Two from Podere Ciona

Posted on February 7, 2019 by thewineraconteur

Some of my earliest wine memories are of Italian wines, both commercial and home-made.  Of course, that makes sense as I grew up in a mixed ethnic neighborhood, so most meals and beverages from the Mediterranean are like comfort food to me.  I was happy to try a couple of wines from Italy when I was at my local wine shop the Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  Back around this past Thanksgiving a Rosé was one of the two monthly wines and it was from Podere Ciona and in fact we like it so much, that we bought more of it, and then I was really pleasantly surprised at how much more I enjoyed it, compared to one of the big boy offerings that I tried side by side here at the house.

I was reading the history of the winery on their website “Franca and Franco Gatteschi were looking for a place in the countryside to retire to, after many years of working in Italy and abroad, when they came across a small, beautiful, albeit run down property: 100 acres of land, mostly wooded with 10 acres set aside for cultivation, of which 2.5 acres already had vineyards; a house from the 18th Century, abandoned for more than 40 years; and, above all, a view without equal on the Chianti hills, with Siena in the distance.”  It really sounds idyllic and makes one ponder how this property was neglected and ignored for years.  “They purchased the estate at the beginning of 1990 and they immediately started the reconstruction work on the main house (it took nearly three years). They also set up a small but well- equipped wine cellar for making wine. In 1996 they permanently moved to live on the estate and the following year, the great 1997 vintage, saw the birth of the first “official” wine of Podere Ciona: A Chianti Classico DOCG Riserva.”

I actually started off by tasting the Podere Ciona Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2008, only eleven years after their first commercial bottling.  Like all Chianti Classico Riserva wines, this wine is made with ninety-two percent Sangiovese grapes and the balance is made up from Merlot and Alicante Bouschet.  The wine is aged for eighteen months in French Oak in two distinct types of barrels and then some time in the bottle before release.  Since the winery figures that they achieve one bottle per vine, they produced six-hundred-seventy-five cases of this wine.  The nose and color were big, just as I expect from this wine with red fruit, but what really pleased me is that the winery is in the town of Gaiole and I was amazed at the terroir that was in my glass and some heat, the heat I expected, but the terroir was a definite bonus.  The wine that I tasted right afterwards was Podere Ciona La Diacce Rosso Toscana IGT 2013 and this is their flagship wine.  This wine is a Merlot wine with just a touch of Alicante Bouschet added to give it a little Italian zest.  This wine gets basically the same treatment that the Riserva does in regard to details like eighteen months in two different size French Oak barrels and then additional time in the bottle.  I think that I would have preferred having tasted this wine first, because it was younger and the fruit was much more evident.  I have always been partial to Merlot and I guess that I have a natural bias towards it, but this wine I really think would benefit with about ten years in the cellar and then it will display why it is their flagship wine.

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Two from Chappellet

Posted on February 5, 2019 by thewineraconteur

With the endless stream of wineries and brands in the international wine market, I am not sure if even all the professionals can keep track of what is out there.  So, just think of the rank amateurs like me that attempt to write about wines, and why do I?  It is because I enjoy the beverage and sometimes, I just want to warn people about some of the wines they may encounter, but since I am fortunate to try wines from all spectrums and price points, I guess I am quite fortunate.  I also read plenty of articles and other wine blogs and through all of this, there are some wineries that always seem to pop up in front of my eyes.  Some of the brands also appear when I am doing wine tastings, like these wines that I tried when I was at the Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.

Chappellet Winery of Napa Valley, California is one of the brands that is endeared among the wine trade, both professional and the amateur like me.  Donn and Molly Chappellet started the winery in 1967 by purchasing land on Pritchard Hill at the advice of legendary California winemaker André Tchelistcheff, who I can honestly say that I read some of his writings and interviews with him, when I was in high school and college. Pritchard Hill is one of the sites that one reads about that is awesome for a vineyard due to its steep aspect, high elevation and east-facing slopes, you know an easy place to grow grapes. Chappellet Winery’s specialty is red Bordeaux varieties, especially Cabernet Sauvignon which is about seventy-five percent of what they grow in their assorted plots.  Its flagship wine is the critically acclaimed Pritchard Hill Cabernet Sauvignon which is sold mostly to members of its wine club by allocation, so the odds are, that I won’t be writing about it, unless Lady Luck looks down at me with great fortune one day in the future.  I would also say that they are not greedy as only about sixteen percent of the estate is under vines.  They are organic and they have also erected enough solar panels to take care of the all of the winery’s electric requirements.

