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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The Saturday of Mother’s Day Weekend

Posted on May 18, 2019 by thewineraconteur

Mother’s Day Weekend had the families going in twenty different directions it seemed.  My Bride tried to make the most of the situations and celebrated Mother’s Day on the Saturday that was the day for the monthly cousins’ luncheon.  It is a celebration of all the women of the clan that get together; Mothers, Daughters, Granddaughters, Nieces, Great-nieces, and Goddaughters.  The numbers fluctuate throughout the year, but there is always a nice turnout and they are considered regulars at the restaurant, even by the new owners, though many of the staff stayed on, so the staff has known the group for as long as this has been going on.  I would ask, but it is a tradition and that suffices.  You may have noticed that it is only the distaff side of the clan and that is by design, because if you added all the males and children, there might not even be a catering hall that could handle the crowds.  There were three males in attendance, but we were seated in another booth, away from the maddening crowd; and I don’t think it will be a tradition.  It was a great way for the women to honor my Mother-in-Law, who is the Matriarch of the clan, and she has many other titles bestowed upon her by the women that attended. 

This luncheon was held at The Masters Restaurant that I have just recently wrote about, plus all the many other times from my dinner club and smaller family gatherings.  The restaurant is convenient for all of the clan, except for my Bride and I, because we live on the other side of town, but it works.  The Masters Restaurant when you see the structure evokes the clubhouse in Augusta and that is by design.  I was at the table with two other men and we were having lunch.  One ordered an Angus Burger, one had a Breaded Whitefish dinner and I thought I was going to go light and order a salad, because we were meeting others for dinner that evening.  I had a classic interpretation of a Spinach Salad with onions, hard boiled eggs, bacon and Warm-Bacon-Dressing topped off with a Sautéed Chicken Breast; I may as well have ordered a Porterhouse Steak, as I was stuffed. 

Since it was my Bride and I, it made more sense for us to have a bottle of wine, it is more economical, and since the politicians in Michigan actually made a sensible law that says that you can leave the premises with an resealed bottle of wine, if all the wine isn’t consumed.  I wasn’t too concerned, because lunch was going to be at least a couple of hours.  It was strongly suggested that we have a white wine, because my Bride prefers white at lunch, and the last time, I pulled a fast one and ordered a red.  While my Bride enjoys wine with a salad, I normally skip wine with a salad course, but this was the only course, so I had to find something that I thought would work.  I found a wine that worked and also was appropriate for the surroundings.  We had a bottle of Ernie Els Big Easy White 2013 and the winery is located in Stellenbosch, Republic of South Africa; and in case you weren’t aware Ernie Els is an international award-winning golfer from South Africa and he now has a winery.  There are three Big Easy wines to choose from and they are the entry level wines from the winery.  The wine is pure Chenin Blanc the grape that has done extremely well in South Africa, and the fruit for this wine is from vineyards in the Cape.  Chenin Blanc was once considered the white wine of the Loire in France, South Africa now produces more than France, and once it was a bulk white wine, it has now come into its own quite nicely by serious vintners.  The wine from South Africa has a distinctive style of its own when compared to the Loire and it worked well with the quirkiness of the Spinach Salad.  The wine has a soft floral nose and a spiciness that is totally different from the Chardonnay wines that my Bride was expecting, but it worked and I am not outside looking in. 

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Foxglove Cabernet Sauvignon

Posted on May 16, 2019 by thewineraconteur

The second wine club selection for the month of May from the Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan is Foxglove Cabernet Sauvignon Paso Robles 2017.  A couple of months ago, the selection was a Foxglove Zinfandel.  Monthly wine club selections are usually affordable wine and normally wines that most people wouldn’t necessarily grab off of a shelf.  It is a great way to get the customer into the wine shop at least once a month and at the Fine Wine Source it enables one to get case pricing, even if you are only buying one to eleven bottles, so it is a great inducement to pay a monthly fee and get a couple of bottles of wine that may be out of one’s normal range of selection.

