I have to admit that I was not the only person at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan to taste the wines that Tom Celani was pouring.  The shop is not that big, and everyone that was there, was definitely courteous to the others to make sure that we all got a chance to taste the wines, and also to offer opinions.  It was also interesting to watch the buying strategies of some of the regulars.  As a retired merchant, I always enjoy watching customers buy, because for years, we always believed “that buying is contagious” and more fun than any other bug out there.

We started off tasting the Celani Family Vineyards Tenacious Estate Grown Proprietary Red Wine Napa Valley 2018 and they were taking pre-orders on this wine, as they were getting more from the winery. Tenacious is Tom Celani’s homage to Chateau Petrus and Le Pin, as he said that he fell in love with those wines, well he started learning and assembling his wine collection before he had the winery.  Very lofty and ambitious goals, and I have never had either of those two wines, but I am still young.  This wine is all Estate Grown since 2011 and is seventy percent Merlot and thirty percent Cabernet Franc.  It is aged for twenty-two months in new French Oak and is “unfiltered” and that word scares the first-time taster, until they realize how much more vibrant and alive the wine is. The wine offered notes of black fruits, with tastes of black cherries and plums, with traces of mocha and tobacco, with beautiful tannins and a delightful long finish of terroir.  This wine was stunning straight from the bottle and another five or ten years in the cellar would be awesome.

We then had the Celani Family Vineyards Tenacious Estate Napa Valley Red Wine Unfiltered 2019 which at the moment was only being offered in magnums.  This wine was produced exactly like the 2018 and I thought it was lighter, but the majority around me were all going for the 2019 vintage, while I was enraptured by the 2018.  I went and looked at my notes from when I tasted the 2012 and I was excited by this wine as well, but I also noted that I thought ten years in the cellar would be spectacular.  I was relating that we just recently had a bottle of the 2012 and to me it was sublime, and Tom’s face kind of beamed and he said that year was rather legendary.  Tenacious is their affordable signature wine.