One of the joys of writing this blog is that it can go in many directions and I never know where it is heading until I sit down at my keyboard. The Caller is one of my characters who get to live behind a nom de plume, and that is probably a good thing. While he may sound like someone from a Damon Runyon story, he is actually far from it, but he has a grand sense of humor, a preference for good food and he has been known to enjoy a glass or two of wine.

Periodically without rhyme or reason and no set day or time, The Caller will call, actually he will text me. There will be some text, but mostly pictures of what he is enjoying. He sends me pictures of what he and his charming wife are eating, but I have found that photographing food is one of the hardest things to do, so I refrain from doing it, even though I am somewhat of a “Foodie.” Then again I have enough problems photographing wine labels, so all professional photographers need not worry that I will be taking work away from them. As it is, I don’t even think most Wine Bloggers need to worry either. Of course as always, I digress and tend to ramble at times, The Caller and his wife were having dinner at Gratzi, an Italian restaurant located in downtown Ann Arbor, and I have wrote a post about it. Gratzi is a fixture in Ann Arbor as I am not sure if I remember being in Ann Arbor before they were there, and I have had the pleasure of dining out for several decades (I guess that is OK to admit, since I have already admitted that my Bride and I are Grandparents).

The more intriguing part of The Callers calls is the labels of the wines that they are enjoying. He only does it when he has found something that has tickled his fancy. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, and at least for the first two bottles The Caller went with Tuscan wines from Italy, which are great choices with pasta and the like. The first bottle was Castello Banfi Rosso di Montalcino 2010. This is a charming Sangiovese wine that shares the same DOCG as its big brother Brunello di Montalcino. The Rosso wines are made to be enjoyed in their youth, as opposed to the big tannin bombshells that the Brunello wines can and usually deliver, not to mention that they really need cellar time to let them mellow out. The second wine was a new wine for me and I had to do some research (trust me, there is so much that I do not know about wine). Le Mass di Greve (NV or ?) is a Chianti Classico, by virtue that years ago, when they were drawing the boundaries for Chianti and Chianti Classico, the commune of Greve is located directly in the Chianti Classico boundaries, but it was always a sleepy little community that just evolved with the blossoming of the wines. The classic mixture for all types of Chianti wines is Sangiovese, Canaiolo and Malvese Bianca; one of my favorite asides about this area is that one can have a Chianti Superiore, but there is no Chianti Classico Superiore, I guess it is taken for granted that Chianti Classico is automatically Superiore. The last wine that I received a picture of was Cono Sur Reserva Especial Pinot Noir 2013 from the Valle de Casablanca in Chile. The Valle de Casablanca was initially planted in the 1980’s and I am not sure how much Pinot Noir is grown there, as this area is much closer to the Equator, and the Pacific breezes may not totally cool off the area to the liking of this finicky varietal that I enjoy so much. Since I did not get a dissertation on the wines, I will presume that they were all enjoyable, otherwise The Caller would not have taken the time and effort. I look forward to his next set of messages.