A Dinner In, In Louisville

Posted on October 17, 2019 by thewineraconteur

After the long drive from Detroit to Louisville and a couple of glasses of wine to relax, we started thinking about dinner.  As I said, we schlepped a small refrigerator that runs both off of the car or on a standard electric plug and besides the wine that we had chilling in it, we also brought some other stuff.  For starters we had brought some frozen pasties for our brother-in-law from his favorite place in Cadillac, Michigan that both he and his father enjoy, and we had sent his father his share earlier, because he lives near us.  We also brought ten filet mignons for the dinner.

I have to admit that I am a carnivore and almost everyone I know is one as well.  I know that many people prefer a steak with a bone, and I have to admit that growing up, we always tended to have porterhouse, T-bone or rib-eyes, but they were always well-done, and that is from growing up with parents that survived the Great Depression.  Nowadays, I prefer medium rare filet mignon steaks as there is no waste, and I know that some claim that the meat closest to the bone is the best, but since we don’t have a dog, we can go boneless.  The steaks were done in a marinade of olive oil, garlic and fresh rosemary.  My sister-in-law also prepared a diced up and then sautéed fennel, and it was the first time that I ever had it prepared that way.  Between my Bride and her sister in the kitchen, I thought it prudent to just be a casual observer and then dine on the proceeds, and in retrospect, it was a wise move. 

Since the ladies were busy in the kitchen, I decided that I should decant a bottle of wine that I had brought with us from our cellar, naturally the cork decided to crumble and I was all set to get a coffee filter and a funnel, but my brother-in-law had an wine aerator that I had not seen before, but my Bride said that she had and that I had talked her out of buying it, the aerator had a built in strainer; and I do think that I would have noticed the logic in such an item.  While dinner was being prepared, we were still enjoying some more white wine.  We opened up a bottle of Cobble Creek Vineyards Chardonnay 2017 from Paso Robles.  Now I realize that California is ahead of the curve on some trends, but because I don’t have certain dietary problems, I just don’t understand all of the new verbiage on labels.  I understand that “organic grapes” means the elimination of pesticides, but somewhere in the back of my brain, I just think that grapes are organic by nature.  I am not sure how or what would make one wine gluten and another wine gluten free, but I am old fashioned, and the same is about “vegan friendly” as I would think wine would be perfect for vegans as it is plant based.  I think that I had heard that the old method of fining the wine with eggs whites is what would make a wine non-Vegan, but I only thought of that being done by home-made wine makers like the old “Dago Red” wines as a kid.  I am not being facetious or snide, I guess I just don’t stay as trendy as I should.  Cobble Creek Vineyard was planted fifteen years ago, as an organic farm and they are part of Castoro Cellars.  Castoro Cellars started off making wine, then they purchased their own equipment, then a winery, then a tasting room and then began purchasing and planting vineyards.  It appears that Total Wines is a big seller of the wines and that make sense, as my in-laws do a lot of shopping there for their daily wines.  The wine was very smooth and really a step up from most popular priced Chardonnay wines.  The wine that we decanted was a Duckhorn Wine Company Paraduxx 1999 when it was still produced in St. Helena.  As always, the label features a painting of a pair of ducks (Paraduxx from Duckhorn) and this label is of recent and rare visitors to the Pacific area two Mandarin ducks painted by Robert Carlson of Paso Robles, and this was the sixth of a series.  This wine is a blend of Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.   As soon as we started decanted the wine, the aroma from the wine filled the room and belied that it was a twenty-year-old.  The color was deep with no browning to be seen.  It was a big chewy wine and the three varietals were very harmonious.  I think the wine could have been good for at least another ten years, that is how firm it was and with the filets, it was spot-on.

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Two Chilled Ones After the Drive

Posted on October 15, 2019 by thewineraconteur

I am sure that everyone thinks that in the summertime, orange barrels are a rite of Spring.  In Michigan they have become our State Flower, our State Tree and our State Bush.  We had a change of regimes in our fair state and one person ran on the platform of “fix the damn roads” not a nice slogan for children to hear, but today’s society is not as genteel as when I was growing up, not that there wasn’t anything ever said, that I never heard at home, as I have stated, we had a colorful environment.  Anyways the politician that claimed that catchy phrase, promised no new taxes, was elected and decided that Michigan needed to surpass all the other states for gasoline tax, and the senate and the representatives gave her a budget which is mandated with a larger amount earmarked for road construction so as to avoid an onerous new tax, the new governor vetoed and slashed almost the entire budget and now we are “not fixing the damn roads.”  We got a chance to enjoy road construction in Ohio and Kentucky and to be fair, I think I-75 in Ohio has been under construction ever since the road was built, but at least they have joined the rest of the country and allowed drivers to do seventy miles per hour away from the major cities.  We made a little dash down to Louisville to see the family, a week after some family members had made the same trip, only because it was going to be a bit calmer in Louisville and would give the sisters a chance to relax and catch up.   

