A Tasting of Fattoria La Gerla – Part One

Posted on October 1, 2026 by thewineraconteur

I had the good fortune to attend a tasting of six wines from Fattoria La Gerla of Montalcino in Tuscany, all featuring wines only made with Sangiovese grapes and this was at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  The estate began when Sergio Rossi bought eleven and half hectares of vineyards and two hectares of olive groves from the Biondi Santi family in 1976. While Sergio Rossi passed away in 2011, but his family maintains his commitment to the land and the products.  Many of the wines we tasted carried scored between 94 and 100 points.

We started with Fattoria La Gerla Poggio Gli Angeli IGT Toscana Sangiovese Montalcino 2023.  The vineyard Poggio Gli was initially planted in 1965, and then in 1985 and 2022; with the average age of the vines being fifteen years.  The vines are maintained with deep pruning, harvested by hand, loose grape pressing with fifteen days of maceration on skins in temperature-controlled Stainless-Steel vats.   The wine was then aged for four months in large Slavonian Oak barrels and then an additional two months in the bottle before being released.  A ruby-red colored wine that offered notes of sour cherries and mulberries, with lilacs and almonds.  On the palate this medium-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of fresh fruit, crisp acidity blending with firm tannins and ending with a medium-count finish of slightly bitter fruit, almonds and terroir.

The next wine was Fattoria La Gerla Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2023.  This is a classic interpretation of the Sangiovese with the DOC marque.  The average age of the vines are twenty years, and they undergo intense pruning to limit only a few bunches per plant, harvested by hand.  The Initial Fermentation and maceration on the skin for approximately fifteen days in temperature-controlled Stainless-Steel vats.  The wine is aged for six months in Stainless-Steel, then six months in large Slavonian Oak barrels, and then six months in bottle, before distribution.  This dark ruby-red colored wine offered notes of cherry and raspberry, followed by some violets, spices, leather and Sous-bois.  On the palate this medium-bodied, well-balance wine displayed tones of rich fruit blending with good acidity and refined tannins and ending with medium-to-long count finish of fruit, spices and terroir.

We then went with Fattoria La Gerla “Birba” IGT Toscana Sangiovese Montalcino 2021.  “Birba” is Italian for “Rascal” and this was an experimental wine created originally by Sergio Rossi, to try to age some Brunello in a French Oak barrique, the first year one barrique and now this wine has a production of seven thousand bottles; but by changing the rules it carries an IGT Toscana Sangiovese designation.  The average age of the vines for this wine is thirty years, and the vines undergo intensive pruning of only a few bunches per plant, hand-harvested, and hand selection of grapes on the selection table, followed by soft pressing of the grapes.  Fermentation and maceration is for fifteen days in temperature-controlled Stainless-Steel vats, then aged for fourteen months in French Oak barriques (a third new), and then fourteen months in bottle, before release.  This deep ruby-red colored wine offered notes of cherry and strawberry, rose petals, vanilla and traces of licorice and cinnamon. On the palate this medium-full bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of cherries and strawberries, followed by vanilla, black tea and sweet spices blending with velvety tannins and ending with a medium-count finish of fruit, spice and a touch of graphite terroir.     

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My Official Birthday Dinner

Posted on September 28, 2026 by thewineraconteur

We finally go to the destination of the evening to actually celebrate my seventy-second birthday.  It was a day early, but I was accommodating my Bride who had planned a girls-outing, with my blessing.  Her one cousin was accompanying us, as she was spending the night, so that they could leave early the next day. We were at The Earle in Ann Arbor, Michigan and seated in the French Room surrounded by dusty dead soldiers of classic wines that had been imbibed over the years. 

Her cousin was not sure how the dinner would proceed, so we started noshing, first with Roasted Garlic, then we split the Panzanella salad of cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, basil capers and anchovies with Tuscan-style hard bread.  Her cousin had the Stuffed Chicken Breasts stuffed with Pesto, seared and roasted, finished in a sauce of white wine, tomato, shallots and basil, served or orzo.  My Bride had the Veal Scallopini, lightly breaded and sautéed with garlic, mushrooms, prosciutto and sage; deglazed with Marsala and lemon, finished with butter and served with orzo and asparagus.  As for me, I was a true creature of habit and had the Coquilles St. Jacques al crème de Xeres, but now listed as Sea Scallops sautéed with mushrooms and garlic, pan sauced with Sherry and cream with a Ruby wild-rice blend. 