Foxglove is a label from Varner Wines, that are made by the twin brothers Bob and Jim Varner.  They began planting vines at their estate in 1980, but they only began their own commercial wine label in 1996.  Varner Wines produce designated vineyard, terroir driven Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines from Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz Counties.  The grapes that do not make the cut for the Varner label are released under the Neely label.   The Foxglove label produces around twenty-five-thousand cases each year of value priced wines; like a Chardonnay from the Central Coast and a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Zinfandel from Paso Robles.  The average age for the Cabernet Sauvignon vines is twenty years.  There are scant notes on technical information for this wine, other than full destemming and Malo-lactic fermentation.

Tasting notes for this wine, and I have not tried it yet, are silky tannins with super-ripe dark cherry, tobacco, licorice and plum, and proffered as one of the best values in California Cabernet Sauvignon.  The owner of the shop opines that there are flavors of cedar, boysenberry and cherries with a long silky finish.  Over the years, I have probably drunk more Cabernet Sauvignon wine than anything else, so it shall be an interesting wine to try.

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Franco Serra Gavi

Posted on May 14, 2019 by thewineraconteur

I just picked up the wines for the May wine club selection from Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  It is always fun to see what the wines will be, as I don’t read what they are, until I get them and bring them home, because I am like a little kid.  The first wine is Franco Serra Gavi DOCG 2017.  Franco Serra is produced by the Sperone family who has been making affordable wines for four generations.   In 1920 Antonio Sperone opened a wine shop in Torino selling local bulk wines to consumers, but his concern of selling a better product, compelled him to start his own winery in Puglia.  His business was destroyed during the bombings of World War II which caused his grandson to open a new facility near Milan where they produced vermouth, sparkling wines, spirits and wine.  In 1965, the family purchased seventy-five acres of prime vineyards in the Piedmont and built the current winery in the small town of Mombaruzzo near Monferrato.

Gavi or Cortese di Gavi DOCG is the white wine jewel of the Piedmont.  It is one of the most important white wines in Italy and one of the most popular that it exports.  The DOCG status was awarded in 1998 and with that award are all the rules that must be followed and obeyed.  The Cortese grape is an indigenous grape from the Gavi region and has been recorded since the 1600’s.  Even though the wine is from the Piedmont region, the wine making evokes Liguria, because the wine is lighter and somewhat fruitier.  The town of Gavi is the center of all production, and there is a subset Gavi di Gavi which is only for the vineyards within the confines of the township of Gavi, the other Gavi DOCG comes from the thirteen communes that have the right for the designation.  It is also another wine that carries a banderol to show the guarantee of authenticity.

I haven’t tried the wine yet, but I have had other wines from Gavi and they are known for their crispness with a floral nose and some sweet fruit.  I think the best of the wines offer traces of cucumber, a strange taste that one doesn’t immediately think of when discussing even white wines.  It is a rather bone-dry white wine with minerals that really appear in the aftertaste, very flinty and fresh acidity, that makes one want to pour another glass or two.  I think of this wine as a Spring to Summer wine and especially interesting before the main meal for me, usually with the antipasto, the charcuterie and the cheeses.   Hopefully they haven’t cancelled Spring on us, here in Michigan.

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NOVI Chophouse, Three Wines and The Caller

Posted on May 12, 2019 by thewineraconteur

The last time I was at the NOVI Chophouse it was in the Baronette Hotel, in Novi, it is now in the Crown Plaza Hotel, but still in Novi.  The City of Novi has a curious history, especially about the name, back in the stagecoach days of first the territory of and then the State of Michigan, on the established route from Detroit to Lansing, a spot along the way was No. VI or Number 6 stop, and it morphed into Novi.  It was also a long overdue moment to see The Caller and his lovely wife, as they have both retired and they are constantly on the go, it seems.  We could have met at a local family restaurant, to catch up, but it would not nearly be as much fun or interesting.  We were going to meet someplace more middle of the road for us, and we were going to go to Ann Arbor, but it seems that it is graduation time even at Michigan, and even the burger joints would be packed, so there were no reservations there, and then something came up that we had to attend prior to our dinner, so they graciously offered to drive further down the road to Novi.

