Wine and Casinos
Wine and gambling have kept company for centuries, from the cellar dug beneath the Hôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo to the wine towers of the Las Vegas Strip. Auctions and futures turn a vintage into a wager, blind tasting is a game of odds that any poker player would recognise, and Napa Valley sits within an hour's drive of several casinos.
These pages follow wine where it meets the tables: the great casino wine lists, the sommeliers of the high-limit rooms, the casinos of California wine country, the road trip from Napa to Reno and Lake Tahoe, and the most famous upset in wine history.
The Great Wine Lists of Las Vegas Casino Resorts
How Las Vegas casino resorts built some of America's deepest wine lists, from Bellagio to the Aureole wine tower, and how to find a great Napa bottle on the Strip.
Sommeliers, High-Limit Rooms and Casino Restaurants
How wine works in casino high-limit rooms and restaurants: comps and theoretical loss, casino hosts and sommeliers, Bordeaux at the baccarat table, and ordering tips.
Casinos in California Wine Country
Tribal casinos near California's wine regions: Graton and River Rock in Sonoma, Twin Pine and Cache Creek near Napa, and casinos in Lodi, Amador, Santa Ynez and Temecula.
Napa, Sonoma, Reno and Lake Tahoe: A Wine and Casino Road Trip
A five-day road trip from Napa and Sonoma over Donner Pass to Reno and Lake Tahoe's casinos, returning through the Sierra Foothills wine country of El Dorado and Amador.
Wine Auctions and the Gamble of Buying Futures
Auction Napa Valley's history from 1981, the $500,000 Screaming Eagle bottle, barrel auctions, and why buying Bordeaux en primeur or wine futures is a calculated bet.
The Judgment of Paris and the Art of Betting on Vintages
In 1976 Napa wines beat top Bordeaux and Burgundy in a Paris blind tasting, the greatest upset in wine. What happened, the Spring Mountain angle, and betting on vintages.
Blind Tasting and Poker: Wine as a Game of Odds
Why blind tasting works like poker: base rates, reading clues, counting outs and avoiding bias. Includes the maths of a flush draw and a blind tasting game for home.
Monte Carlo and Baden-Baden: The Great Casino Cellars of Europe
The Hôtel de Paris cellar beneath Monte Carlo, carved in 1874 and holding hundreds of thousands of bottles, and Baden-Baden's Kurhaus casino amid Germany's Baden vineyards.