“Beam Me Up, Scotty”

Posted on June 7, 2019 by thewineraconteur

I think “Beam Me Up, Scotty” is a quotation that most of the Western World would know, and I would even venture to say that the Millennials can identify it.  I am not a fan of television and haven’t watched it for at least thirty years, but even I know that line, from my youth.  So, I think of the great wooden actor and major emoter from Canada for his work in Judgement in Nuremberg and the classic The Twilight Zone episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” but my Bride is a “Trekkie.”  She may be a low key one, as she doesn’t dress in the costumes, but she knows all of the shows and movies.  I knew that I wouldn’t have to repeat my words, when I told her that there was going to be a new exhibit at The Henry Ford.  The Henry Ford is the new name for one of the greatest tourist attractions in Michigan, it is The Henry Ford, Museum and Greenfield Village, plus all the other auxiliary tours and cinemas on the grounds.  The exhibit Star Wars: Exploring New Worlds got her attention immediately.  I love museums and when I was a kid, a friend and I would ride our bicycles from our homes in Detroit to the grounds on plenty of Saturdays during Summer vacation and we would either tour the museum or the village each time.  This exhibit was for my Bride, but I enjoyed it as well.

This exhibit was up there for her, like the time that I waited on Robert Picardo that played a Hologram Doctor on Star Trek: Voyager and he gave me an autographed publicity photo for her.  I am a movie fan and I enjoy the gadgets and the memorabilia that was exhibited, and most of it was one man’s collection that was on loan to the museum.   I mean looking at some of the original phasers, tri-corders and uniforms, and parts of the sets, all looked rather cheesy, but I guess that was part of the allure and glamor that made everyone watch the show every week.  While she was exclaiming that most of the actors must not have been big in size, looking at the tunics, I was mesmerized by the uniform of “Seven of Nine” and I guess that makes me a bit of a pervert, and I can live with it.  While there were Tribbles, there was only mention of my favorite kind of regular returning role of Harry Mudd. There was even a booth where one could go and scream “Khan” for all of you die hard fans, and my Bride showed decorum and passed on the booth, though I think she watched some others do it. We actually made a video of us teleporting, but she didn’t want me posting it, so I have a photo of me in a Borg “regeneration cell” and she knew what it was.

All of this fun, required a little refreshment as we were getting parched, so we ventured into the Michigan Café in the museum building, and as you can surmise the food centers on Michigan products.  We decided to have some white wine, actually that was the only wine being offered that day, though there were a couple of Michigan craft-beers being offered.  We had the Black Star Farms Red House White NV from the Leelanau Peninsula.  Black Star Farms began in 1998 and was originally an equestrian facility of 160 acres.  Not only is there a winery and tasting room, they have an Inn, a café and a dinner restaurant and they are also a popular venue for weddings.  This particular wine was a new one for us, and we have been to the winery.  This wine is a blend of Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc and was a very easy drinking white with some stone fruit flavor and a finish that would be termed off dry.  I could see it with any of the classic versions of White Fish that can be found in Michigan and it was a good wine to have a chat with, as we were doing, because we were going out for dinner later that evening.  “Live long and prosper.”

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Arrow & Branch Cabernets

Posted on June 5, 2019 by thewineraconteur

Can you imagine having two distinct Napa Valley Cabernets and one was from the Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard?  I was enjoying my time at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan and they were having a tasting and presentation of the wine of Arrow & Branch Estate Vineyard.  Here is a winery that has all the potential of being a cult wine, because the winery is interesting in making stellar wines and small production.  The principal of the company amassed his money in numismatics, fell in love with Bordeaux and is interested in duplicating that Gallic interpretation in the Napa Valley.  He has surrounded himself with key people that share his enthusiasm, and the tasting was conducted by his National Sales Manager Brian Wallace. 

