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ELV, accompanied by his staff, dropped into Aureole the other night to check out its snazzy new wine lounge/patio (and to make sure Master Sommelier/Wine Director William (call me Willi) Sherer stills knows his albarinos from his amontillados.

He does, of course, but what we ended up talking about the most was cheese. Seastack/Cirrus/Ford Farmhouse/Ubriaco/Marieke gouda/Iceberg Blue, to be specific — the six farmstead cheeses featured on the lounge menu, along with sixteen wines, hand-picked by Sherer expressly for their affinage affinity for exquisitely curdled milk.

Most of the wines are gently priced (by Strip standards anyway) at far less than $20/glass (most are in the $15 range), and in keeping with his reputation as a wine educator par excellence, Sherer includes brief-but-to-the-point tasting notes for each wine on the menu.

Somewhat surprising to us, he got just as excited about describing the sea saltiness of Seattle’s Seasmoke cheese, as he did bragging about the brininess of his Iberian albarino, which btw, complimented each other completely.

Willi Sherer – sommelier, wine maker, cheese cutter…the man can do it all.

AUREOLE

In the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino

3950 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Las Vegas, NV 89109

702.632.7401

http://www.aureolelv.com/

ELV has learned that local restaurateurs Block 16 — the folks behind LBS Burger Joint at the Red Rock Casino are bringing another ground beef concept to the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino, when it opens on December 15.

Called Holstein, Chef Anthony Meidenbauer promises us the concepts will be new, the ingredients all-natural, ultra-fresh and organic, and in his words, there will be an emphasis “…(on) better burgers and (bringing) a funky, homegrown attitude to The Strip.”

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Chocolate-Taleggio cheese truffle

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Taleggio cheese truffle

Do you like chocolate?

ELV does.

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We’ve been coming to Circo (pronounced CHEER-co) since it opened in October of 1998. It was the first Bellagio restaurant we ever ate in, and by our estimate we’ve eaten here at least 50 times over the years.

The last time we paid for a meal was probably around 9-11.

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We told Chef Tom Moloney we were embarrassed for having taken so long to re-visit Aqua Knox. It had been at least four years since last we indulged in the superior swimmers they cook here, and our memories were nothing but good. In fact, it was a definitive Dover sole that cemented this place’s reputation in our minds as a first class fish cookery, but inexplicably, we had strolled past at least a hundred times on our way to David Burke, Valentino, B & B, Delmonico or Bouchon without stopping in for at least a nibble.

As Manute Bol might’ve said, “my bad.”

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There’s nothin’ like a wine unveiling (accompanied by first class food) to get our heart a pumpin’.

Truth be told, we weren’t all that excited by another celebrity wine label, until we tasted the big beefy California cab and the sleek, sophisticated sangiovese that Ole Blue Eyes’ kin have hand crafted alongside Wynn/Encore Wine Director Danielle Price.

For those of you who love that extracted, teeth-coating, plummy style of red wines, the Sinatra Family Estate “Come Fly With Me” Cabernet will fit your mood like Frank crooning a tune over a couple of martoonis at 2 am.

We at ELV preferred the more subtle charms of the Tuscan La Voce — a red wine that fit Theo Schoenegger’s food the way a Nelson Riddle arrangement did with you-know-who’s voice.

These wines won’t be cheap, but they will be at Sinatra whenever you’d like a swirl or a sniff, and we can attest that both vintages we tasted were a very good year.

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One of the reasons ELV hasn’t been posting the volume of sardonic, sagacious, salutory, saline, salivating, sanatory, salubrious and sacrilegious reviews (and articles) for which he is known, is because he (along with Slapsie Maxie Jacobson and Al “Mad Man” Mancini) is spending most of his spare time researching, writing and re-writing the first draft of our book: Eating Las Vegas – The 50 Essential Restaurants of Las Vegas – to be published this fall.

The “research” part, ELV did years ago. Meaning: if we wanted to cull through old reviews for all 50 top joints (plus the twenty or so other places that will be featured), we could phone it in. But journalistic responsibility mandates that we return to see how a place is doing if we haven’t been by in over a year.

So that’s what we did last week at Aureole with our staff: grab a nibble, see what uber-chef Vincent Pouessel (and Stefan Peroutka, his executive sous) are whipping up, and assess how this impeccably-dressed grand dame is getting on after eleven years.

Very well it seems. The Adam Tihany-designed room (his first in Vegas) is as striking as ever, nothing about the place seems tired or shopworn, and the food is just about as good as finely-tuned French food can be in a restaurant that seats over 300 hungry souls. Truth be told, that’s always been the most remarkable thing about Aureole. Everyone talks about the 40′ wine tower and the computerized (and expensive) wine list, but what has always distinguished Charlie Palmer’s palace (in our perceptive opinion) is how inventive, sophisticated and consistent the food is in a place the size of an Army mess hall.

