I guess I had a rather busy and hectic month and maybe a bit verbose, but I am behind in telling you about one of the wines that I received from my wine club, the Fine Wine Source Wine Club in Livonia, Michigan. I actually picked it up in a timely manner, but they have been so busy that I did not even try to taste any wines while I was there, I just picked up my bag of two wines and basically went off to take care of other errands.
Tresor de la Riviere, Cotes du Rhone 2014 evokes the old special river boats that were used by the Romans in the First Century to transport wines from the region to the City of Vienne and then it went on to other parts of the Roman Empire; this type of special boat is depicted on the label of the wine. Tresor de la Riviere is made in partnership with La Cave la Suzienne at the foot of the chateau in the town of Suze-la-Rousse and houses one of the leading oenology schools with one of the most advance laboratories in the country for testing wine quality. La Cave la Suzienne was founded in 1926.
The vineyards
for Tresor de la Riviere are located on the sloping hills of the Rhone Valley
and planted in the clay-limestone soil of the region. The grapes are hand harvested and each
varietal goes through a separate vinification process. The final blending occurs after tasting and
this particular vintage is a blend of seventy percent Grenache, fifteen percent
Syrah and fifteen percent Carignan. The
notes for this wine suggest a balanced finish with red fruit flavors and soft
tannins and a layer of white pepper; and could be cellared for about four
years. Suggest pairing would be with red
meats and pastas, and especially touted for pork and grilled meats.
I was enjoying my day in the sun, I guess you can say. We really had no plans, but all was going well. My Bride was enjoying it as much as I was, which is a good thing. During our jaunt, we were strongly touted to try a restaurant in Ann Arbor that neither of us had heard of, so we were willing to give it a go, if we could get in, as we had no reservations. We took the leisurely route from Chelsea to Ann Arbor and passed a couple of restaurants, in fact one that was on my list, but we were determined to try this new place. We got there, looked at the posted menu and even my Bride, who is much more open to innovative food could not find anything that she was totally committed to. I said, we are only a couple of blocks away, let us see if you can get a table at The Earle.
I have mentioned The Earle before and we have always enjoyed it, and they have been open since 1977 and it is one of the few restaurants that I have been to, where you don’t have to worry about the view; it is located in the basement of a building. We got to the restaurant just as they were opening up and told them that we didn’t have a reservation, but we were hoping to get a table. The young lady at the front counter had someone take us to the “French Room” and the funny thing is, this is the room where we have always dined in, and I love it, because the one wall is lined with empty wine bottles and how cool is that. Where ever we go, my Bride always wants to sit, so that she can watch who comes into a room, so I always sit with my back to any potential assassin that is going to enter the restaurant that we are dining at. She was befuddled, because there were several groups that demanded to sit somewhere else, and my Bride loves this room, I guess the other people wanted a view of a different part of the cellar. We had a charming waitress that asked if we were celebrating anything, and my Bride told her, and I kind of cringed that I was going to be submitted to a sing-along, but The Earle is really a classy place, especially in my book. My Bride and I started by sharing an appetizer of “vol-au-vent aux escargot” a puff pastry shell filled with escargot, shallots, garlic, white wine, chives, butter and a hint of Pernod. My Bride ordered “Poisson aux noisettes et ciboulettes” or in English her traditional whitefish filet coated with ground hazelnuts and breadcrumbs, sautéed and sauced with a chive beurre blanc on a bed of sautéed spinach and with potatoes. It was a tough menu to decide on, but finally to make it easy with the wine I went with “coquilles St. Jacques a la crème de Xeres” or sea scallops sautéed with mushrooms and garlic, pan-sauced with Sherry and cream with rice. While we tasted each other’s choice, my Bride had wished that she had ordered my entrée, it was really that excellent. We were stoic and held off having a dessert and God knows that I don’t need any dessert.