It was rather easy to select a wine for the table, though I have to tell you, that the wine list is a huge looseleaf binder with pages printed on both sides.  I thought that a bottle of Cave des Vignerons de Buxy Montagny Buissonnier Blanc Cote Chalonnaise 2022 sounded interesting for the three dinner entrée choices.  The Cave des Vignerons was founded in 1931, a federation of winegrowers to make fine wines and to promote the region.  Today, it is a group of 120 wine growers, with 42 employees, and sell seven million bottles of wine each year.  On June 2, 2015, the Cave des Vignerons de Buxy and the Caves Bailly-Lapierre joined forces to create “La compagnie de Burgondie” to increase their position in the Greater Burgundy region.  The soils of Montagny are homogenous and enjoy an eastern exposure of calcareous clay which is ideal for Chardonnay grapes.  The Chardonnay grapes are from the Premier Cru Buissonnier, and the grapes are destemmed and aged entirely on fine lees in Stainless-Steel vats to preserver freshness and minerality.  This light golden colored wine offered notes of Fuji apples, pears, peaches and citrus, followed by white florals, honey, almonds and hazelnuts.  On the palate this medium-to-full-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of tree fruit and spices, blending with crisp acidity ending with a medium-to-long count finish of a creamy texture of tropical fruits, nuts, spices and an enjoyable mineral terroir.

While the ladies were enjoying some deserts and coffee, the birthday boy enjoyed a glass of C. da Silva Presidential Vintage Porto 1997.  In 1933, Clemente da Silva, recently arrived from Brazil to make premium wines.  The following year he registered the Dalva brand (a contraction of “da Silva”).  He ended up through marriage to the company Correa Ribeiro e Filhos, founded in 1862, and owned by his wife’s family.  The wine is a classic blend of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and Sousao and some odd lost varieties in the lore books.  The fruit is manually harvested and destemmed.  Maceration lasts for forty-eight hours to maximize the qualities derived from the skin.  The wine is fermented in temperature-controlled vats and then halted by the addition of wine brandy, and then aged for two years, prior to bottling. A deep red-amber colored wine that offered notes of red fruit compote, followed by cigar box cedar, smokiness and chocolate.  On the palate, this full-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of black cherry and blueberry, brown sugar, caramel and chocolate blending with velvety tannins and ending with a long-count finish of fruit, spices and terroir.       

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Seventy-two Times Around the Sun

Posted on September 25, 2026 by thewineraconteur

Somehow, seventy-two doesn’t seem that old nowadays, or maybe I am just placating myself.  Maybe it is because I do know that I am no longer a spring chicken, but I keep going.  Some people try to hide the fact or deny it, as you can see, I don’t.  We actually started celebrating it last month, or at least my Bride let me get away with it, and the dinner was planned the night before, because the restaurant wasn’t open on a Monday.

My Bride’s cousin was joining us, as she was spending the night, as the next day, another girlfriend of hers was also going to see a replica of Noah’s Ark at The Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky and they were also going to visit an adjacent Museum of Biblical Artifacts.  They invited me, but I said that they would have more fun as a “girls getaway.”  We got into Ann Arbor early, so we walked around the downtown area, until the restaurant opened.  I was also getting a bit parched, so we stopped by Vinology for something cold and wet.  What is odd is that this was the first time we had ever been there.  The owner of the establishment had a wonderful wine shop across the street from where I worked for years, and Vinology was the perfect place to let his daughter hang her hat, as the old expression goes.