Brian Wallace began his career in wine as an assistant general manager/sommelier at a private country club in the Midwest and was told to absorb all the knowledge that could be gleaned from Robert Parker’s “Burgundy.”  As he acquired assorted multiple certifications, he left the life at the country club and began working in the industry in distribution and he specialized in prestigious allocated brands.  He went from representing several small wineries to now handling Arrow & Branch while still maintaining residency in the Chicago area.  It was a pleasure to listen to him discuss the brand, and we still had time to discuss other wines, because this old Raconteur does kind of gets off track at time, especially wandering around wines.

The first Cabernet Sauvignon was from the Black Label series.  The Arrow & Branch Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon 2013, while sounding like any wine from the valley had a dash of Merlot and a couple of dashes of Petit Verdot.  The fruit came from the Lewelling and the Criscione Vineyards and carries a St. Helena appellation.  This wine was aged for twenty months in French Oak, of which sixty percent was new.  The wine was a deep and intense in color, a good nose and dark berry fruits and spice, and the finish was long and supple, and you knew tasting it, that it was not going to be easy to find after the fact, as there was a production of two-hundred-twenty-five cases made.  The final wine of the tasting was from the famed and awe-inspiring vineyard that almost requires genuflecting when one comes into contact with it.  We ended with the Arrow & Branch Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Dr. Crane 2014.  In 1858, the Napa pioneer Dr. George Belden Crane planted what is now referred to as Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard and is located in St. Helena.  The property was acquired by Beckstoffer Vineyards in 1997; in 1998 the vineyard was planted with multiple clones of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc exclusively for Arrow & Branch.  The first vintage from this site was 2012.  Here is a wine that is pure Cabernet Sauvignon and aged for twenty months in French Oak, of which eighty-five percent was new.  A deep purple wine that was hedonistic in its delivery, without being a jammy wine enticing and delivering dark berries and black cherries and a touch of chocolate.  I knew it was the last wine of the tasting, so I lingered and played with the wine to enjoy the rich long finish, because I did not want it to end.  With only one-hundred-twenty cases produced, if I could have bought some, it would want it to cellar for at least ten to fifteen years and I think thirty years would not be too much to expect from it, if only I could hold out for another thirty.  This is a winery that truly requires your attention, if you would like to lay some wine down, to forget about.

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Arrow & Branch Two Red Blends

Posted on June 3, 2019 by thewineraconteur

There I was getting ready to try two different vintages of Arrow & Branch Red Blend wines while I was at Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  I mean how can you not enjoy yourself when you are tasting some wines that are from Napa Valley, but are made to emulate the wines of Bordeaux.  Not the big jammy wines that are being produced to curry the favors and the numbers of some of the big names that write about wines.  Arrow & Branch are marching to their own drummer, and doing a fine job of it.  They have a winemaker by the name of Jennifer Williams who is helping to make this wine and their vision a reality.

Jennifer Williams began as a harvest intern and split her time between Araujo and Spottswoode.   She grew up outside of San Diego and had originally planned on being a veterinarian.  She caught the call of viticulture and she hasn’t looked back.   She worked as an Enologist at Trefethen Family Vineyards and even worked a harvest in Spain’s Rioja Alavesa region.  She became the Vineyard Manager and then the Winemaker at Spottswoode from 2006 to 2011.  She now works very closely with the Vineyard Manager at Arrow & Branch to make sure the soil and the vines are healthy at all of their vineyards, with the goal of making the wine that the owners want and at the expense of big production. 

I am hard pressed to write about the two wines that we tasted, as they were not made to be mirror images of each other, but the wine maker was driven to evoke that Right Bank Blend.  The two wines were the Arrow & Branch Red Blend 2013 and the 2014 vintage.  The wines were a blend of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot; the 2013 was fifty-nine percent Cabernet Franc and the 2014 was fifty-five percent Cabernet Franc.  The fruit was all harvested from the Arrow & Branch Estate Vineyard, the Lewelling and the Stagecoach Vineyards and carries the Coombsville St. Helena AVA.  They were barrel aged for twenty months in French Oak, of which seventy-five percent was new.  The winery produces two-hundred-fifty cases of this wine each year, definitely not a bulk wine. The wines both showed the pedigree of being family and I could notice the difference between the two wines, but I could not claim a marked preference of one vintage over the other, and I think that is the talent of the Winemaker to make two wines that are not clones of each other, but wines that you wouldn’t mind having.  I find that the Cabernet Franc offers more red fruit to the taste of the wine, and I think the tannins are more subdued and truly regal, and both of these wines gave a nice long finish.  I didn’t buy any, but I am sure that ten to twenty years in the cellar will really make these wines a real bargain. 

