My Bride and I were meeting The Caller and his wife at Ciao Amici in Brighton, which is about the halfway point between our two houses.  We left early, and because of construction and traffic backups, because of the construction, we took the leisurely drive on the old stage coach road from Detroit to Lansing; and even with traffic lights, we probably made it there in the same amount of time.  While everyone else had a cocktail I had a glass of Cleto Chiarli Centenario Lambrusco di Modena DOC Amabile NV.  Cleto Chiarli Tenuta Agricole, the winery and company was founded in 1860 in Emilia-Romagna with over one hundred hectares of vineyards.  The label Cleto Chiarli was founded in 2000 with a modern facility and technology, while still honoring the traditions of the company.The wine is made from the Lambrusco grape and undergoes a thirty-six hour long maceration for Initial Fermentation followed by a Second Fermentation using a “cuvee close” method or “tank method” or Charmat Method; for bulk production.   A dark red wine with slight frothiness at the rim offered notes of fresh fruit.  On the palate this was a semi-sweet wine of raspberry and strawberry tones and a very short finish.  

There was an assortment of classic Italian dishes, but we all seemed to end up ordering from the dinner menu, which was fine.  The reason is that most of the plates ordered from the lunch menu were listed as appetizers, and the dinner portions just sounded better.  As I looked at the wine carte, a wine that my Bride and I order all the time was listed at a very reasonable price.  I took the liberty of ordering a bottle of Celani Family Vineyards Robusto Proprietary Red Wine Napa Valley 2018.    Tom Celani is lauded in the Detroit area for his largesse for charitable organizations that he helps in a grand manner.  He and his father ended up creating one of the largest Miller distribution companies in the United States along with other beers and wines.  Tom Celani fell in love with wines, first as a drinker and a collector and finally acquiring a Tuscan-style estate with seventeen acres of grapes and one-hundred-twenty olive trees in the foot hills of the Vaca Mountain range in Napa Valley.  The winery was established in 2005.  As the proprietor of the Celani Family Vineyards he has chosen to bottle wine without costs becoming a consideration, to him wine is about quality and not quantity.  This is truly a Proprietary Red Blend, as there is no information even on the trade notes, but the winery grows Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc and they are partial to new French Oak.   Though in talks with Tom at a couple of tastings, he told me that this vintage was pure Merlot.  When our waitress uncorked the wine, The Caller immediately made mention of the nose and he was all in on the wine.  This deep garnet wine offered notes of black plums, black cherries, and blackberries, along with notes of vanilla, tobacco, and chocolate.  On the palate, this is a rather full bodied wine for being affordable and the tones of the dark fruits, blended well with the softer tannins offering a fruit-forward, but not jammy wine that was easy to drink with the food, and ending with a good medium-count finish of fruit and spices.

For dessert, The Caller and his wife shared a Spumoni Bombe, while my Bride had a dish of raspberry sorbet.  I was decadent and hedonistic and had a glass of Dow’s 20-Year-Old Tawny Port NV.  Dow’s is a family-owned Port house with a history of over two hundred years.  Originally founded in 1798 by Bruno da Silva, a Portuguese wine merchant who moved to London, ended up with a Letter of Marque.  His grandson wanting to expand the business, merged with another Port house, Dow and Co.; the new company became Dow’s.  Since 1961, Dow’s has been owned by the Symington family, who have had historical ties with the Port Industry.  There are more than forty indigenous grapes allowed in a Port blend, and some have probably been lost to mankind over the years.  The five main ones are: Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo), Tinta Barroca, and Tinta Cao.  Aged Tawny Port is a long and complex barrel-aging process, where older wines are replenished with younger wines; with considerable evaporation and concentration, and the skill of a Master Blender.  The original wine for a Twenty-year-old through evaporation is about 35% from the start.  A dark orange amber to brown amber wine offering notes of honeysuckle and butterscotch.  On the palate there were tones of red fruit, mellow tannins, tobacco, and spice, with butterscotch toying with the taste buds, and ending with some elegant dry tones and terroir (actually hard for me to put into words, but very enjoyable and elegant.