The ladies had a glass of Le Coeur de Reine Sauvignon Touraine 2024, by Domaine Jacky Marteau of the Loire Valley.  The estate is in its fourth generation of family winemakers and is twenty-nine hectares of which twenty hectares of Sauvignon Blanc and four-and-a-half hectares of Gamay all on clay-silica based soil.  Touraine is in the very heart of the Loire Valley; the city of Tours is halfway between Sancerre and Nantes.  Touraine is a regional appellation of about five-thousand hectares and almost sixty percent is white, but it also produces red, rosé and sparkling (in all three colors).  They use pneumatic pressing and cold fermentation for seven days in Stainless Steel.  The wine is a pale gold color with notes of grapefruit and melon, fresh cut grass and traces of flint.  On the palate this medium-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of crisp citrus with bright acidity and ending with a medium-count finish of fruit, spices and flinty terroir.

I tried a different wine, just to be contrary and I had a glass of Domaine Marc Portaz Savoie Apremont France 2025.  Jean-Marc Portaz worked at wineries in New Zealan and California, before returning to his family’s estate just south of Chambery, the capital of the ancient Duchy of Savoy at the foot of Mount Granier in 2000.  His family created a ten-hectare vineyard in 1993, and the Apremont Vineyard (rough mountain) is their “tete de cuvée.”  This wine is pure Jacquere, the grape of the region and is also known as Martin-Cot or Molette de Montmelian.  The average age of the vines at Apremont are thirty to fifty years of age on a soil of limestone rubble and glacial debris from an ancient avalanche.  It is organically farmed with no pesticides, manually harvested, with full cluster pressing, fermentation using indigenous yeasts in temperature-controlled Stainless-Steel tanks, and aged on fine lees.  A pale golden colored wine that offered notes of stone fruit, honeysuckle, white pepper and basil.  On the palate this light-bodied, high acidity and mineral driven wine displayed tones of pears, citrus and herbs blending with crisp acidity and ending with a medium-count finish of fruit, spices and minerals.          

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Fine Wine Source Club – September 2026

Posted on September 22, 2026 by thewineraconteur

It was pure pleasure to stroll into The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan, because for the last couple of weeks, I had basically been seeing my internist, with a side trip to the oral surgeon to have a wisdom tooth removed, and I don’t know how much more wisdom I can afford to lose.  I was picking up the wine club selections as well stocking up on another wine that just tickled our fancy, more of that wine later.  

The first curated selection from The Fine Wine Source and representing the Old World was Quinta do Paral Branco-Blanca Alentejo, Portugal 2019.  Dieter Morszeck, the former president and grandson of the founder of the luxury luggage brand Rimowa. He splits his time between business in Switzerland and the United States and winemaking in Vidigueira, Alentejo, Portugal.  In 2017, he acquired eighty-five hectares of vineyards in Alentejo and started his Quinta do Paral project producing wines and olive oil.  The soil is a mix of fertile clay, granite and slate.  This wine is an equal blend of Antao Vaz, Verdelho, Vermentino and Viognier; which are all forty-years of age.  The grapes are manually selected in whole cluster, then destemmed, pressed and fermented and aged in temperature-controlled Stainless-Steel vats.  The straw-yellow colored wine offers notes of tropical fruits and tangerine zest.  On the palate this medium-bodied, well-balanced wine displays tones of passion fruit, pineapple, green apple and lemons, followed by traces of clove, cinnamon and oak blending with bright acidity and ending with a medium-count finish of fruit and spices.

The Fine Wine Source Club selection for the New World is Gambler’s Ghost Cabernet Sauvignon North Coast 2021, and is part of the portfolio of Precision Wine Company, which was founded by winemaker Trevor Sheehan.  This label produces two wines, a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Sauvignon Blanc.  This wine was listed by Wine Enthusiast as Number 36 of the Top 100 Wines of 2024 Best Buys.  This wine is a blend of eighty percent Cabernet Sauvignon, with fifteen percent Merlot and five percent Petit Verdot and the fruit is from vineyards located in Lake County and Sonoma County.  The wine was aged for ten months in American Oak, of which sixty percent was new.  This deep violet-colored wine offers notes of dark fruits, with hints of coffee, tobacco and black molasses.  On the palate this medium-bodied, well-balanced wine displays tones of black cherry, blackberry, blueberry and plums, followed by vanilla and espresso blending with soft tannins and ending with a medium-count finish of fruit and spices.