The first wine that I tasted was the Chappellet Cabernet Signature 2015.  This wine is seventy-nine percent Cabernet Sauvignon that has been blended with Petit Verdot, Merlot and Malbec.  I couldn’t find any aging notes, but I can easily go out on a limb and claim that it was aged in oak.  As much as I am not into descriptors, I found the nose to be “great,” that is how I write my notes with promises of dark fruit, herbs and anise, and I found that tasting it had lush tannins with an oakiness and the kiss of black licorice that was telegraphed from the anise.  I can also say that it had a nice long finish that definitely required some water, so as not to be unfair to the following wines that were still waiting to be tried.  The last wine that I tried for the session was the Chappellet Cabernet Franc 2013.  Cabernet Franc is a relative newcomer to the lots on Pritchard Hill as it was planted in 1989.  This wine is composed of seventy-six percent Cabernet Franc and then blended with Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Merlot.  The wine spent twenty-two months in French Oak and it delivered a great nose that I expect from this grape as I appreciate more red fruit and some spice.  The taste showed once again a lush tannin base with a creamy oak finish, with red cherries and some chocolate, and finished with another long finish.  All I could think is that I was glad that my Bride was not with me, as the checking account would be considerably less, as this is her favorite varietal and she always lets everyone know it, that is in the tasting room.  Now with just talking about two of their wines, that the public can get, one can see how Chappellet is one of the darlings of the wine writers.

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Our Get-together Dinner

Posted on February 3, 2019 by thewineraconteur

My Bride becomes this little dynamo of energy once she gets hyped up for a party, and then if you add into the equation, that the party is for old friends, she just doesn’t stop.  Even with the wine that should make her mellow has little effect, once her adrenaline begins to flow.  I mean she had unpacked one of the sets of China the day before and had the table set.  We have one set of Bone China for eighteen that I just adore, but she doesn’t like to use them, because they are not dish-washer friendly, and even though her contemporaries all chip in after dinner to clear the table and get all the dishes washed, she avoids that set just about all of the time.  Her associates all get up and help which is a great asset, but I notice that some of the next generation feel that they are exempt from such duties.  We all left the living room to go into the dining room, and yes, we are old fashioned and use these two rooms for entertaining, alas, some houses we go to, these two rooms may as well have velvet rope barriers and a docent to identify what can be found in those rooms.

We started off with a Spinach Salad, it seems that it may be awhile before we have our famous Caesar Salad, because of all the problems these days with Romaine Lettuce.  There were a couple of different dressings and I went with the Creamy Garlic, I know it is very old school, but I did lament that I really enjoy warm Bacon Dressing on a Spinach Salad, and I am a curmudgeon.  Then we had a side of Baked Cauliflower with Moroccan Spices and Armenian Pilaf that she prepared two different ways, traditional and Gluten-free.  The entrée for the evening was her Bourbon Salmon, and there was enough for seconds for everyone and left-overs.  The table was cleared and then she brought out dessert, one of the dishes that she learned on one of our trips to New Orleans, she made Bananas Foster.  I think you can tell that the group were all contemporaries, as the coffee of choice is now decaffeinated, and that happens to the best of us.