There was a made-for-television movie in 1971 starring Dennis Weaver, famed from Gunsmoke and McCloud, depending on your age and it was directed by a newcomer that was just starting to get noticed by the name of Steven Spielberg and the movie was called “Duel.”  Dennis Weaver plays a businessman driving along the road, who ends up being stalked by unseen driver after he passes a slow and old tanker truck.  It was a white-knuckle road trip and extremely scary film that would have made Hitchcock proud.  I know that by now you think I have lost it, but I bring it up, because the entire trip down and in fact the returned trip, I kept thinking of this movie from my youth, because of a quirk in the laws of the road in Ohio and Kentucky.  In Michigan, trucks cannot be in the passing lane, except to pass and get back into the right lane.  In Ohio and Kentucky trucks routinely stay in the passing lane to pass vehicles for long stretches and they normally wait until a car is attempting to pass them to change lanes, so that cars can hit the breaks on the freeway.  One other thing that I noticed about the trucks in those two states, is that while they drive the vehicles like they are a Mini-Cooper, they feel that there is no need to use turning signals, except after they are half-way into the next lane. 

We did make it to Kentucky, as you may have surmised and we unloaded the car of its luggage, a portable refrigerator and a six-pack of wine, since we were only going to be there for two nights.   Our hosts immediately produced a couple of wine glasses and poured some chilled white wine.  We started off with some Banter California Chardonnay 2017.  It is one their go to everyday whites that is produced with Stainless Steel and French and American Oak.  It appears from the winery’s webpage that the biggest buyer of the wine is Total Wines and that can be a major buyer, especially in popular priced wines.  The wine was easy drinking with a taste of stone fruits and a little oak.  The name of the wine is good, because that is what we were doing while we started to relax.  In our car refrigerator we had chilling a wine that I was holding, until we could share it with them.  We opened up the bottle of Diving into Hampton Water Languedoc AOP 2017, a Rosé wine that has a very limited market area of New York, New Jersey and Florida, from what I understand.  The wine is a joint business venture of Jesse Bongiovi, who is the son of Jon Bongiovi the singer and the French winemaker Gerard Bertrand of the Languedoc.  The wine is a blend of Grenache, Cinsault, Mourvedre and Syrah.  The bottle did not have a cork, and it was not a screw cap, there was a glass stopper with a rubber base that fit very tightly in the neck.  There were two old geezers trying to get the almost invisible plastic wrap off and then figuring the right way to leverage the stopper out, I am glad to say that we finally accomplished it, but it was one of the hardest bottles that I have ever opened.  The wine had a pretty color and it was fresh and fruit forward with the spice from the French Oak that it imparts and a mineral terroir finish.  It was an interesting wine and we finally calmed down and we started talking about dinner. 

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Le Mistral Joseph’s Blend

Posted on October 13, 2019 by thewineraconteur

As I am unpacking the last of the three wines that we received from “A Taste of Monterey” I am always interested, naturally to see the wines.  I also enjoy reading the enclosed newsletter and the lead article is “To Blend or Not to Blend.”  There was a side bar article on Sauvignon Blanc and another one was on the cheese Raclette.  There was also an interesting recipe for Prawns Sambuca, where the dish will undergo a step known as flambé, but the recipe does not mention if it is White or Black Sambuca, but since the dish calls for Chardonnay, I will presume that it is the White.  The other thing that amazes me, each time I get a shipment of wine, is the packing used.  Originally alll wines were shipped in wooden crates, so the odds of the crates being flung around was rather limited, but then I think of how large the cartons and the Styrofoam pockets that I had to purchase years ago, when I had to ship “olive oil” from California to the felony State of Michigan.  Now I just marvel at these engineered pressed “cardboard” containers that will adapt to most of the classic wine bottle shapes, and as of yet, I have not had one damaged carton, knock on wood.