I was asked if I was up to trying some new wines, and I had a dinner engagement after, so I said perhaps one, they counter-offered with two.  One was Chateau Haut-Batailley Pauillac 2016, a Fifth Growth Medoc which I will discuss at another time.  The wine that totally captivated me was Clos René Pomerol 2016.  While Clos René is not a chateau in the traditional sense, it is held in the same esteem.  Pomerol is noted for their “blue clay” followed by “crasse de fer” an iron-oxide rich soil.  The “hill of Petrus” is the center of the blue clay, and around that area is the crasse de fer, which is where Clos René is located on.  Clos René is located on the western side of Pomerol and operated by the Garde-Lasserre family, which also controls Chateau Moulinet-Lasserre and Chateau La Mission.  The estate covers twelve hectares of vineyards planted to seventy percent Merlot, twenty percent Cabernet Franc and ten percent Malbec; the vines average about thirty-five years of age, and the mix is basically the normal blend found in each vintage.  The harvesting of the fruit is partially manual, and the Initial Fermentation is done in temperature-controlled cement tanks, followed by eighteen months of maturing in French Oak, of which twenty-five percent is new.  This deep purple colored wine offered notes of red and black fruit, followed by Sous-bois, vanilla and other spices.  On the palate this full-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of black cherry, blackberry and blueberry blending with velvety tannins and ending with a very long count of fruit, terroir and truffles.    

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Happy Birthday The Wine Raconteur, Jr.

Posted on September 19, 2026 by thewineraconteur

No, it is not my birthday, but for the young man who selected his own sobriquet of The Wine Raconteur, Jr. when he guest penned a few articles, it was a milestone birthday for him.  My Bride and I were pleased that he invited us for the evening, and I go back with him, since his days at the university.

He turned fifty, and I met him, when he was just starting to show his moxie and we have been in touch ever since.  My Bride and I have seen him get married, buy a home, have children and be successful in many endeavors.  The only thing over the years that I could not request, is at his wedding, when they were asking people to select their favorite dance tune, my Bride and I couldn’t select our bridal dance of “Love is Lovelier, the Second Time Around,” so we went with our alternative “You Make Me Feel So Young,” and he and his Bride have contributed to our staying youthful.  We have adopted each other over the course of years, and there we were, sitting at the Blue Llama Jazz Club and Restaurant with his Bride, his mother and father, and his aunt and uncle.

We also enjoyed a bottle of Giocato Pinot Grigio Goriska Brda, Slovenia 2025.  The wine is made by Aleks Simcic, considered to be one of the finest winemakers in Eastern Europe and the estate is just meters from the Italian border and adjacent to the Colli Orientali in Friuli.  Originally the land was part of Italy, and then after the war, it was part of Yugoslavia and now Slovenia.  The estate is too small, so it is made with an organic collective Vinska Klet, established in 1957, in an area that is referred to as “Little Tuscany.” The soil is like Friuli, being basically “ponca” a clay of salts and minerals.  The wine is pure Pinot Grigio, manually harvested, fermented and aged for two months in Stainless-Steel.  This straw yellow colored wine offered notes of peaches and apricots, white florals and almonds.  On the palate this light-bodied, rather well-balanced wine displayed notes of green apples and pears, with a bit of tropical fruit and ending with a medium-count finish of crisp fruit, almonds and minerals.