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Arrow & Branch Sauvignon Blanc

Posted on June 1, 2019 by thewineraconteur

Once in a while my schedule and the Fine Wine Source coincides like the recent day when I was able to do a tasting of wines from Arrow & Branch Estate Vineyard of Napa Valley.  The winery pays homage to the Contursi family’s success in the rare coin business.  They are famed numismatists that have handled most of the fabled coins of the United States of America, and the ones that they haven’t are basically residing in permanent museum collections across the country.  The name refers to the eagle found on the obverse of most of the original coin design who is grasping arrows and an olive branch in its talons and it symbolizes that America is a peace-loving nation that is willing to defend itself in times of need.  The winery also pays homage to Benjamin Franklin, the first Renaissance Man of America, who helped draft the papers of the country, instituted the Postal System for British North America and was the first Ambassador to France.  Steve and Seanne Contursi fell in love with the wines of Bordeaux and decided that they wanted to make that style of wines in Napa Valley, especially wines showcasing Cabernet Franc as they fell in love with Chateau Cheval Blanc, and who could blame them. 

They were out looking for property and everything fell in place when they were able to buy the Etude Wines estate of Tony Soter who was famed for his “Little Creek” Cabernet Franc wine.  The Contursis now had the ability to live both in Laguna Beach and on their new vineyard, and they were able to have the key element of their liking of a classic Cabernet Franc, as they felt the other varietals would fall into place.  They have a passion and a commitment to create the best Bordeaux style wine regardless of time and money, and that includes diminishing crop output if need be to ensure the best fruit is harvested.  The vineyards that they use are considered the top in the valley.  The Estate Vineyard is in Coombsville, while in Carneros there is Cuvasion Vineyard, Atlas Peak has the Stagecoach Vineyard, Oakville has the Vine Hill Ranch and in St. Helena they avail themselves from the Criscione Vineyard, the Lewelling Vineyard, the Wheeler Farms Winery and the Beckstoffer Dr. Crane. 

The first wine of the tasting was the Arrow & Branch Sauvignon 2017.  Some people will automatically cry foul, that here is a winery that wants to emulate Bordeaux and the first wine is a Sauvignon Blanc, and for some odd reason the white wines of the region are forgotten about except for the classic dessert wines of Sauternes and Barsac, but who would turn their nose at a white Graves like Chateau Haut-Brion.  The Sauvignon Blanc from Graves is totally different from what is normally found in California, and in the Pacific Islands.  This wine is pure Sauvignon Blanc made entirely from the Stagecoach Vineyard from rootstock and clones that were planted five years ago, specifically for Arrow & Branch.  The wine is Barrel Fermented and then aged on fine lees for six months in a mix of Stainless Steel and French Oak (both one year old and neutral).  The bright acidity is what just jumps out at you, when tasting this wine, it is not a meek and mild wine, as this wine wants to be recognized for its own personality and it was very refreshing.  I couldn’t wait to try the other wines. 

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The First of Many

Posted on May 30, 2019 by thewineraconteur

We went to the first graduation party of the season and according to my Bride there is like a total of eight in the next month or so.  There must have been something in the water to have that many kids all graduating at the same time.  Can we say no vacation?  I don’t think it will be that severe, but it will definitely cut into the better restaurants, perhaps.  High school graduation parties are a rite of passage, especially for the children of parents that survived the Great Depression, but now this is the next generation watching their children graduate and I think high school is an accepted norm.  I know that in my parent’s age group, plenty of teens did not graduate, but went to work, or volunteered for the Armed Forces in World War II, there was a war on back then, and even in my generation there were some who quit school to take jobs in the manufacturing sector or were drafted in the days of Vietnam. 

