It is slowly starting to feel like a civilized world again, at least in parts of the world.  Our wine shop, The Fine Wine Source of Livonia recently opened up again and I was finally able to pick up three months of wine club selections.  Some of you are probably saying to yourselves, what is he talking about, you were able to buy wine and liquor during the entire time of the lockdown, well that is a yes and a no.  Originally, grocery stores were considered essential and that makes sense, even to the chief elected harridan of the state.  The grocery stores also sold beer, wine and liquor, then they realized that there had a snag, as not every community has grocery stores for a myriad of reasons, so then party stores or convenience stores were able to stay open, because they carried “groceries” and sometimes that definition was quite broad, but the state did need to keep collecting whatever tax money they could.  It reminds me of the old days in Ontario, Canada when they had taverns and saloons and one would have to have food; sometimes that was just potato chips or pretzels.

The Fine Wine Source is just a wine shop, no beer and no liquor and no food.  They were not considered essential, except to those of us that had Wine Club Memberships and each month we paid for our wines, knowing that one day, we would be able to pick up our new wines.  I do have to give them credit as they were running promotions and would offer free delivery within a delineated circle of so many miles, give or take if you bought “X” amount of wine, and that is what made me start going through the cellar, finding some of the strays with the concept of rearranging the cellar.  Lady Luck was with us, as I only had to report on one bottle of wine that did not age gracefully.   It was a great incentive to drink what we had, just like, we were actually eating food that was in two refrigerators and a chest freezer, so we really did not get hit with the potential “meat shortages” and we even survived the toilet paper rush, because my Bride had bought all her paper products and a lot of cleaning and sanitizing supplies, just before our trip to Louisville, so we survived the ninety-three plus days of lockdown. 

The domestic wine from the wine club selection for April was Magnolia Court Dorrian Pinot Noir Central Coast 2016.  The Miller Family Wine Company’s California farming and ranching legacy starts in 1871, when William and Francis Broome moved from England to begin farming in southern Ventura County.  The farming legacy was passed down to William Broome’s granddaughter Elizabeth who married Robert Miller in 1942, and then it became the Miller Family.  In 1973 the family developed a vineyard in the Paso Robles highlands and named it French Camp in honor of the Basque shepherds that once populated the area. There is fourteen-hundred acres of French Camp which supplies the Miller Family with their highest quality fruit. The parent corporation is the Thornhill Company, named for William Broome’s son, and they now are into the fifth generation of family control.  They make four different branded labels and then they also make limited production runs of assorted wines for multiple businesses for their house wines and private labels.  The Magnolia Court Dorrian is a tribute to the generation of strong woman in the family.  There were no production notes for the wine, even though it is listed as a limited production wine.  The tasting notes for the wine suggest aromas of cola and ripe red cherries, with bright fruit and a nice lingering finish, and the wine is described as medium bodied with medium tannins.   I am sure that once we get back into the swing of things for parties, this will be a bottle for us to try as it should be very good with salmon or pork tenderloins.