Las Vegas- 2005 Banfi Summus

Vegas was off to a GREAT start and Day/Night 2 did not disappoint!

Clay, Maxey, Hope and I had reservations at Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare at the Wynn hotel. Bartolotta is an Italian seafood restaurant (hence the name) and the menu was just insanely delicious looking! I was a tad bit nervous though because Clay's not a huge seafood lover; however, I knew he'd find SOMETHING he liked! : ) Well... we all did! We had enough food to feed a small country (and ate EVERY bite)! It was so delicious and fresh and amazing! We all loved it! It was also a neat experience... we ordered several different courses and for our main course, we ordered two fish... two whole fish to split as a table. The wait staff came out and took the head off of our fish and deboned it right in front of us. I've seen this before, but it never ceases to amaze me how easily these people make it look! : )

We consulted with the sommelier and decided to stick with what we all really prefer... red wine. We knew that we wanted an Italian wine and Maxey and I were both pushing for a Sangiovese. We settled on a Sangiovese, Cab and Syrah blend that sounded too good to be true!

Our first sips were a bit strange. I really didn't think I was going to like it very much... it seemed SO light for a blend of such big grapes! We all decided to finish our drinks from the bar and let the wine sit and breathe for awhile. GOOD MOVE! This wine DEFINITELY should have been decanted! The first sip and the last sip could not have been more different!!! I'm always fascinated to see how much a wine can change and this bottle was the strongest example of that that I've seen!

2005 Banfi Summus

Sangiovese, Cab, Syrah

Ratings:

Rebecca: 8.5-9 (although I would have given it no higher than a 7 at first!)

Clay: 8.5

Maxey: 8.5

Hope: 8

*Again... iPhone pictures:

Really dark in color. Has strong coffee smells, slight licorice smell maybe (not unpleasant though- that's really not a smell/flavor I enjoy typically). Dark berry flavors, spicy, maybe a little chocolate flavor. You feel it in your nose when you drink it... I'm thinking maybe this is due to the spices!? It's dry-tannic.

This is definitely a bottle that I'd get again, but this time, I'd open it up, decant it and let it breathe for an hour or so before indulging! : )

Las Vegas- 2006 Stags Leap Artemis Cabernet Sauvignon

First off... I LOVE VEGAS! : )

But really... what's not to love!? It's such a fun and energetic environment with anything you want right at your fingertips! Ahhh... Vegas!

So, Clay and I, along with our friends, (Joe) Maxey and Hope, all headed out for a few nights of fun! Maxey was really concerned with our dinner and wine selections because he knew it would mean that he would have the honor of being featured in my award-winning blog (HA!), so we did some pretty extensive research before leaving Georgia! (No award will ever be given with run-on sentences like this one... good grief!)

We arrived in Vegas in plenty of time to lose some money and get ready for a long night!

Dinner on night one was at Mandalay Bay hotel at Aureole restaurant. The restaurant looked to have a good menu and a cool vibe online; however, that had nothing really to do with our selection! Aureole has this ridiculous wine cellar and "wine angels" and almost 10,000 bottles of wine to choose from! Seriously, that wasn't a typo!

This is what Aureole's website (http://www.aureolelv.com/) says about it...

"Four stories high and 14 feet square, this skyscraper-like structure is a frame of stainless steel fitted with laminated glass. Nine thousand eight hundred and sixty five bottles are held in the sandblasted Plexiglass wine racks and the entire structure is climate controlled to a wine-keeping ideal of 55 degrees and 70 percent humidity."

"Inspired by a scene from Mission Impossible, Adam D. Tihany designed Aureole's wine tower with mechanical hoists to lift wine stewards or "wine angels" up and down the four sides of the tower. Equipped with an intercom, printer and wine bottle holster, a wine steward travels from the ground floor to the top of the 42 foot tower in about 10 seconds."

*this was taken from my iPhone, so excuse the terrible quality!

We all decided that our first night in Vegas should call for a really great bottle of Cab! So... we went through the ELECTRONIC WINE MENU (seriously amazing) and after narrowing down TONS of amazing options, we decided to go with one of Clay's favorites... Stags Leap! It was SO delicious (delicious enough for us to warrant getting two bottles)! Clay and I had both had Stags Leap before, but Maxey and Hope were new, big fans instantly!

The wine went perfectly with our awesome meals and we all had a really great time!

2006 Stags Leap Artemis Cabernet Sauvignon

Napa Valley, California

Ratings:

Rebecca: 9

Clay: 9 (his current favorite wine, Cakebread, holds his only 10)

Maxey: 9.5 (Maxey really wanted to give this one a 10, but got nervous that he'd give this a 10 and something better will come along... hmmm... this doesn't sound at all like a reason Maxey's still single now does it!?)

Hope: 9

*I forgot to take pictures of our bottle... Oops! I really was enjoying this one! : )

Dark and clear with slightly lighter edges. Super smooth (personally, I think this is the wine's best characteristic)!

Smells: Smells absolutely delicious! Dark berry smells, earthy, minerally

Tastes: (I really forgot to take notes... I was too busy enjoying it!) Tannic, so smooth, hard to pinpoint individual tastes- Perfect Cab.!