I got lost at UNVino last year in the sake section,� my friend Eric said as we perused the menu at Smith & Wollensky (3767 South Las Vegas Blvd.). �I had to drink my way to safety.� That is the sign of a true survivor of a wine tasting.
It was wine week in Las Vegas, and Southern Nevada Wine & Spirits was hosting a tasting at the famed steakhouse. I hadn�t seen Eric in years, but a mutual friend, in town for a funeral, was so depressed that celebrating was a necessity. Christine and her boyfriend Topher joined Eric and me for lunch.
Upstairs in a crowded room, I browsed a wine menu that listed 20 different wines. Our tiny table of four was riddled with oversized wine and thin champagne glasses. I was certain one of us would knock something over.
�I feel like a drunk in a china shop,� I said.
We first tried the 2003 Cain Concept Cabernet Sauvignon. From the heart of Napa Valley, this wine was crisp and full of flavor. I owe that to the wine makers who blend grapes of Cabernet Franc and Merlot from the cooler, clay soils of Carneros with just a hint of Petit Verdot grapes.
The champagne glass was filled with Piper Sonoma. This brut champagne had no flair, but went down easy without causing that bubble rush I sometimes get when drinking the bubbly treat.
As I said, the room was crowded, and while our server was on top of our lunch orders, it seemed the wine stewards were rushed when describing the poured product. It�s not their fault; it�s the nature of Smith & Wollensky�s cram-�em-in-like-cattle philosophy.
As we ate our inarguably delicious meal, the wine kept coming. It was hard to keep up, what with the speed we were putting each glass back and the rate they were being refilled. Then, the conversation got ugly.
Christine and Eric are both mortgage brokers and other than being the guy who opens credit card bills, I can�t imagine a more mundane job. The two of them went back and forth for the remainder of lunch about car loans, home loans, escrow, percent signs and decimal points. I�m interested in money as much as anyone else, but my money, my house, my car loan.
Fun for them; dull for me.
The representative from CrauforD Wine Company saved me when she stopped by with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc Highlander. It�s a family company headed by Scottish Chief Executive Merrimaker Marilyn Crauford Anderson. It was her daughter-in-law, Julianna Corley, who poured us their Highlander.
She actually reserved the time to explain how the wine was made, even joking that her young children are tossed into the vats to squish the grapes, just like Ethel and Lucy. But, you know, in color.
Wine Week at Smith & Wollensky can be enjoyable. Just don�t let the crowds, the snooty maitre�D and request for a maitre�D tip get in the way. Even all 20 bottles of their offered wine wouldn�t get me to pay that.