We went to home of the graduate and his parents had a big tent erected in the backyard, with a smaller tent adjacent that had side panels and that was the food area.   There was plenty of assorted salads, vegetables and fruit.  There was an assortment of cheeses and crackers and big pre-sliced hero sandwiches.  I made a beeline to a dish that I haven’t had in years, because my Bride has this insane idea that she is going to make me live forever.  It had been so long, I wasn’t sure if my internals could handle it, and whether I was going to have heartburn later.  I threw caution to the wind and I basically only piled my plate with crispy fried chicken, and by the way, I did survive.  Mother Nature acted up a little bit and it did rain some, just enough to make the grass under the tent where we were getting muddy, so our group went to one of the tables in the garage and my Bride went to the Sweets Table.

We did bring our own libations, just in case, and I heard that there was wine, but I didn’t see it, but I am sure that it was there.  On our first trip to Carmel-by-the-Sea we bought a leather wine bag, that holds two glasses, two bottles, a cutting board, utensils, a waiter’s corkscrew and then I throw in some other accoutrements in there as well, and at times I have even gotten three bottles in there.   The first bottle was Mer Soleil Santa Lucia Highland Reserve Chardonnay 2016, and this wine is part of the Wagner Family of Wine, as in Caymus of Napa Valley.  The family first started winemaking in the Napa Valley after purchasing seventy acres of land in 1906, of course that was short lived as Prohibition arrived and wiped out the majority of winemakers.  In 1972, the Wagner family re-entered the wine business with the launch of Caymus Vineyards. Sixteen years later, Chuck Wagner branched out and started planting Chardonnay vines in the Santa Lucia Highlands appellation, beginning the production of Mer Soleil Chardonnay. By 2001, Chuck’s son Charlie F. Wagner II had taken the reins and in 2005 he created the unoaked Silver Chardonnay label, which I have tasted and written about.  In the 1990’s they began the Mer Soleil label, though it was originally called “Barrel Fermented Chardonnay.”  So now they make two versions of Chardonnay, the Silver which is unoaked from Monterey and the Reserve which is from the Santa Lucia Highlands in Monterey.  The wine is aged from twelve to fifteen months in French Oak for a rich creamy texture.  For the Wagner Family of Wine, this is a very small production of nine-hundred cases and they feel that it has the aging potential of eight to ten years which is quite impressive.  This Reserve Chardonnay was a nice big wine and evokes Burgundy, but so far, every Chardonnay and Pinot Noir that I have had from the Santa Lucia Highlands has done this for me.  This was a Wagner wine in the tradition of a Caymus Special Select, in my humble opinion and not a wine for all the restaurant across the country.  The second wine was the Midnight Cellars “Nebula” Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 hails from Paso Robles in California.  A business man from Chicago retired and bought a one-hundred-sixty-acre ranch with twenty-eight acres currently planted with vines in Paso Robles in 1995 and it is the home for three generations of families that are maintaining the winery.  Midnight Cellars is the twenty-ninth established winery in Paso Robles and they are in the newly designated area known as Willow Creek District.  The “Nebula” is ninety percent Cabernet Sauvignon and the balance is Merlot.  The wine was aged for eighteen months in French Oak, the production was seven-hundred-sixty-five cases and is completely sold out at the winery.  This was a big wine and one of the cousins stopped by to try the red wine that we had brought and he was bowled over by the bigness of the wine, and he also grabbed the bottle to look at the proof, and it is not something that I normally look at when I am having wine.  He said that at 15.9% it was the biggest wine that he had ever had.  He really enjoyed that wine and then some more.  I think my Bride liked the Chardonnay more, and as for me, I really enjoyed them both.  Onward and upwards to celebrate the other graduates. 

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Celebrating a Two-Year Old’s Birthday

Posted on May 28, 2019 by thewineraconteur

Once in a while, we attend a birthday that is out of the normal cycle of birthdays that we celebrate.  If you even occasionally follow these articles, you have figured out that we celebrate birthdays in any given month on one day, and have one big dinner and sometimes a bigger cake, depending on how many names have to be included.  As the families grow and the next generations, especially with third cousins and further come forward, they do things as they want.  I am just glad to see that there will be more generations.  My Bride wanted to go, especially since the parents of the child had just bought a new house.

