We had all the food even after twenty-four diners from Thanksgiving, so we all went to the missing sister’s house to continue the revelry.  More Thanksgiving, more birthdays, more food and of course more wine.  It was also the meeting of the dogs.  The Louisville clan had just gotten a new puppy, as they got used to having their one son’s dog always underfoot and then he moved and took the dog with him, though that dog is always making appearances at their home as well. The one sister that didn’t come for Thanksgiving, just got a second dog and they are still training the puppy and they were afraid to leave the dog alone.  The day reminded me of a French theatrical farce, because we had the puppy up on the second floor of the house, the older dog on the main floor of the house and the puppy from Louisville in the basement, but all three kept making appearances throughout the day and night.  I decided to stake out my claim at the Dining Room table and I opened up a bottle of Louis Jadot Macon-Villages Chardonnay 2020. Louis Jadot began as a negocient in 1859 based in Beaune, one of the centers of the Burgundy region of France.  The Louis Jadot firm has a portfolio of wines from the basic regional wines to some of the most lauded vineyards in the region.  This wine is from the southern part of Burgundy, close to Beaujolais.  Macon-Villages is the largest appellation of the Maconnais, as there are forty-three communes that can use this designation.  The wine is done in Stainless Steel and it is very crisp and fruit forward with a nice finish of terroir.

So, I just kind of stayed put for the entire time and a lot of the other men ended up sitting at the table, as the sisters seem to congregate at the kitchen table.  My Bride when she wasn’t playing cards or putting out appetizers or reheating all of the food that we brought from the night before, would bring me plates of cheese and crackers, and she would also get a pour of wine, in fact my table was good for visiting, because of the wine.  The other great thing is that she has finally stopped asking me what I would like on my plate.  You understand that since she is already in the kitchen with the buffet set-up, I am just one less body to add to the congestion of an ad-hoc buffet line.  Speaking of wine, we also opened a bottle of Black Star Farms Arcturos Sur Lie Chardonnay Old Mission Peninsula 2017, a Michigan wine.   Black Star Farms is rather unique in that it has vineyards and tasting room facilities on both peninsulas, so that they are kind of surrounding Traverse City which is kind of the focal point for all of the wineries in the area.  In 1998 Black Star Farms purchased Sport Valley Farm which was a one-hundred-twenty-acre equestrian facility, and the stylized black star was part of the architectural décor in the main house.  This was a nice medium bodied wine done in Stainless Steel.  It offered notes of ripe citrus, and some floral and finished with a bit of terroir.

When we finally had the dinner portion of the buffet set up, a continuation of yesterday’s fine meal.  Imagine having a big gathering and getting to serve leftovers, but the food was secondary, and there was still more revelry surrounding the holiday and the November birthday honorees.  I had no problems enjoying a plate full of leftovers, though by the end of the week, if there is still some, I may not be as enthusiastic (though it will be good training as I get entrenched in being a retiree).  The last of the wines that I opened was Chateau Ste. Michelle Merlot Indian Wells Vineyard 2011.  Chateau Ste. Michelle is the oldest and one of the most prestigious wineries in the State of Washington.  They are known for their Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Chardonnay, but are famed for their Riesling.  It was founded as the American Wine Growers in 1954 by the merger of two that companies that followed the repeal of Prohibition; the National Wine Company and the Pomerelle Wine Company.  The National Wine Company had planted Vitis vinifera grapes in the Columbia Valley, and under the consultation of Andre Tchelistcheff they planted even higher quality grapes in 1967.  These were under the name of Ste. Michelle Vintners and the first wines released were Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Semillon and Grenache. This wine had fifteen percent Syrah blended in with the Merlot and was aged for eighteen months in a mix of French and American Oak, both new and used.  The nose was soft on this mature wine, and there was still black fruits and some vanilla, with a nice medium finish of terroir.