I have to admit that most of the fun at the Las Vegas Food & Wine Festival was actually getting a chance to try the foods, and many were from touted Chef restaurants on The Strip that we don’t get to anymore.  Since we stay in Summerlin to visit our children, it is easier to stay there, then to drive the twenty minutes and get into rush hour traffic, no matter the hour on The Strip and then parking is another issue, but since we are into walking, we can handle the hikes. 

We had a chance to try two wines from Prohibido Wines and it was great, because they have limited production and they do not ship to Michigan; shades of the old days.  As you can decipher, Prohibido means forbidden and the name harkens back to the days of Prohibition, when politicians thought they could legislate what was best for the people; it didn’t work then and it really doesn’t work now, for thinking people. The first wine that we had was Prohibido Wines Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2016 and this was their first issue and vintage.  The wine was aged for thirty months in oak barrels and they produced two-hundred cases.  It was getting dark, but the wine was a pretty dark red with notes of black fruit, spices and leather.  On the palate black cherry, blackberry and some vanilla, with a full-bodied wine with good tannins and a medium count finish of more fruit than terroir. While I had the 2016, my Bride had the Prohibido Wines Cabernet Sauvignon, made with Organic grapes from Yountville (Napa Valley) 2019.  There was no discussion of production of this wine, but it could conceivably have seen thirty months of oak aging as well, though there were only fifty cases produced of this wine.  For a young wine it showed remarkably well and offered a similar tasting profile to the 2016.  The 2016 was drinking perfectly, and after tasting the 2019, I would venture to say that there will probably be some great secondary and tertiary notes and tones if this wine is cellared for a few years.

There were also two wines, one from Chile and one from Spain, that we really enjoyed, but I could only find sparse information especially on the wine from Chile, except for brief almost nothing one sentence descriptions like from a poorly written wine carte.  The first was Loica Andes Series Exotic Blend Cachapoal Valley, Chile 2014. I can only opine about this wine, as Cachapoal Valley is between the Maipo and Colchagua valleys.  The two main varieties are Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenere.  This wine had a deep color, and reminded me of an aged Medoc.  The second wine was Bodegas Alconde “Magicae” Reserva Navarra 2013.  This wine was a blend of Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.  Navarra has been a wine making region, with the earliest mention in 1356.  Bodegas Alconde is a cooperative that began in 1956.  This wine was aged in oak for eighteen months.  The wine was a garnet red with notes of red fruit, spices and toast.  On the palate the red cherry and raspberry was complimented by full-rounded tannins and a medium count finish with fruit and some terroir.