One of the great things about The Earle is their wine list. Wine Spectator magazine has awarded The Earle their “Best of Award of Excellence” every year since 1983 with a cellar offering of twelve-hundred wines to select from. There are only eleven restaurants in Michigan to hold such an honor, and the best part is, they are listed as having moderate pricing on the wines. My Bride jumped the gun again and ordered a glass of wine almost immediately, which is fine and at least she picked a good one. She had a glass of Montevina Terra d’Oro Chenin Blanc & Viognier Clarksburg 2018. The winery is part of the much larger Trinchero Family Estates of wine, which oversees production of plenty of the wines that most people end up enjoying in the popular priced wines of California. Terra d’Oro Winery began as Montevina Wines in Amador County. This area was first planted with vines in 1849, and the Deaver Vineyard that Terra d’Oro Winery owns was first planted in 1881. Montevina Wines was the first winery in Amador County to produce wines in 1973 since Prohibition ended. This is wine that is aged at the winery in Stainless Steel to maintain the fruit and crispness. The nose offered lemons and sweeter citrus fruit with a soft floral scent, and delivered some crisp acidity that was refreshing as it paired with the escargot. I started off with a glass of Les Vignerons du Mont Ventoux Cuvee 3 Messes Basses 2018 from Ventoux in the Rhone Valley. Wine grapes have been growing in Ventoux since the Thirteenth Century with a long tradition and in 1924, several families created the cooperative Les Vignerons du Mont Ventoux. The classic grapes used in Ventoux are the grapes of the Cotes du Rhone and that is Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre and with some Cinsaut and Carignan thrown into the mix. This Rosé wine is a blend of forty percent Clairette, forty percent Grenache Blanc and twenty percent Bourboulenc and offered a pretty wine with hints of peach and a crisp acidity that also went well with the appetizer. We finished the meal with a bottle of Joseph Drouhin Pouilly-Fuisse 2016 from the Maconnais. Joseph Drouhin is one of the most important names in Burgundy and was founded in Beaune in 1880 with vineyards throughout the entire Burgundy region from village level to Premier Cru wines in both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Pouilly-Fuisse is the finest appellation for white wines in the Maconnais, and there are four communes that are part of the appellation. There are no Premier Cru designations for the region, so one goes with the reputation of the maker. The area was drawn around 1922, but officially recognized in 1936 and only Chardonnay grapes can be used, and the best of the wines offer a terroir showcasing limestone in the finish of this crisp wine. It was a wonderful wine and a great evening, and the real surprise was, that the restaurant gave us fifty percent off of the food portion of the bill for celebrating my birthday there, and my Bride is already thinking that she might like to celebrate her birthday there as well.
It had to happen, though I promise that I did not go out of my way to find it. Blue is a color that I associate very easily with music, from Mood Indigo to modern music. In the men’s wear industry, blue is a staple color, I mean most men wear only blue, black and gray. Somehow blue has even become political, and where one would think that left leaning political thinking would be red, think of the Kremlin and Communist China, somehow the media has assigned blue to the left-wing political party today. Blue in a wine (?), yes, I have seen brilliantly hued blue grapes in a cluster, but I have never seen blue wine. For years I have known about a liquor Blue Curacao, but I have never even tasted it, but blue wine.
I was at Wines on Main and I think a tasting of a blue wine was a come-on, a free tasting for those that wanted to try. I told my Bride that I was going to try it, after the real tasting was completed, just for the sake of trying it and giving my opinion on it, whether anyone really cares. I was waiting for some of the other tasters to try the wine, before I would give my opinion, as I guess, by that point, I was maybe the first wine professional that they had encountered, and I think I am a rank amateur. Some winemakers have claimed that the blue is a natural color, by running the wine through the skins of the grapes afterwards. I think it is a fad initially created in Spain, as a marketing ploy, perhaps to attract the short attention span of millennials and because they wish to be iconoclastic, because they think they have thought of something new, like wearing brown shoes with a tuxedo. I told all the people at the wine bar, that I would give my opinion as well as relate what I have read by other bloggers after we had all tasted the wine, and my poor Bride looked at me, as if I had lost my mind, but in the end, all for research, she even tried it.
