Smith-Berry Winery

Posted on April 20, 2019 by thewineraconteur

We finally went to a winery in Kentucky during this last trip. I know you are probably saying to yourself; they have wine in Kentucky, I thought they only had Bourbon.  While it is true that most people think of Kentucky for Bourbon, every state in the union has at least one winery; and actually, the Commonwealth of Kentucky has seventy wineries.  I know this, because when we stopped for some tastings at Smith-Berry Winery and they gave us a wine tour guide for all of Kentucky.  The first commercial winery in the United States was founded by John James Dufour in 1799 in Kentucky.  One of my Bride’s sisters and her husband came with us to enjoy the change of scenery.  The winery actually encourages people to have picnics on the grounds, or eat some of the food that they offer, and they really encourage the picnickers to have a glass or a bottle of wine during the meal.  The winery also had a calendar of concerts and dinners on the grounds to definitely make a day of your visit.  You know, that I tend to be shy, almost like a wall flower when I am out and about, and surprisingly we ended up meeting a couple that have actually gone to all seventy wineries and were now doing a second tour.  I was surprised to find out that most of the wine that they produce at Smith-Berry Winery is not estate grown, in fact most was not Kentucky grown, but we were there and it is always interesting to try wines.

The winery was offering fourteen different grape wines while we were there and four fruit wines (not grape, and I know that grapes are a fruit).  The winery had the wines broken down into Sweet Whites and Blush, Sweet Sparkling’s, Semi-Sweet Whites, Dry Whites, Semi-Sweet Reds and Dry Reds.  The Tasting Fee was six wines for $6.00, and this was waived if one made a purchase.  According to my notes we ended up tasting ten wines, I guess that I am incorrigible and a known rebel for breaking the rules where ever I go.  The wines were priced from $11.95 to $15.95, so there was no wine that was going to break the bank.  The wines that I will mention were not in the order that we tasted, because we were bouncing around and then they wanted us to try this and try this one as well, and several of their wines had won medals at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.  Of all the wines that we tasted only one carried a Kentucky designation, the rest had American on the label and all of the wines were Non-Vintage, as to the best of my understanding, if you are not in an AVA, you cannot list a vintage.

The first wine that I will mention was the Blackberry wine and since this was actually the first berry wine that I have had, I had no real basis, but I found it to be off in the nose and semi-sweet, but not a wine that I would search for, but I am sure that there are plenty of people out there that enjoy this type of beverage.  The Sparkling Moscato NV I had to try, to see if we needed some for the house for our guests that don’t like dry wines.  The wine was carbonated to achieve that frizzante finish and the wine was better than I expected.  The Drennon Creek NV was an interesting wine in their Sweet White category and it was a Stainless-Steel aged blend of Chardonnay, Riesling and Vidal Blanc.  The other Sweet White that we tried was the Vignoles, and the fruit came from Missouri and we thought it was the winner of the day, especially for some of our dinner guests, and we bought six bottles of this wine.  The Riesling was semi-sweet and was aged inn Stainless Steel, so the fruit came through.  The Pinot Grigio was a nice, but light version of the type of wine I was expecting, but with a good nose and a finish that reminded me of green apples.  The Chardonnay was a very fine bottle of white wine with about twelve months of aging in a mix of French and American Oak barrels.  This was a very nice bottle of Chardonnay, creamy and tones of Vanilla and in a blind tasting I may have called it a California wine, and the fruit may have come from there.   The only Kentucky wine that we had was from the Semi-Sweet Red category and it was the Estate Grown Chambourcin and it was a tasty wine for this sometimes forgettable grape, and the other Estate Grown wine was the Norton, which they were sold out of, and I would have liked to have tried it, because I have enjoyed the tasting of that grape when the wine is done well.  The Petit Sirah was a good inky-dark wine that was aged for eight months in a mix of French and American Oak and it was a nice and easy drinking wine.  The Cabernet Sauvignon was aged for twelve months in French Oak and for its price was a good solid wine that could compete with a lot of the popular priced Cabs that are out there.  While I was a bit disappointed that my first Kentucky wine did not really offer a lot of Kentucky grown grapes, it did display the quality work and passion of the Smith-Berry Winery to put out a very nice and affordable collection of wines.

