Not a Festive Trip to Las Vegas

Posted on May 13, 2026 by thewineraconteur

One morning I had to post for friends and family “This morning just after five, my children informed me that their mother is in the arms of God.”  Then we had to wait until the slow trudging of a local bureaucracy turned, so that plans could be made.

We had to travel to Las Vegas, a place that I have been going to for years, but not for a solemn occasion but to be of support to my children and grandchildren.  We ended up booking for a week, and I was not in the best of spirits for this trip.  The airlines are going out of their way to make air travel miserable, on top of the fact that an airline just ceased, causing all sorts of added people to rebook their flights.  At least the TSA situation was corrected, but we do get to the airport early and find a restaurant as I don’t live on crackers and cookies.  The best my we could accomplish was center seats, with us seated one in front of the other.  We were able to travel with one bag each overhead, plus one personal bag, and then one suitcase each to be carried as cargo.  We also had to plan to transport a suit for my son, and one for his son.  I do think the airline must have added three additional rows of seats, as it was nearly impossible to get into and out of our assigned seats; any additional seats and I think that we will all be standing and just holding a strop above the head like in a subway.  I think that we were the only travelers that still maintained the dress of the old days of junkets, habits don’t disappear.

We were making arrangements to see as many of the family, the first evening at Grimaldi’s an Italian pizzeria and restaurant.  We have been going there for years, at least once on each trip.  In fact, one of my favorite photos that I ever shot was in the parking lot of the restaurant, as I got a chance to capture snow on palm trees.  It was just easy to order family style, and we started with their Lemon Arugula Salad with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, pepperoncini, red onions, shaved Parmesan along with Genoa Salami and Roasted Chicken.  We also had a couple of extra large classic (at least to me – classic) Pizza, the only thing missing was anchovies, which surprisingly they don’t offer).  

My Bride wanted a lighter wine as we had a long day, so I ordered a bottle of The Crossings Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough, New Zealand 2023. The Crossings is owned by the Yealands Wine Group.  The fruit is sourced from three vineyards in the cooler Awatere Valley, a subregion of Marlborough.  The Crossings takes its name from an historical crossing point of the Awatere River.  The wine is made using a “long, cool fermentation to retain purity of flavors, then blended, stabilized and filtered prior to bottling. The light golden colored wine offered notes of tropical fruits, citrus and herbs and mowed grass.  On the palate this light-to-medium bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of fruit, fresh acidity with a low proof count, and a refreshing short-to-medium count finish of lemon peel, a touch of jalapeno and white pepper, and minerality.    

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Willie Newman Introduces Sisters

Posted on May 10, 2026 by thewineraconteur

When Willie Newman was at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan offering a tasting of his Tre Son wines, he also had the world premier of his new wine Sisters. 

Willie Newman is getting ready to retire from his current vocation that keeps him in Ann Arbor, Michigan and he has plans to retire to Paso Robles, California to retire and make his wines.  I am not sure how much of a true retirement it is, but he seems eager.  This is a new wine, and the fruit is from his 4 Hearts Vineyard, that is named after his wife and his three daughters.  Since he has been concerned with his Zinfandel and his Cabernet Sauvignon wines since his debut in 2009.  I have even had a chance to try his “Stash” wines that were not offered for sale but was a way to show how his wines age in the bottles and cellars.

This tasting featured “swag” for the premier of Sisters, and I have just never quite gotten used to “swag” now meaning gifts, as I still think of swag as booty, from the old pirate stories of yore.  There were T-shirts and quilted vests.  Also wine tumblers and wine keys.  Not to mention canvas tote bags and a handsome wine caddy.  The items were gifts given according to the amount of wine purchased. 

