This year, because of scheduling dates, I actually got to celebrate Father’s Day, two days in a row.  The first day was at a restaurant that coincided with a joint Father’s Day and a birthday.  The second day, my Bride wanted to make a dinner at home with our other son.

The first day of celebration was at a restaurant that was a halfway point between their house and ours, and the dinner tab was going to be divided in half as well.  They don’t drink and my Bride didn’t feel like drinking, so I was the only ne’er-do-well.  My Bride had the Blackened Salmon Salad with mixed greens, shaved Brussels Sprouts and Fennel, strawberries, avocado, goat cheese, candied pecans and a homemade honey vinaigrette.  I went with their special for the day, as it sounded like a classic “Detroit” dish of Two Coney Dogs; and as a side note our son ordered Four Sliders and he opined that he thinks the dish was created from jumbo bun containing two patties, that was dissected into eight “sliders.”  I was very low key and from the limited wine list, I just ordered a split of Famiglia Zonin Prosecco DOC NV.  Famiglia Zonin Prosecco DOC NV. Casa Vinicola Zonin SPA is based in the Veneto region of Italy with wineries across Italy and the USA.  They were founded in 1821, and in the 1960’s began an expansion starting in Friuli and Chianti Classico and finally the Barboursville Vineyards in the State of Virginia.  There was not much to find about this wine, but it probably is marketed to food establishments.  It is Prosecco DOC, so it is Prosecco and not Glera and probably made in the Charmat Methode.  A straw-yellow sparkling wine with medium-size, continuous bubbles that offered notes of lemons and green apples and herbs and spices.  On the palate this light-to-medium bodied, well-balanced sparkling wine displayed tones of citrus, green apples with a prominent mousse with good acidity and ending with a short-count but pleasing finish of fruit, salinity and zest.  I usually only see this wine offered at restaurants, especially in splits and it is a crowd-pleaser for popular priced establishments.

The next day, my Bride was in the kitchen and ready to make a big dinner, which she doesn’t do that often, so she was eager.  We started with appetizers of Water Crackers and Smoked Whitefish Pate.  She also made her version of Coquilles St. Jacques al crème de Xeres, which is a fancy way of saying Sea Scallops sautéed with mushrooms and garlic, pan sauced with Sherry and cream and served with Armenian Rice Pilaf.  Before I get into the wine I may mention that so many people are intimidated by a bottle with a wax cork seal, I was tutored by Korbin Kameron to take my thumb and rub the entire top surface of the wax for about a minute and then use my corkscrew and the seal doesn’t crumble and comes out as the same size as the top of the cork.  I also selected Korbin Kameron Semillon Moon Mountain District 2018 which is an Estate Grown wine for the appetizers. Semillon is probably one of the least known major varietals in the wine industry.  It makes some of the greatest sweet wines and it also makes some of the greatest dry wines.  Its home is Bordeaux, though it is done extremely well in parts of Australia and among a few wineries in California.  A wine that begins fermentation in Stainless Steel and finishes in oak.  There was only one barrel made of this wine or twenty-five cases or three-hundred bottles, so I am glad that we got some, and I consider it a rare coup for us. This organically made wine uses native yeasts.  This golden colored wine offered notes of plush florals and citrus, with a hint of earthiness.  On the palate this medium-to-full bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones citrus and ripe pear with a touch of acidity that ended with a long-count finish of fruit and terroir.

The star of the meal were these ten-ounce filets that we picked up at the butcher shop.  She always complains that I don’t cook, but that I tell her how to cook, because I watch these seminars on social media sites, especially about basting with butter, rosemary and garlic.  She tells me the menu, but I like to surprise her with the wine, and I had to dust off a bottle and open it with my Durand, before our company arrived.  We were going to enjoy a bottle of Opus One Red Wine Napa Valley 1991 and the first wine from this partnership was the sublime 1986.  Much has been written about this great wine that was created by a partnership between Robert Mondavi of Napa Valley fame and Baron Philippe de Rothschild, proprietress of Chateau Mouton Rothschild in Bordeaux.  Two fine firms with traditions of wine making and innovations for a singular goal to create an exceptional wine in Napa Valley and one of the original Napa Valley cult wines.  This wine is made from their estate vineyards in Oakville, including the famed To Kalen Vineyard. The wine is a blend of ninety-three percent Cabernet Sauvignon, six percent Cabernet Franc and one percent Merlot.  The fruit is hand harvested, with gravity flow to take the juice from the destemmer into Stainless Steel tanks for fermentation, while the juice has skin contact for thirty-three days.  Then the wine was aged for fifteen months in new French Oak and then spends an additional eighteen months resting in the bottle before release.  At thirty-five years of age the wine was still a deep garnet in color with no signs of aging and offered notes of black fruit, mellowing with distinct notes of sous-bois, tobacco, smoke, cedar, truffles and old leather.  On the palate this full-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed complex layers of fruit, terroir, truffles, with traces of iodine and eucalyptus blending so maturely with still present acidity that it ended with a deliciously long-count finish of black fruits, spices and terroir.  Even though my son and his wife don’t usually drink, I told them, they better have some for a truly unique wine experience.