Issa and his wife Nura own and operate Khoury’s Fine Wine & Spirits.  Khoury’s has two locations for shopping convenience; one store at 9915 S. Eastern Avenue, Henderson (702)435-9463 and the newest store at 7150 S. Durango, Las Vegas (702)453-9463. 

    While Khoury’s has a wide selection of all alcoholic beverages, the stores definitely emphasize the sale of wine, with more than 80 percent of the shelving dedicated to stocking a wide assortment of wines from all the major wine growing areas of the world.  They provide a varied array of wine choices from all the best known California regions, such as the Napa and Sonoma valleys, and central coast wines.  Khoury’s features many Spanish, Italian and Australian offerings as well.  

     Typically, Khoury’s will carry wines from all price ranges from each different region.  For example, I recently purchased a bourgeois Bordeaux wine from the 2005 vintage for only $20.00.  However, for that big splurge, they also have the  2003 Lafite Rothschild (a first growth Bordeaux wine rated at 100 points by wine critic Robert Parker) for $499.00.   The same good price range selection also rings true with their wines from other regions.

     To better inform the buyer, Khoury’s often labels the wines with relevant ratings form either Robert Parker or the Wine Spectator.  Issa has a good grasp of wine knowledge and always has the time to answer questions about a particular bottle.  Moreover, if he does not have the answer off the top of his head, he can refer to the Robert Parker or Wine Spectator websites (see links) to help obtain immediate answers to your questions. 

    For example, Khoury’s carries Robert Biale Black Chicken Zinfandel, Martinelli Giuseppe & Luisa Zinfandel, Orin Smith The Prisoner, Coho wines, Cliff Lede and Brochelle wines.   All these wines can sometimes prove difficult to find. 

    Issa seems well connected to the web of wine distributors, because his stores always seem to have some quite difficult to find bottles for sale.  For instance the store on Eastern recently had the 2002 Ridge Monte Bello, the 2001 Clarendon Hills Australis, the 2001 Penfolds Grnage, the Carnival of Love, Kistler Chardonnay, Valdicava Brunello, Caymus Special Selection, Beringer Private Reserve, and Rubicon, to name just a few of his finer and rare bottles.

    Both stores have wine stored in easy to read row bins the middle of the store, and attractively shelved in wooden racks along the walls.  Both stores feature a large cooled walk-in  locker containing the more expensive wines.   These lockers provide a good opportunity for a customer to ad a bottle or two of rare wine to any collection.  Any visitor should look in the locker while shopping at Khoury’s, if just see how nicely displayed wine can help the look of any room.

    Khoury’s take special pride in its knowledgeable staff, who can answer questions about stocked wines, and wine pairings for any occasion.  The staff includes veteran employees Kenny, Cynthia, Brian and John.  

    Khoury’s also features a free wine tasting event almost every week.  Typically, the Las Vegas store holds its weekly event every Wednesday between 6:00-8:00 pm.  The Henderson store stages its tastings on Thursdays at that same time.  The tasting has become quite a social gathering at the Henderson store.  I imagine that the same will ring true for the Las Vegas store once more people discover the store and what it has to offer.  The tastings provide a good opportunity to taste new wines, socialize with others and gain some wine knowledge, all at the same time.  The local wine distributor or the actual winemaker always attends these affairs to answer any questions about any wine available for tasting that evening.   Khoury’s usually discounts the prices of any wines tasted at these events

      All things considered Khoury’s provides a wide selection of wines at fair prices, along with a knowledgeable staff and two beautiful stores, making it a great place to shop for all your wine needs, be it the weekend barbecue or the connoisseur’s  collection….