I do believe that the new State Flower of Michigan is going to be the Orange Barrel, and the new governor and her administration will do all that is in the power to raise our taxes again, so that the continuation of poorly constructed roads will continue.  As the Orange Barrels begin to propagate the expected travel time grows exponentially and soon a horse drawn wagon may make the same travel time, but I digress and we finally got to the new home.  We just looked for a crowd of vehicles and then we saw an open garage with people sitting along folding tables eating, so we knew that we were in the right place.  I saw some relatives and sat down with them and my Bride went in to make a couple plates of food.  I think there was some assorted salads and fruit, but my Bride figured that it was safer to bring me some forms of meat.  I had either grilled Bratwurst or Knockwurst on a bun, and what was called on a television show when I was young an “Untidy Joseph” or a “Sloppy Joe.”  Then later on we had a cupcake.  

I understand that hosting parties can be expensive, because the Good Lord knows that I hosted plenty of birthday parties, not to mention holidays over the years.  I grew up being taught that one should always have a stock of beverages on hand, my Father only drank Molson Canadian, so there was always cases available, a couple of cases in the basement fridge and more on the side as a backup, but beyond that there was always Scotch, Rye, Gin, Vodka and a few bottles of Bordeaux; that way one could always have a drink in the house.  Nowadays, to play it safe when we go to a home, we take a couple of bottles of wine with us, and this way my Bride says that I won’t complain, but she says it in a more colorful manner.  The first bottle that we opened was a Boathouse Vineyards Dry Dock Riesling Leelanau Peninsula 2016.  We just stopped by the winery by chance on one of our trips to the northwest corner of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and we really enjoyed our time at the winery.  One of the few wineries that I have been to where you could get there by car or by boat, and the winery grounds are set up for musical entertainment throughout the Summer and Autumn season.  While they own twenty-one acres for the vineyards, they use an outside winemaking facility that is less than a mile away and they have won several awards for being a new winery.  This was a real pleasant Dry Riesling and I knew that we had to get some, because my Bride even enjoyed it.  It is made using Stainless Steel and only a couple hundred cases are made each year.  The wine had soft floral and citrus notes, with some ripe pear that finished quite dry.  The second wine is Ray’s Station Winery Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 from Mendocino and part of the larger Vintage Wine Estates family wineries.  The wine is named after former Army Captain and Bear Flag Republic Leader John Ray who established successful vineyards in the regions, especially in Mendocino County.  The area is known for its Redwoods, wines and now Cannabis crops.  This wine is eighty percent Cabernet Sauvignon and the balance is evenly split between Merlot and Malbec, with a suggested cellaring life of ten years.  After the Dry Riesling this was a much bigger wine and understandably so.   The wine had a soft nose I thought for a Cabernet Sauvignon, but it gave some dark fruit in the taste and a nice finish.  All in all, we had a nice time and we were ready to be herded like cattle by the orange cone brigades on our way home.  My Bride said to me, that they had a lovely house and asked my opinion, and I told her that I only saw the garage, maybe another time. 

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Diving into Hampton Water

Posted on May 26, 2019 by thewineraconteur

Some friends of ours just came back from a cruise and they brought us a bottle of Rosé wine, and they were very excited about it when they physically handed it to my Bride.  They were sure that I would research it, and I had to, because the label is not a label that I would have designed if I were creating a wine label.  The couple told my Bride that it was made by Bon Jovi.  I have never been to Long Island, let alone the Hamptons, and my musical knowledge knew the name Bon Jovi, but not much more and of course I knew a little bit about Rosé wines. 

