There were several emails that went back and forth with “Cultural Exchange” for the subject, as it was from The Caller as he and his charming wife decided to have a dinner for some friends at their home. I guess “Cultural Exchange” sounded much more professional as it was originating from his business email account. Actually when I saw the first notice, I was thrown aback and had to ask my Bride what was going on, and of course she set me straight.

The Caller lives on a private drive, on a private lake, and getting there normally takes us about an hour, but we ran into two different major traffic problems, and even though we attempted to circumnavigate the situations we still took much longer than anticipated to join the party. As my Bride was driving I had texted him about the delays and his response was “I do like you, but you may be behind by one when you get here!” To which I promptly replied “you are slowing down.” Then just a half mile away from his home, we came across a bridge that had was closed and I texted him “the bridge is out,” to which he replied “just jump it.” We had to back track and go another way to his home and just as we pulling up he sent me another text “where are you now?” and I texted back “your driveway.” We had finally made it.

As we entered in, The Caller and all the others there for the “Cultural Exchange” were enjoying some appetizers and yes, they had almost finished a bottle, but they had been drinking cocktails. Most of the drinks, because The Caller enjoys the art of making cocktails was using a new vodka to him, that is a small batch craft vodka from Ferndale, Michigan called Valentine Detroit Vodka. This is vodka that is made from corn, wheat and barley in copper pots. Valentine Distilling maintains a tasting room and offers tours at their facility. I am only going to “cherry pick” a couple of the white wines that we started off with for the day. The first was Oppermann’s Chardonnay Pay D’OC 2012, a French light white wine that is termed a table wine, the unique aspect of this wine is that it is imported directly and privately labeled for Oppermann’s Cork ‘N’ Ale in Saginaw, Michigan. Oppermann’s is a shop that is dedicated to fine beer and liquors, the supplies for do-it-yourself individuals and they carry about three hundred wines, and from what I can ascertain they like to import some of their wines directly for the shop, as this wine is an example of. The other white wine that I would like to mention is Torre Raone Pecorino Colline Pescaresi IGT 2011 from Italy. The Pecorino varietal was at one time grown extensively, but through the years it had been abandoned, and had become all but extinct. The grape was rediscovered some time ago and has been nurtured by some winemakers and is being grown in Abruzzo and Marche regions of Italy. Colline Pescaresi IGT is a designation that basically covers the entire province of Pescara and covers wines from white to red, and still to sparkling, so that is quite a gamut, with Abruzzo being one of the major villages there. The afternoon was off to a great start, with The Caller and his wife being great hosts for the day.