Since my Bride is one of five sisters, the desire to do holidays is always at the forefront.  One sister is exempt, because she doesn’t live in the state, and one just doesn’t.  There was a bit of drama, as to whether the hostess of Christmas Eve was going to have to cancel, because she was sick, and we were going to have the dinner at the last minute; but sister was given a conditional bill of health that it was just a cold; because it could have been worse. 

We brought some wines to share for the evening, and during the appetizer portion of dinner, one of the wines we brought with a nephew in mind was Weingut Krayer Johannisberger Klaus Auslese 2015.  The first mention of the Johannisberg vineyards was in 817, but it was in the 12^th Century that the region was named after John the Baptist.  This region of the Rheingau, Johannisberg has four Grosse Lage (great location); Schloss Johannisberger, Klaus, Holle and Mittelholle. The vineyards are made up of loess and loam soils derived from the nearby Taunus mountains.  The Klaus vineyard is just under one hectare of south-facing land on a slight incline at the foot of the hill.  It has deep calcareous loess and gravel deposits.  The winery was founded in 1866 and family run.  Auslese is a later picking of the grapes and they show the noble rot that is prominent for the region.  A golden colored wine that offers notes of white fruit, elderflower and saffron.  On the palate, this is an off-dry wine with tones of peach, apple, and apricot, fresh acidity; a lighter, softer wine with a decent count finish of fruit and mineral terroir.

One of the main courses for the dinner was an air-fried turkey, my brother-in-law likes to cook, but he also likes toys and gadgets and he replaced his deep-fried turkey of days gone past, for this new version, and the turkey came out very moist; as I got first taste, because my Bride volunteered me to carve the bird.  One of the wines that I thought would be interesting was Roberts + Rogers Mendocino County Red Wine Blend NV, a special proprietary wine that was blended by Roger Louer, Jim Lufty of The Fine Wine Source and Remy Lufty of the restaurant Vertical Detroit. The juice is a blend of two different years, hence the NV status and a blend of Petite Sirah, Zinfandel and Merlot. As an aside, Jim told me that there are probably about sixty different varieties, as he was referring to all the different clones that have been planted, as well as the “California Blend” that is found in older vineyards, which is a nice way of saying that some of the old vines that were planted have been mis-identified or forgotten about and could almost be anything, but those old vines do add character.  A very pretty garnet color with notes of red fruit and spices.  On the palate a big fruit forward wine of black and red cherries, good tannins, well balance with a finish of terroir. A good solid red with a limited production of two-hundred cases that is affordable.

The dinner was also having a roast, so I decided to bring along a bigger red, as well, plus I wanted to see how it was cellaring, because I remember that we bought the last case of this wine in Michigan.  Now I make no bones about the fact that I am not a jock, and that I really dislike watching professional sports, but on occasion I will try to play most sports. The only two sports that I won’t even play as I don’t understand the games is Basketball and Soccer, because they just appear to be organized chaos to my mind’s eye, but I can appreciate the quality efforts of any true athlete. Now just because I don’t follow sports, there are still some athletes that one automatically hears about when they are good, and one basketball player was Yao Ming who stood 7’6” and was actually well coordinated and a star, in fact he retired from sports in July 2011 and began a new career as a winemaker in November 2011, barely enough time to realize that he had retired. Yao Family Wines owns no vineyards in Napa Valley, but they do have a tasting room in St. Helena, with contracts with vineyards in Coombsville, Atlas Peak, Oak Knoll District and St. Helena, but the wines carry the Napa Valley AVA. The Yao Family Wines Yao Ming Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 was the perfect wine to end the evening with. The wine was almost entirely Cabernet Sauvignon, but there was 5% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot, and of the Cabernet Sauvignon there were three different clones and each was vinified separately before the blending. Here was a wine that was aged for eighteen months in French Oak, of which 65% was new, and they had created a wonderful drinking wine, and, it was stated that the winery feels that ten to fifteen years of cellaring would be easy for this wine. There were twenty-eight-thousand cases produced of this wine and the wine was really aimed for the Chinese market, which was just starting to get hot at the time.  This was a dark black-garnet colored wine with notes of black and violet fruits, vanilla, and spice.  On the palates there were tones of blackberry, black cherry, cassis, and plum, woven with spices, and the tannins were soft and supple and very integrated with a nice long finish of fruit and terroir.