To me the Hamptons are the playgrounds for the “Rich and Famous” on Long Island and I think the land was immortalized by F. Scott Fitzgerald in “The Great Gatsby” and I did read the book in Junior High and I saw the movie version with Robert Redford  and I know that there was a later version, but I passed on seeing it.  It was said that since the major rediscovery of Rosé wines that it has become the “water” in the Hamptons, and probably drank more than bottled water.  I have to admit that I do not know the musical works of Bon Jovi, so I had to do some research about him as well.  It turns out that Bon Jovi is actually John Francis Bongiovi Jr. from Perth Amboy, New Jersey and then I got really excited to find out that he is a distant relative to another singer from New Jersey that I am fond of, by the name of Francis Albert Sinatra. 

Now getting to the wine, it is Diving into Hampton Water Languedoc AOP 2017.  This is actually a business venture for the son Jesse Bongiovi the former Notre Dame football player and the French winemaker Gerard Bertrand of the Languedoc.  This Rosé is made from a blend of Grenache, Cinsault, Mourvedre and Syrah.  The wine is described as being fresh and lively with distinctive minerality and a long finish, intensified by ageing in French Oak.  They promise an intense aroma of red fruit, citrus and spices.  It will be an interesting wine to try this summer, and rather than a publicity photo of Bon Jovi and the bottle of wine, I found an old photo from the time of The Great Gatsby film (1974), so don’t laugh too hard and remember that fashions were different back then, but this was a fun wine to study as I learn more about pop culture. 

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The Joys of a Cellar

Posted on May 24, 2019 by thewineraconteur

It was officially Mother’s Day and it was just the two of us, and originally, she had told me where she wanted to go for dinner.  Then she kind of wavered, because our one local son likes to give her a hard time about making steaks.   I mean we have gone so far as to discuss purchasing a sous vide system for the kitchen.  Now, you have to understand that we are both children of parents raised during the Great Depression and meat was cooked thoroughly back then, just in case a pair of shoes required to have new soles applied.  I am not sure if it was because of concerns about the reliability of refrigeration systems, but well done, seemed to be the order of the day.  I mean when I met my Bride, she only ate chicken and fish, and I am a carnivore.  I learned to eat more types of fish and she slowly learned to have an appreciation of red meat, especially medium-rare.  We did not need industrial cutting tools for dinner.

Instead of going out to a steak house, we were going to be the steak house.  She was making a dinner worthy of any of the steak houses that we have ever been to, and we have been to plenty.  A big tossed salad with all the veggies, just like I like it, and with a creamy garlic dressing.  We had potatoes and creamed spinach, two of the most popular sides offered at any of the great steak houses.  Now we have probably four to six tenderloins waiting to be carved into filets resting at the house, but she splurged and bought two of the largest filet-mignons that I have ever seen, I mean she could have done one, and we would have been sated after sharing.   She made both, and they could have competed or bested any of the filets that I have ever had out and about in all of our travels, not to mention that we had enough that she decided that the next day we would a garden salad topped with filet. 