We had white wine during the appetizer course of the evening, and we went and switched gears and served red wine for dinner, but that is because we happen to enjoy Pinot Noir with Salmon, and there were no complaints.  We started off with a bottle that we had found on one of our trips in the wine country of Michigan, and years ago, I would only drink the whites, but there are so many enjoyable red wines here that I have had to change my position.  We started off with Verterra Winery Pinot Noir Leelanau Peninsula 2016.   I was listening to a radio program about the virtues of Michigan and they were interviewing the owner of Verterra Winery.  He was explaining the process in which he had to get the name approved and his first several choices were already being licensed.  He decided to create his own name and went to Latin, which is the base language for so many terms used in winemaking.  He took the word Veritas which means Truth, and the word Terra which means land, combined them to make Verterra which means True to the Land, and Verterra was free and clear and he had his name.  As fussy of grape as Pinot Noir is, it just seems to like that the 45’th Parallel in both the Old World and the New.  The Verterra Pinot Noir 2016 had fourteen months of aging in French Oak, but I had originally found it to be light, but even an additional half a year gave it more maturity and potentially a year or two in the cellar may aid this wine to be more rounded.  The nose had cherries and pomegranates that also showed up in the taste and very mellow with a nice finish and it was a great opening round for dinner.  The second round of red wine was a Comanche Cellars Pinot Noir 2015.  Comanche Cellars is a small winery that produces under a thousand cases of wine, and it is named after the horse that Michael Simon had when he was ten years old, and Comanche’s horse shoes are on the label. The bottle of Comanche Cellars Chevera Vineyard Pinot Noir 2015 comes from the Arroyo Seco AVA, and the vineyard is owned by Frank Stanek who named the vineyard after his two granddaughters Charlotte and Eva and the vineyard is high above the Arroyo Seco valley.  The wine had a bolder nose and the wine could be chewed and the tannins were still quite pronounced, so I may have opened this wine a bit early.  There were one-hundred-thirty-four cases produced of this wine, so I am pretty sure that it is sold out now, but there are always new vintages to watch for.  I am also pretty sure that the group has decided on another get-together in summer time, and everyone left, with room to spare before the blizzard that was to arrive after midnight.

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Appetizers for a Get-together

Posted on February 1, 2019 by thewineraconteur

We tend to have gatherings at our house, you may have noticed, as over the years I have written about many of them.  The main reason is that my Bride is a wonderful cook and hostess, and the other small reason is that I am never sure what I can expect elsewhere, and God knows that I am fussy.  Actually, that is why I prefer meeting in restaurants, so I can anticipate; I can also research a restaurant, something I cannot do for an individual.  There are some people that I have confidence in, but some I do not know what to expect.  When it is here, I don’t have any worries, except for what wines to grab from the cellar.

My Bride still stays in contact with some of her schoolmates, some going back to elementary school days.  There were eight of us for dinner, and I was rather the odd man out, as I wasn’t from the schools, but I am from the era and that makes the conversation a little easier.  My Bride also goes so far as to pick out music from that era for the background, even though everyone is there for the conversation.  Even the day worked out, as it was between bouts of heavy snow.  I had even gone so far as to plow the street on both sides of our driveway to make parking easier and more accessible.  As the guests arrived, they were seated in the living room and we had a table set up for munchies or appetizers, to allow the conversations to begin flowing.  It started rather simple with some cheese and crackers and fruit, and then followed with spinach pies and a “Mexican” casserole similar to a botana, that had demarcation lines to accommodate people that were Gluten-free or had dairy issues.  Munchies are always a good time for me.

The first wine that we opened up has always been a good stand-up, guaranteed good bottle.  The Joseph Carr Josh Cellars Chardonnay 2017 is a wine that I never worry about, as it is always fresh, citrusy with a touch of oak/butter in the mix.  Joseph Carr began in 2005 making his line of wines, representing the best of vineyards for a California version of the classic French wines.  In 2007 he created the Josh Cellar line to represent California wines in a more relaxed, and affordable price range and named this collection after his father.  The fruit for this wine comes from both Mendocino and Monterey counties, both respected for producing quality Chardonnay grapes.  Joseph Carr is part of the much larger Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits, and as an interesting side note, Joseph Carr lives in Cape Cod when he is not making wine.  The second wine that I grabbed from the cellar had the potential for being iffy, only because I may have kept it too long, but since I had other back-up wines, I wasn’t really concerned.  I opened up the Wrath Estate Fermata Chardonnay 2009 from Monterey.  The cork was perfect, the color was an excellent golden shade and the nose was very subtle.  There was no signs of oxidation or foxiness that one could encounter from an older white wine.  The wine is called Fermata, which is an Italian word for halted, because the fermentation process is halted at the halfway point to keep the acidity high and then it is aged in French Oak for ten months.  The fruit for this wine comes from their estate that is just outside of the Santa Lucia Highlands and the cool growing cycle and the rich mineral laden ground is perfect for the Chardonnay vines to struggle with.  The two words that I heard the most bandied about was “layered” and “complex” especially when they compared the gold color to the first wine.  We were getting ready to move to the dining room.

