While we were on our little getaway, I received a message about a new wine the Fine Wine Shop in Livonia, Michigan was getting, and we decided to order some, before it disappears from their shelves, so I asked that they put some aside for us.  When I got there, they also had the wine club selections ready; so that was opportune.  I also got a chance to taste some other new wines that had arrived, so it was an excellent day, of course, it always is when I visit there.

There are always two wines for the club selection and the first represents the Old World.  We began with Famille Quiot Domaine Houchart Cotes de Provence Rosé 2023.  Famille Quiot is a wine producer with numerous estates in southern France.  They have been making wine since 1748, starting in Vaucluse in Chateauneuf-du-Pape at Domaine du Vieux Lazaret.  The Domaine is run by the thirteenth-generation member Jerome Quiot and what was originally a few hectares is now one-hundred-ten hectares.  In 1890, they acquired the sixty-hectare estate of Domaine Houchart near Aix-en-Provence.  The family estate has its roots and was farmed during the Roman era, and is located in the plain between Sainte Victoire and Aurelien mountains, and has its own climate.  The land is clay and limestone soils, from the decomposition of the scree from the surrounding mountains.  The wine is a blend of Cinsault, Grenache Noir, Syrah, and Tibouren; with the average age of the vines being thirty-five-years.  The fruit is harvested in September, with direct pressing for most of the varieties, with vatting for almost two weeks in I surmise Stainless-Steel to maintain freshness; the wines are bottled in December.  This salmon-pink colored wine offers notes of citrus and strawberries.  On the palate the wine offers tones of red currants, watermelon, with great acidity and ending with a nice medium count finish of fruit and terroir.

The second wine is always a representation of the New World.  The second selection is Vinum Cellars Petite Sirah Clarksburg 2021.  Vinum Cellars was founded in 1997 by first generation, California family winemakers Richard Bruno and Chris Condos in the Napa Valley financing their dream on credit cards. Their focus was then, and remains searching California’s coastal vineyards and special microclimates in search of the best vineyards grown by the state’s best growers. The long-term partners consider their humble roots in the development of products and mandate that each wine offer considerable high quality-to-price ratio. What this means is each wine is literally hand crafted from single vineyards and made with a small lot philosophy. From Coastal Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Vinum makes varietal wines from single vineyards and appellations throughout California.  Clarksburg AVA is nestled among the Sacramento Delta waterways, just east of the San Francisco Bay Area, and the appellation extends into three counties: Yolo, Sacramento, and Solano. Vinum Cellars is celebrating their twenty-fifth vintage of Petite Sirah.  The fruit is from the Wilson Farms, a fourth-generation farm established in 1922.  The wine has been aged for sixteen months in two-year-old French Oak barrels. Petite Sirah is known for its deep inky purple wine with teeth staining concentration and the wine offers notes of boysenberry, plum, huckleberry, black pepper, dried flowers, with a touch of licorice and tar.  The wine is full-bodied with tones of blueberry, vanilla, cocoa, intermingling with elegant dry oak tannins and ending with a medium finish of coffee and terroir.

While I was there, I also picked up the Bibi Graetz Testamatta Toscana IGT 2020 that they were holding for me, made by the artist and winemaker.  This was the wine that got people to stand up and take notice of Bibi Graetz’s work and he named it after the sobriquet that was given to him in this youth.  A pure Sangiovese wine, a Super Tuscan displaying old vines from soils rich in stones and plenty of minerality.  According to Bibi Graetz the entire growing season was perfect and peak of quality since his first vintage.  It took almost three weeks of hand-harvesting, some parcels required eight times to pick the grapes at the perfect point of ripening.  The fruit was selected from the best five vineyards of the winery in different areas of Tuscany; Lamole Vineyard at 600 meters altitude, and Montefili Vineyard at 400 meters altitude and both in the heart of Chianti Classico, Vincigliata Vineyard at 280 meters altitude in Firenze, Londa Vineyard north of Firenze towards the Rufina valley, and Siena Vineyard pressed.  The Initial Fermentations are conducted using natural and indigenous yeasts, in open top barriques for the smaller parcels of vineyards, and the larger vineyards were in barrels or Stainless-Steel with six manual punch-downs and pump overs each day. After about ten days of maceration, the different parcels are moved into old barriques and barrels for twenty months.  A nice garnet-ruby red wine that offered notes of black cherries, red berries, anise, sous bois, and vanilla.  On the palate a medium-bodied wine featuring cherries and strawberries, and plums balanced with velvety tannins and great mineral terroir.