We then tasted Sisters Dry Farm Blend Red Wine 4 Hearts Vineyard Paso Robles 2023.  And if you noticed on the label, in the lower scroll of each “S” were emblems of a hand holding “the sun,” “the moon” and “the planet Mars.”  The three daughters were also on hand pouring the tastings and each modeling their singular tattoo of the sun, moon or Mars.  The wine is a blend of thirty-five percent Cabernet Sauvignon, twenty-five percent Petite Sirah, twenty-five percent Zinfandel and fifteen percent Tempranillo.  This deep garnet colored wine offered notes of black cherry, plums and black raspberry, followed by spices.  On the palate this medium-to-full-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of black “jammy” fruits,  blending with smooth tannins and ending with a medium-count finish of fruits, and white pepper.   

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Willie Newman and a New Tasting

Posted on May 7, 2026 by thewineraconteur

Willy Newman is a businessman from Ann Arbor, and I remember the first time that I tasted his Tre Son wines, was at my local wine shop The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan back in 2018 and I was told that it was an exclusive to the wine shop.  In August of 2021 was the next time that I tried the wine, and it was an impromptu tasting with the owner of the winery and the first time that I met Willie Newman. 

We started with Dunning Vineyards Chardonnay Paso Robles/Willow Creek District 2023.  They are neighbors of Tre Son Wines, and they do the crushing and wine production for Tre Son as well as their own wines. So, Willie Newman always begins by showcasing this wine and gives them some much appreciated attention in Michigan.   Bob and Jo-Ann Dunning are the winemakers and owners of this forty-acre estate which was established in 1991 on the west side of Paso Robles.  The winery produces about fifteen-hundred cases a year using several different varietals.  This Chardonnay wine is produced in the classic Burgundian style with full oak barrel fermentation and sur-lees aged for one year.  This was a golden-yellow wine that offered notes of pear and citrus, nutmeg and vanilla.  On the palate this medium-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of white fruit, citrus and had a nice creamy taste with balanced acidity and layers of flavor that opened and ended with a medium-count finish of fruit, citrus and terroir.

We then were treated to a vertical tasting of Tres Son Zinfandel Paso Robles, 4 Hearts Vineyard 2020, 2021 and 2022.  Tre Son Winery is the label from 4 Hearts Vineyard in Paso Robles.  My wine shop helped design the label and helped secure the proper paperwork in the Byzantine labyrinth, that is how Michigan can sell wines.  The vineyard was bought in 2004, which at the time was a walnut ranch, and the first fifteen acres of thirty-seven were planted in 2007, of which ten acres were Zinfandel.  The vineyard is owned by the gentleman Willie Newman who hails from Ann Arbor, Michigan who now divides his time between Michigan with his current business and residing in Paso Robles which will eventually be his retirement home and business.  The 4 Hearts refer to his wife and his three daughters.  When one considers the tender young age of this vineyard, it is well respected by some other wineries that use their fruit.  Some of the wineries listed by the vineyard include some of their earliest purchasers like Dunning Vineyard, Saxum Vineyards and Venteux Vineyards and many others.  I have had tasted the Zinfandel wines since the 2009 vintage, including the 2010 “Private Stash.” I will discuss the Tre Son Zinfandel 4 Heart Vineyard Paso Robles 2022. The wine is aged for twelve months in neutral French Oak to allow the grape to shine as opposed to the spices inherent in the oak.  This deep purple wine offered notes of black fruit and pepper.  On the palate this medium-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of black cherry and plums, not a fruit bomb, but a nice chewy wine that featured good, but young tannins and ended with a good medium-count finish of fruit, spices and terroir.

We then had the Tre Son Cabernet Sauvignon 4 Hearts Vineyard Paso Robles 2022, and Willie Newman joined me, as he said that he hadn’t tasted this wine since it arrived in Michigan.  The wine was aged for six months in a mix of new and neutral French Oak barrels.  The winery uses the dry-farming techniques, and I am not sure if this was the cause for my notes, but I wrote “great terroir.” This deep garnet colored wine offered notes of black cherry, blackberry, cassis and plums followed with spices and earth.  On the palate this medium-bodied, well-balanced displayed tones of dark fruit, spices blending with supple tannins ending with a good medium-count finish of fruit, spices and terroir.

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Fourteen Years of Writing

Posted on May 4, 2026 by thewineraconteur

On the fourth of May, it will be fourteen years of my blog, some will be happy for me, some will be amazed at that as they think that I am probably wasting my time, and most will be rather indifferent.