The last wine in the carton is a bottle of Folktale Winery and Vineyards Le Mistral Joseph’s Blend 2017.  Folktale Winery and Vineyards was originally founded in 1982 by Bob and Patty Brower, as Chateau Julien Wine Estate and they wanted to replicate their wine experiences in France to the Carmel Valley.  In 1996 they expanded the property and structures to ensure that they were making great wines, and my Bride and I visited Chateau Julien each time we had holidays in Carmel-by-the-Sea.  In 2015, the property was purchased by local winemaker, Gregory Ahn, and renamed Folktale Winery and Vineyards; and as a side note, from what I gather the label Chateau Julien is still property of the Brower family.  The five-acre vineyard at the winery is one-hundred percent organically farmed, and they are working towards this goal in the three-hundred acres in the Arroyo Seco that they maintain.  The winemaking team is led by David Baird who focuses on the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes that produce great wines in the area.

David Baird also works on his Rhone varietals for Folktale’s Le Mistral brand, which was founded in 1992 and named for the Mediterranean wind.  Joseph’s Blend is a single vineyard blend from the Arroyo Seco vineyard.  The wine is sixty-four percent Grenache, thirty-three percent Syrah and three percent Petite Sirah.  The wine was aged for eleven months in a mix of French Oak barrels, with just over nine-hundred cases made and an aging potential of ten to twelve years.  The winemaker strove to create a wine big enough to stand up to food or elegant enough to drink on its own.  With the grapes used, it is no wonder that the tasting notes call for notes of cherry and raspberry, black pepper, Herb de Provence and a finish of vanilla and crème Brulee.  Since the wines of the Rhone were some of the original wines that I enjoyed as a teenager, because they were priced so well, is it any wonder that I am always interested in trying “California Rhone” wines.

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De Tierra Syrah

Posted on October 11, 2019 by thewineraconteur

There is nothing better than opening up a carton to discover the new wines from your wine club “A Taste of Monterey” and in all the years of opening up those cartons, I have never been disappointed.  It probably pays off in spades, because we belong to the Private Reserve Club.  Monterey County is a relative newcomer according to the AVA as it was only awarded status in 1984.  It is kind of a long a narrow region that follows the Salinas River, and the area was immortalized by John Steinbeck long before wine was grown there. 

De Tierra Vineyards began in 1998 as an organic grape growing operation by Tom Russel, an agriculture professional from Phoenix, Arizona.  He had transitioned his crops from conventional vegetable operations to organic farming in the 1990’s.   He was very successful and tried his approach to winemaking in the Salinas Valley and he teamed up with Lucio Gomiero of Italy and they developed a forty-acre farm and De Tierra Vineyards was established.  The vineyard is now owned by Dan McDonnal and Alix Lynn Bosch and they strive to maintain the name which translates to “of the land.”  They grow eight varietals and they also make three different blends, but some of the fruit is sourced beyond the estate.  They maintain a tasting room in Carmel-by-the-Sea.

The fruit for the De Tierra Syrah 2016 comes from the Coast View Vineyard and the Chalone Vineyard, both of which are found in the Gabilan Mountains.  The days are warm and the nights cool off, and the soil if rocky and evokes Cote-Rotie of the Rhone.  There are sparse notes on production, but it was aged in oak, with minimal stirring and they allowed full malolactic fermentation to occur.  The wine also enjoyed twenty-four months of bottle aging and brings with it the classic Rhone flavors of white pepper, cassis and raspberry with a finish vanilla and oak.  I have to believe that this will be a full bodied and big wine and they are suggesting eight to ten years of aging potential in the cellar. Time will tell.

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Wrath Fermata Chardonnay

Posted on October 9, 2019 by thewineraconteur

It has been a busy wine time here at the house and the quarterly shipment from A Taste of Monterey arrived and it took a couple of days, even to open up the carton.  We have been getting shipments from this club since we discovered them on our first holiday at Carmel-by-the-Sea and we went to eat at the legendary Sardine Factory in Monterey.  Between the meals, art and wine it was a very expensive, but very enjoyable trip for us.  The gallery tried to buy the art work that we bought, a couple of years later, but we like it hanging in our living room, so that everyone can see it, we then walk into the house.   We signed up with the Private Reserve Club, which come quarterly, they have other clubs that come monthly, but they are more popular price and we really wanted to get some wines that we would not encounter otherwise. 

