Now most people realize that the title of this article is a useless endeavor, but I will get to that story soon enough.  As I had to make a trip to my favorite wine shop The Fine Source in Livonia, Michigan. 

My Bride was asking about a certain Port wine that we have in the cellar, as she was thinking of giving a bottle as a Christmas gift, now I have to tell you that just about all the gifts have been purchased, she has written the Annual Newsletter and has started addressing the cards.  Anyways, I went to the shop, thinking that I better get some more of the Port wine, the winery decided not to make it anymore, and one of the customers bought the entire inventory of seventy-seven bottles left in existence.  They graciously suggested another wine to take its place, so they poured me a glass of Bodegas Alvear Pedro Ximenez Montilla-Moriles Solera 1927.  Bodegas Alvear is one of the largest and best-known producers in Andalucia.  It was built in 1729 by Diego de Alvear y Escalera and their wines are competitive with the great Sherry producers of Jerez.  Though Montilla-Moriles was not as famous, but for all of you Edgar Allan Poe fans, the Cask of Amontillado, actually means “in the style of Montilla.”  The district was awarded a DO in 1945, which is interesting since the wine has been recorded since the 8th century.  Pedro Ximenenz is a white wine grape best for the Sherries of Jerez, Spain.  The grape is unsuitable for table wine production, because of its very low acidity, but when fortified it takes on a life of its own.  The solera system has been used for centuries, where the wine is aged in a barrel system, under a layer of “flor” which is dissipated yeast that has oxidized in the barrel and contributes to this unique aging process of pouring older wine barrels into a succession of younger wine barrels for a constant blending cycle.  Bodegas Alvear has the ability to age five-million liters of wine in oaks butts at once and is known for having two-hundred-year-old Amontillado.  The grapes are harvested late and spread out on mats, until they turn to raisins, then pressed, the resulting must is exceptionally sweet but then is muted with addition of spirit.   This solera began in 1927 and the deep dark, amber-colored wine offered notes of treacly dark maple syrup, pecans, raisins, dried apricots, coffee, walnuts, orange and toffee.  On the palate, this full-bodied, well-balanced wine actually displays all the olfactory notes with the addition of spices and an extra burst of acidity and ends with a very long-count finish replicating the initial taste.  The nose was so captivating that I actually tasted the wine, before I photographed it.

While I was in the wine shop, there were two doctors that had worked together years ago, one as a mentor that ended in up in different states, rooting for different football teams, and make it a point to meet halfway in Detroit sometimes just to watch games together on the television with a great meal, and of course great wine.  The elder told me that he prefers young wines, because of the big fruit factor and they were tasting some wines to figure out what they were going to drink that evening.  I was solicited into this special tasting as they wanted to hear from an avid amateur about a couple of wines.  I think the wine that was the winner was the flagship wine, the Celani Family Winery “Ardore” Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2021.   The “Ardore” also evokes Tom Celani’s passion for a great cigar, as the label reminds one immediately of a cigar wrapper.  The wine is made from a careful selection of ten barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon from the most exceptional vineyard sites in the Coombsville AVA.  The wine is aged for twenty-two months in French Oak of which eighty-five percent is new, and the wine is never fined, nor filtered.  This deep garnet wine offered great notes of blackberries, black currants, Crème de cassis, tea, and followed by tobacco, chocolate, and minerals.  On the palate, powerful tones of rich concentrated fruit and velvety tannins with an ending that had a very long count of lush fruit and terroir.

Now to explain my title of “Taking Coals to Newcastle,” the elder physician brought two bottles of wine from his cellar to drink at The Fine Wine Source that he had bought upon issue.  He was joking that Jim had told him to get two or three of this wine, that it was so big, and he was laughing because the count was referring to cases and not bottles, and how true his prediction was.  The good doctor was pouring this wine for the staff, he and his associate, for me and every customer that entered the shop.  He was treating everyone to glasses of Joseph Phelps Insignia Napa Valley 1994. Joseph Phelps estate was established in 1973, prior to that he was in the construction business, and had a project in Napa.  He first started sending grapes back to Denver and eventually bought a cattle ranch in the valley and started planting vines. He decided early on that Insignia was his flagship wine and he didn’t want to just bottle varietal wines, but a wine that the blend would change from year to year.  The 1994 vintage is a blend of eighty-eight percent Cabernet Sauvignon, ten percent Merlot and two percent Cabernet Franc.  The wine was aged for twenty-eight months in all new French Oak barrels. This deep purple wine offered notes of black currants, blackberry, licorice, coffee bean, vanilla and smoke.  On the palate this full-bodied, well-balanced wine at thirty-one years of age was still evolving and the jammy dark fruits were still bigger and more impressive than plenty of young wines, the velvety tannins were delightful and it was ending with a full long-count finish of opulence and complexity; yes, I went back and enjoyed a second glass without much prodding to appreciate the secondary and tertiary levels of flavors that my limited scholarly vocabulary could not do it justice, beyond smiling.