As everyone is getting ready for the Holiday Season, I had to make a stop at my local shop, The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  Once a month, I enjoy getting the curated wines that they select for the club as well as to admire some one-of-a-kind wines that they occasionally get, that would get any wine lover excited.  The club membership, besides the monthly pair of wines, also gets the member case-pricing on any purchase, which is a great perk.  Plus, the staff is so knowledgeable, it is always a pleasure to stop there. 

The first club selection representing the Old World is The Furst Cremant D’Alsace NV which is produced by Cave Vinicole de Kietzenheim-Kaysersberg.  Cave Vinicole de Kietzenheim-Kaysersberg is a cooperative of one-hundred-thirty landowners in the villages of Ammerschwihr, Kientzheim, Kaysersbert and Sigolsheim and covers one-hundred-seventy hectares of vineyards.  This cooperative is part of a much larger cooperative of successive merger and is now called Bestheim.  Cremant d’Alsace is an appellation created in 1976 covering the sparkling (Methode Traditionelle) white and rosé wines of the Alsace region.  The wines must spend a minimum of nine months maturing on their lees, before disgorgement and the dosage; all vital and required steps to comply with the appellation.  The Furst is produced in concert with the Dopff au Moulin Estate with seventy hectares of vineyards, and currently in the thirteenth generation of wine makers.  The Estate is located in the historic Riquwhir at an altitude of 300 meters in the foothills of the Vosges Mountains.  The Estate is also credited with the creation of Cremant d’Alsace and the creation of the distinctive tall, slender Alsatian wine bottle.  This wine is a blend of fifty percent Pinot Blanc and fifty percent Pinot Auxerrois.  The wine is described as having cidery aromas notes, and that on the palate the tones of apple, pear, lemon zest compliments a delicate mousse, and ending with a savory finish.

The second wine representing the New World is Peirano Estate Vineyards The Heritage Collection Petite Sirah Lodi 2020.  In 1879 Giacomo Peirano, a grape farmer from Genoa, Italy immigrated to San Francisco in hopes of becoming a gold miner, he realized that he was too late and moved to Lodi, home of many mining camps.  He opened up a shop to cater to the miners’ needs, he was successful, and went back to Italy to fetch his wife and brought back Italian Zinfandel cuttings as well.  He bought a three-hundred-acre farm and planted seventy-five acres of vines.  The family has been successful to this day with five generations.  The wine is pure Petite Sirah and the fruit is hand-harvested and it undergoes a rotary fermentation, which constantly blends the skins and pulp with the juice to extract all the flavor of this variety.  After the Initial and Malolactic Fermentation is done, the wine is transferred to French and American oak barrels, of which fifteen percent are new; for about thirteen months.  The wine is described as inky-black and offers notes of blackberries, boysenberries, and dark plums.  On the palate the tones of blueberries, plums, blackberries, and dark chocolate blend with harmonious tannins ending with a finish evoking more blueberries.