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Nine Years Difference

Posted on January 30, 2019 by thewineraconteur

I do enjoy going into a wine shop, as I never know what I may encounter.  On one of my infrequent, though my Bride might think it is very frequent stops at the Fine Wine Source I got a chance to taste two wines from vintages that were nine years apart.  Once in a blue moon, I may encounter a chance to try some Library wines if there is a guest winemaker that I am going to see, but to just walk into a wine shop and get an offer like that is one that no one can refuse.  At least I can’t think of one.

Moonridge Vineyards’ Korbin Kameron wines was started by Mitch Ming and his family and named after his twin sons Korbin and Kameron.  The winery was planted in 2000 and estate straddles the ridge of Mount Veeder, with part of the estate in Napa County, but the majority being on the Sonoma County side.  The vineyard is on 186-acre property on Mount Veeder in Sonoma County.  The winery is growing the classic grapes of Bordeaux with very great success.  The area is famed for having a very long growing season, so the grapes can fully mature and become fully balanced.  In 2013 Moon Mountain AVA was created and recognized for being the longest growing season for the Sonoma Valley, and also for its rich volcanic soil, with perfect drainage to make the roots of the vine struggle and to grow deep.  The Moon Valley AVA is so relatively new that it has not been seen that often and some wineries may not take advantage of it, until it becomes more widely known.

The first wine that I had was the Korbin Kameron Cabernet Sauvignon (Moon Mountain) 2005.  The wine shop had this wine listed as Moon Mountain AVA, but the certification didn’t arrive for another eight years, but the estate and vineyard hadn’t moved, so I can appreciate the gesture.  There was almost no information about this vintage, but I will take an educated guess that the production was less than eight-hundred-cases of wine, and through the years, there is probably not that much left floating around, as the winery does not even list it on their Library selection.  The color and the nose in the glass belied the age of the wine, as I could not ascertain any aging signs.  The finish was beautiful with a very long count, and I even paused a bit, before trying the next wine.  The next wine was the Korbin Kameron Cabernet Sauvignon Moon Mountain 2014, which now is officially of the new AVA status.  The wine was aged for eighteen months in French Oak, of which half was new.  There was six-hundred-thirty-cases produced of this wine.  This wine, maybe it was psychological, but it smelled younger, if that makes sense and the taste was more jammy and black fruit forward, whereas the first wine had mellowed out much more.  The finish was long, but not as long as the first wine and I just attribute that to the age and the mellowness, or maybe that is just my built-in bias towards older wines.

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January Wine Club Selections

Posted on January 28, 2019 by thewineraconteur

It is that wonderful time of the year, when the snow blowers are running on high, the thermostats have to be adjusted and water pipes have to be monitored.  It is also the time of the month when I got an email that I could go and pick up the January selections from the Fine Wine Source in Livonia.  As I am sure you can imagine, it doesn’t take much goading to have me visit a wine shop, and because I get excited about something new, I refuse to read what the wines are, until I get them home.  I mean if I were a wine shop owner and I offered monthly club selections, I would try to pick out a couple of affordable wines that deliver a bang for the buck and would introduce new areas and/or grapes that maybe people don’t immediately reach for.   I mean when one goes into a wine shop, the wines that seem to have the most shelf space are Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, because the public by and large know those two grapes.  I would also try to include one “Old World” and one “New World” and probably use the Judgement of Paris for that demarcation line.