The bonus of the evening, and everyone was told to stay after the concert, was a special wine that was poured for the evening in his honor.  It was a gift from his uncle and aunt, while they were abroad on a holiday.  Everyone that evening was poured a glass of Cossart Gordon & Co. Bual Madeira, Portugal 1976.  Cossart Gordon & Co. was established in 1745 and is the oldest company in the Madeira Wine trade.  Bual (or Boal in Portuguese) is the name given to several grape varieties in Portugal and the name give to a style of medium-sweet Madeira.  The grape was known as Bual, but over the years, a common practice was to also use Tinta Negra Mole but historically called Bual.  The grapes are also known as Boal, Gual and Malvasia Fina.  This bottle was a Vintage Bual 1976 and is a single harvest Madeira.  The wine was aged for twenty years in seasoned American Oak casks using the traditional “Canteiro” system, whereby the casks were gradually transferred from the top floors of the lodge to the middle floors, and finally to the ground floor.  The wine would undergo regular racking, until it was bottled in 1998.  A brownish-red topaz- colored wine that offered notes of black fruits and wildflowers, followed by toffee, cigar box, vanilla, cinnamon and other baking spices.  On the palate this full-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of black fruits, but especially in the form of raisins and dates blending with lively acidity and ending with a long-count finish of dried fruit, toffee and a touch of citrus and then pleasant aftertaste of spices.  The perfect ending for the celebration and I hope that if there were any left, that The Wine Raconteur, Jr. took it home and enjoyed a cigar with it, which one can’t do anymore in society.

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Inconceivable

Posted on September 16, 2026 by thewineraconteur

I am always trying to find things for “date” nights, especially to go see a movie, my Bride enjoys an evening at the cinema, but alas, most of the films produced anymore don’t make the cut for me anymore.  It is like asking me to go out for mediocre food at a restaurant, I just refuse to waste my money.

Anyways, I saw an advertisement for a film that I really enjoy, there is even a copy of the film at home of The Princess Bride.  It was billed as “An inconceivable evening with Cary Elwes” and it was to be presented at the Fisher Theatre.  A perfect night out, especially with a dinner preceding the film.  Then fate changed our plans.  One of my favorite casts of semi-regulars that I write about, The Wine Raconteur, Jr. (a catchy name) was celebrating his “milestone” birthday at a jazz club, and we were invited to join in the revelry.  Of course, we wouldn’t miss the event.

We were going to meet the crowd after eight in the evening, and after a life of dining at 4:30pm in the retail world, I even molded my Bride to eat at an earlier hour.  The venue was in Ann Arbor, which between the road construction and the evening closing of streets to have wining and dining outside, we decided to go to an old standby, just outside of the downtown area.  We went to the Gandy Dancer. In old railroad slang a “gandy dancer” was a maintenance of way laborer, left over from when the tracks were laid by hand and a gandy pole was an implement used for tamping, while another man held tongs on the railroad spikes to hold the rails in place.  Now all this labor is performed by machines, but the term has kind of hung around in the parlance of railroad enthusiasts.  We shared a dish of Dynamite Scallops that were crab encrusted in herb oil on individual half-shells.  My Bride had the Mahi-Mahi, and I had the Shrimp Scampi.  We had a bottle of Beni di Batasiolo Gavi DOCG 2024. Beni di Batasiolo is one the most predominant family-owned wine producer in Italy’s Piedmont region.  Batasiolo was formed by the Dogliani Brothers in 1978, the winery has grown to encompass over three hundred-twenty acres of estate vineyards.   Starting as grape growers in 1882, the Dogliani family has a long history in the Piedmontese wine industry. Batasiolo was one of the first companies to export Barolo to the United States.  The wine is pure Cortese and is grown on limestone, clay and marl; the grapes are destemmed and undergo a soft press.  The juice is then fermented in temperature controlled Stainless-Steel vats with time on the lees for about five months to maintain its freshness and crispness.  A pale straw-yellow wine that offered notes of white fruits, white florals, herbs and almonds.  On the palate this light-to-medium bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of green apples, citrus, herbs and spices in a dry, crisp wine with bright acidity and ending with a good medium-count finish of fruit and almonds.  

After dinner, we meandered our way and finally found a parking facility quite close to the Blue Llama Jazz Club and Restaurant.  When we got there, we ran into The Wine Raconteur, Jr. and his bride and some of the other partiers for the evening.  They had to set up two tables for the crowd.  That evening the entertainment was by Ben Patterson from Chicago, along with a local drummer and guitarist.  When they finally got the tables ready, the man of the hour sat at the head of one table facing the musicians and he sat with his Bride’s family that had come up from Ohio for the evening.  I grabbed the far end seat of another table that was perpendicular to the man of the hour, and his Bride sat at this table, and I am pleased to say that my Bride and I were the “honorary family” members at the table; of course we did know all of the local family.