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Some Red Wines in Kentucky

Posted on April 18, 2019 by thewineraconteur

Family get-togethers are great and when they are a long weekend, there is plenty to party about.  I would guess the real hard work is for the host and hostess, because it is their house, their dishes, their food and their wine.  Though I know that there were contributions, it is a lot to do.  As I say, it may be a long time before the entire family gets together in Kentucky, but while it was occurring there was a lot of fun.  The logistics of booking the all of the hotel rooms, and we did kind of have our own wing on one of the floors was nice.  The hotel also had complimentary breakfasts being served for a couple hours each morning, so that took a bit of a load off of our hostess, but as I look back upon all of us having breakfast together, we should have taken a couple of bottles of bubbly and made Mimosas, I mean, I must be losing it, as the thought never came to me, until I am writing this down.

As for the dinners, even though, I kept mentioning white wines and several different types of fish, being served, there was also good old American red beef.  If you recall, when I was discussing all of the different dietary requirements for all of the guests, one of the residents in Kentucky has a very strict diet of beef filets, broccoli and green beans and no butter.  In case you think that is an odd diet, this individual doesn’t have a spare fat tissue to be found and he is doing half-marathons, don’t look at me, I am not sure if I could handle his diet or his athleticism.  Though I did indulge in filets on a couple of the evenings.

We had brought a case of wine with us, to mingle with the other wines that our host and hostess were serving, and even though it is like take coal to Newcastle, it is the proper thing to do.  We also took some Rosé wines, because they are popular and everyone seems to enjoy them.  One of our favorites now is Podere Ciona “Ciona Rosé” Toscana IGT 2016.  Franca and Franco Gatteschi were looking for a place in the countryside to retire to and found this one-hundred-acre estate with a house from the 18’th Century that had been abandoned for about forty years.  They purchased the property in 1990 and spent three years working on the main house.  They also started planning a winery and in 1997 they had their first official vintage.  They are located in the commune of Gaiole in Chianti Classico country.  They had been making a Rosé for a couple of years using Sangiovese, the grape of Chianti and Cabernet Franc, unfortunately one year the local wild boars decimated the Cabernet Franc vines, so this particular vintage is made from pure Sangiovese, and was aged for three months in Stainless Steel.  The entire production of this wine was a hundred cases of wine, and my local wine shop got the monopoly on the allotment of the United States quota.  The wine had a nice dark salmon pink color, with a nose of fruit and herbs, with tastes of strawberry, and watermelon.  It was very easy to drink and I find it much more enjoyable compared to the big boy Rosé wines from California that demand all the shelf space in most wine shops.  I also brought some Michigan wine, because I have really found some excellent wines the last couple of years on our tours.  We poured some Boathouse Vineyards Pinot Noir Leelanau Peninsula 2013 made from Dijon Clones and aged for nine months in French Oak and I found that this persnickety growing grape made a lighter wine, but as the vines mature, I also thought that I would like to see how this wine would age, and I have to say that the cellar time allowed this wine to offer some depth that it did not show when we tasted it at the winery, which made us happy, as we still have more at the house.  The last wine that I will discuss, is a wine that I have been watching unfold and blossom in our cellar and we may have gotten the last case of it in Michigan.  Yao Family Wines owns no vineyards in Napa Valley, but they do have a tasting room in St. Helena, with contracts with vineyards in Coombsville, Atlas Peak, Oak Knoll District and St. Helena, but the wines carry the Napa Valley AVA. The Yao Ming Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 was the perfect wine to end the evening with. The wine was almost entirely Cabernet Sauvignon, but there was 5% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot, and of the Cabernet Sauvignon there were three different clones and each was vinified separately before the blending. Here was a wine that was aged for eighteen months in French Oak, of which 65% was new, and they had created a wonderful drinking wine even with a high 14.3 Proof, and each time we have cracked open a bottle, the nose, taste and finish gets betters bigger and better.   That is what wine is all about, and the next time that we will all get together, will be in Michigan, because the acting twins are graduating in June, and their graduation party will be held here, to make it easier for all of the relatives.

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“Why Photograph Those?”