There it was waiting for me, in a pretty bottle, reminding me of mouthwash, but in the name of research I was ready to taste Santero La Jolanda Moscato The Blue NV. The Santero brothers started Santero in 1958 and specialize in sparkling and still wines in the southwest province of Cuneo in Italy. They produce eighteen-million bottles of wine a year under a variety of labels and types of wines, including fruit-flavored sparkling Moscato. I am sure that this is strictly a bulk volume produced wine going for the Moscato wine drinkers, that presume that the Muscat grape must only produce very sweet wines. Now for my thoughts, the nose was missing, but after a couple of big red wines, if there was any nose, it was lacking. It was not as treacly sweet as I expected, a touch of frizzante, the Italian term for some natural effervescence and I will bestow some nuance to the wine. I will probably not go and buy this for my company during parties, but I have begun in earnest searching for some Moscato wines for my company. As for the people at the wine tasting, I told them the description a fellow wine blogger wrote about a blue wine, when they first appeared and I remember it quite clearly, but he did not explain how he knew the particular descriptor, perhaps another reason that I am so against using descriptors, he called it “Smurf Piss.”and I wish I was that clever or glib. Just for the record, I found on the Internet a “generic Smurf drawing.” “Am I blue.”
A perfect afternoon for my birthday sitting down and tasting wines at Wines on Main in Chelsea, Michigan. My Bride had found some items to buy, plus some wines and that category was growing from the time when we sat down. Not only did I know the resident sommelier for the shop, but while we were there a young couple came in to do some wine shopping and tasting and it turns out that not only did I know his grandfather who used to hold tasting classes back at Schoolcraft Community College, but at one of the other wine bars that I used to go to. The young man also recognized me, because I had sold him some clothes in a past life, so we had some nice chats between tastings as well.
It also was a nice afternoon, because one of the other employees in the shop, I had once worked with at another store. We kind of caught up, even though we had maintained friendship through Social Media. While she was helping others at the end of the bar, the proprietor had told me that my friend is the one that prepares the assorted trays of munchies that one can get to go along with the tastings and we did one of the dishes as well. When I am at a tasting, if the people do not know me, I do tell them that I write a wine blog, but in no way, do I try to get anything complimentary, or discounts. I only tell them, because I take photographs, which don’t always come out that well, and I take notes, and I realize that if I don’t explain, it could look a bit squirrely.
Now for a couple of red wines from the tasting. The next wine that we tried was Cline Family Cellars Cashmere Red Blend 2017 and Fred and Nancy Cline were part of the original Rhone Rangers, a group of California winemakers that were not interested in Bordeaux style wines, but had a passion for the Rhone Valley and all of its varieties. This wine is a blend of sixty-two percent Mourvedre, twenty-nine percent Syrah and thirteen percent Grenache and aged for ten months in French Oak, of which twenty-eight percent is new. The fruit came from the Contra Costa County and from Oakley which gives it its California appellation. This was a good solid bottle of wine that most would call a medium red wine, because it was not an over the top style of a Meritage style, but the wine easily delivered dark red fruits in the finish and to me that is a great finish. The last of the wines of the tasting was from a winery that I have had before, but not this wine, which was Roots Run Deep Winery Educated Guess North Coast Red Wine Blend 2016. Roots Run Deep was founded in 2005 with the intention of producing affordable Napa wines, and the winery does not own any vineyards, but has since developed some long-term relationships and contracts and now also using some fruit from Sonoma, hence the North Coast appellation. This wine is a blend of sixty-five percent Cabernet Sauvignon, thirty percent Petite Sirah and five percent Merlot and was aged for twelve months in French Oak. This was a nice big wine that easily was worth the price, and left me with that finish that I was expecting. It was a great tasting, a good afternoon for this high-maintenance birthday boy.
There we were sitting at the bar at Wines on Main in Chelsea, Michigan and you have to realize that is such a strange setting for this raconteur. I was really excited about being here and to have another reason to come here, beyond the Common Grill, which is a wonderful restaurant specializing in seafood and fish. There is also a very famous resident in Chelsea that I have never seen when I have been in the city, but the actor of stage and film Jeff Daniels has shunned both coasts to raise his family in his home of Chelsea and he has even created the Purple Rose Theatre for showcasing new plays and occasionally his own musical performances.