The first wine out of the bag, fulfilled the “Old World” requirement and the unusual grape and region.  The Agricole Vallone Versante Negroamaro Salento IGT Puglia 2015, accomplished two of the goals very handily.  Here is a wine from Italy, but not from an area that would be readily identified by most of the populace, as it isn’t a villa in Tuscany, but actually an old “castle” edifice in Puglia which is in the “heel” part of Italy.  The most common appellation from the area is Salento IGT, as it covers the most area and allows for the most variety and allows the wineries to do as they fancy.  There are over fifty different grapes that have found themselves already allowed, and all colors and styles, but mostly traditional rustic charming wines, and the local grapes hold more dominance compared to the big names like Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.  Negroamaro is a dark-skinned grape whose name if you translate it, means black and bitter, but actually the grape has a high sugar count and the grape is very drought-resistant.  I think the bitter may arrive from the natural spice tastes that one encounters that remind some of the older elixirs of herbs that were prevalent in another period of history.  The tasting notes are that this is a wine that does not have to be sipped, because it has milder tannins, but is robust and should be enjoyed with pastas and pizzas and even boar.

The other wine is from the “New World” and features a grape that some consider the grape of California, but research has proven that it is originally from Italy or wait maybe Croatia.  The Foxglove Zinfandel 2015 from Paso Robles is actually the value label of Varner Wine.  While technically a Zinfandel, this wine has twenty percent Petite Sirah.   The average age of the vines used are twenty-five years and the grapes are actually destemmed prior to pressing and the wine is aged in Stainless Steel.   Varner Wine is dedicated to their Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines that they produce on their estate.  The Foxglove label produces Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon from the Central Coast, as well as the Zinfandel from Paso Robles to the tune of about twenty-five-thousand cases of wine.  This is a classic interpretation of a California Zinfandel so it promises to be jammy and fruit forward and bold.  This is a wine that will also pair well with pizzas and pastas, but also grilled and smoked meals of hearty meats.  I have never tried it, but I know plenty of friends that enjoy a good Zinfandel with chocolate cake.

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Cello

Posted on January 26, 2019 by thewineraconteur

It was a long time coming, but at Cello in downtown Howell, we met The Caller and his wife.  There is no one that has missed this couple more than my Bride and I.  Since they have both retired, they are even more difficult to get with than before, so I know retirement agrees with both of them.  It was my duty to try to find someplace where we could both meet at, especially since they have moved out in the country, to parts that a GPS system gets lost, and so does UPS and Amazon Prime.  I found a couple of places so that they could make a choice and I thought they would go for a steakhouse, but instead they chose an Italian restaurant.  Now, I have to admit that I did some research, because I can be a bit of a food snob, in case you may have missed it, and my brain always has trouble putting an Italian restaurant in a non-Italian community setting.  I didn’t want egg noodles and ketchup.  My research appeared solid and The Caller knew of the restaurant and had heard some good reviews, so I felt safer.  I have to presume that the restaurant is named Cello as a shorthand for the house-made Limoncello and not for the concert stringed instrument, and by the way the music was well selected with Dino, Frank, Tony and Louis and Keeley, so I could sing along if I hadn’t been so busy chatting, eating and drinking.

Cello has a rather unique approach to dining, as the placemat is also the menu on one side and the wine list on the other.  Before we even could study the menu, our waitress brought us a little plate of nibbles, actually they were bite size versions of their Arancini, a little ball of saffron risotto and fresh mozzarella deep fried and in a bed of Marinara.  When the waitress came back, she explained the conceit of the menu, and it is designed to be kind of a small plates attitude or it could be big plates as well, and every plate is designed to be shared, and that is perfect for the four of us, as we are always sharing dishes.  We started of with a plate of Roasted Garlic with a balsamic reduction, tomatoes and ciabatta, Roasted Olives with roasted celery and fennel and Sausage and Peppers with onions, marinara and a house ricotta.  We had big plates of Eggplant Parmesan with marinara and basil pesto, Gulf Shrimp Scampi with roasted tomatoes and arugula, Scallops with saffron risotto, white truffle oil and roasted tomatoes with Pecorino Romano and Mahi-Mahi with a Prosecco cream sauce.  We had some small plates of Carbonara Bucatini, White Clam Bucatini and Wild Mushroom Gnocchi.  They also brought to the table a device that freshly grinds Gran Padano and the ladies were going to take a photo to see if they could buy it, and our waitress brought over two brand new packages from the kitchen, which were immediately purchased.  We all shared a slice of their “World Famous” Carrot Cake that was served warm and then frosted, and yes it was delicious and there was still some left when we departed, the entrée dishes did not suffer the same malady.