The NOVI Chophouse was established in 1997 and it was taken over by the Epicurean Group in 2009, so the menu had changed a bit since the last time I had been there.  Our poor waitress probably had to go get meds after taking care of this table, because we were so busy chatting that food was almost the last thing on our mind.  We begrudgingly began placing some food orders in between laughs.  We all began with Wagyu Carpaccio with pickled fennel, arugula and black pepper Mascarpone.  There were then three orders of the Lobster Bisque with butter poached lobster and my Bride was the hold-out and ordered the Morel Bisque with chives and chopped morels; to remind us that she did not partake in our legendary Morel dinner one year, while she was in the Upper Peninsula on business.  The assorted sides were easier to decide upon as we went with the Novi Whipped Potatoes, Asparagus with Bearnaise Sauce and Charred Baby Carrots with Black Garlic Pesto.  The Caller’s wife went with the Filet Mignon and Bearnaise Sauce, while The Caller went with the “Steak Flight;” four unique four-ounce cuts, a Filet Mignon, a Wagyu Strip Loin, a Dry-aged Prime New York Strip and a Dry-aged Lamb Chop.  My Bride chose after a bit of cajoling, because I always suggest something for her that she doesn’t make at home, so she went with Pan Seared Hawaiian Sea Bass with Smoked Potato Pearls, Sprout Slaw and Maple Sage Agrodolce (an Italian Sweet and Sour Sauce).  I looked at the “Steak Flight” and I looked at the Venison and even the Elk, but in the end, I chose the Crispy Pork Belly and Duck Confit with White Bean Cassoulet and Tomato Concasse.  The only surprise for the evening was when I mentioned to our waitress that we used to get Seared Foie Gras at the old restaurant, and she said that they carry it, but it is not on the menu, at least we know for the next time.  We finished off with French Press Decaf Coffee and a Key Lime Pie for the four of us.

The ladies started with cocktails, oh so chic, but I ordered a bottle of wine from the beginning.   I guess they all humor me, and let me pick out wines, as long as I don’t go crazy and select some Unicorn wines.  I thought a white wine was a great way to start and I just said that it was a White Burgundy, because so many people are turned off by big oaky Chardonnays, so White Burgundy sounds so cool and interesting.  We shared a bottle of Collovray & Terrier Domaine Deux Roches Macon-Villages 2015 from the Maconnais region.  While there are some red wines in Macon-Villages, Domaine Deux Roches only processes white wines and this wine was done in Stainless Steel.  Here was a white wine that had soft floral notes, and a crisp mineral finish, and thankfully the wine was not heavily chilled.  The table was thrilled and a bit surprised that this was a Chardonnay and it made it through the soup course.  The second wine for the evening was selected while we were picking out our food orders, so that it could be decanted.  I saw this wine and I just thought it was perfect and how often does one find such a gem?  The wine was Chateau Desmirail Margaux 2015, a Third Growth from the legendary Medoc Classification of 1855, which still holds up to this day with just a few tweaks.  This winery goes back to the end of the Seventeenth Century and has had some changes of ownership, but they have all maintained Stewardship of an esteemed property.  The blending is pretty consistent year after year, because the grounds are grown with seventy percent Cabernet Sauvignon, twenty-nine percent Merlot and one percent Petit Verdot and all the grapes are destemmed before crushing.  The wine is aged in oak for a year, thirty percent new and they rack the wines every three months.  I thought the wine was sublime, but while The Caller enjoyed it, he was expecting a bigger wine, more of a California Robert Parker Cabernet.  I made brownie points with the dessert wine, because I steered him away from the classic Ports to something a little different.  We each had a glass of Domaine de Rancy Rivesaltes Ambre Vin Doux Naturel 2001.  This fabled dessert wine is from the eastern end of the Roussillon and it is uniquely made.  This winery was established in 1920 making sweeter wines for French consumption.  The wine is ninety-five percent Macabeo and five percent Grenache Blanc and most of the vines are about fifty years of age.  The wine is Vin Doux Naturel or Mutage Method with the addition of Grape Spirits to stop the fermentation and thereby maintaining natural sugar.   The first year the juice is left on the lees in Concrete vats, and then two years of Oxidative Aging or Maderization and then thirteen years in the barrel.   The wine being an Ambre was already showing signs of deepening of the color, and the wine is a bit syrupy by nature, but the nose was like ambrosia to me after such a big dinner and everyone was happy with the ending.  Our poor waitress thought we were going to make a night of it, but we eventually made our goodbyes and we know that we will meet again.

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