Wrath Estate Winery is located in Soledad, California and they are a winery where production is limited, but not the quality, and since we have been there, they have opened a satellite tasting room in downtown Carmel.  We have had at least a half dozen different wines from Wrath Wines over the years.  The winery produces Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah, Falanghina and Sauvignon Blanc from their estate vineyard and some very respected private vineyards in the Santa Lucia Highlands.  Wrath Wines has contracts with McIntyre Vineyard, which was planted in 1973 and has the oldest Pinot Noir vines in the Santa Lucia Highlands.  The Doctor’s Vineyards also in the Santa Lucia Highlands grows eleven different clones of Pinot Noir on one-hundred-ninety-three acres, forty-five acres of five different clones of Syrah and almost five acres of Malbec.  The Tondre Grapefield started in 1997 with six and a half acres in the heart of the Santa Lucia Highlands and is now one-hundred acres dedicated to Pinot Noir.  Th KW Ranch is also in the Santa Lucia Highlands and was planted in 2000 and dedicated to Pinot Noir and Syrah.  The Alta Loma Vineyard was planted in 2000 and is two-hundred-forty-six acres of biodynamically certified Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah and Grenache.  The last of the private vineyards that Wrath Wines contracts with is the Boekenoogen Vineyard, which went from a fifth-generation cattle ranch to becoming a vineyard in 1998 and growing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah. 

The Wrath Wine Fermata Chardonnay 2015 is from the Wrath Estate San Saba Vineyard in a nook of property just below the Santa Lucia Highlands.  The property is known for having very little rain, cool temperatures and one of the longest growing seasons in the world.   “Fermata” is Italian for halted, because after the primary fermentation, the malolactic fermentation is halted at the half-way point to keep the wine precise according to their information.  The wine is then aged for ten months in French Oak, of which twenty percent is new, and then after bottling, the wine is aged for a year, before being released.  The production for this wine was just above six-hundred cases with a cellaring potential of six to eight years.  The wine promises to have bright acidity from the halting process and a nose featuring lemon and lime, to toast and crème Brulee.  The finish is layered and offering some good terroir.  I have never been disappointed with any of the selections that I have received from Wrath Wines.  

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Broadway Vineyards Chardonnay

Posted on October 7, 2019 by thewineraconteur

One never knows what to expect when one is getting wines from a wine club and the second wine that I picked up recently from the Fine Wine Source has raised my eyebrow.  I always expect something interesting from this club, because when you walk in to the shop, the shop is void of every name brand that one sees at grocery stores, party stores and most of the big box shops as well.  They actually go out of their way to look for something unique and while they have some wonderful unicorn wines, they also find some very interesting items in the popular price range.  I mean what one would spend for a “name brand,” and very few wineries have big budgets for advertising, sometimes one can find a wine that has the nuances one would expect from a wine twice or thrice the price. 

Broadway Vineyards feel that they embody the essence of the Sonoma lifestyle.  In 2002 Jim and Marilyn Hybiske found property just two miles from the Historic Square in downtown Sonoma.  Six of their friends joined them to develop a small vineyard focusing on Chardonnay, Merlot and Syrah.  Work began on the vineyard in 2004 and the first harvest was in 2006.  The results each year got better and better and the wine started being appreciated by others than the original investors and they started to take off.  Since the estate is small, there is only a finite amount of wine that can be produced.  The winemaker for Broadway Vineyards is Philippe Langner who began his career at Chateau Clarke, a Rothschild property in Bordeaux, France.

The three different varietals were chosen very carefully to be planted on the estate from day one to take advantage of the soil and the cool nights and warm days and the area was perfect for the three cool-climate varietals.  The Broadway Vineyards Chardonnay 2015 was hand harvested at the beginning of September, 2015.  The wine was barrel aged for ten months, bottled in mid-June of 2016 and then spent nine months in the bottle before being released.  There were only one-hundred-sixty-two cases of this wine produced.  The tasting notes for this wine suggest a tropical, floral nose with subtle tastes of peaches and apricots, described as rich and opulent with hints of butter and a layered lingering finish. I think that I will have to try this wine sooner, before they sell out.    

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Tresor de la Riviere

Posted on October 5, 2019 by thewineraconteur

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. 

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Dinner at The Earle

Posted on October 3, 2019 by thewineraconteur

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.

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Blue (?)

Posted on October 1, 2019 by thewineraconteur

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.”

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Two California Red Blends

Posted on September 29, 2019 by thewineraconteur

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.

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