This article will be my 2,575th piece and to me that seems rather monumental.  The first year I wrote an article to be published every evening at 01:10 GMT (at least during DST), because I get rather fixated on a concept.  I wrote the first year, every night, just to acclimate myself to writing again, as I had graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1976 and had gotten out of the habit of writing.  Then for the next perhaps ten years, I wrote an article to be published every other evening (still at the same time).  Then I started to slack off and started publishing an article every third night, and this has proven advantageous as I had discovered Instagram.  There is a maximum character limit per published article, and I started tailoring the articles to fit this unknown count, and there have been days when I have had to abridge my own works, because I can get too verbose, imagine that.  I also write with a conceit that I imagine that I am talking to a friend at a table as we enjoy a glass or two of wine.  I don’t have any designations and after over fifty years of enjoying wine, I might be embarrassed about how little I know.  With amazement, somehow, I have acquired a readership of about 8,000 each week now.     

At first, I was gun-shy, and I think that I was perhaps goaded by friends and relatives to give it a go, as I was a very enthusiastic wine drinker, who maybe got a little carried away with collecting.  I have read that my generation might be the last generation to collect and develop hobbies and I hope not.  Since I have always remarked that I have a face for radio, it has allowed me to become a collector, sometimes to my Bride’s chagrin, because beyond wine, I have collected many forms of paper ephemera, classic literature (I mean is there anything more enjoyable than reading from a deckle-edged, raised spine book), hobby literature, art and a wardrobe that might make a boulevardier envious.  My Bride and I both agree that we must curtail our passion for buying wine, but we still do, and I guess we just must drink more often together and with friends. If you follow me on some social media sites, I have been showcasing a bottle of wine from the cellar each day, more to remind myself of what needs to be enjoyed sooner than later, and since I started this feature if I calculate properly, it will be at “No. 571.”

So, if one day you are at a wine shop, a wine tasting, a nice dinner or even a casual dinner, or at a winery and you see this over-dressed and hatted individual taking photos of a wine glass and a bottle, while asking for information, it may be me with my Bride.  One other thing that I will mention, because of the “conceit” of my narratives, I don’t rate wines (I leave that to the professionals) and I try not to denigrate any wines, as sometimes the only wines that we may encounter are mass-produced wines, but they even have a proper place in the pecking order, as they may make an individual try another wine similar to a wine that they had, and they can be very pleased and we have a new wine drinker.   We are still having fun, and it is a delightful avocation when one is retired, though I probably would have enjoyed it when I was working as well.  And I must end with a dear thank you to everyone that lets me ramble on from an honorary “Street Somm.”

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Some More Wines at Home

Posted on May 1, 2026 by thewineraconteur

I don’t want it to sound like I just drink, when my Bride and I have dinner at home, we will open a bottle, unless she is going to church function, as she doesn’t want to give the wrong impression; I don’t have that problem.  I am also in the process of culling photos from my iPhone.  

Of course, at home my Bride is partial to having fish, she was like that since the early days that we were dating.  She has also become very partial to Sauvignon Blanc over the last several years.  We have had a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, and I had refrained from opening it, because some are known for being rather aromatic and quite distinctive.  I opened it up, as I always keep learning to this day, so we had Tua Tua Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough, New Zealand 2023 by David Clouston.  In a small coastal village in New Zealand there is a legend about a mysterious seashell called Tua Tua.  It is said to represent good luck and prosperity and is kept and revered as a talisman.  David Clouston crafts distinctive, innovative Marlborough wines that reflect the valleys where they are grown.  His grapes are grown on the clay soils of the high-density planted Brookby Hill Vineyard along with select sites in the Awatere and Wairau Valleys.  His winemaking techniques include native fermentation, aging in concrete egg tanks, large oak cuvées, a range of French Oak barrels, and clay amphora.  The wines are bottled, unfiltered and unfined to preserve complexity and texture.  This wine is pure Sauvignon Blanc and was a delicate straw-like hue that offered notes of pineapple guava, elderflower, currants and wet stones.  On the palate this medium-bodied, well-balanced wine displays tones of kiwi, passion fruit, pineapple, pink grapefruit and ending with a medium-count finish of exotic fruits and lime zest.