All three chefs who’ve helmed this operation – Joe Romano, Philippe Rispoli and now Pouessel — are true professionals who not only have great kitchen skills and taste, but also (apparently) the leadership to command (and inspire) a large kitchen brigade like a no-nonsense general. (That being said, we know and love Philippe Rispoli, and consider him one of the most talented chefs in America, but semper fi and spit and polish aren’t words that come leaping into your mind when you meet the guy. Then again, a lot of great chefs can be charming, laid back and ingratiating in public, and real tyrants behind the swinging doors.)

No matter how they get it done, the kitchen at Aureole gets it done, so well in fact, they even had us swooning over the Ahi tuna and crab starter — when we’ve been threatening to stick a fork in our eye if one more chef parades raw tuna before us. Of course, the coconut Kaffir lime froth didn’t hurt a bit. We could’ve eaten a bucket of the stuff. And yes, those are real silver shavings dotting the top of the dish. In case you need more minerals in your diet.

If you need more great cheese, remember Aureole was the first Strip restaurant to feature a quality cheese cart — no one but CP and his crew (around here) were thinking about such things in the early aughts. And if great chocolates and desserts are your thing, Megan Romano still dazzles with superior sweets. Hubby Joe jumped ship years ago for the higher volume and less stressful demands of feeding PT’s customers — which is sort of like hiring Placido Domingo to sing in a barbershop quartet. But we’re happy he’s off the premises, because we’re secretly in love with Megan, and husbands (especially husbands whose last names end in a vowel), for some reason get incredibly rude when sybaritic food critics won’t stop pawing their wives. Whassup with that?

Speaking of romance — at least the sort of Greek god with Roman hands and Russian fingers courtship with which ELV is most acquainted — if you’re looking to close the deal, the entire restaurant (whether in the main room or the Swan Court), despite its size, is still one of the most seductive spaces in town.

And if you grab a seat at the corner of the bar, directly under the stairwell beside the wine tower, you can drink fabulous wine and look up women’s skirts all night long.

Is this a great town or what?*

AUREOLE

In the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino

3590 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Las Vegas, NV 89119

www.charliepalmer.com

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*ELV…ever the quixotic, amatory sentimentalist.

ELV note: Mike Steinberger, the SLATE wine correspondent, is one of our favorite wine writers. This article details additional accusations (and implicates additional scoundrels) in the wine auction scandals that were first brought to light in the book “The Billionaire’s Vinegar.” We at ELV have a hard time getting worked up over these things, as we think the insufferable, mega-rich, ego-driven, label-conscious, status-obsessed, a-holes who seek out, demand, and drive up the prices on famous wines are easy and understandable prey for the con-men who dupe them. In other words, it’s a fair fight and they all get what they deserve.

What’s in the Bottle?
An investigation into the startling fraud accusations that have upended the fine wine world.
By Mike Steinberger
Posted Monday, June 14, 2010, at 3:36 PM ET

Daniel Oliveros and Jeff Sokolin were known as the “sexy boys” because they often described the wines they sold as “sexy juice.” Oliveros and Sokolin ran Royal Wine Merchants, a Manhattan retailer that was, until a few years ago, one of the biggest players in the fine wine market. They lived as lavishly as their wealthy customers—staying in swank hotels, often hiring limousines, and routinely opening thousands of dollars’ worth of rare wines. Oliveros’ marriage to porn star Savanna Samson added to the aura and the intrigue. But what really set the sexy boys apart was their seemingly limitless stock of legendary old ! wines, many of them in supersize bottles—quantities and formats that no one else could get their hands on. They bombarded clients with faxes touting their latest finds: multiple bottles of 1961 Latour à Pomerol (“Kinky Juice!”), magnums of 1945 Mouton Rothschild (“our latest sexy purchase”), a double magnum of 1949 Cheval Blanc (“Perfect condition. Better than 1947!!! Trust me!!!”). It seemed too good to be true. Apparently, it was.

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Click here to hear this morning’s Food Talk on News 88.9 FM – KNPR Nevada Public Radio, wherein Slapsie Maxie and moi interrogate, illuminate, eviscerate, hypothecate and pontificate about various subjects in today’s food and restaurant world.

Today’s topics included:

An interview with uber-restaurant writer John Mariani on his recent trip to Las Vegas;

Local bloggers Mike Dobranski and Jillian Plaster on what, why, how and when they blog about Vegas’ restaurants;

Max and my Top Five Wine Peeves; and

EAT IT OR BEAT IT, where we cross swords over:

Lola’s,

Nero’s Steakhouse, and

El Segundo Sol.

Click here for the link to “Wine Talk” on KNPR a couple of Fridays ago, wherein Max and John grill, kebab, fillet, carve, and incise John Mathew Smith of Wirtz Beverage Company and Jeff Wyatt of Marche Bacchus about the current state of our wine world.

Actually, most of what we do is chew the fat over:

* What’s happening in the world of wine?

* Has France lost its dominance?

* How have currency fluctuations affected what we’re buying and drinking?

* How do wholesalers and retailers react to such recessionary times?

* What new world wines are hot?

* What has the Asian economic boom done to wine prices? and, ELV’s favorite topic:

* Why are wine prices so friggin’ high on the Las Vegas Strip?

But strangely, no one thought to bring any fermented juice with which to wash all this erudition down.

We at ELV are obviously losing our edge.