My Bride and I left very early so that we could avoid the majority of the rush hour traffic, as that traffic continues to go further and further out, to what I used to call the country.  Since we got there early enough, she planned on doing some shopping and we also got in a good one to two mile walk before dinner.  We got to the restaurant still quite a bit early, but they took us to our table, so we kind of had a chance to look at the menu and the wine list.  So, to start the evening off on a good footing we each had a flute of Gardiz Prosecco DOC NV.  Prosecco has become one of the festive wines that people enjoy, it has that festive appeal of a Champagne without the price, of course most of the wines are made by the Charmat Method and I will have to presume that this wine was, as I could find no information on it.  I do know that it is from the Prosecco grape and not the Glera, they are both the same, but for marketing rights, the wines that are from Veneto get the big name.  This was a good middle of the road Prosecco with medium size bubbles and a little sweetness and it was great before dinner.  The Caller and his wife showed up and they thought that they would be early and they were going to have a cocktail.  One had the Palermo Peach which was Bulleit Rye, Peach Nectar, Aperol, Lemon and Simple Syrup and the other had the Corleone Negroni which was Greyling Gin, Aperol, Lillet Blanc and Orange.  Then it was time to order the wines for dinner and the wine carte at Cello had twenty-six wines to select from and they were all from Italy and to their credit, it was not the typical Italian wines that one can find at some of the corner stores.  We started off with Pio Cesare L’Altro Chardonnay 2016 from the Piedmont.  I have to admit that I have a certain bias towards the wines from Pio Cesare as I have always found them to a cut above most of the “brands.” The estate was founded in 1881 and is still in the founding family’s ownership.  Only six percent of their production is in Chardonnay.  This wine is called L’Altro which translates to “the other” to differentiate this Chardonnay wine from their single vineyard Piodilei.  This wine is a Chardonnay and “Sauvignon Blanc in small part.”  The wine is aged with extensive time on the lees in both Stainless Steel and some French Oak.  It was a very crisp wine with some mineral tones to give some zest and very easy to drink.  Right after the white wine was opened and poured the waitress came with the red wine and decanted it, which I thought was a nice touch.  That wine was Tenuta Arbeta Barolo DOCG 2011 from Alessandro Berselli in the Piedmont.  This wine was entirely Nebbiolo and the fruit came from two different vineyards and was aged for twenty-four months in French Oak.  The nose on this wine was beautiful when it was being decanted, but it wasn’t there later.  It was a good drinking wine, but it was not as big as I expected from a Barolo.  I would go there again, but I would like to try some of the other wines that they had on the list, and we are looking forward to the next get-together.

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Roberts + Rogers Winery

Posted on January 24, 2019 by thewineraconteur

I had the privilege of tasting two wines from Roberts + Rogers Winery from St. Helena when I was at my local wine shop The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  In 1999, longtime friends Roger Louer and Robert Young commenced efforts to establish a first-class Cabernet Sauvignon wine brand, sourcing the grapes from Howell Mountain, Napa Valley, California. Located to the east of St. Helena, at an elevation ranging from 1400 to 2200 feet, Howell Mountain is considered one of the most prestigious wine growing regions in the world. Roberts and Rogers sources its grapes for this wonderful wine from the Howell Mountain sub appellation area and for the present vintages from a vineyard jointly developed by Roberts and Rogers in 2000.