Posted on April 16, 2019 by thewineraconteur

There we were, the entire clan in Louisville, and all having a good time.  There was like eighteen people in and out of the house and the kitchen was definitely the center of attention.  The kitchen never closed.  How all the meals were made, always surprise me and I have watched this chaos for years.  We had brought a case of wine to the festivities and our hosts had even gone out to buy more wine for the weekend, it was just a good time.  Arrangements had been made so that everyone had seen the play Mary Poppins Jr. at least once during the weekend, since that was the whole reason for the party.

Wine was being opened at a rather continuous rhythm and the days and the nights were humming along.  There were times when my Brother-in-Law was giving me some joshing for taking photos of some of the wines that he thinks are just every day wines, and he said “why photograph those?”  I told him that most of the wines that I write about are “every day” wines, as I don’t and most people that I know don’t have the life style that First Growths require, I also don’t have that kind of an income stream.  I told him that I try to write about all types of wines from industrial bulk that are the backbone of the catering industries to the First Growths, if and when I encounter them.  I joked with him, that I think the same couple of bottles of DRC are photographed ad-nauseum for everyone to write about and extol the virtues of the wines, but most of the time, those high-powered bottles are shown not opened.  When I started writing, I used the labels that I had soaked off and put into scrapbooks along with notes, and to this day I am still removing labels.  That was one of the reasons that I have liked to show matchbooks from restaurants, just as additional proof.

The more I thought about it, the more I was sure that I was right, because what we might have considered every day, others will break out for special events.  While the event that brought all together was special, the attitude towards the wine and dine portion of the weekend was much more laid back.  Take for example the Bonterra Vineyards Chardonnay California 2017, here is a wine where the fruit has been harvested from different regions in the state.  Seventy percent of the juice is aged in a mix of French and American Oak and only fifteen percent is new, the other thirty is aged in Stainless Steel.  When all that juice is blended together there is a delicious bottle of Chardonnay that shows some of the creaminess without hitting you over the head with it.  The wine also delivers some crispness, and a touch of minerality and for the price, I think it is a great bargain, especially for crowds.  One of the other bottles that we were enjoying throughout the weekend was Bogle Vineyards Chardonnay California 2017.  Bogle is now one of the largest wine producers in the United States and it is still family owned, and they began with a small farm in 1968.  They endeavor to make a quality wine for a decent price, and they stick to all the basic grapes that have hit the big time in California like this Chardonnay.  This wine gets eight months of barrel aging and delivers a subtle Chardonnay that is very easy to drink.  The weekend was basically fish and chicken, so there was a lot of white wine to go around.  These are two white wines that I never have a problem with and yes, they should be photographed.

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Supercalifragilistexpialidocius

Posted on April 14, 2019 by thewineraconteur

I began telling a tale about being in Kentucky, and then I was side-tracked, just like I am in real life.  One thing about Raconteurs is that, no matter how flustered or way-laid, we eventually get back to a story, because somehow in the back of our brain, we know that there is more than a dangling participle left out waiting to be finished.  We had a monumental family get-together and in one weekend, we had the mother and all five sisters and spouses in town to see a high school production of Mary Poppin Jr.  It was not that we were all major fans of the film and later the play, but because the twins in Kentucky had the leads and it might be the last time that they are on stage for some time, as they are attending different universities in the fall.

It was an example of controlled chaos in the house and especially in the kitchen for my Sister-in-Law and I do think she was reveling the entire time.  Not only did we have all the siblings, but we had a strong showing of the children of the siblings for the weekend as well.  Now if you can imagine five sisters all trying to cook at the same time, and it was kind of Marxian (as in Brothers, not Communism), because every dish had to be studied to make sure that certain members could eat this or eat that.  There are allergies to contend with, and then there is Gluten-free demands and medically required diets, so the sisters may band against me, but at times it seemed that Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo and Gummo all were in the kitchen and basically being as functional as possible.  We also had some of the kids making side trips for oriental food and raids on a chain that will soon be in Michigan, in a big way Chick-fil-a.  I guess it isn’t as crazy when we have the big dinners here, or maybe I am just oblivious to it, because I usually don’t have a main seat in the kitchen area, but I think my Bride has a handle on the dietary rules of everyone, and she shops ahead.