Now we don’t always have fish, we were having a classic roast beef dinner, as we had a leisurely day at the house, to make this dinner with all of the sides. I went down to the cellar to look for something different, and that is really a joy with a cellar.  I selected a bottle of Scheid Hames Valley Vineyard Petite Sirah 2009.  This is a new AVA for me, Hames Valley, located in the Southern part of Monterey County.  One of the unique aspects of Hames Valley is that it can have a fifty degree temperature differential from day to night, which the winery claims is ideal for growing Petite Sirah.  Scheid Family Wines was founded in 1972 by Al Scheid, a Harvard graduate, and is now managed by Scott and Heidi Scheid.  The winery began with ten acres and now they have a few thousand, and after three decades they created their own brands.  The wine is pure Petite Sirah and the fruit is hand-harvested and destemmed and placed in bins for fermentation and it gets punched down twice a day to extract color, tannins and flavor.  Then the wine is racked and placed in small barrels for secondary fermentation for about eighteen months in a mix of Hungarian and American Oak, with about ten percent new, with a production of about two-hundred cases. I decanted the bottle, as you can see from the residual dregs that coated the bottle.  This was a deep blackish purple wine that offered notes of blackberry and plums, followed by tobacco and mocha.  On the palate this full-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of dark fruit, in a big chewy wine, and the bold tannins had mellowed, but still feisty, ending with a long-count finish of rich fruit, oak, spiciness and terroir. 

The third wine I will mention is because my Bride was preparing filets, and she still doesn’t like cooking them, she would rather have them in a restaurant.  For her endeavors, I went and selected one of the first wine brands that she developed a special affinity for, as I opened a half- bottle of Peju Province Merlot Rutherford 1998 and after decanting we had two excellent servings of the wine.  The estate was founded in 1983 by Tony and Herta Peju along with their daughters and the original Rutherford estate was twenty-two acres, and today they have more than ten times that amount with all their other vineyards in Napa Valley.  I went into my original brochures and pamphlets when we bought this wine, but there were no production notes and they no longer make a Rutherford Merlot, just a Napa Merlot.  The current Merlot wine is aged for sixteen months in a mix of French and American Oak, of which forty percent is new.  Even at twenty-eight years of age, this wine was still a deep garnet and offered notes of black cherry, blackberry and plum, along with some coffee, spices and Sous-bois.  On the palate this full-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of black fruit, spices blending with very mellow tannins and ending with a long-count finish of fruit, spices and terroir; and a very happy smile on my Bride who is probably mad that we didn’t buy more.  

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A Delightful Night in Farmington

Posted on April 28, 2026 by thewineraconteur

It was a night of firsts for us, as we tried a new restaurant, a wine bar and the “Big Band Goes to the Movies” at the historic Farmington Civic Theatre.  The City of Farmington just recently won the Great American Main Street Award for 2026 recognizing its excellence in preservation-based commercial district revitalization.

We started the evening off with dinner at Spruce and Ash, my Bride had been there, with one of her girlfriends, but she was sure that I would like it.  There motto is “From scratch-kitchen! We fry in beef tallow & limit our use of seed oils.”  We did three Small Plate selections.  We started with “Boom Boom Shrimp” which was tail on shrimp fried and tossed in their house sweet chili sauce and scallions.  We then had the “Tipperary Nachos” which were crispy tallow fried potatoes and topped with Cheddar Cheese, bacon, scallions and sour cream; our waitress suggested that we order extra crispy, and we also requested no sour cream.  Later the chef came by, said that he reread the order and said that he didn’t make it extra crispy, so he sent us a new order, and if you get it, ask for a side of the chili sauce (and as a further aside, it was fried potato skins). We also had Salmon Croquettes with red onion, jalapeno, garlic and lemon aioli.  We also got a bottle of Loren Crossing Sauvignon Blanc Oakville 2024. I couldn’t find any information about the winery, but this wine is eighty-six percent Sauvignon Blanc and fourteen percent Semillon.  The fruit is hand-picked and the Sauvignon Blanc underwent primary fermentation in a Stainless-Steel tank, and the Semillon in Hermitage cigar barrels with some lees contact; then six months of blending before bottling.  This soft golden colored wine offered notes of Meyer Lemon, limes, and white peaches along with honeysuckle.  On the palate this light-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of citrus and exotic fruits and ending with a decent medium-count finish of citrus and fruit, it was very refreshing.

