Spears and Will I AM tunes blaring at a ridiculous volume and overtaking any sense of relaxing atmosphere that could have existed in the Wine bar area.   They should have sound proofed the area or found some other way of closing it off from the mind numbingly bad dance beats that bombard the ear drums.  Even when the show isn’t going on the soundtrack lingers and permeates the area---wiping away any music that is playing within the wine bar itself. 

The other issue we encountered on this return trip was the lack of wine knowledge from the bartender we had.  We ordered a flight of wine and he didn’t seem to know what he was serving us.   “Here is one that I think is French"  he said.    It was a let down this time.  The Wine we had was fine it is just the experience that was lacking.   We both agree that the issues are something that could easily be fixed. Finding a way to remedy or somehow sound proof your wine experience from the full blown dance party going on above seems easy enough,  all the while preserving the elegance of the total wine experience.  At the very least we think this place could really benefit if the they were to hire bartenders/waiters/waitresses who were actual wine friendly connoisseurs themesleves.  

 On that note we are heading back to Vegas this February and we will be stopping at the "Hostile Grape" at the "M" Resort. We have heard great things about this place so stay tuned and  look out for a blog about this really soon.