I work in Las Vegas; it's a wine fantasy land. We sell a lot of wine. We sell a lot of very expensive and legendary wine. We have access to many small production wines, often as little as a barrel or two. In this environment it is easy to forget about the larger producers and established brands. Consequently, I find myself being surprised on occasion when I re-taste some of the wine "standards". Recently I was reminded of the quality of a sparkling wine from the Anderson Valley by Roederer Estate.

I first tasted the Roederer Estate (Multi-vintage) several years ago at an event hosted by Maisons Marques & Domaines and there local distributor. Upon arrival, I was handed a glass of sparkling wine. I remember it having a fairly rich mouth feel and generous acidity. I thought it might be the Louis Roederer Brut Premier. I entered the room and started a quick survey to decide where to start. A fellow attendee approached and asked what I was drinking. "I'm not sure", I said. "I was handed this when I arrived. I think it's the Louis Roederer Brut Premier". The guest informed me that I was drinking the Roederer Estate from California, not the Brut Premier and then gave me the following advice: "Dump that and go get yourself some of the 1990 Cristal they are pouring upstairs". It was good advice under the circumstances.

Since then I've served a lot of Louis Roederer Cristal. Las Vegas has sold a lot of Cristal, so much in fact that we occasionally exhaust our allocated supply. In this environment, it's easy to forget about the sister property in the Anderson Valley. During a recent visit to the Anderson Valley a friend of mine suggested I visit Roederer Estate since I might get to see them disgorging. He even set up the tour for me. I got to see the disgorging but more importantly, I tasted the entire product line. I had not anticipated how much I would enjoy them. They were quite good, especially the rose.

Is there a moral here? Probably. There always seems to be one but I'm not looking for one today. One of the great things about being in this business is discovering the latest small producer and introducing it to our guests. But revisiting the old "standards" is like rummaging through a record collection and finding an old LP that hasn't been listened to for many years. We may find that our tastes have changed or that band really wasn't as good as once thought. But maybe, the experience will bring back many fond memories and we'll find that many of the reasons we liked them then are still true today.