I was in Las Vegas the past weekend and apparently did a better job of finding decent wine lists.
Friday went to LoS. Our guests had a work commitment so had the 2002 Reinhold Haart piesporter goldtropfchen Auslese. Was a little concerned when the cork started to crumble and the waiter took the bottle away from the table to open it. When he returned and showed me the cork it was obvious that there had been prior weepage. The wine however looked the proper color and smelled wonderful. The wine was amazing and I was shocked at how light it was expecting something more viscous. There was a slight bit of petrol coming through that melded wonderfully with the fruit of the wine and I thought worked well with the food also. Easily the best wine of the weekend.
Saturday was suppose to be a return trip to LoS but a run of good luck in the casino resulted in canceling our reservation. Eventually we ended up at Bradley Ogden's in Caesar's where somehow my wife got us a table when they were supposedly fully booked. Looking over the wine list I see a SRH Pinot from a producer I don't know. I have eaten at Ogden's Root 246 twice and know there is a connection to this area so ordered the 2008 Wedell Celars Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir figuring it a safe bet and was not disappointed. The wine is SRH but without that tomato leaf element that I get out of most of them. It was balanced and a great match for the duck. Decently priced at $123 which appears to be about 2x retail so not going to get much better on the strip. Looked up the wine later and shocked to find it is 14.9% alc and 3.9pH/6.7TA as it did not taste either hot or flabby.
Sunday we did tapas at Julian Serrano's. The wine list has a few selections from Lopez de Heredia so decided on the 1990 Loez de Heredia Rioja Blanco Reserva Vina Tondonia. The cork is pristine and the color shows no age whatsoever. Hard to believe this is a 21 year old wine. Served a little cold but more aromatics come out as it warms up. Unfortunately, the wine in the mouth never matches the nose. It remains simple and light throughout the meal. Works well with most of the dishes but does not shine and not worthy of the $100 price tag. Still $100 for this wine in a strip casino is a good price Looking at cellar tracker notes later I have to think this was an off bottle as this showed none of the oiliness that was mentioned by numerous tasters.
Not sure if we picked better this time or if there has been a change on the strip but I recall from previous trips that selections were worse and markups higher. Finding these wines at 2x makes dining much more enjoyable. Downside is that by the time one adds up everything to include cab ride, LoS is not as much of a bargain as it use to be. It's still cheaper but the gap is closing.