Big Wine with JB

In the town that has something for everybody, there is one place you need to check out if you want to truly see an unbelievable collection of incredible wines. So what if you can’t afford 90 percent of them, it gives you another reason to keep working and trying to hit it big at the tables.

Just take a hop off of the main strip in Las Vegas and head over to the Rio Hotel and Casino. Your local cabbie will know exactly how to get there and mine told me “it is where the locals go, because they always treat you right”. Once you’re in the Rio make your way towards the Napa Restaurant and the Wine Cellar Tasting Room & Retail Shoppe that is directly downstairs from the Restaurant, and presto, you have found yourself in the middle of one of the largest wine collections in the world.

I was lucky enough to get my tour around the cellar from the Sommelier of the Napa Restaurant, Mr. John Bolduc. I never actually called him Mister but rather fell in line with everyone else calling him J.B. He never told me to stop calling him that, so I guess it was all right.


J.B. was very accommodating, laid back, unpretentious and pretty funny. For a guy working with a wine program that has about $10,000,000 invested in it he seems to not get too fired up about the big money surrounding him, but lights up when he gets to tell you about some of the individual bottles he really likes. He also keeps tabs on the daily changes of the wine list and is usually in four hours before the restaurant opens to get things ready for that evening.

We went on a slow paced, fairly detailed tour of every display case in the cellar and I was loving every minute of it. The sheer volume of great wine was exciting and J.B. touched on all the highlights in every case.

The Wine Cellar Tasting Room is set up as a retail shop and a tasting bar that fits about 20-25 barstools at the bar, with some tables placed towards the corners to accommodate more guests. The bar offers wine flights of three to four wines ranging from $12 to $45, and of course wines by the glass are available with selections ranging from $4 to $375 a glass.

Most of the wine is stored in temperature controlled glass and oak storage units (display cases) set into beautiful light grey stone walls. There is a generous amount of shelving around to display the many magnums, double magnums and even larger bottles they offer. These guys have searched out some highly prized large bottles and display them with pride and huge price tags to boot.

With about 4000 bottles to choose from and the chance to see some one of a kind attractions, like the worlds only collection of Chateau d’Yquem with every vintage produced from 1855 to the present, a bottle of 1800 Madeira once owned by wine lover and U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, or a 6 litre $200,000 bottle of 1924 Chateau Mouton Rothschild.

This is a shop you need to break out your credit card in, unless you just had an epic run on the craps table down the hall in the casino, in that case they might take chips.

J.B. showed me the back room that housed some more storage racks for a couple thousand more bottles, then we decided to go check out his turf up at the Napa Restaurant upstairs. After seeing most of the wine, I let J.B. know that I had some sympathy for him when it came to the monthly inventory, and how I remember my 8 hour inventories in a cellar 1/3 of the size. But of course he let me know they bring in the inventory squad for that and he only has to deal with some of the miscounts. So I just called him a bastard and we went upstairs.

The restaurant sits about 125 and has an open kitchen that almost every seat in the house can see. There is a large sculpture in the middle of the place surrounded by booths and one entire wall is windowed and over sees the palm trees and pool at the Rio. Light colors and high ceilings prevail in the restaurant to bring about a spacious, open feeling. The artworks displayed on the walls of the establishment are changed out every couple of months, and all the glassware is of course Riedel Crystal to compliment the wines they offer.

Then of course there is the Wine List that utilizes the Wine Cellar down stairs for some of its storage. With 105 wines offered by the glass, and the day I was there, the Wine List had 1000 selections available by the bottle. The “Wine Menu” as they call it is laid out in an easy to navigate fashion and doesn’t waste any space with maps or explanations of wine regions (that’s J.B.’s job when he arrives at your table, if you need it). California Cabernet Sauvignon and Red Bordeaux take up 2 chunks of the list leaving room for good selections of Champagne, Red Burgundy, Dessert Wines, and Port.

A good offering of American Chardonnay’s are included along with Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Riesling, Roussanne, Melon and Viognier. Some heavy hitting Rhone’s make an appearance, Italy is there, Oregon Pinot Noir and some fun Zinfandel too. If you spend some time with the Wine Menu you will find every wine region represented somewhere in the 31 pages.

The “by the glass” offerings are chosen well and have a wide range of selections from Perrier Jouet, Fleur de Champagne, Belle Epoque 1995 at $42 a glass to the lesser known Pelee Island Late Harvest Riesling 1998 at $5 a glass. The wine staff has chosen some enjoyable wines from their stockpile of goods to offer by the glass.

The list holds something for everyone (if you love wine and can throw down some cash) and there are 255 wines on the list for under $100 a bottle. That leaves quite a few for you to ponder while rifling through your wallet to see what your wine budget is.

When J.B. just got the weekly (or was it daily) revision of the 31 page list, there was only one printed mistake on the list, and he picked it out in about a second. It is quit a task to keep a list that large, that changes with the vintages and stock, accurate at all times.

I asked J.B. what was moving particularly well lately, and he let me know that the “82 Petrus” ($6000 a bottle) was moving to the high roller suites (on the house, of course) quite a bit, but with the lists size it is hard to even distinguish one hot wine.

J.B. has been working as the Sommelier here for about a year and a half and moved out to the desert from New Orleans. He is available in the Restaurant five nights a week and should be able to make it to your table upon request.

So next time you are in Vegas, get into a cab and roll on over to the Rio and get yourself a table at the Napa Restaurant and let John Buldac walk you through the Wine Menu and match some of Chef Jean-Louis Palladin’s cuisine with some awesome wine. You’ll probably need reservations so call ahead of time, and go downstairs and check out the Wine Cellar after dinner, they are open until 1:30 A.M. on Friday and Saturdays.

Stay tuned for my next visit to Vegas. I will actually take time from the wine bar and craps table to have dinner at the Napa Restaurant.

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