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Limerick Lane Cellars – Part Three

Posted on September 13, 2026 by thewineraconteur

We were getting ready for the last three wines from Limerick Lane Cellars at a tasting at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  Karen Francis DeGolia, the owner of Limerick Lane Cellars, was doing the honors of pouring the wines and answering questions.  The vineyard properties are a fifty-three-acre estate in the Russian River Valley district of Sonoma County and just three miles from downtown Healdsburg.   I should also mention that several of the wines had received scores between 94 and 98 points.  They also offer two different places for your visit.  The Hilltop Home can handle ten guests and the Vineyard Farmhouse, which can accommodate six guests.

Our next wine was the Limerick Lane Cellars 1910 Block Estate Grown Zinfandel Russian River Valley 2021, which contains one percent Petite Sirah.  The black label designates that the wine is estate grown.  The 1910 Block celebrates the origins of the estate that was planted in 1910, and they still farm these original six acres.  While the term “old vines” has no real designation, I would say that these vines can claim to be old vines.  The wine was fermented and aged in one-year old neutral French Oak barrels for eighteen months; and there were twelve barrels produced.   This dark ruby-red colored wine offered notes of red and black cherries, violets and rose petals, and a trace of rhubarb and spices.  On the palate this full-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of cherries and blackberries, blending with spices and bright acidity and velvety tannins that ended with a graceful medium-to-long count finish of fruit and spices.  

The next wine that we had was the Limerick Lane Cellars Marquis Zinfandel Sonoma County 2022.  This wine is a blend of several parcels of “old vines” scattered among the district and an homage to the plantings of the original Italian immigrants and the fruit is from: Limerick Estate, Banfield Vineyards, Bedrock Vineyard, Maffei Vineyards and Monte Rosso Vineyard.  This wine was fermented and aged in one-year-old neutral French Oak barrels and fourteen barrels were produced.  A dark ruby-red colored wine that offered notes of blackberry and dark cherry, with violets, vanilla and sweet spices and Sous-bois.  On the palate this full-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of the black fruit with traces of blood orange, mocha and cinnamon blending with bright acidity and velvety tannins ended with a long-count finish of fruit, spices and terroir.

The last wine of the tasting was Limerick Lane Cellars Estate Cuvée Russian River Valley 2021.  This Black Label estate wine was a blend of sixty-seven percent Zinfandel, nineteen percent Syrah, eleven percent Mourvèdre and three percent Petite Sirah. This wine was fermented and aged for eighteen months in one-year-old neutral French Oak and there were nine barrels produced.  This wine will always be a different blend depending on the vintage.  This inky blackish-red colored wine offered notes of dark plums and blackberry, followed by herbs, licorice, chocolate and a touch of menthol.  On the palate this full-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of black fruit, spices blending with good acidity and firm tannins ending with a long-count finish of fruit and spices.  This wine was tasted too young and could really appreciate several years in the cellar.    

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Limerick Lane Cellars – Part Two

Posted on September 10, 2026 by thewineraconteur

A continuation of the wine tasting of Limerick Lane Cellars at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  I also made a brief mention of how the winery has a tie-in with Detroit.

Karen Francis DeGolia is the owner of Limerick Lane Cellars, and back in the early nineties, was involved when the newly created Limerick Lane Cellars was coming back to life and the first harvest.  At the time she was engaged to the founder, farmer and winemaker Tom Collins; sadly, he passed away and she went to pursue other business ventures.  With an economics degree from Dartmouth, and an MBA from Harvard, she moved to Detroit and became one of the youngest female leaders in the automotive industry.  She appreciated marketing and eventually became the General Manager of the Oldsmobile division of General Motors, and then later became a Vice-President at the Ford Motor Company; two of the largest corporations in the Detroit area.  After many years, she found herself back at Limerick Lane in 2002, living at the winery, working the harvests, poured in the tasting rooms and working her marketing magic with wine distributors.  In 2004, she became a CEO of an advertising agency in San Francisco, but the lure of the wine was still captivating, and she bought the adjacent Ricci Vineyard to Limerick Lane Cellars.  By this time, spending time with the vineyard, a grower for the Healdsburg wine industry, and as a Board Member for Copia, her ties were getting stronger.  In 2021, she and her husband bought a twelve-acre parcel of Zinfandel and Petite Sirah.  She then had a meeting with Jake Bilbro, her neighbor that was looking for the right person to purchase the existing estate, so, almost thirty years later, she returned “home.”