Wine was flowing, and I really missed taking photographs of most of the bottles that we went through each night, but that is fine, because even I was caught up in the maelstrom of the event.  One of the bottles that evening was Charles & Charles Chardonnay 2015 from Washington State.  Charles & Charles is from Bieler and Smith, a joint collaboration formed in 2008 between Charles Smith of K Vintners and Charles Smith Wines and Charles Bieler of Three Thieves, Bieler Pere et Fils and Gotham Project.  The fruit came from the Columbia Valley and from three vineyards there; Evergreen/Ancient Lakes, Shaw High River and Moxee.  The wine was very crisp and belied its popular price.  They aged the wine for eight months on the lees, with twenty percent in barrels and the balance in Stainless Steel.

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Prie Carignane and Michael David Inkblot

Posted on April 12, 2019 by thewineraconteur

All good things must come to an end, and we were down to the last two samples for the virtual wine tasting courtesy of snooth.com.  There were two themes that were running through this wine tasting.  One theme was grape varietals that are not the “big three” to the mass markets and the ones that get all of the press.  The other theme was about Lodi and what a great grape growing area it is in California, where it was once only considered suitable for Zinfandel, the area has blossomed with its ability to let other grapes blossom and to be nurtured into another awesome community that should be on the bucket list for wine lovers.  This also leads me to introduce the third co-host of the evening and that is Stuart Spencer, who is the Executive Director of the Lodi Winegrape Commission and owner/winemaker of St. Amant Winer. While I cannot claim to know any of the co-hosts of the evening, there were several enjoying the virtual wine tasting with me, that I have not actually met, but I have become friends with in the wine blogging community.

The penultimate wine of the evening was Prie Vineyards Ancient Vine (1900) Block 4 Spenker Vineyards Carignane Lodi 2016. John and Lisa Gash were from Livermore, California and their first vintage was in 2005.  In 2012 they purchased the Cliff Mettler house and vineyard and constructed the Lodi winery in 2013.  The tasting room was built in 2015.  Carignane is the California version for the grape known as Carignan or Carinena, Carignan Noir, Carignano, Mazuelo, Gragnano, Pinot Evara or Samso.  The grape is native to the Aragon region of Spain and shines in the Priorat.  The grape also does very well in the Languedoc-Roussillon.  It has long been favored for blending and being harmonious with other grapes.  Carignane is known for evoking dark fruits and pepper, so it is not surprising that it is described often as being spicy and savory.  The wine had a good solid nose and I thought it was going to be really fruit-forward, but I found it very solid and balanced, with some cherry, some licorice and some pepper, the type of wine that I really like to “chew” as we used to say.  I think this wine will sell out rather quickly, as there were only seventy cases produced.

The last wine of the evening, was the one that my Bride was chomping at the bit, to try, as it is her favorite grape.  The Michael David Winery “Inkblot” Cabernet Franc Lodi 2016 was worth waiting for.  The winery was founded in 1984 by the brothers Michael and David Phillips, and they represent the fifth generation of Lodi grape farmers and their family goes back to 1850 in the area.  Their most famous wine is “The Seven Deadly Zins” that is produced from their seven-hundred-fifty acres.  The “Inkblot” Cabernet Franc comes from a nine-acre vineyard and spends sixteen months in French Oak, of which thirty-five percent is new.  We are both biased towards this grape, and this wine was so well made that it made us both smile with purple teeth.  The nose taunted us with cherries, it gave us a nice elegant taste with clean tannins and it lingered with some fruit and some mocha.  I think this would be a hell of a wine after about five years in the cellar.  This was just a wonderful evening of wines, and all of the wines were in the affordable price range, as the most expensive wine had a Suggested Retail Price of $35.00.  It was our pleasure to be included in this virtual wine tasting and another thank you to Snooth.  I am glad that I could give my thoughts that evening, tasting and typing away, and now reporting more leisurely while getting a chance to relive the wines.

