As part of its ongoing rejuvenation, Rio is reopening its Wine Cellar tasting room. The Wine Cellar opens March 21, 2024.
Finally, an answer to the question we’ve gotten approximately 460,000 times since Dreamscape purchased Rio from Caesars Entertainment.
We are not personally a wine person, but this is fairly awesome news for wine fans. You might say it’s a real corker. You’re likely to be pelted with rocks for saying it, but you might. You don’t live by society’s rules.
The Wine Cellar will be open Thursday through Sunday, from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Reservations can be made online.
Per Rio, “The Wine Cellar’s beautiful rock setting provides the perfect backdrop for an intimate glass of wine to start the evening or a relaxing nightcap. The ambiance is reminiscent of esteemed wine regions like Napa Valley or Italy. Seasoned wine stewards, including The Wine Cellar resident expert Hung Nguyen, will guide guests on a sensory journey through wine territories from around the world, offering a delightful experience for their taste buds.”
Today we learned.
In its heyday, the Wine Cellar at Rio boasted 10,000 bottles of wine, valued at more than $10 million.
Some of the bottles are amazing, not just in terms of dollar value, but also historical value, and we trust they’re still in the inventory.
The venue has lots of cozy tasting areas to sip and use pretentious words like “terroir” and “vinous” and “flinty” and “vegetal.” Or, if you’re like us, terms like “bung hole,” which is an actual thing. You use bungs (mature people call them stoppers) to plug bung holes, obviously.
The Wine Cellar is a whole vibe.
The reopening of the Rio’s Wine Cellar tasting room is another symbolic step in the reinvigoration of the off-Strip resort.
Dreamscape is pouring $350 million into a top-to-bottom refresh of Rio, with a list of improvements growing by the day.
Rio recently became part of the Hyatt family, announced a rebrand of its lobby bar to Lapa Lounge, rebranded its All-American Bar & Grill to Luckley Tavern & Grill (debuts in May), opened an impressive food hall, renovated the rooms in its Ipanema hotel tower and more.
Rio is slaying, as our fellow youths say, and they aren’t done yet.
Our money’s still on it being the location of an A’s ballpark should the team actually move to Las Vegas at some point.
Keep the newness coming, Rio!
Update (3/19/24): We heard back from Rio about the wine inventory. The previous inventory wasn’t inherited by Dreamscape, so the team is starting from scratch, full cleansing of the palate, as they say.