We were going to try to meet some other wine bloggers for an afternoon while we were in Las Vegas, but I guess our communications were misunderstood.  I had suggested Marche Bacchus as a likely place to meet, as it is a wine shop, wine bar and a restaurant located in the middle of a residential subdivision on one of the engineered lakes.  I was told that they were closed, because a truck had crashed into their shop, and even though we were not going to meet them, my Bride still wanted to go there for a meal.  I called to see if I could get a reservation and they obliged and later on I read about the accident, and the business continued without too much of an interruption.  When we got there, we could see the physical damage to the façade, but we went in and saw that everything was about the same as the last time.  We wondered around the shop looking for a wine for our meal, because they only charge a ten-dollar corkage fee above the price of the bottle of wine, which is very reasonable, and good business savvy.  There were plenty of wines that would have caused me an instant divorce, if I selected them.  I also refrained from grabbing a bottle of DRC or Petrus to have a photograph taken with the bottle, as it was something that I couldn’t do, because I only write about the wine that I am drinking at the moment, or a wine that I have bought that will be in a future article when I open it up.  While I have had the good fortune to have enjoyed a few of the DRC wines in my youth, the closest I have ever been to a Petrus is seeing it in a rack in a shop, or on a wine carte, though I can still have a fantasy or two about it.

We were seated at a table down along the lake and I had memories of the Snake River Farms Kobe Beef Wagyu “Haute Dog” that I had the last time, my Bride was ecstatic that she was going to enjoy some Foie Gras, and while it was on the menu, it was only served at dinner time now, and they couldn’t serve any, because the required prep was not done ahead of time, we were informed.  C’est La Vie, as we say in Detroit.  We shared a couple of appetizers to begin with, as we were in no rush that afternoon.  We had their Escargot “Persillade” a classic interpretation of Escargot done in Garlic Herb Butter with Parmigiano Bread Crumbs.  The other appetizer that we shared was the Smoked Salmon Tartine with avocado, red onions, capers, Crème Fraiche and Citrus Aioli.  We were still a couple of happy campers.  I had the house salad from my Bride’s entrée and she had my Lobster Bisque from my order.  She had the Blackened Salmon BLT (with the bacon on the side, since it was Lent) with tomato, Bibb lettuce, bacon, avocado on a Potato Bun.  I had the Lobster Salad Croissant with tomato, avocado and Tarragon-Citrus Aioli, as well as her bacon rashers that she declined to have, as I am a brazen heathen at times.

The fun was in finding a wine and there were plenty there to choose from.  I was the kid in the candy store as I wandered the aisles.  I was looking for a white wine for the afternoon and something new that we haven’t had before.  We ended up having a bottle of Orin Swift Cellars Mannequin California Chardonnay 2014.  While Orin Swift Cellars are located in Napa, the juice for this wine was from across the state.  The wine was seventy-nine percent Chardonnay, but the balance was a blend of Viognier, Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Muscat and Roussanne.  The wine was aged for nine months Sur Lie in French Oak and it had a delightful color, a refreshing nose and just a touch of sweet.  The wine kind of evaporated during our lunch in the beautiful ambience of the setting.   I had to keep the bottle, just because Orin Swift Cellars always have the most unique label art and I wanted to keep it for my scrap book.  Just a pure idyllic day.