It isn’t quite the same, but Ms. Yoga turns up in Las Vegas, while we are there and, on a day, when the kids are in school and our kids are working.  My Bride and I ended up on The Strip a second time in a week, but this time at the Bellagio, and she was there for work.  We met her at the check in counter, of course her room wasn´t available, so she gave her luggage to the Bell Captain and we were off to discover somewhere for lunch.  Now I have to admit, that I knew of all the dining establishments at the hotel, but I had never been there for lunch and the Concierge gave me a recommendation after checking his computer and suggested Sadelle´s Café, which we eventually found as we walk around the casino floor and passed all the wonderful places for dinner that had views of the fountains.

How can you go wrong with brunch food at the Bellagio, and I guess you can´t, though we were really there to catch up with all of the news and to create some more good times.  We started with Miner Family Vineyards Viognier Paso Robles 2019.  Miner Family Vineyards began as a custom crush label made in Oakville and now produce a wide range of wines from several locations.  Emily and Dave Miner began the label in the mid Nineties purchasing fruit and making it at Oakville Ranch and they bought the winery in 1999.  They have four major categories that they make their wine to emulate, they own no vineyards, but have long-term buying agreements with vineyards in several appellations in California.  This wine is from their “Burgundy” concept wines and is pure Viognier from the Steinbeck Vineyard of Paso Robles.  To maintain the freshness of the wine, the grapes were pressed whole cluster and was fermented and aged for about six months in Stainless Steel; and just under fourteen hundred cases were produced.  This soft golden colored wine offered notes of citrus and honeysuckle.  On the palate a lush wine that offered tones of white stone fruit, tropical fruits with balanced acidity that was a pleasure to have with food.

We then followed with Il Borro Lamelle Chardonnay Toscana IGT 2022, as Ms. Yoga enjoys her Chardonnay wines.  Il Borro is located in the Valdearno hills of Tuscany planted primarily with classic international varieties, as well as Sangiovese. The vineyard is forty-five hectares and was planted in 1997 on a combination of sandstone and sandy-clay soils.  The vineyard is 300-500 meters above sea level.  The fruit is hand-harvested and two-thirds of the juice is fermented in Stainless Steel vats, while the last third is divided among clay vats, acacia barrels, oak barrels and “Alma” which is a special oak and ceramic barrel. The wine is then aged for ten months on fines lees with an evenly split among clay vats, acacia barrels, oak barrels, and the “Alma” barrels.  The wine is then stored in the bottle for twelve months with a production of three-thousand bottles.  A straw-colored wine that offered notes of citrus, yellow fruits, with a touch of rosemary, sage, and vanilla. On the palate the wine offered tones of fruit, with texture and body and finished with a nice medium count of fruit and terroir.