Mame Dennis Burnside was at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan and she was having fun.  Ms. Yoga has the personality that can be bigger than life, especially when she is having a good time.  She and my Bride have been friends, before I met my Bride.  I was definitely the third wheel that day in the wine shop, as I was taking photos and notes and those two were making the most of the trip. Though my Bride usually pours the balance of her tasting into my glass, unless she gets really excited about the wine. 

We had for our first red wine, Enrico Santini “Poggio Al Moro” Bolgheri 2016.   Enrico Santini grew up in the Bolgheri district of Tuscany, which is one of the newer wine district designations in Italy.  He is also considered a true “garagiste” there, with his small organic estate where he produced his first wine in 1999.  He actually transformed his house and garage into a winery to achieve his dreams and goals and he already received accolades and admiration for what he has accomplished in a short period of time. This wine is a blend of thirty percent Sangiovese, thirty percent Cabernet Sauvignon, thirty percent Merlot and ten percent Syrah.  The wines were all separately macerated in Stainless Steel and then spent three months in small French Oak barrels, with additional aging in the bottle prior to release.  I found the wine to have a dark cherry color with a good nose and a good finish.  It was quite fresh and different from other wines that I have had from the area and very easy to drink, with or without food.

We then had Baron de Montfort Chateau du Mignon Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2016. The property is a family-owned estate and the Baron also owns three estates that he manages with his niece Anne de Foucauld, Countess Bertrand de Sercey; of which they have sixteen hectares in Saint-Emilion Grand Cru and fifty hectares in the Cotes de Castillon.  The wine is a blend of seventy percent Merlot, fifteen percent Cabernet Franc and fifteen percent Cabernet Sauvignon. The average age of the vines are thirty-five years of age, grown using organic techniques and the ground is limestone and clay.  They use machine harvesting and a mix of cement vats, Stainless Steel and oak barrels, of which twenty percent are new.  Black fruits dominate this wine, but with a silkier palate from being predominately Merlot and then a nice medium finish ending with terroir.