We proceeded to have the first red of the tasting, and it was Limerick Lane Cellars “Rocks & Fog” Russian River Valley 2023; their classic interpretation of a Red Rhone style wine that evokes the terroir of the region’s ancient stones and the signature morning fog that drapes over the land.   This wine is a blend of forty percent Syrah, thirty-one percent Grenache, twenty-eight percent Mourvèdre and one percent Petite Sirah.  The wine was fermented and aged in neutral French Oak barrels for a year, and eleven barrels were produced.  The fruit was from the Front Porch Farm, Sceales Vineyard, Acorn Vineyard, Emmit-Scorsone Vineyard and Limerick Lane.  This reddish-purple wine offered notes of raspberry, blackberry, cherry and plum followed by some tobacco leaf, leather and Sous-bois.  On the palate this full-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of red and black fruit, and pepper blending with fresh acidity and medium tannins ending with a medium-to- long-count finish of fruit, spice and terroir.           

We then experienced their first Zinfandel wine, the Limerick Lane Cellars Zinfandel Russian River Valley 2021.  This wine is pure Zinfandel and is a blend of estate-grown fruit and a handful of “old-vine” sites in the Russian River Valley.  The fruit was harvested from Limerick Lane, Maffei Vineyards, Banfield Vineyards, Grist Vineyard, Bacigalupi Vineyards, Monte Rosso Vineyard and Carlisle Vineyard; fifty-nine barrels were produced.  The wine was fermented, aged, in neutral French Oak barrels and bottled after eleven months.  A deep red colored wine that offered notes of black and red fruits, violets, baking spices, licorice and Sous-bois.  On the palate this medium-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of cherry, raspberry, cranberry and pomegranate followed by cloves blending with bold acidity and dusty tannins, ending with a medium-to-long count finish of fruit, spices and terroir.    

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Limerick Lane Cellars – Part One

Posted on September 7, 2026 by thewineraconteur

I went from one wine tasting to another wine tasting, and both had Detroit ties, at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  My brain can at times run a mile a second, especially in a train-of-consciousness moment.  So, when I heard of Limerick Lane Cellars, I immediately thought of seeing the late Christopher Plummer doing his one man play “Barrymore” as he wheels out a hotel bar cart and starts with the bawdiest “there once was a man from Nantucket…”

Limerick Lane Cellars sits at the northeast corner of Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley, a microclimate that allows Zinfandel and Rhone varietals to thrive.  Limerick Lane was named after a cattle farmer who first inhabited the area, naming it after his hometown in Ireland, in 1870.  By the 1890s the region experienced an influx of Italian immigrants who began planting vineyards and making wine.  The Del Fava family plants a Zinfandel field that is now called the “1910 Block” and stays with the family until they sell to the Collins family in 1977.  The Limerick Lane winery was created in 1985 to market wines from the estate, and in 2010, Jake and Alexis Bilbro purchase the vineyard and by 2012, the were ranked #12 in the annual Top 100 Wines of the World list by Wine Spectator.  After nearly a thirty-year hiatus with time in the automotive industries of Detroit, Karen Francis DeGolia returned to the region and grasped the reins of Limerick Lane Cellars.