 

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Lange Twins Aglianico Rosé and Mettler Family Pinotage

Posted on April 10, 2019 by thewineraconteur

I have to admit that we were pretty geeked up trying these sample wines courtesy of snooth.com and the virtual wine tasting; and all the wines were from Lodi, California and all lesser known varietals.  It has only been in the last couple of years that I have discovered the wines of Lodi, I guess you can say that I have lived a sheltered childhood, but I do think that most of the wine growing areas unwillingly play second fiddle to Napa and Sonoma.  I actually think that all of the other wine growing areas must work even harder, and in some cases even deliver a much better value and bang for the buck.  I would venture to say that one of the co-hosts of the even would agree and that was Adam Mettler who is the Director of Wine Operations/Lead Winemaker for Michael David Winery and he is also the Winemaker at Mettler Family Vineyards, and both are in Lodi, so his commute is not to bad.  I also have to mention that Adan Mettler was named Winemaker of the Year 2016 by Wine Enthusiast magazine.

The third wine of the evening was Lange Twins Winery and Vineyards Aglianico Rosé River Ranch Vineyard Lodi 2018.  Lange Twins Winery has five generations of growing sustainable wine growers and in 2006 opened a winery.  They have attained the Lodi Rules Sustainable Winegrowing Certified Green status and gaining recognition for their work.  In 2015 that planted almost seven acres of Aglianico vines, a native to southern Italy and known for being a late blooming variety.  Aglianico is know for having firm tannins, high acidity and can offer notes of plum and chocolate especially after aging and cellaring.  This wine is an exclusive winery offering this year and I found that as a Rosé this wine was fresh and gave me notes of strawberries and rhubarb, but the wine was dry and not sweet.

The fourth wine of the evening was the first red as well.  The Mettler Family Vineyards Estate Grown Pinotage Lodi 2016 was an interesting choice.  The Mettler family is one of the oldest families in Lodi since the late 1800’s and wine growers for six generations.  They have attained the Lodi Rules Sustainable Winegrowing Certified Green status and then in 2010 went to the next level CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers).  Pinotage is South Africa’s signature grape, a crossing of Pinot Noir and Cinsaut that was developed in 1925, but the first commercial planting was done in 1943.  Pinotage is a portmanteau from the two grapes, Pinot Noir and Cinsaut which is known locally as Hermitage.  I am not an authority on Pinotage by no means, but this was the first time that I did not notice a strong influence of terroir, and I may be naïve, but I thought this variety tended to evoke the land.  The nose promised dark fruit and a wispiness of smoke, the taste delivered some black cherry with mild acidity and moderate tannins.  My Bride is still reticent about Pinotage, but she is slowly appreciating the wines we have had. 

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Acquiesce Ingenue and m2 Vermentino

Posted on April 8, 2019 by thewineraconteur

It was show time at the house and I was set for my third virtual wine tasting courtesy of snooth.com.  I had my laptop fired up at the end of the dining room table and I had six glasses lined up, in front of each bottle of wine.  I opened the red wines almost three hours early, and the white wines were opened about an hour before the show and I had cheese and crackers and water on the side; I also took initial tasting notes on each wine, as I kind of learned something new from each tasting.  The main host for the evening was Leslie Sbrocco, and she is an award-winning author, speaker, wine consultant and television series host.  Her first book was Wine for Women: A Guide to Buying, Pairing and Sharing Wine won the Georges Duboeuf Best Wine Book of the Year award.  Her second book is The Simple and Savvy Wine Guide and she is working on her third book Adventures of a Thirsty Girl.  She was also seen as the host of the PBS restaurant review series Check Please!  She has won a James Beard award, three Taste Awards and three Emmy awards in the span of ten seasons.  The event was going to be interesting and stellar. 