After dinner, we went to Santé Wine Tasting Room, where they offer about a hundred different wines and a rotating inventory of thirty-two wines using the Cruvinet System pouring by the ounce.  We had our dessert with a glass of The Rare Wine Company Historic Series Madeira New York Malmsey Special Reserve NV made by Barbeito in Madeira, Portugal.  It may be one of the longest names for a wine and it is a classic caramel-based wine that can possibly live forever, even after opening with just a classic cork as a stopper.  The Rare Wine Company was and is the pre-eminent source of Vintage Madeira from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and in 1998 they began working with Vinhos Barbeito to create a series of Madeira wines with the proper blending of wines from ten to sixty years.  The use of different cities with old engravings on the labels tie the historical connection of America to Madeira, as the Old South preferred dry, the North preferred the sweeter Madeira like the Boston Bual and the New York Malmsey.  Malmsey is a fortified wine made from a group of varieties of the Malvasia grapes under the rules of Portugal’s Madeira DOC.  Malmsey is the sweetest and richest example of Madeira and contains more than twice the residual sugar of a Madeira Sercial or Madeira Verdelho. The name Malmsey is probably a bastardization or a second corruption, in nicer terms, of mariners trying to pronounce the Portuguese name.  This was a beautiful dessert wine that was sweet but not cloying and very balanced.  This deep brownish-red wine offered notes of figs and dates, caramel and toffee, along with some chocolate, coffee, almonds and a touch of orange peel.  This full-bodied, well-balanced wine was very rich, with notes of candied and stewed fruit and ending with a nice long-count finish of rich candied fruit, molasses, vanilla and toffee.

We finally made our way to the Farmington Civic Theater with an Art Moderne style by C. Howard Crane, that same man that designed the Fox Theatre in Detroit.  The theater was built in 1940 and went from father to son who later sold the theater to the city in 1998., though in 1989, the balcony was converted into a second theater.  The city updated the seats, the sound system and replaced the film projectors with digital projectors and the support technology.  The Henry Ford Big Band with eighteen musicians were set up on the stage to wail away, first with pure music and then they were joined with a local chanteuse Olivia Van Goor.  Of course, we go to see The Wine Raconteur Jr. who is a saxophonist and acted as the Concert Producer as well.  The evening began with Mercer and Mancini’s Days of Wine and Roses and finished with Mancini and Mercer’s Moon River. 

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DaVinci and Cantina Zaccagnini

Posted on April 25, 2026 by thewineraconteur

I don’t know about you, but I am constantly getting messages that I have too many photos on my phone, and as I start searching, I find another article to be written that was pushed out by other articles.  Of course, by now you realize that I am not just a wino. 

I discovered that we had gone to see “DaVinci the Exhibition at The Henry Ford Museum.”  We have a family membership to The Henry, which is the new name for the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, which is one of the greatest places to visit in the State of Michigan.   This was a limited-time, immersive showcase of Leonardo DaVinci’s life, art, and inventions.   There were over sixty-five full-scale inventions, handcrafted by artisans from DaVinci’s original sketches and modern Codices, including military machines, civil engineering designs, flying contraptions and musical instruments.  There were also twenty museum-quality reproductions like the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and Virgin of the Rocks, plus some that are still debated, but attributed to DaVinci.

