We were having a nice quiet dinner at home and all of a sudden, my Bride said let’s go dancing.  So, who am I to argue, another way to have fun during my month of birthday celebrating, and so we dressed up and away we went. 

We went to Chicane in the Old Village district of Plymouth, Michigan, because we enjoyed our dinner and night out that we had on another occasion.  They did a magnificent job renovating a restaurant that had been empty for several years.  A “chicane” is a serpentine curve, usually added by design, demanding skill and precision to navigate as racers gather speed and propel forward through the faster course that lies ahead.  In the old days, there were many nighteries that had live music and dancing along with food and drinks.  Before we got married, we even took dance lessons, so that we wouldn’t look like rank amateurs, and to this day we  still enjoy watching couples from our parent’s generation as they glide across the dance floor.  The restaurant has a small dance floor just in front of the stage for the band and is adjacent to the bar.

Our plan was to get either a table or sit at the bar and get some munchies and a bottle of wine.  A perfect way to spend a couple of hours.  At one time, we had actually looked at buying a house in Plymouth, but the city is surrounded by train tracks, which are a necessity and a necessary evil, but it can bring everything to a halt.  The restaurant lies right next to railway tracks, thankfully the insulation and structure is totally sound, that one doesn’t vibrate when a train goes by.  I was talking to the beverage manager, and he said that the bar, itself had to be rebuilt to keep the beverages and the glassware from bouncing around and having potential accidents.  In fact, while we were there, two trains passed by the restaurant, and if you look through the window behind the bar, you can see how close the trains are.

We ended up getting a couple of orders of Crab Cakes done in a classic style with lemon, arugula and a Remoulade Sauce and they were really good.  We had a bottle of Bernard Fouquet Domaine des Aubuisieres Vouvray Cuvee de Silex Loire 2023.  Bernard Fouquet took over the reins of the winery in 1980 from his father after getting experience in both Alsace and Burgundy, before returning to the Loire. Domaine des Aubuisieres began in 1982 with a few inherited parcels of vines, and it now spans thirty-three hectares in Vouvray of Chenin Blanc and now the vines are fifty to sixty years of age.  Eighty percent of the vineyard is located on the prime slopes of Vouvray, showcasing two types of soil: seventy-five percent is clay and limestone (on the hillsides) and twenty-five percent is clay and silex (on the edges of the plateau).  The “silex” is the traditional terroir of Vouvray with its distinguishing flint soils.  Chenin Blanc has been referred to as Pinot de Loire.   Since 2023, the estate has begun transitioning to organic farming.  Vinification is done using Stainless-Steel tanks with temperature-control to maintain the wine’s freshness.  This classic off-dry wine is a pale-golden color that offers notes of grapefruit, white fruits, jasmine and honeysuckle, and flint.  On the palate this medium-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of peaches, pears, grapefruit, with traces of melon, lemon, white pepper and anise blending seamlessly with mouthwatering acidity and ending with a nice long-count of fruit and flint (terroir).