The first wine of the evening was Acquiesce Winery Ingenue Lodi 2018, and this wine will official debut in July of this year, so it was an honor for all of the tasters to be included.  Sue and Rodney Tipton have a very unique reputation in Lodi and in the wine community as a whole.  They only grow and bottle white wines, plus one bone dry Rosé and they use no barrels, only Stainless Steel; all of the aging of the wine occurs in the bottle.  The estate is ten and a half acres and all of the wine is estate grown.  The winery opens in March and usually closes in November, because all of the wine is sold out by then.  This wine is so new, it hasn’t been posted on their website, but through the magic of the Internet, I was able to find out about Acquiesce Ingenue.  Thirty-five percent of this wine is Grenache Blanc, which is also known as Vermentino or Rolle, depending if you are in the Languedoc or Provence, and this grape is known for its floral and lemon citrus notes.  Thirty-five percent of this blend is Clairette Blanch which is seen mostly in the Rhone and the Languedoc, and is known as the “light one” because it has low acidity and can oxidize quickly and it evokes citrus and stone fruit notes.  Twenty percent of this wine is Bourboulenc and is usually found blending with other grapes in the Languedoc, Provence and the Rhone and it is known for its citrus tones and for smoke and spice flavors as well.  Ten percent of the blend was Picpoul Blanc, which literally means “stings the lips,” because of its acidity and is famed in the Languedoc-Roussilon for its herbal and citrus notes.  These four varietals blended expertly together created a beautifully nuanced, complex layers of citrus, spice and a mouth-watering acidity that was extremely refreshing.  My Bride who did not have access to my notes had opined that this must be a Viognier blend, as she loves the floral tones of that grape, and she was a bit disappointed that it was not one of the grapes, but she was enthusiastic about the wine, throughout the evening. 

The second wine of the evening was also a white and it was an m2 Wines Vermentino Mokelumne River-Lodi 2018.  The m2 Wines is a very low-key winery, even on their web site as they state that they create small-lot, artisanal wines that express the character of the vineyards that they source and the nuance of the fruit. As I mentioned earlier Vermentino as it is known in the Languedoc is known for its floral and lemon citrus notes.  The Mokelumne River is a sub-region AVA and covers the southwest portion of the Lodi AVA, including the town of Lodi.  This region is also the first area to be known to be planted with grapes about 120 years ago.  The soil is a sandy loam which is free draining and causes the vines to forego foliage and concentrate on the berries for self-preservation and that makes the grapes concentrated in color and sugar.  I found this wine to have a good floral nose, stone fruit, spice and some mineral terroir in the aftertaste.  I could do this wine with or without food, but with good friends.  This wine just barely was released in time to be sent out for this tasting, so it was extremely fresh. There were two-hundred-fifty cases produced, so even with a varietal that is not as well known here in the States, once tasted, I don’t think this wine will last long at the winery. 

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Dinner Before a Tasting

Posted on April 6, 2019 by thewineraconteur

We were looking forward to another virtual wine tasting courtesy of snooth.com and the house was in kind of a turmoil. I get nervous, because I will be on the same stage more or less with many other wine bloggers that have attended blogging seminars and trade shows and sommelier training.  I am an amateur, albeit with decades of self-taught wine learning, but I was looking forward to it.  I mean there were several writers that I am acquainted with, through their writings, and from past virtual wine tastings I discovered that I knew others who are only interested in the numbers games on Instagram and follow you, just to un-follow you shortly after, in hopes that you won’t discover the deceit.  It takes all types of individuals and since I do not make a living from the industry, I still look at wine as fun and enjoyable.

My Bride had invited a couple over for the dinner before the wine tasting would begin, even though I would not be the most social person, once the virtual taste began, because I would be tasting and typing as fast as I could; while I am a brilliant social drinker (in my humble opinion), I am not a brilliant typist (I self-taught myself during my eighth grade Christmas vacation, because I had found my mother’s old typing textbook from her day’s in high school).  We started in the living room with some appetizers of sliced smoked salmon, cheese and crackers and a liver and mushroom pate.  We then moved to the dining room for the dinner and we started out with my Bride’s fantastic Caesar Salad and onion rolls.  For the entrée she had prepared a roasted pork tenderloin with sides of spaghetti squash and Parmesan roasted potatoes.  She had stopped at a bakery to get some individual sized assorted pastries for dessert. 

