May 05 2004

Sipping for Scholarship: UNLVino Wine Tasting & Auction

by Megan Edwards

I live in Las Vegas. Such a statement might seem superfluous, given the large banner that appears on every page of this Web site. I repeat it only to point out where I do not live. I do not live in Vegas. What a difference a “Las” makes.

Las Vegas is a multi-faceted boomtown of a city. It’s a city of opportunity and excitement and possibility. It’s a city of fast drivers, political intrigue, and seemingly insurmountable challenges. Too much crime. Too little water. Everything in extremes.

I definitely live in Las Vegas. I sit in traffic in the Spaghetti Bowl. I follow the embattled career of our County Recorder. I love Mac King and Ethel M Chocolate. I root for the 51s, and I own a bobble-head doll that looks like Oscar Goodman.

I live near Vegas. I can see the big beam from the Luxor pyramid from my house. In fifteen minutes, I can be strolling past aquaria at Mandalay Bay or watching the fountains at Bellagio.

Vegas, of course, can’t exist without Las Vegas to support it, and the reverse is equally true. Every once in a while, an event comes along that illustrates this unique symbiosis perfectly. Such an event is UNLVino, the annual fundraiser for the University of Nevada’s William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration.

UNLVino is no ordinary wine tasting. For starters, in its thirty-year history it has grown into one of the largest single-day wine-tasting events in the world. This year, something like 10,000 people showed up to enjoy the wares of over 120 vintners. Held at Bally’s, UNLVino filled the events center to overflowing. As the evening wore on and more of the 20,000 bottles of wine in attendance were drained, the noise overflowed, too.

UNLVino, which is jointly sponsored by Southern Wine & Spirits of Nevada, has raised millions of dollars for scholarships, and the event itself is a college course. Thirty UNLV students get experience along with 3 credits by spending a semester planning and managing UNLVino.

UNLVino’s sheer magnitude makes it a true Vegas event, and any tourist who happened to join the throng on Saturday could never guess how many students, donors, and volunteers were making it possible. To a visitor, UNLVino might look like another fabulous, over-the-top, flawlessly organized extravaganza, the kind it’s easy to take for granted in a place that pulls them off every day. But UNLVino is far more than just another Sin City super party. It’s tangible evidence of the unique community that unites all who care to participate in creating Las Vegas.

The taxi line at Bally’s was exceptionally long on Saturday night, and most of the people I waited with held glasses engraved with “Take a Sip for Scholarship.” On my way home, I chatted with the driver.

“Busy night,” he said. “Couple of big conventions—and UNLVino, of course.”

I apologized for taking him on a journey into the “dead zone,” my neighborhood being a place where cabbies find it next to impossible to pick up fares.

“No problem,” he said. “I like locals who support Las Vegas.”

So do I. And Vegas is only a taxi ride away.

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