Wines on Main was the perfect type of shop, especially for my Bride, because not only do they carry a nice assortment of wines that are not of the run of the mill grocery store/party store selection to keep me happy, but they carry all sorts of tchotchkes. You don’t know tchotchke, that is understandable, it is a Yiddish word with Slavic roots for usually worthless trinkets. Now the value of tchotchkes is predicated on if one is the owner of them or the one who bought them. My Bride loves them and loves to give them as gifts to everyone and she would have bought some more items than she did, but by some odd quirk, our new stainless-steel refrigerator has doors that magnets do not stick to, otherwise we would have had new magnets when we left. I mean you have to love the girl; she is always trying to be consistent.
The third
wine that we tasted that afternoon was from Greece, and not a region that one
usually encounters in a tasting, unless there is a theme or a meal
involved. We had the Semeli Winery
Mountain Sun Agiorgitiko Dry Rosé Peloponnese PGIK 2018. Semeli Winery
was founded in 1979. One of the principal
cities in the Peloponnese peninsula is Nemea, and this grape Agiorgitiko is
named after Agios Georgios (St. George) and from at least the mid Eighteenth
Century has been one of the larger grape varietals grown in the region and is
considered a local indigenous variety, possibly from the Fliasia grape. Agiorgitiko produces a strong rich red wine,
but it can produce a rosé style wine and
it can also produce sweet wines as well. The same variety also sources high
quality sweet wines from overripe grapes that have been partially sun dried. This wine delivered strawberries and cherries
to the nose, with a finish of red cherries with some nice acidity, though it
may be my imagination, but I detected some olive oil that made me immediately
think of Greek dishes and I wish this wine was available in Greektown when I
was young and haunted that block or two, before it became touristy. From the sun-bleached region of Greece our
next wine was from the Willamette Valley of Oregon. The Browne Family Vineyards Heritage Pinot
Noir 2016 was a good red wine to follow a rosé and from a winery that maintains
two distinct tasting rooms, one in Walla Walla and one in Seattle. This wine is pure Pinot Noir and was aged for
seven and a half months in ninety-five percent French Oak of which twenty
percent was new. The wine was a softer
Pinot Noir and gave me red fruits both for the nose and in the finish. With a softer finish, I think that this wine
could pair very easily with most red meats and with meatier fish as well. We were both getting into the afternoon’s tastings.
Wines on Main is a wine shop and wine bar out in Chelsea, Michigan that I have heard about. The day finally came, my birthday that is, and my Bride asked me what I would like to do. I gave her a couple of options and you know they were all wine focused, but I know that she enjoys it as well. Since she is what one would call a “road warrior” she opted for the choice that involved the least amount of driving and since she knows the area much better than I do, she did the driving, because she really knew her way around. I mean before we even met, she was going to Chelsea because she had a customer that was originally Chelsea Roller Mill and then became Chelsea Milling Company, but I think all of America knows then as the originator of the first prepared baking mix in the blue box called Jiffy Mix. So, I guess my original memories of Chelsea, Michigan is Jiffy Mix.
We went into downtown Chelsea and eventually found a parking spot, as a retired merchant, I truly enjoy visiting a community that is lively and has a mix of businesses, so I won’t grumble about a couple of extra minutes searching for a parking spot. It also gives me more time to admire the architecture of the community. Even if the numbering system for the addresses, of odd and even numbers change when one goes from South Main Street to North Main Street, we found our way to Wines on Main. I never asked the proprietor and I should have, maybe the next time, but the shop reminded me of the old apothecary shops in my neighborhood, you know the drug stores, before they became grocery/department stores. In the back half of the shop was an old-fashioned soda (?) fountain set-up and that is where the wine tastings occur. For this old raconteur, it was a perfect setting for me and you know that I am such a wall flower, no one realized that I was even in the shop, let alone attempting to do some wine tasting.
