While still in the eastern suburbs of the Detroit area, we were celebrating all the birthdays in the family that occur in July. This was going to be at one of my Bride’s Sister’s home. So not only did we go to a wedding on the east side and spend the night in a hotel, but we also took along a portable refrigerator that can go from the car to the house, as we were transporting the meats for the party. My Bride had ten pounds of pork tenderloin that she marinated in orange juice, soy and sesame oil and it was to be barbecued for the party. We also stopped and got some chicken and hamburgers, but they were never used, because we had more tenderloin then we needed, but it is always better to have more, than not enough.

Since we got there early and my Bride and her Sister were getting the food prepared for later, I went with my Brother-in-Law for a drive to pick up a few last minute supplies. He also gave me a tour of the area that they had moved to, and it was a charming lakeside community with a couple block downtown area of stores and businesses. He also took me to Washington Street Wine House, which produces wines procured from concentrated wine juice from different parts of the world. We had a quick tasting while we were there, and while I laud them for their efforts, I tried their South African Pinotage and to be truthful I did not notice any taste of that unique grape in the wine by that name, in fact I was not sure exactly what grape it reminded me of. It was one of the few times that I ever left a wine shop empty handed.

At the party during dinner we had several different wines, but the wine that I want to discuss is another wine that we had bought at a wine tasting dinner at a restaurant and I just wanted to see if I still liked it, and I did. When we attended a Terra d’Oro wine dinner, some of the wines that we bought, I have been trying again recently like their Pinot Grigio that I wrote about a couple of articles earlier. Terra d’Oro was established in 1970 as Montevina Wines and is now part of the large Trinchero Family Estates and Terra d’Oro means Land of Gold. The Terra d’Oro Chenin Blanc and Viognier 2014 was perfect on that hot July day. The wine was a blend of 87% Chenin Blanc from Clarksburg and carries the Clarksburg appellation and 13% Viognier form the Voteau Vineyard in Amador County. Clarksburg is an appellation that is seldom seen, as most of the fruit produced there is bought by larger firms for blending, and Clarksburg is prominent for their production of Chenin Blanc.  I also want to mention the other wine that we had just bought at Michigan by the Bottle and it was Chateau de Leelanau Cabernet Franc Rose 2013 that we had bought for one of my Bride’s cousins.  I am a big fan of Michigan wines, and we both love Cabernet Franc wines when we can get them, but this wine, even though it was a rose, was a bit sweeter then I would have expected, but the cousin loved it.  So all was great and the day was a perfect July day and the family get-together was just relaxing.