The legendary Copacabana (named after a beach in Rio de Janeiro) was at 625 West 51’st for one night was at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.  It may not have had the glamor of the famed one continuous film shot of Goodfellas, but Barry Manilow did his best to bring his famous songs to the arena.  We had a whole evening orchestrated by one of my Bride’s best friends and an hour before she was going to leave her house, she called to tell us, that she had been stricken with the bug, that you have to be tested for, to see if you have it.

Neither my Bride, nor myself had been to the Little Caesars Arena, which is relatively new for Detroit, but then we are not really sports enthusiasts.  We couldn’t find any wine, while we were wandering around the stadium in search for a t-shirt of this event for one of our grandchildren.  I didn’t find any wine beyond what we had at the other stadium, and we weren’t in the mood for bulk wine.  We decided to have Margaritas, another mistake, I am not sure what the “bartender” made, be neither of us could decide what the drink was.  We ended up with a t-shirt and the two “drinks” and discovered that seats that we had paid such a premium for, were way on the side of the stage and in the nose bleed section.  Just after, we had gotten comfortable, an usher scaled up the stairs to where we were, and asked if we would be interested in a complimentary upgrade to floor level seats, we graciously accepted them, and we ended up eye level with the stage and just slightly off from the center.  A perfect location to enjoy the concert, unfortunately I didn’t like any photo I took at the concert, so I am enclosing the upgraded tickets instead, not nearly as exciting, but I hope you can appreciate the effort.

In case, you were concerned, as this article is written out of sequence for the day, we did have a chance to enjoy some real wines at two different venues prior to the concert.  We had arrived downtown early to secure a good parking spot, for a rapid departure after the show, so we had plenty of time to wander about a bit before our dinner reservations, and for me to get my bearings straight about the location of the stadium to my geographic memories of this section of the outskirts of old Downtown Detroit.  Our first stop was The Royce for a couple of glasses of wine to fight off the summer heat.  We had a glass of La Costa Fattoria Sociale Vespaiolo IGT Veneto 2020.  La Costa Fattoria Sociale is in the Breganze region of the Veneto, which is the fourth oldest DOC in this area, dating back to 1969.  The owner of the winery had a son that was diagnosed with a disability, and the winery created a “social farm” that helps refugees, the disabled, the homeless and the unemployed, as well as those who suffer from addictions.  They provide employment, housing, medical and social services, and training.  The winery is organic, self-sustainable, using solar-panels, capturing rainwater for irrigation and sheep to manage vegetation growth.  Vespaiolo is basically only found in the Veneto region of Italy, and is most famous for Breganze Torcolato, a sweet wine from Breganze.  There were no winemaking notes that I could glean from my research.  The wine is a straw-yellow color offering notes of elderberry.  On the palate tones of white currants and quince with bright acidity and freshness and a rather short finish of almonds and terroir.  I think it may have been a bit more interesting with a tin of sardines and some crackers, instead of just being on its own.