Now you may ask what all of this has to do with “the joys of a cellar.”  I have been recently reading some articles by authors that I respect and there have been mentions of drinking older white wines and not necessarily from France.  I thought I would go down there and see what I could find that might be in a corner, and I was also concerned because I knew that we still had some splits down there.  One of the other benefits of having a cellar, is that there is always a backup bottle of something else, kind of like an insurance policy.  The first bottle that we tried was a split of MacRostie Chardonnay Carneros 2000.  We bought this bottle and never tried it, and that happens at times and I had to look up the winery.  MacRostie Winery and Vineyards appears to be more focused on the Sonoma region, and they do list a vineyard in Carneros that they use for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, though the winery uses both estate grown and contractual fruit.  I am not sure how long they have been in existence though their first vintage was in 1987 and a Chardonnay from Carneros, but they are only on their third winemaker and they actually have 130 different small fermentations that they nurture along for blending and creating of their wines.  The winery uses whole cluster pressing, and a mix of new and old French Oak and about ten months of aging; I mention this, because this is from their current winemaking notes and here was an almost twenty year old bottle of Chardonnay where the cork came out whole and it had a lovely deep golden color and no trace of foxiness to the nose or signs of oxidation.  My Bride was a bit concerned, because the color was so deep, but when she tasted it, she was totally happy as it was just mellow and totally old world mellow.  Here was a wine that my logical side of my brain would have determined to just throw out, because it was a very old white wine and a split, which tends to age quicker, but the romantic side of my brain urged me to try it anyways.  I would say that we are both glad that we did.  The other wine was a twenty-year-old red, which would not have concerned me, but because it was a split, that give me a few minutes of worry.  The Swanson Vineyards and Winery Merlot Napa Valley 1999 required decanting, not because I was being fancy, but the cork totally crumbled and I had to push it into the bottle and then strain the wine through a funnel and a coffee filter.  The winery was founded in 1985 and the founders still live on the property.  They were also touted to grow Merlot, against the trend of Cabernet Sauvignon which was the powerhouse at that time and still today in the valley, and yes, they do Cabernet Sauvignon as well.  I cannot say for sure if the 1999 was pure Merlot, but the current Merlot wine has some Petit Verdot and Cabernet Sauvignon.  The current wines are aged for eighteen months in a mix of French and American Oak, both new and used.  In my mind’s eye as I was decanting the wine, I anticipated seeing perhaps a weathered red brick color, because one expects to see red wines lighten in color, as white wines darken.  Instead I was greeted with a deep color that looked like a young Merlot, the nose had softened, and so had the fruit and the tannins, into just another marvelous mellow wine that we both enjoyed.  My Bride was really surprised that it was a Merlot and that it had such a long life and was not showing signs of being too old.  A perfect dinner, some perfect wines to go with the perfect Bride on Mother’s Day, even if she had to cook. 

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Saturday Night of Mother’s Day Weekend

Posted on May 22, 2019 by thewineraconteur

It was the Saturday night of Mother’s Day weekend and our local son and his family took us out for dinner.  We went to a restaurant that we have been to, and I wrote about several times.  We went to the original location for Bigalora Cucina, which originally was called Pizzeria Biga and created by Luciano Del Signore who we have followed since his early days at Fonte D’Amore and later at his acclaimed Bacco, and we are looking forward to his new joint endeavor to open later on this year.  To show you how fickle and changing the climate is for restaurants, this location was once where you could find Il Posto and before that it was the Vineyards; and each venue was known for the food. 

My Bride and I were still not hungry from our lunch outing, and even after walking all around downtown Birmingham, but we wanted to see the family, and it was great that they were honoring my Bride, as we also honored our Daughter-in-Law for Mother’s Day as well.  An assortment of appetizers was ordered, but we really just noshed a bit to be social, as we were still full.  We also decided to share one pizza for the two of us, and the pizzas are normally considered an individual sized pie.  The secret to Bigalora Cucina is the proprietary dough that Luciano created, as it is very light and easily digestible.  We had the Bacco Sausage Red Pizza, which was House-blend Mozzarella, Roasted Onions, Roasted Hungarian Hot Peppers and House-made Sausage and the best part, was no heartburn afterwards.  As a side note, I will mention that Luciano had created a “vegan” and a “gluten-free” version of this dough as well, to accommodate all the requisites of today’s diners. 

Luciano Del Signore does not allow any dust to settle on his apron or chef’s smock, he is always striving to do more.  He has his own craft-micro-brewery and has a winery up in the Leelanau Peninsula region of Michigan where he now produces his House wine brand called Baia Estate.  Since my Bride and I are the only drinkers we just had some glasses of wine, as we didn’t need another bottle of wine.   We started with Tiefenbrunner Pinot Grigio delle Venezie IGT 2017.  Tiefenbrunner is a fifth-generation winery and is considered one of the oldest in the South Tyrol of Italy, Sud Tirol as it is known to about two-thirds of the local inhabitants as the region abuts the Tyrol region of Austria, and it is known as the Alto Adige to the Italian speaking inhabitants of the region, and the rest of the country.  The vineyards for Pinot Grigio were originally planted in 1982 and one region is noted for its alluvial sand base and the other for its chalk gravel.  Fermentation takes place in Stainless Steel and then it is aged on fine lees for four months in Concrete vats prior to bottling.  A soft floral nose, and just an easy drinking wine; and I really think that is what most people expect and want from this grape.  With the pizza, I switched over to a red wine and had the Flecha de los Andes Aguaribay Malbec Vista Flores 2016 from the Argentine branch of Compagnie Vinicole Edmonde de Rothschild.  Vista Flores is the biggest and most popular and desirable part of the Uco Valley near Mendoza as the predominate alluvial soil makes the vines work that much harder to bear fruit.  Compagnie Vinicole Edmonde de Rothschild, under the auspices of Benjamin Rothschild began in 1973 with the purchase of Chateau Clarke and Chateau Malmaison and are now in six estates in five different countries.  In 1999 they purchased and began Flecha de los Andes in Argentina where they produce a couple of signature wines and some popular priced wines as well.  A value priced Argentine Malbec that it is big with a bit of a velvet finish, so it would be good with most red meats, and it was a little over kill for the pizza, but it helped with those hot peppers.  It was good to see the family and my Bride was happy to be remembered and that is how it should be. 