I actually learned of Wines on Main from the resident sommelier that I met at another wine bar that is now gone, and the great thing is, this sommelier is actually a retired pharmacist. Alas, he only works a couple of days a week and the weekends were not on his schedule. He does aid in the buying and the write-ups of the wines that are featured each week for the tastings. We ended up doing seven tastings that afternoon and I will discuss the first two wines that we had. The first wine that we tried was Reserve de Castelnau Entre-deux-Mers 2017 from Chateau de Castelnau. Entre-deux-Mers translates to “between the two seas,” but here the two water ways are the Garonne and Dordogne Rivers of the Bordeaux region, and the area is one of the hardest to keep track of, because is has several small appellations, and the region grows red and wine, dry and sweet, and then some of the wines go under the generic listing of either Bordeaux or Bordeaux Superiore. The appellation for Entre-deux-Mers is actually for white wines made from Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Muscadelle and Ugni Blanc. This particular wine was sixty percent Semillon, thirty percent Sauvignon Blanc and ten percent Muscadelle. It was delicious and I could already see the wheels spinning in my Bride’s mind as to how many bottles did, she want to get. The second wine that we tasted was a more familiar one to us; Gary Farrell Russian River Selection Chardonnay 2016. Gary Farrell was one of the original winemakers of the Russian River Valley, way before there was an appellation and he is striving to produce Grand Cru quality Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines for over three decades. The Russian River Selection is a blending of different vineyards and blocks of land that are combined to just give a great balanced wine with enough buttery finish and acidity to be totally enjoyable. I was already happy with the first two wines.
Most of the time when I am in my bank, I get a cookie or two, but it was my birthday weekend or maybe birthday month and we ate at The Fed. We were going to meet our son and his family for brunch, it was also his wife’s birthday celebration as well. My Bride suggested one place and I suggested a new location, one that is a further drive for us, but very convenient for them. I had read about The Fed in Clarkston, Michigan and how a couple had bought an old bank and gutted basically the entire interior save the vault and created a restaurant. Years ago, when I was in the midst of seeing the best job I ever had disappear, because of spineless, feckless politicians and a corrupt style of eminent domain, I remember taking one of the principals to look at a potential location for a store that had a great location and was a former bank. The concept did not work especially twenty years ago, but I always thought the idea had merit; I guess being a child of parents that survived the Great Depression, the thought of reusing something was handed down to me. The Jossman State Bank building was erected around the turn of the last century and to be truthful, after we parked the car, I was looking for a building of grandeur and my image of old bank buildings growing up in the city of Detroit. The building was different than what my mind’s eye had imagined and since there was no signage, I asked some people that were dining outside if I was at the right location and then at the same time I saw the front door was opened and hence I could not see the name etched on the glass.
We went inside and got a table, because they would not take a reservation for less than a party of eight and we only had six. My Bride and I got there before the kids who live closer, so that was good, so we could make sure that we were guaranteed that the tab would come to us. The interior was gutted right down to the bare brick walls, so one would never realize that it was a bank until one saw the vault with the big door swung open and two tables were inside of it, with a chandelier hanging overhead from the exposed ceiling. The immediate appearance of the restaurant conveyed casualness as the chairs and tables did not match and neither did any of the utensils, in fact it caused a bit of consternation for our one grandson, as he did not want to use a salad fork to eat his meal, so his one sister changed forks with him, so that she ended up with the largest butter knife and the smallest fork at the table. The brunch menu was small, but well thought out and reminded my Bride and I of our favorite place for brunch in Las Vegas. My Bride saw that they had Lemon Souffle Pancakes with Ricotta cheese, berries and raspberry syrup and she also ordered one poached egg ala carte and that is the dish she invariably orders when we have brunch in Vegas. I ordered the classic version of Eggs Benedict with the peameal bacon, poached eggs, English Muffins, Hollandaise Sauce and breakfast potatoes and I also ordered a side of sausage patty, but I ended up with sausage links as I was told that was all they carried anymore. The rest of the crowd ordered their dishes and I had to watch my grandson eat his order of the Eggs Benedict by making the two halves combined and devoured as a sandwich and it worked for him.
We decided to have Mimosas and we had a choice of one Mimosa or bottomless Mimosas and the price differential rather precluded one Mimosa. The glasses were brought to the table with the bubbly, but no juice. We were informed that they have a Mimosa station with assorted juices and assorted fruits and berries to make a frou-frou design of your own. My Bride went and made a fancy one for herself and brought me a small glass of orange juice so that I could make a tincture of color with my drink. The bubbly was Coastal Vines Cellars Brut Cuvee NV, a ¨California Sparkling Wine. ¨ Coastal Vines Cellars is part of the much larger Bronco Wine Company and this sparkling wine was done in the Charmat Methode, also known as the bulk method. The wine is a blend of Chardonnay, French Colombard and Fructose/Glucose. All in all, it was a delightful brunch and then all of us decided to check out the local art fair that was going on that weekend.