There were also in-depth studies on concepts such as the golden ratio, anatomy and proportion with enlarged sketches and annotations.  One of the well-studied and explained was his “Vitruvian Man.”  I have to admit, that both of us were as bad as the young students who were there from school field trips, as we waited until the students were done with some of the interactive displays.  He had created machines to make man work smarter, instead of harder, with actual displays of assorted rope pulley demonstrations; things that we take for granted today but were totally novel and wonderous at the time.  It was here that I had to invoke the inner Michael O’Hara, but there was no Rita Hayworth as I dared to venture into a small-scale version of a mirror room.  It also reminded me of the “House of Mirrors” room at a traveling carnival that would come to my old neighborhood in Detroit, when I was a kid.  I remember that I solved the mystery by looking at the floor and not the mirrors, and I discovered which way to go, because there was no mirror installed from the floor up to the ceiling.   All in all, a wonderful exhibit, and the type of exhibits that are now featured, and there were no traveling exhibits when I was a kid riding my bicycle to see either the Henry Ford Museum or Greenfield Village on a Saturday.

I was feeling rather nostalgic, not for DaVinci, but for the Museum and the Village, so we went for a classic pie and an antipasto, and they now have a location near our house, in a former restaurant where the waiters would sing opera, between servings.  We had a bottle of Azienda Agricola Ciccio “Cantina” Zaccagnini dal tralcetto Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2022.  The “Tralcetto” line refers to the small vine twig that is affixed to the bottle with raffia and has been their trademark.    Azienda Agricola Ciccio Zaccagnini is one of the leading producers in the Abruzzo region of Italy, with around seven-hundred-forty acres of vineyards. The bottles are always adorned with a small remnant from a vine and a great marketing image.  The winery was established in 1978 and has steadily grown, and they now produce over three million bottles of wine, and seventy percent of the production is now divided among forty-five countries.  This wine is grown on medium-textured clay soil.  After manual harvesting, destemming and crushing the wine undergoes submerged-cap maceration, and then temperature-controlled fermentation for fifteen days, then aged in Stainless Steel on its lees.  This deep ruby wine offered restrained notes of red cherries and raspberries, along with pepper and cloves.  On the palate this medium-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of red fruit, spices and soft tannins, ending with a short-count finish of fruit and spices; perfect for a meat-lover’s pizza.  

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It Was Thirty-three Years Ago

Posted on April 22, 2026 by thewineraconteur

It is hard to believe, that it is only thirty-three years ago, that I met my Bride, though there are some days that she thinks that maybe she shouldn’t have gone to that dance. 

I knew it was right, as I told her that evening that we were going to get married.  We actually got married three years later and we danced to “Love is Lovelier the Second Time Around” as crooned by Francis Albert.  While there are highs and lows, it has been great and eventually we will even figure out how to enjoy retirement; I have been practicing for around seven years, she is still deciding, though she is more pro than con these days.  Not to mention that we have a cellar to drink up.

We have lasted longer than the 2003 Crus Bourgeois Classification which included three tiers of quality – Cru Bourgeois, Cru Bourgeois Superieur and Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel.  Actually, the first attempt was in 1932 for a designation for the Medoc region wines that were not recognized in the 1855 Classification of Grands Crus Classes.  The 2003 attempt fell apart amid disappointment, infighting and legal action, and was annulled by the courts in 2007.  A new attempt was begun starting with the 2012 vintage, and this classification will be reviewed and renewed every five years.  It is an ideal marketing tool, as it makes another group of wines look affordable and appealing.  There is a small additional label affixed to the bottle affirming the Crus Bourgeois of a wine.   

All of this leads to my Bride just going out for an Antipasto and a Pizza for our anniversary celebration dinner.  And you thought being a wine blogger was glamorous and prestigious.  Much to my Bride’s chagrin, I selected a new wine, instead of our normal pizza wine, after all I do have a blog to write.  We had Chateau Bel Air Gloria Haut-Medoc Cru Bourgeois 2017 from Domaines Martin.  Henri Martin had Chateau Gloria, and then he was part of the group that reunified Chateau Saint-Pierre and eventually owned.  In the eighties he bought Chateau Bel Air in Cussac, adjacent to Saint-Julien Beychevelle and added Gloria to the name.  The estate is 37 hectares vines averaging thirty years of age planted on fine gravel ridges of blue clay.  The wine is a blend of sixty percent Cabernet Sauvignon and forty percent Merlot.  Initial vinification is done in Stainless-Steel vats and the aged for twelve months in French Oak of which twenty-five percent is new.  This deep purple wine offered notes of blackberry and currants, along with violets, tobacco and licorice.  On the palate this medium-to-full bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of black cherry, blackberry, spices blending with grippy tannins and ending with a medium-to-long-count finish of fruit, spices and terroir; a good chewy wine.     