The first wine that I tried was the Roberts + Rogers Louer Family Cabernet Sauvignon 2014.  In 2009, Roger Louer produced Louer Family Reserve Cabernet from his personal estate in St. Helena for a select group of friends. The wine was sourced from the best barrels of the thirty-four-acre estate and has sold out before it was produced for the past three years.  Roberts + Rogers released the 2012 vintage under the R+R label for the first time.  This wine is pure Cabernet Sauvignon and it was fermented and barrel aged in new French Oak.  I found this wine to have a bit of a tight nose, but that could have been from the Coravin System, but a great long finish of dark fruit and spice; I could drink it now or let it cellar for ten to twenty years.

The second wine that I tried was Roberts + Rogers Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2013.  Howell Mountain AVA was the first sub-region recognized for this honor in 1984.  There is no Howell Mountain peak, the region is actually named after the small Howell Mountain Township located up the slope from St. Helena.  Howell Mountain is probably one of the most honored and respected mountain side wine growing area there is.  This is another Cabernet Sauvignon that is pure, with no blended varietals and fermented and aged in new French Oak for twenty-four months.  Where I found the Louer Family Vineyard to have a tight nose, this wine had a full and open nose, the wine was bigger and I guess “jammier” as this seems to be what the current wine crop of wine writers and critics are demanding, but the tannins were already quite balanced for a young wine, and the finish was much longer on this wine compared to the Louer Family Vineyard.   I think an easy twenty years in the cellar for this wine would be awesome, but most of it will be consumed earlier and because it was so balanced, I think it could be done without any detriment for those that can’t wait.

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December Wine Club Wines

Posted on January 22, 2019 by thewineraconteur

Some months I seem to scramble to get enough articles for my self-imposed every other day schedule.  The Fine Wine Source in Livonia has been able to help me with new wine tastings and we even joined their monthly club.  I look to the monthly wine club selections as a way for me to have some wines that I might not stop and get, when I am shopping, because we all have our comfort zone, and it is sometimes hard to leave that zone, even when shopping for wine and you are looking for something new to try and to write about.

Anyone that has followed me for some time, realizes that I am not the typical wine writer and that I can get off on a tangent on a small detail, or the design of a label, and I like to collect labels for my scrap book, since the walls in my cellar are now covered with labels.  The first wine from a label standpoint I may have passed on, but as the old saying goes, you can’t just a book by its cover; and as a side note I am a bibliophile.  Chronic Cellars Spritz & Giggles Grand Cuvee NV from Lodi, California fits that description nicely.  Jake and Josh Beckett began working for their father Doug Beckett at Peachy Canyon Winery and the wine bug got both of them.  They launched Chronic Cellars in 2007 with a fifty-six-case production of Petite Sirah, and they are now up to an annual production of thirty-thousand cases of wine.  They were so successful that they were bought by Winery Exchange in 2014, with the proviso that they both continue working in their positions.  Spritz & Giggles is made from a blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and the fruits were sourced from the North Coast.  The wine is produced using the Charmat Method, which is the more economical way to produce sparkling wine.   The longer the duration of fermentation in this method, preserves the wine’s aromas and creates finer and more bubbles, but a lot of bulk producers are not that concerned about these nuances.  The tasting notes suggest more fresh fruit in both aroma and taste, which sounds fine for a young sparkling wine.  It is also suggested that it will pair well with desserts and salty snacks, cheeses and Charcuterie.

The other wine was Lanciola Chianti Colli Fiorentinti DOCG 2015 from Azienda Agricola Lanciola.  Chianti Colli Fiorentini is a sub-region of Chianti and not as popular or as famed and like Chianti it is known and required to have Sangiovese and Azienda Agricola Lanciola also grows Colorina, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot; they also have olive groves.  They have fourteen hectares, ten of which are devoted to vineyards.  The wine is ninety percent Sangiovese and the balance are from the other grapes grown.  The fermentation is done in Stainless Steel, and the aging is done in a mixture of Stainless Steel and oak with a minimum of six months.  The notes on this wine call for a deep violet blood red with dark fruit aromas to the nose and on the tongue with a berry finish.  It is suggested that it would be best with grilled meats or Pasta Bolognese.  I think both of the wines will be reported on, later this year.

