Wine Slushy from The Marketplace Wine Bar

As summer continues to press down on us with it's oppressive heat, I'm seeking out cooler drinks.

At The Great Western Marketplace sits the Marketplace Wine Bar.  It's beautifully designed and looked like it just grew out of the floor of this building.  Inside the building there are small businesses with various things for sale, one of those businesses being the wine bar.

With prices comparable to Total Wine, you can buy wine and take it home, or you can enjoy by the glassful.  They also have tons of craft beers, and the bartender Tony is a total joy.  Sometimes 90% of a bar is how well you get along with your bartender, and I'd come back just to chat with him.

Along with a partnership with Sierra Nevada Scoops for an Adult Root Beer Float (with Not Your Father's Root Beer), they also offer a "Wine Slushy" that changes flavors from week to week.  The week  I was there the flavor was peach.  Tony uses a different white wine and combines it with peach puree in his slushy machine.  The mix was perfectly balanced and delicious, despite me feeling a little silly slurping through a straw in a wine glass.  Maybe I spent too much time in Vegas, but it seems like it should be in some kind of sippee cup.

I bought some wine that I will be reviewing later, but for now you should head down to the wine bar this Friday, as they have live music from 5-7.

The Marketplace Wine Bar inside Great Western Marketplace
Friday 11:00 AM-7:00 PM
Saturday & Sunday 11:00 AM-5:00 PM

A Wine of a Tale

During the holidays I got a panicked call from a friend.  Apparently an important gentleman in the community had decided to come to the party last minute, and he only drank a certain type of wine.  The caterers were nearly there, and she asked me to stop by a Liqour store and pick some up.  I asked her to text me the exact type of wine so that I didn't screw it up.  When I got the text I was flabbergasted.  This guy's only request is that he only drank what amounted to just above a 2 Buck Chuck?  I was embarrassed for him, then for me for having to pick it up.

The Neon Beast and I were in a snarky mood, so the entire trip turned out to be one quip after another.  It took forever to find it because was literally in the "Others" section of the store.  NB said "Maybe we can try to find an earlier year than 2014."  I said "I'm sure it's all vinegar by now, the 2013 is on a salad somewhere."  NB retorted "You can use it for just cooking now, as long as you are cooking for your enemies."

We picked up the bottle and NB remarked "Oh, a screw cap; so you know it's quality!"  I'm sure we got the same kind of looks that Frasier got when he talked about wine, because as we walked to the front we shot back and forth lines like "When wine in a box is too big of an investment!"  "The brand is good for cars, but clearly they put this wine in the gas tank!"

Once we were out of the store we texted our friend, "We had to buy it with a Hustler so we'd feel less dirty."

Napa has really turned us into some horrible wine snobs.  But hey, they can't all be a de La Tour.

Of course, after all that fuss and comedy-inspired wine jokes, the guy didn't even show up.  "Maybe they can use the wine for fondue?" NB said.  I retorted "Yeah, fondue with your enemies."

Tastings (Winery Hopping) in Napa Valley Part 2

Missed Part 1?  Click Here!

The second day started out very strong.  Our first stop was Beaulieu Vineyards, where we whisked away to the private tasting patio, where they had a fun statue of George De Latour and we got to taste some of the clones as well.  Everything was beautiful, and the conversation was fantastic.  I learned what a clone was, who George De Latour was and how important he was to Napa Valley.  If you'd like to know about it, they have a great page on their site here.

The facility was beautiful, and I could have stayed there all day "revisiting" everything, but we were on a schedule.  There was much more to see and experience.

Our next stop was the Franciscan Estate Winery, which was beautiful.  The inside was sort of like an extended gift shop, and you went up to the bar to get your next glass.  We stayed outside since it was a beautiful day, and had great conversation while enjoying the wine and a cheese plate.  This place was the most casual of all the places we went to that weekend, but it was still a very enjoyable winery.  They had a fountain out front that was so beautiful, I took a bunch of pictures of it.

By the time we got to Provenance, we had sailed past the "Happy" point of drinking into the "Highly Buzzed" state.  We weren't being loud or annoying, but we were making poor choices and buying a bunch of wine.  I do remember that the floor was made of recycled barrels for the wine and it was very pretty.  They had a casual lounge type area, and a great window to the winery behind the bar so you could see them making the wine. 




By the time we left, we were very happy, and very done.  It was one of the best weekends of my life, and I really enjoyed the "adulting" that took place.  If you ever have a chance to go to Napa, I would highly recommend all of these Vineyards.  I hope this wasn't my last trip to Napa, but if it was I would be okay with it because it was perfect.

The Rules

Rules were meant to be broken of course, but it is good to have some ongoing guidelines to make sure I'm sticking to some sort of protocol.

According to Wikipedia, "Official" State Beverages are not always alcoholic.  In fact, around 20 of them state that their official state drink is milk.  Alabama is the only one that just goes for the gusto and goes with booze.  So with that, the number one rule is:








1. The State Drink Does Not Have to be Alcoholic 

Although I'm sure not ruling it out.  I think we are a cool enough state to graduate from just milk.

While going through my research I found this article about state related drinks to check out. Nevada had a "Desert Scrub" with repasado tequila, grapefruit juice, and Italian sparklingly white wine.  I really like how the name of the bar is called Sage, even if it is located in Las Vegas.  It's important to me, and I think ALL Nevadians, that the state drink be as "local" as possible.  That being said, the second rule is:

2. The State Drink Should Have at Least One Local Ingredient, or Have Local Origins.

When I was making these rules, I asked the Reno Foodies Facebook Group what qualifications they would put to the Official State Drink. James, a member of the group, stated that it should be "At least 80 proof AND is less than $13.99 a 1.75L."  He also said it should be PBR.  I strongly disagree, but he had a point about the price.

This was one thing that always got me in Vegas.  You can't get a cocktail for less than $12.00, and none of them are great.  Our drink should not only be tasty, but it should not cost you more than a meal of All-You-Can-Eat Sushi.  That means the third rule is:

3. The State Drink Must Be Affordable

I'm going to intentionally leave that vague, because sometimes the price is worth it if it is a great drink.  However, with my current pay grade it's not likely I'll try that Golden Opulence Sundae or The Five Star anytime soon.  If you'd like to buy me a drink, click on the donate button in the sidebar.

This is all I have so far!  I'll update this as I get more suggestions from everyone.  Feel free to leave a comment or email me at drinknevada@gmail.com if you have an idea!