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A Few More Wines That I Tasted

Posted on April 19, 2026 by thewineraconteur

It really was a pleasure to do some more tastings, especially on a one-on-one experience as is usually the case at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  I also do enjoy the more structured tasting events that they enact as well, as each offers different experiences.

The next wine that I had was Azienda Agricola Demarie Giovanni Langhe Nebbiolo 2023.  The Demarie family’s interest in winemaking goes back to the late 1800s, but was officially founded in 1957 by Giovanni Demarie, and it is still a family business and now run by Aldo and Paolo Demarie.  They have a thirty-hectare estate in Roero but use the Langhe DOC designation.  In 2013, they built a state-of-the-art, eco-friendly winery powered by solar energy.  This Nebbiolo wine is from twenty- to thirty-year-old vines planted on sand, marl-sandstone and fossilized seashells on exposed hillsides and using dry-farming techniques and hand harvested.  The wine undergoes maceration with the skins for twenty days and they used indigenous yeasts for fermentation in temperature-controlled Stainless-Steel tanks. The wine then ages for six months in concrete vats, and after bottling it rests for an additional four months prior to being released.  It is clarified using clay and only lightly filtered, they produce 850 cases of this wine.  This ruby colored wine offered notes of raspberries and blackberries, followed by violets, leather and spices.  On the palate the medium-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of red cherry and raspberry, followed by traces of cocoa, blending with fine tannins and ending with a medium-count finish of red fruit, spices and terroir.

We followed up with Casa Vinicola D’Angelo Aglianico del Vulture DOC Basilicata 2019.  Casa Vinicola D’Angelo has spanned four generations and almost a century in the history of Aglianico del Vulture.  While the winery was established in the thirties, in 1924 the wines were exhibited at the IV Commercial Fair in Bari.  In 1971 Aglianico earned the DOC designation.  Mount Vulture is an extinct volcano and is part of the landscape of norther Basilicata.  The wine must be made exclusively from Aglianico, on volcanic soil, and altitude is an important factor in that it must be planted between 200m and 700m.  The fruit is manually harvested, and basic Aglianico del Vulture wines must be aged in oak barrels for at least a year, before being released.  The D’Angelo wine undergoes ten days of maceration on the skin and is aged for eighteen months in large barrels.  Their first vintage was 1960, and the average age of the vines is from 30-35 years of age.  The wine was a deep garnet color and offered notes of black fruit, Sous-bois, sage and licorice.  On the palate this medium-to-full-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of black cherry, earth and tar and a very chewy wine with firm tannins that ends with a medium-to-long count finish of fruit, spices and terroir.

I thought I was done and they brought out one more wine and who am I to say no?  A bottle of Philip Togni Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2014.  Philip Togni Vineyard is a small, family-owned Napa Valley wine producer, and one of the oldest in the Spring Mountain District.  The winery was planted in 1981 by Philip and his wife Birgitta on a ten-acre plot (four hectares) and all the wine is estate grown and they are ably assisted by their daughter Lisa.  The winery is solar-powered.  The wine is described and likened to an age-worthy Margaux-type blend of mainly Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.  They also annually hold back a portion of the newly bottled wine to re-release when it is ten, twenty and thirty years old.  This deep garnet colored wine offered notes of dark fruits and cassis, orange zest, and Sous-bois.  On the palate this full-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of black cherry, blueberry and plum blending with a touch of minerals and silky tannins and ending with a nice long-count finish of refined fruit, terroir and just a touch of ethereal sweetness, an elegant wine.  