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Corsi’s

Posted on January 20, 2019 by thewineraconteur

I grew up in Detroit in the 50’s and the 60’s, and there was a fad in the restaurant world that caught on, and it was called “pizza.”  In my old neighborhood, we even had a couple of nice sit-down restaurants and several carry-out places.  There were no chain pizzerias, in fact there were only a few chain restaurants back then, and none that we went to.  It was a simpler time, and food was not fussy, but it had to be better than what we could get at home, or it wasn’t worth the time, effort or the money.  To this day, pizza is a treat for me, because it isn’t something we make at home from scratch, though I am not a fan of frou-frou pizzas, I like a big slice of pie with long stringy cheese, covered with a ton of toppings, so that the cheese is almost hidden, and pie that can be folded in half.  My Bride likes a knife and fork when eating pizza and it is one of the few items that I actually like to pick up and hold while I am eating.   I don’t put a lot of demands on pizza, other than it has to be good.

I had heard of Corsi’s often and it was not really far from where we live, but we had never tried it.  We had gone to the Plymouth Ice Festival to get our daily walk in, as we like to walk a couple of miles each day, though it was hard to maintain a good pace with the crowds, we did get a chance to see the ice sculptures and see all of the snow that they manufactured in the downtown park, because as of yet, we haven’t had any snow, and I probably have just jinxed us.  We saw an ice sculpture of a pizza maker and that cinched the idea, and we decided to try Corsi’s.   We must have used a “way-back machine” to get there, because it is family owned and operated since 1958 and I don’t think that they changed the décor since they opened up.  As they say it was Deja-vu, all over again.  They have quite a nice menu, but I only had one thought in mind and we ordered the Corsi’s special and in the medium size of ten slices.  I was in heaven, or that moment when nostalgia takes over.  We didn’t have a salad or anything else, and the wait seemed forever, and I guess that is good, because they were actually making a pizza and probably using the industrial ovens that they installed in 1958.  The pizza finally showed up, and it was the pizza of my youth, with irregular pizza dough with bubbles and sporadic “burn” spots, and they are very generous with the toppings, it doesn’t appear that they were counting the pieces.  The final blessing to the meal, was that they had the old-fashioned pepperoni that would curl up in the oven, and would offer a couple of pearls of grease in the curled bowl.  It was pizza, and damn good pizza, that maybe was not the healthiest thing to eat, but once in a while, the soul has to be placated.

I being the yokel that I am at times, asked for the wine list, and our waitress pointed to a small plastic stand on the table that listed I think five wines and three were the common catering hall type of wines, which makes sense, because Corsi’s also has catering halls from day one, and the signage that was up that evening giving directions, looked like they had three different parties going on.  My Bride asked me what Fortissimo was, and all I could think of was the rows and rows of gallon jugs of Fortissimo that would line the floors and shelves of the old Italian markets of my youth, the wine that always reminded me of the “Dago Red” wine that we used to get as gifts from some of my Father’s friends.  Fortissimo is still made by CK Mondavi Family Vineyards, but I decided to order “Chianti.”  I asked to see the bottle, as they sell the wine by the glass or by carafe, also shades of the old days, with those small wine glasses that I am surprised that are still being made, where they fill the wine up to the rim of the glass.  The Livingston Cellars California Reserve Chianti NV was the wine, and the winery was established in 1933 in Modesto, California.  I was surprised that the wine could be labeled as Chianti, but maybe they have been grandfathered in, just like there are still a couple of California Champagnes.  The grapes used for this wine are probably only known to the winemaker, or maybe not, because nowhere could I find what this Chianti was made of.  You know what, it doesn’t matter, it worked with the ambience of the moment, it was fun, and neither of us complained of heartburn, even with the addition of the cracked red pepper flakes.

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