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A Walk in Birmingham

Posted on May 20, 2019 by thewineraconteur

There are days when time permits us to have a block of time that is totally open and we are out and about.  The perfect setting to go for a walk and God knows that I need more than a walk these days.  I guess it is getting time to join a gymnasium, but I think that I shall wait until the cool weather returns.  I have changed some of my lifestyle habits, probably not enough of them, and my figure has gone downhill, not that I ever looked like Victor Mature, and that is a name that will make some of the younger readers turn to Google, I probably always looked more like a latter day Marcello Mastroianni, at least once Facebook’s facial recognition software thought so.  Any ways, I am wandering again.  We had some time to kill between lunch with my Mother-in-Law and dinner with our son and his family. 

I suggested that we go to Downtown Birmingham to walk around and I could see how the city has changed.  As an old retired merchant, I like to look at how a city evolves, and most cities have become centers of culinary delights at the expense of retailers.  Gone, for the most part are independent booksellers, clothiers, women’s wear and shoe stores, unless all you wear are sneakers.  I was trying to remember some of the old stores and landmarks from days gone by, and realized that coffee shops and sandwich shops now command some of the premier locations of retailing that I remember.  Life goes on and we were walking and talking, which is a pastime that we may not do at home, because of the television and social media.   We also went and looked at wallpaper samples, as I guess the foyer needs to be freshened up after some twenty-five years, and I guess that once I get my arse in gear, I really don’t mind painting and wallpapering. 

One thing, I have noticed in my years of retail observation is that there is a rise in actual wine shops.  Back in the dark ages when I was learning about wine, there were only a handful of wine emporiums, though Michigan is blessed with an abundance of “party stores” or convenience stores, with some that think Thunderbird is an opening price and Barefoot is premium.  We ended up at Old Woodward Cellar, a new wine shop, a little off the beaten track, but well worth the endeavor.  Of course, I never know what to expect when I take my Bride into a wine shop, though I figure we may add a couple of Cabernet Franc wines to the cellar, but not this trip.  While I was just getting acclimated, she had made a bee line, and how, I do not know, but had found her new, latest and greatest label, since our last trip to Las Vegas to see the kids.  She had fallen in love with Arrowood Vineyard and Winery Sonoma Estates Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 and she had found a couple of bottles of wine and had already carried them up to the counter, while I was suggesting that she go into the other room where there was some Cain Five on display (wink, wink).  Arrowood Vineyards was founded in 1986 by Richard and Alis Arrowood, and has been owned and operated by Jackson Family Wines since 2006.  She had found Arrowood Vineyard and Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Knights Valley 2014.  The wine is pure Knights Valley Vineyard and is predominately Cabernet Sauvignon with Merlot and a touch of Malbec.  Fermented in Stainless Steel and then aged for eighteen months, then the wines were blended and barrel aged for an additional six months.  The wine was aged for a total of twenty-four months in French Oak, of which forty-eight percent was new.   Knowing how great the Sonoma Estates wines were, I am really looking forward to trying these wines as well.  We also got a chance to walk another mile back to the car, and this time with the extra convenience of carrying two bottles of wine.   Afterall, it is exercise. 

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