A couple of weeks ago several VWWC members and I went to hang out with Charlie Peters of Grape Expectations Nevada School of Winemaking in Henderson.  We went nuts and bought a barrel.  But more on the “what was I thinking?!?” moment later.

We all arrived at just about the same time … and Charlie was waiting for us, bottles of wine at the ready.

Grape Expectations is located in an industrial park in Henderson – an unlikely place for a winery – but somehow, it all seems to work. There was no doubt that this was a winery; there were barrels from the floor nearly to the ceiling.

Charlie was, as expected, informative, gregarious, and generous. Because the winery is located in what is essentially an oversized garage, the “tour” part was limited, but the information part was not.  Charlie shared his incredibly interesting story and showed us what a little American ingenuity can do.

I guess you can compare the laws about having a winery to the laws about having a brothel. You can’t do what you really want with too many people around.  Kind of.

Having a “winery” in the truest sense of the word in Nevada is illegal if the county has more than 100,000 people.  Just like a brothel.  See the connection?  Well – except for possibly the good-feeling part – that’s pretty much where the similarity ends.

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If you cruise by The Gallery at Vegas Wineaux, you’re probably thinking that I’ve gone nuts with all of the cars.  Mostly red cars at that.  Okay, so maybe I am.  But there’s a method behind my madness.  I am working on a project tentatively titled “Vintage Cars of Las Vegas” as I spend part of the summer shooting as many images of these fabulous old beauties as I can.  The cars displayed on this site are only a fraction of the images I’ve taken over the last several weeks, and I’m so proud of (most) all of them.  I’ve also found some old images from years past of the great cars owned by old friends.  So this is a labor of love and displays another facet of what makes up the person who is the Vegas Wineaux.

My other summer project is just Las Vegas.  I’m still going through the details in my mind, but let’s just say that this reluctant local will be out and about on the Strip an awful lot!  Of course Vegas is more than just “The Strip“ – which has been done to death – and the local vibe of Vegas  and surrounding communities have been largely overlooked.  My Las Vegas project is actually going to be much more long term than just the summer, and I’m still working on organizing the details.  While this could easily turn into an encyclopedia of wine, architecture, food, people, landmarks, blah blah blah, I’d rather keep it simple-ish.

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I’ve had several visits to our newest wine neighbor, and I have to reluctantly admit that I was pleased and begrudgingly impressed with what they have to offer.

The newest entry in the Total Wine & More portfolio of stores is located in Boca Park in Summerlin, and it is ensconced in what used to be the Linens ‘N Things store. The space that used to house bedsheets now has adult beverages as far as the eye can see.  One of about 62 stores in 11 states, it is the first in Nevada, and takes up a sprawling 27,000 square feet.  Started in 1991 by brothers David and Robert Trone in Delaware, Total Wine & More states that it is the largest retailer of fine wine in the United States – which may be disputed by Costco.  I don’t particularly care.

I spent some time recently speaking briefly with Store Manager, Jerry Felinczak,  and Wine Manager, Anett Minderman, and received some interesting insights into the chain and about the philosophy of Total Wine.

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Testing all of the categories.  I think we’ve finally beat the disastrous server meltdown we had last week, and quite a journey.

Vegas Wineaux is being launched as a brand new site, and the old posts will return as we filter through old databases one at a time.  And it will definitely be one at a time because of the complexity of grabbing the old stuff.  The great thing is that at least it’s there, even if it has to go through several steps to be usable again.

Stay tuned!