On our last night on Mackinac Island, we misjudged traveling time (walking) and got to the Island House Hotel early. I guess it is better to be early than late. The restaurant was still in the midst of final preparations, but the bar was open, so we decided to have a drink, you know those things happen. As we were looking over the wine list, I get a text from Ms. Yoga wishing me a Happy Birthday, even though it was early and asking where we were on the island. I texted her back and that got me remembering a business affair that the three of us attended maybe twenty years earlier at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa in Acme (just think of Traverse City). I was there as a spouse, imagine that, and I was issued a folder with my name on it, that included voucher tickets for the assorted meals that I would be attending, while all of the attendees received drink vouchers as well, spouses did not. Well I was kind of brash that evening and I walked up to one of the main hosts and just mentioned that my folder did not have any drink vouchers, and lo and behold, he gave me a stream of drink tickets as if I had one a major award at Chuck E. Cheese. I guess there were a lot of unallocated tickets and I became a lucky recipient. As we were wandering around there was a station that was only making Hummers. Now, you may not know what a Hummer is, but it has been a mainstay, off and on, for almost fifty years, since it was created at the Bayview Yacht Club in the Detroit area. The Hummer is made of Kahlua, Rum and Vanilla Ice Cream; an adult milk shake. Tradition is that the first drinkers of this new cocktail ended up humming the rest of the night. I had so many tickets that it felt like I was buying the house a round. The drinks can be lethal, and it was for Ms. Yoga, but not for the reason that you think, it turns out that she had a reaction to the ice cream and has stayed away from dairy drinks, since that evening. The things I remember.
Well any ways, while I was texting a return message, my Bride jumped ahead of me at the bar and ordered a cocktail, a Negroni, she has been on a Negroni roll lately and she really feels chic about it. Well I was in the midst of cooling down from our walk over from our hotel and I was a bit over heated as I had a sport coat on, I still like to dress as if we were back in the days of resort wear. I remembered that on one of our walks in Carmel-by-the-Sea we had walked down from the city to see Clint Eastwood’s ranch on the ocean and by the time we had walked back, I was hot, over heated and thirsty and we stopped in a bistro bar once we got back to civilization and the bartender there suggested an Italian Moscato. I looked at the wine carte and they had Voga Moscato NV by the glass. Voga Moscato is from the Pavia region in Northern Italy and carries a Moscato IGP designation. As typical of all Voga wines the bottle is more of a cylinder instead of the classic wine bottle shape and the wine was rather delicate and not super sweet and what the Italians call frizzante, slight effervescent. My Bride looked at me, as if I had created a mortal sin, but I told her that I wanted to try the wine, in case we can find something nice for the family that wants a sweeter wine and I have no objections to this wine, as I found it to be rather refreshing.
After our
dinner, they brought over a platter showcasing the desserts of the evening and
they told us that Ms. Yoga had paid for our desserts. We tried to cancel that order, but it was too
late. We were rather full after the
dinner, but we were staring dessert dead in the eye and then my eye had a little
twinkle and we ordered a Hummer as a fitting tribute to the long friendship
between my Bride and Ms. Yoga, and I kind of fit in somewhere in the middle. “Here’s looking at you
kid.”
Our last night on Mackinac Island and we had dinner at the 1852 Grill Room at the Island House Hotel. The Island House Hotel is one of those stately hotels that is located between the “downtown” section of the town and Mission Point where we stayed and it overlooks the marina and docks of the waterfront. The Island House was established in 1852 and have not only created assorted businesses on the grounds of the hotel, but have branched into the main drag of the city with several restaurants on the main street, Ryba’s Fudge Shops (one of the original fudge purveyors on the island) and they have recently opened up on the main street a business that to me, is a little out of character for the island, but probably a great investment, as they opened up a Starbucks Coffee House.
