High roller heaven in Vegas: Shriners Children’s Open, TPC Summerlin, October 17-20, 2024
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If you’ve been following me at all through the PGA season, you know I do my homework, which typically involves googling an entire city’s collection of restaurants and stores in search of the best wine. Depending on the market, my research can take anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours or more. You also know I try hard to focus on local enterprises instead of, for example, big steakhouse chains or the dreaded Total Wine.
Vegas is an entirely different animal since the best-known places are almost exclusively outposts of famous restaurants that have their roots somewhere else. As I started checking them out, I frequently had to navigate through the corporate hospitality portals, only to find that almost nobody posts a Vegas-specific wine list online, even legendary destinations like Aureole with their crystal wine tower and swinging wine angels.
So, for the first and hopefully only time, I’m punting you over to the Wine Spectator, which has conveniently completed their own thorough evaluation of 55 restaurants, with stats, links, and maps. You can probably trust them in this glitzy high-roller world. Speaking of Aureole, I learned they have 2670 different wines and a total inventory of 26,000 bottles. I’m guessing you can find something to drink on their list or many others. The only caveat is that I found multiple broken links from the Spectator site to individual Vegas restaurants. The link to Aureole for example, doesn’t work at all, and the Guy Savoy link will take you straight to Paris, which is great but not what you’re looking for. You’ll figure it out.
Here's the Wine Spectator link, which is free to access as of this writing (you might need to re-enter Vegas in the search field): Wine Spectator Ratings Vegas Restaurants
Retail:
Buying any kind of alcohol in Vegas conjures images of “Leaving Las Vegas.” But whether you’re drowning your sorrows, celebrating a big score, or just want to drink something good in your Airbnb without the added insult of Vegas restaurant mark-ups, the argument for Vegas retail can be made. Fortunately, there are two outstanding options at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Wally’s, the Vegas arm of a big LA operation, has everything. For some reason the website says “pick-up only,” but I called them and it’s probably a post-pandemic artifact cause retail is open. Frankly, it’s hard to believe they have everything they show on their website in ready inventory. Did you hit a million-dollar slot payout? Maybe the ’82 Lafite for $5900 is in order. Just beware to make sure you select “Nevada” in the upper left corner if you’re searching online.
Garagiste is a great pick if you want to take the low-intervention/artisanal path. Terrific selection of fun, natural-leaning wines from all over with nary a price above $80.
