We were now in Petoskey, which is a little more than a hop, skip and a jump from Mackinaw Island, but then everything tends to be more spread out in the northern part of Michigan. You may have heard of the Petoskey stone, which is a piece of fossilized coral that has become a stone, that one can still find on the beaches in the area; someone I know even has jewelry made with them and has even bought others gifts featuring the stones. We arrived early in the morning, and we did our usual 5K walk around the downtown area.  She did buy some Christmas presents, as well as she had some shopping requests.  I really got nervous as her favorite kitchenware shop had a completely new color themed collection of Mackenzie-Childs, but she showed miraculous restraint.  I also unfortunately showed restraint as well, as there are two independent menswear shops, actually the whole downtown is independent shops.  The merchants even remembered me from prior shopping trips, and here, I thought I was such a quiet unassuming guy.  Since my hernia operation, I tried on a sport coat from my favorite Italian couture line, and it fit, oh happy day, but with all the work we have ordered for the outside of our house, I didn’t need to spend another thousand dollars for my wardrobe, maybe next time. 

I was touted to try another restaurant in Petoskey, but that will be another time, as they are only open for dinner and we were going to have lunch while we were there.  We decided to go and have lunch at Chandler’s, which is below and adjacent to Symons General Store, which opened in 1956, in the oldest brick building in the city.  Normally, we have our meals in the wine cellar, which is part of the basement of Symons, but for lunch we either had to eat in a courtyard or in a tavern across the courtyard from Symons, we went into the tavern.  We already had plans for a big dinner, so we just wanted to keep our hunger pangs to a minimum.  My Bride had the Crab Cakes with lump crab, fresh herbs, micro greens, bruleed lemon slices and roast red pepper remoulade.  I had the Beef Tenderloin Tartare with egg yolk, capers, red onion, parsley, arugula, Parmesan crostini, Dijon mustard, lemon infused olive oil and cracked pepper.  

Some of you, may think I am going crazy, but I chose a white wine for the both of us, as I thought it would be refreshing on a hot, sunny August afternoon and the piquancy and zest I figured could hold its own against the Tartare.   We had a bottle of Joseph Mellot Sancerre La Chatellenie Loire 2023.  While Joseph Mellot estate was established in 1969, Pierre-Etienne Mellot established his Domaine in 1513, and it has been in the family ever since.  Sancerre is only fifty miles from Chablis in the Burgundy region, and the soil is similar to the Kimmeridgian soils of that region.  The soils of Sancerre are broken down to three types: chalk, limestone-gravel and silex (flint) and it is the silex that gives Sancerre the “gunflint” aroma that is distinctly Sancerre.  The wine is pure Sauvignon Blanc and comes from an estate of eighteen hectares, and the average age of the vines is twenty-five years.  The fruit is mechanically harvested, and then destemmed, macerated for a short period and then pneumatically pressed.  Cold Fermentation in done in temperature-controlled Stainless-Steel tanks for about fifteen days and then the wine is aged on the lees before bottling.  The pale golden colored wine offered notes of yellow pears, green apples, lemon citrus, herbs and spices and wet flint and stones.  On the palate this medium-bodied wine had bright acidity and displayed tones of pears, peaches, and apples with a mineral vein prevalent throughout the entire taste, culminating with great salinity and a medium to long finish of citrus and minerals