With its sleek, contemporary design, Mandalay Place’s 55 Degrees lives up to its name: It tips the barometer at cool.

Just around a curve, the casual tasting bar is outfitted with posh, pull-up barstools. Customers linger there, sipping wines from Reidel glasses, discussing gift choices with the knowledgeable staff, enjoying the respite from the rush of regular Las Vegas Strip activity.

“Before dinner or after, on a weekend afternoon or on their way to a club, customers can shop from 1,700 titles,” says manager Melanie Giese. “We have everything from everyday wines to that once-in-a-lifetime vintage 1964 Chateau Margaux.”

At the back of the L-shaped space, more than 100 half-bottles of famous names and hard-to-find boutique labels are displayed. The half-bottles show, on a small scale, what you’ll find en masse if you browse the store’s main area: Bargain finds from Chile and Australia, classic French Bordeaux, extremely limited-production bottlings like Paul Bara, and cult labels like Screaming Eagle.

A good wine shop is constantly evolving: Popular bottlings run out and new ones take their place and “great years” become available, and then are gone. And as the wine-producing regions of Chile, Australia and lesser-known parts of Italy begin to earn attention in the world market, someone needs to go through and separate the nectar from the swill. Thus, the 55 Degrees staff is constantly kept on their toes.