When you go to Las Vegas to visit your children and not to gamble, it is a different mindset.  The kids live in Summerlin and that is where we stay, about ten miles from The Strip.  In 1952 Howard Hughes bought 25,000 acres in Las Vegas Valley.  He never developed it, and after his death in 1988, a master-planned commercial and residential community was designed and by 1990, the first areas were built.  The project is named after Jean Amelia Summerlin, Hughes’ paternal grandmother.  We have been staying at the same hotel, since My Favorite Daughter got married there, and I have to say that I think we have only twice not had a view of the casino rooftop, but we are not there as I said to gamble.

The complex, all of our kids refer to as a Senior Citizen Casino, which is fine and the room has a television with a very limited selection of channels for my Bride, a desk for me, a safe for our valuables and a refrigerator for wine.  My Bride goes out and gets a limited selection of groceries and she bought some wine.  The first bottle of wine was Shenandoah Vineyards Sobon Estate Viognier Amador County 2021.  Shenandoah Vineyards in Plymouth, California was founded in 1977 by Shirley and Leon Sobon.  They moved from Los Altos, where Leon was a Senior Scientist with Lockheed Research Lab, and an amateur home winemaker.  They planted a vineyard and converted an old stone garage to become Shenandoah Vineyards.  The Viognier vineyard is on a hilltop that was planted in the mid 1980’s on well drained granite and loam soils. They use natural and sustainable farming methods.  The wine is fermented and aged in Stainless Steel, except for ten percent that is aged in used American Oak barrels; just over a thousand cases were produced.  The soft golden-yellow wine offered notes of hibiscus, honeysuckle and vanilla.  On the palate tones of peaches, bananas in an off-dry creamy finish ending with a crisp slate terroir.

Besides wine, she also bought munchies, bottled water (Las Vegas is in the dessert), some cheese, crackers and Foix Gras Pâté.  The good thing is that we can actually get most of our supplies during our daily 5K walk in the neighborhood, except the water bottles are excessively heavy.  The hotel supplied to-go cups for in house coffee and fine plastic glasses for our wine.  The second bottle of wine that she initially got for us was Famille Bougrier France Chenin Blanc IGP Val de Loire 2020.  The Bougrier Family has been producing wines in the Touraine region since 1885 and now in its sixth generation.  IGP Val de Loire basically covers the entire Loire Valley that is not in classified regions.  I have also seen this label with the large “V” for Vouvray which is the star wine of Touraine.  This soft yellow wine offers notes of green apples, honeydew melon, nectarines and lemon zest.  On the palate tones of tart fruits, a rather dry wine with acidity and a finish of lemon-lime.