Vegas Baby!

Vegas Baby!

Some fun facts: The Venetian hotel contains over 1.8 million square feet of stone and marble.  Classy.  The sheer scale of the place is astounding.  You hike what seems like miles of ersatz piazzas and canal-lined malls complete with accordion players and gondoliers. Each restaurant you enter is the largest indoor space you've ever seen. And of course somehow every destination requires navigation through the hotel's two casinos.

"Should I play a round of blackjack on my way to the bathroom?" you find yourself asking.  Wait what?? Would you ever consider throwing away a hundred bucks on your way to take a leak in New York?  Hell no. There's something about this place that shreds all logic and rational thinking in your brain and replaces it with a Britney Spears / Cirque Du Soleil mashup.

I Need a Drink

There is only one thing you can do in Vegas that is inherently logical: drink. And luckily they seem to have no shortage of top quality whiskey bars. We started Monday night at Emeril Lagasse's Delmonico Steakhouse. Then Tuesday moved on to Wolfgang Puck's Cut. Both claim to have the best whiskey list in Sin City. Neither disappointed.

First up this wax-top Willett 7-year, barrel 4141.  Super rich and wonderful, this one was all molasses and brown butter, baking spices, and pipe tobacco.  I'm guessing it had been open in the bottle for a while since it was completely opened up and tasting amazing for such a young expression.

Delmonico's does half-pours, so we paired one ounce of the 7-year Willett with an ounce of her older sister the blue wax top 10-year barrel 373.  This one was great too, drier than the 7 and crispier. A treat, but not quite as mind-blowing as the 7.

Moving on to Cut, we tried another 1 ounce pair tasting. This time a Willet 10-Year barrel #799, alongside a gold-wax 21 year.

The 10-year was very big.  Sweet, tons of rye goodness, vanilla and spice.

Have to be honest here, I think I still preferred the 7-year to the 21.  Is that possible?  I guess it's true that age is just a state of mind. The 7-year, followed by the 21, followed by the 799 10-year and then the 373 10-year is how I'd have to rank these.  I wouldn't kick any of them out of bed though.

Ok time for a nightcap.

My drinking buddy Jason is giddily gripping my arm and pointing at a bottle on the shelf. "They have it again.  How is that even possible???"  Incredulous, we feel obligated to each order an ounce of the Lagavulin 21 year sherry cask. It's every bit as good as we remember. Without a doubt it holds a place in my top three malts of all time.

So long Vegas. Thanks for the memories.  Cheers/SB