The wines were chosen to accentuate the theme of the evening.  For the appetizer phase we had a bottle of wine that we had purchased after a prior virtual wine tasting that we done with snooth.com.  We opened up a bottle of Weinreich Basisweiss Grauburgunder Trocken 2017.  Grauburgunder is the local name for Pinot Gris, which make sense if you break down the German name into two parts.  If you notice the first three wines all had the term trocken, which just means dry, as the wine has not been sweeten, which can be done.  This wine was another Qualitatswein and it is from the Rheinhessen.  The Rheinhessen starts where the Pfalz ends and between the two districts, it accounts for almost half of the vineyard acreage of Germany, mostly shipper’s blends as in Liebraumilch.  The winery is located in the village of Bechteim and they have fifteen hectares of vines.  I found the wine to have a soft straw color with a soft nose.  The wine as it warmed up a bit, it opened up with some layers of interest, with some good acidity and a nice long finish.  Then for the entrée portion of the meal, we opened up a bottle that we had recently received as a gift from one of my Bride’s cousins and it was from Lodi, and that was very fitting.  We were having Thomas Allen Selections Cabernet Sauvignon Lodi 2016.  Thomas Allen is owned and operated by third generation wine-grape growers, Thomas Michael Stokes and Allen Lombardi.  The Stokes family planted the first forty-five acres of Zinfandel near Lodi in 1954.  Allen Lombardi was a home winemaker in New Jersey and began sourcing from the Stokes in 2001 and thus it began.  I could not find any notes on this wine, even on their website, but whatever they are doing, they are doing it right.  I had opened up the wine when we had started the appetizers and when I poured the wine into the glasses, I could catch the nose even then.  I detected black fruits first from the nose and then during the initial taste with a nice lingering finish of black cherries and a bit of spice.  I normally do not look up the price of a gift bottle of wine, but this wine was so balanced and full-bodied that I think we could use this as a go-to wine, because it delivers and is very well-priced, actually it may be underpriced for the quality.  I had to leave some of the conversation during dessert to get ready for the wines of Lodi coming next. 

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Some Esoteric Wines from Lodi

Posted on April 4, 2019 by thewineraconteur

Yesterday, we received a shipment of wines through the auspices of Snooth, yes, they are samples.  I think that some bloggers go out of their way to pander and solicit samples and I haven’t, otherwise in almost seven years I would be running amok with samples.  I hold in honor and esteem some of my fellow wine bloggers, if I may put myself in their ranks, who accept and write about samples as part of their routine; I have disdain for some of the wine bloggers, that I do not want to be in their ranks, who publicly attest how important they are, because they get samples.  I wish to do the right thing at all times and to be fair and honest.  Snooth is conducting another virtual wine tasting that I will be participating with them on 3 April, 2019 at 8:30 PM EDT and you can go to snooth.com to sign in to follow the event live.

All of the wines are from Lodi, California and I would venture to say that for forty-some odd years, Lodi was not even mentioned, though for the first ten years that I drank wine, only Napa Valley was mentioned if California was even brought up.  As I slowly learned that there was a whole world of wines, I tried to discover as many regions and types of wines as I could, and I may say that even being in the un-cosmopolitan environment of a wine apathetic Detroit, I did alright for myself.  I eventually discovered Lodi and realized how much more I had to learn about wines.  Here was a Mediterranean climate region that was land locked in California, east of Sacramento to the Sierra Foothills and enjoying the breezes from the San Francisco Bay.  The more wines that I tried from this area, the more I appreciated it, and the area is so well respected that the Lodi AVA appellation also carries seven sub-regions as well.