We had a table at the front of the restaurant alongside the windows looking out at the marina that I had reserved, not the best and it worked, as they were a couple of other tables with stellar views, but it appeared that they were reserved for guests of the hotel and some long time customers, I was just glad that they had reserved us our table. We started our dinner by sharing an order of the hotel’s 1852 Signature Crab Cakes of Jumbo Lump Crab Meat, Dijon, Cilantro with a Key Lime Vinaigrette. My Bride had the Lake Superior Planked Whitefish (wild caught), oven roasted on a Maple plank, with Duchesse Potatoes and roasted vegetables. I had the Pan Roasted Duck Confit with a savory Sweet Potato Mash, and a Michigan Cherry-Port Demi-Glace. In hind sight, I probably should have ordered the Dover Sole a la Meuniere, as our family from Kentucky had dinner in this restaurant one night and highly touted this dish, well maybe the next time.
We enjoyed
a bottle of wine, but even though I had duck, we did not have a Pinot Noir,
just to confuse you, who think that I am a creature of habit. I found what I thought sounded very
interesting and it was the Sans Liege Wines “The Offering” Santa Barbara County 2015. The web site is very attractive, but is not big
on a history of the winery, but they use fruit harvested from ten named
vineyards in the area and they have two tasting rooms. This particular wine is a blend of
forty-eight percent Grenache, twenty-eight percent Syrah, twenty-three percent
Mourvedre and one percent Viognier. The
wine is aged for seventeen months in a mix of new, second filled and neutral
French Oak. Sans Liege prides themselves
on being free to make his own wines, though this wine was a New World “Rhone” wine and it was delightful with the
touch of Viognier I thought just for the nose. The wine was rather big for my
Bride’s Whitefish
(but she doesn’t mind) and it
was an interesting pairing with the Duck Confit.
Now and then I like to have a glass of wine, you may or may not believe that. Here I was on Mackinaw Island and we still found time to take a nice walk for a couple of miles, of course there are a lot of other people doing the same thing, especially when walking is the favored mode of transportation. We tried to keep on the straight and narrow, but she shops and I just look around. It would have been the perfect day for a cigar, but I gave them up, so now I am just another guy walking down the street. Of course, we (she) had to stop and look at some of the stores, because she wanted to buy gifts or perchance something looked so cute, she had to give it more study. Me, like I said, a cigar would have been good, but I have been good and I seldom even think about them anymore. We ended up at a wine bar, of course we have been there before.
Goodfellow’s Wine Cellar is a third of a complex that is in the lower front of the historic Lake View Hotel, of course just about every hotel on the island is historic and if you kind of step back and look beyond the storefronts, you really are amazed at the size of the buildings on the island. There are three Goodfellow entrances on the main drag. There is “Wings and Things,” the “Italian Chop House” and “The Wine Cellar.” I probably go to more Italian restaurants than any other style, or at least it seems that way, but we have never eaten there. We usually stop at The Wine Cellar have a nosh and a couple of glasses of wine and then walk back to the hotel. The nosh my Bride had her heart set on, was some Baked Brie and it was out of stock that day, so we had to rough it and just have some wine, I mean it is not like we were starving since we had gotten on the island and breakfast was wonderful, but no Mimosas, so no discussion about that meal. With all of the cases of wine, I knew that we could find a couple of glasses of wine to rejuvenate us for the long trek back.
I am
forever trying to get my Bride to try something new, and most of the time it
works, there have been a couple of times that she wasn’t thrilled with a wine, I guess it
just meant more for me. She had a glass
of Vignobles Domaine Laffourcade Savenieres 2016. Savenieres is a parish amidst the Anjou
region of the Loire Valley and they are known for having rather strict yield
restrictions for the vineyards and the grape for the region is Chenin
Blanc. In the old days the region was
known mostly for a sweeter wine, but now they produce from sweet to dry. This was a very good example of a Chenin
Blanc, a bit chewy, more steely or minerally with a finish of chamomile. I wanted to try something different, because
I had been drinking Cabernet Sauvignon and I had a glass of Laurent Dufouleur
Bourgogne Pinot Noir “Le Minee” 2017. I could find almost nothing about Laurent
Dufouleur, so I shall presume that they are a negocient and the grapes are from
the Cote de Beaune. The wine had good
color and nose for a Pinot Noir from Burgundy, but it was very young, so it
didn’t have the
nuances that I would look for, but it was also affordable to be served by the
class. Just a nice way to spend a couple
of hours and trying some new wines.
The Wine Raconteur 