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The Fine Wine Source Club – April 2026

Posted on April 16, 2026 by thewineraconteur

With so much going on between me and the house, and my Bride helping her sister, it felt wonderful to go out and be with people.  And picking up the wine club selections was a bonus.

As always there is a wine representing the Old World, and one representing the New World.  The first wine is Il Colle Pinot Grigio delle Venezie DOC 2022.   The first wine that I picked represented the Old World and it was a bottle of Il Colle Cabernet Sauvignon Veneto IGT NV.  Il Colle was established in 1978 by Fabio Ceshin and his wife Gianna, with the desire to pass on this wine culture to their three children.  The location of the vineyard is in the Hills of Treviso in Veneto, on clay soil, and the vines are ten to fifteen years old.  After harvesting the grapes undergo a soft maceration and fermentation is for about fifteen days in Stainless-Steel tanks with temperature control.  The wine is then aged for six months in Stainless-Steel tanks.  The wine is described as straw yellow and offering notes of lemon and lime citrus, and green apples, followed by white florals and some spices.  On the palate this light-bodied, well-balanced wine displays notes of crisp and fresh green apples and pears blending with citrus acidity and ending with a good medium-count finish of fruit and crisp acidity. 

The wine representing the New World is Ocnautic Red Blend Paso Robles Shandon Vineyard 2023, one of the brands from ASV Wines (Arroyo Seco Vineyards).  ASV Wines was started in the early Seventies and now are into the fourth generation of families in the business.  ASV Wines was created in 1982 and now they have acquired 1,500 acres of vineyards in Monterey County.  Located in the southeast of Monterey Bay adjacent to the Arroyo Seco Creek, the vineyards benefit from the extended growing season, maritime climate and the geographical features and soils of the region.  This wine is a blend of sixty-two percent Cabernet Sauvignon, twenty-four percent Petite Sirah and fourteen percent Zinfandel and all sourced from their Shandon Vineyard.  The fruit is harvested at night, with extended skin contact during pressing and the Initial Fermentation is done in the tanks.  Secondary Fermentation occurring in the barrel; Cabernet was aged in new and seasoned French Oak, the Petite Sirah in neutral French Oak and the Zinfandel was treated to all new American Oak.  All the components were aged for eleven months, and then combined into the final blend.  The wine is described as a deep garnet color offering notes of dark fruit, and dark chocolate.  On the palate this medium-to-full-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of black cherry and blueberry, along with anise and mocha blending and ending with a good medium-count finish bold almost sweet hints of black cherry pie, blueberry jam and cooking spices.

They then asked me if I had time to taste a couple of wines.  It was pure music to my ears, after seeming to be in solitaire for the last couple of weeks.  I had a glass of Francine Bachelier “Hommage” Chablis 2020.  Francine Bachelier and her husband, Olivier Savary, own a small, highly regarded estate in Maligny, which lies at the northern edge of the slope of the Grand Cru Chablis vineyards.  Olivier markets his wines as Domaine Savary, while Francine produces limited-run selections in the cellar for her own label.  While they own property in two Premier Crus, their specialty is producing quality Chablis Village wines.  She also produces a very limited special bottling “Hommage” dedicated to her father Raymond Bachelier who runs the family Domaine in Villey-en-Auxois.  The grapes are sourced from fifty-year-old vines on hillside vineyards of clay and limestone in Villy.  The soil also has an abundance of ancient, fossilized oyster shells, which create a mineral-driven wine, and the wine is an un-oaked Chablis, which reflects the terroir.  This wine comes from 1.6 hectares of densely planted Chardonnay and produces less than six hundred cases.  Initial Fermentation, as well as Malolactic Fermentation is done in Stainless-Steel tanks.  This soft golden colored wine offered notes of pears and yellow apples, lemons and limes, white florals and spiced honey.  On the palate this medium-to-full-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of yellow orchard fruit, with traces of pineapple blending with crisp acidity and ending with a medium-to-long-count finish of fruit, citrus and distinctive minerality.       

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