I think for years I may have side-stepped Lodi, because I had associated it with Zinfandel and I foolishly always associated Zinfandel with homemade “Dago Red,” and do you see how much I have to learn, in fact I have acquired a new heart-felt appreciation for Zinfandel in my old age.  Lodi, is also known for Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot, Viognier, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.   Some of the wineries are also making inroads with Petite Sirah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo, Graciano, Riesling and Albarino.  This sample collection is already getting me excited, because it is an offering of varietals that are not as common and giving me a chance to really discover some new and interesting wines.  The first wine out of the box is Acquiesce Ingenue Lodi 2018 which is so new, that on the website of Acquiesce, Ingenue was not even listed and I had to do a quick research to find out that this wine is a blend of Grenache Blanc, Clairette Blanch, Bourboulenc and Picpoul Blanc.   The second white wine is m2 Vermentino Mokelumne River-Lodi 2018, a varietal that I normally associate with Italy and this wine was still too new to be listed on their website.  The third wine is Lange Twins Family Winery and Vineyards Aglianico Rosé River Ranch Vineyard Lodi 2018 and I have had this grape once before, but not as a Rosé styled wine.  The first red wine is Mettler Family Vineyards Estate Grown Pinotage Lodi 2016, and this will be my fourth Pinotage and only the second one grown in California.    The second red wine is Prie Vineyards Ancient Vine (1900) Block 4 Spenker Ranch Vineyards Carignane Lodi 2016 and this grape is mostly encountered in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France and the Priorat region of Spain, and this wine is just hinted at on their website.  The last of the wines offered as a sample for the virtual wine tasting is Michael David Winery Inkblot Cabernet Franc Lodi 2016 which may be the most commonly encountered varietal of the entire group, and I jokingly told my Bride that she couldn’t have any of this wine, because it is her favorite grape, and I sometimes use it as leverage to get a nicer bottle of wine when we are out on the town.  I am really looking forward to this wine tasting, not only to enlarge my knowledge of what Lodi has to offer, but also to try some of these interesting grape varietals that are more off the beaten track.  Once again, I must thank Snooth for this wonderful evening and event coming soon.

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Family Time in Louisville

Posted on April 2, 2019 by thewineraconteur

We had a rather historic family get-together in Louisville, it was historic for the fact that all five sisters and spouses plus the matriarch were all there at the same time.  With work schedules and such, there is a better chance of getting everyone together in the Detroit area for one of the holidays.  Somehow, it was achieved and a grand time it was.  There were some harrowing tales of driving in Ohio. Between the construction, the ability of trucks to stay in the passing lane for miles and the ever-vigilant state police who have a mission in life to try to ticket every vehicle from the state of Michigan, especially if one of the varied teams comes in second to any of the teams just north of them.

Cakebread Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon 2013

The reason that we were all getting together was to see the twins probably perform together for the last time, since they will graduate this June and go on to different universities.  The twins had the two leads in the Disney and Cameron Mackintosh production of Mary Poppins Jr.  The difference of Mary Poppins and Mary Poppins Jr. is that the Junior production is for school versions for Kindergarten to Twelfth Grade.   The first wave came on Thursday and the second wave of family came on Friday for the weekend.  In actuality, my Bride and I were probably lucky that she had to attend a conference that day, because we almost got there the same time as some that started several hours earlier, because they hit more construction and rush hour traffic.  Our hosts for the weekend were manning the kitchen island heroically for all the stragglers, as they had dinner ready for everyone, and they had also arranged to get a block of rooms nearby for all of us to stay.

Robert Mondavi Bourbon Barrell Chardonnay 2017

Somehow, my Brother-in-Law saved a very healthy glassful of wine for me, as we walked in, and I might add that it was not a run of the mill variety, but one that he won at a charity event.  He had saved me a glass of Cakebread Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2013.  The winery was founded in 1973 by Jack and Dolores Cakebread, and then it expanded in 1982 when they purchased adjacent land.  Cakebread Cellars now has fifteen estate vineyards and have maintained a status quo since 2005.  The wine is eighty-three percent Cabernet Sauvignon and the balance is a careful blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.  The wine was aged for eighteen months in French Oak, of which sixty percent was new, and fifty-six percent of the fruit came from estate vineyards.  I am not sure if it was the five hours in the car, but that wine just hit the spot, even before I had a chance to eat, it was just a perfectly honed Cabernet Sauvignon and there were no complaints.  After that, and I realize that it is backwards, but it is how things go in life, we finished the evening with a white wine.  We had a most appropriate wine for Kentucky and I think it was the third wine, and a third varietal that was aged this way that I have had.  We were enjoying glasses of Robert Mondavi Private Selection Aged in Bourbon Barrels Chardonnay Monterey County 2017.  Robert Mondavi founded his winery in 1966 and offers wines across the board for all tastes and price points.  I really could not find anything on this particular wine and I don’t know if it was done, as a gimmick, to keep up with some of the other winery offerings, but it was a nice mellow wine and this was the first Chardonnay that I had done this way.  Even my Bride was happy and that is important.  More wine and adventures await from our time in Kentucky.

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