The first wine of the tasting was the Limerick Lane Cellars Failte Sonoma County 2025.  Failte is Gaelic for “welcome” and reflects the cheerful embrace of the winery.  The wine is a blend of sixty percent Viognier and forty percent Grenache Blanc from the Preston Vineyards and the Louvals Vineyard.  The wine was aged in a mix of neutral one-year-old French Oak and Stainless-Steel vats for four months and there were seven barrels produced of this Rhone-style blend. This soft yellow colored wine offered notes of stone fruit and citrus followed by white florals.  On the palate this medium-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed notes of apricots and peaches blending with crisp citrus and ending with a medium-count finish of fruit and flowers       

We followed up with the Limerick Lane Cellars Rosé Sonoma County 2025.  This wine is a classic Rhone blend, and is fifty-nine percent Mourvèdre, twenty-one percent Syrah and twenty percent Grenache, with the fruit coming from the Estate vineyard and Preston Vineyards, and eleven barrels were made of this wine.  The wine was aged in a mix of one-year neutral French Oak and Stainless-Steel vats.  A pale pinkish-coppery colored wine that offered notes of strawberries, white peaches, citrus and white florals.  On the palate this medium-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of strawberries, raspberries and peaches blending with crisp acidity and ending with a medium-count finish of fruit, florals and limestone terroir.

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A Tasting with Tom Celani 2026 – Part Two

Posted on September 4, 2026 by thewineraconteur

It is always a pleasure to attend a tasting with Tom Celani along with his Celani Family Vineyards wines, when he holds court at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  The first red wine tasting was the Celani Family Vineyards Robusto Napa Valley 2022.  I have probably written about this wine so much over the years, that it would be redundant, and though it is listed as a Proprietary Red Wine, it is pure Merlot, and it is awesome.  In fact, when we heard that it may be discontinued, we immediately bought two cases, followed by another case.  Though when I asked Tom, if the rumor was true, he just winked and had a twinkle in his eye, so we shall see. 

We proceeded to enjoy the Celani Family Vineyards Tenacious Red Blend Napa Valley 2022.  I had tasted and wrote about the Tenacious 2012, 2016 and 2021 and we may have a bottle or two left of each of them in the cellar.  When I first had the wine, I was told that it was created in the image of Le Pin and Chateau Petrus, and quite a lofty goal.  The wine is a blend of seventy-three percent Merlot and twenty-seven percent Cabernet Franc.  The fruit is from the estate, Oak Knoll and Napa Valley.  The wine is aged in new French Oak for twenty-two months and has become their affordable signature wine.  This had a big nose of black fruit, plums and currants, followed by wildflowers, tobacco, Sous-bois and graphite. On the palate this full-bodied, well-balanced wine was dominated by the black cherry and plum finishing with some rich terroir and some great acidity for cellaring; truly evoking the Right Bank.  If I was crazy about the pure Merlot, the addition of the Cabernet Franc put it over the edge.

The penultimate wine of the afternoon was the Celani Family Vineyard “The Family” Cabernet Sauvignon Unfiltered Napa Valley 2022.   This wine is made using fruit from two respected Napa Valley AVA districts; Mount Veeder and Coombsville.  Here is a wine that was aged for twenty months in French Oak, of which ninety percent was new. This wine offered notes of black fruit, especially black cherry, blackberries and currants followed by violets, pencil lead, suede and crushed rocks.  On the palate this full-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of black fruit, and then tones of licorice, dark chocolate and spices and herbs blending with velvety tannins and ending with a long-count finish of fruit, black pepper and terroir.  There were several spices that were mingling in the taste along with supple tannins that made this wine great fresh from the bottle and will be stellar ten to fifteen years from now.

The final wine of the tasting was Celani Family Vineyards Ardore Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2023. The “Ardore” also evokes Tom Celani’s passion for a great cigar, as the label reminds one immediately of a cigar wrapper.  The wine is made from a careful selection of ten barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon from the most exceptional vineyard sites in the Coombsville AVA.  The wine is aged for twenty-two months in French Oak of which eighty-five percent is new, and the wine is never fined, nor filtered.  The wine is a deep inky purple-red color and offers notes of black cherries, blackberries and dark plums followed by hints of tobacco, graphite and chocolate.  On the palate this full-bodied, well-balanced wine displays tones of dark fruits, minerals blending with silky tannins and ending with a very long-count finish of rich fruit, minerals and terroir; that is wonderful for immediate consumption or to lay down in the cellar for another twenty years.      

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