Riveyrac Rivesaltes

Posted on January 18, 2019 by thewineraconteur

When I am at my local wine shop The Fine Wine Source, I never know what I may end up tasting, and that is what is exciting.  Though I try to not make a pest of myself, I do like to take notes, especially when I am trying something totally new.  I once had a reader write to me that he was going to have a bottle of Rivesaltes as part of his birthday celebration and I had to look it up, as I did not know the wine at all.  I must admit that part of my lack of knowledge is because it is a dessert wine, and in the big picture, this is a category that I have had the least amount of wines.

Rivesaltes is an appellation for the historic sweet wines of eastern Roussillon, part of the Languedoc-Roussillon that is becoming much more popular, in the deep south of France. The sweet “vin doux naturel” wines produced in this area have been famous and reported on since at least the 14th Century. The technique used to make them is one of several employed for sweet wines. Unlike botrytized wines or ice wines, “vin doux naturel” wines are made by mutage, a process of stopping the must fermenting while there is still a high level of natural sweetness. With their high levels of residual sugar and alcohol these wines are sweet and a bit syrupy, which is an easy way to describe it.  Rivesaltes wines are often confused with Muscat de Rivesaltes wines, which are similar in style and come from the same area, except that it is made from Muscat grapes, while Rivesaltes is made from Grenache of all three forms, that is Noir, Blanc and Gris.  There are a couple of different designations for this wine, depending on its age.

The Riveyrac Rivesaltes Les Cuvees des Aigles 1975 is considered to be a Tuille, which are made from fifty percent Grenache Noir and is aged for two years, this wine is actually at the top rung of classifications as it is termed Hors d’Age and it is aged for at least five years.  On the back of the bottle there was an additional label “This wine has been aged, stored and kept intact in oak barrels since its harvest, by the vineyard owner and his heirs.  It was bottled in 2014, under optimum conditions without any treatment.”  So, for almost thirty years this wine has been aging in the barrel and the color had a chestnut brown color with a nose promising dried fruits and spices; it was totally balanced and had a very long finish.  I was in love with this wine, and so was my Bride.  If it was offered in a split, I think she would have had me carry one home, but for us a regular bottle of this would be over kill, even though it was totally delightful.

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When Its Least Expected

Posted on January 16, 2019 by thewineraconteur

There was an old television show in black and white called Candid Camera and I purloined the title from their song.  Periodically I am surprised when I get gifts, I give out gifts, especially in the Christmas season, without a thought of reciprocity.  I know that some people expect quid pro quo, but not at this time of the year.  I give gifts, and the odd thing is, that I over the years, I have never returned a gift, my philosophy is that if someone went to the effort, I will enjoy the item.

The first bottle that I will discuss is one of my all-time favorite wines that I was introduced to, back when I was a high school student; and I have recommended it to people ever since.  I am talking about the legendary Herederos del Marques de Riscal Rioja Reserva 2012, probably the one Rioja that I have had more of, than any other wine from Spain and it was even accessible back in the early ages when I first discovered wine.  This wine was founded in 1858 by a Spanish diplomat that had lived in Bordeaux and he brought back some concepts that were probably a bit heretical in the day.  The wine became so popular that the wire mesh was the way to insure the quality of the wine, and in fact part of the label was glued to the mesh, now the mesh is just a quaint tradition that is maintained, and I might add that this winery has a fantastic library of their wines going back to the very early days and the wines are still reported as glorious when opened.  The Marques de Riscal is the majority shareholder and winemaker of the company to this day.  This wine is a blend of Tempranillo, Graciano and Mazuelo.  The wine is aged for twelve months in barrels and then is aged an additional three years in the bottle, before it is released, because it is a Reserva.

The second wine from Italy and it is from a famed wine region, and it is Vietti Castiglione Barolo DOCG 2013.  The estate has been producing wines under the Vietti label since 1919 in the Piedmont region and were one of the first to ship to America, and also one of the first to implement single vineyard wines.  This particular wine is pure Nebbiolo and is from four of their vineyards with vines from seven to forty years of age.  All of the vineyards are aged separately and go from twenty-four to thirty months in oak, before they are blended together.  I would venture to guess that this wine needs at least five years to mellow out, if not longer, and then the right meal.  I guess a couple of future articles are necessary.

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A Couple of Gift Items

Posted on January 14, 2019 by thewineraconteur

Now that the Christmas Season is over, and Armenian Christmas is past, it is time to start packing up all of the decorations and wait for another year.  Alas the bright decorations are normally a contrast to the stark white and gray images that one usually encounters in January, but so far this year, and I knock on wood, the winter season has been mild.  It has been the season for me to read about snow south of us, even down to Texas, but fear not, the northern peninsula of this state has snow.  I have also seen the annual sign greeting one to Hell, Michigan that is showing ice and snow.

When I was a boy, my Mother used to receive a box of homemade marzipan hand dipped in chocolate from her Tante in Milwaukee for Christmas.  To this day, I have never encountered a marzipan candy that was as rich and moist as the candy that we used to get, and that my Mother would dole out very sparingly, as she too looked forward to this package.  Alas this memory ended, because my Mother passed away before a couple of weeks before my fifteenth Christmas.   Later on, I remember the local confectionary/ice cream shop in the neighborhood where they made everything from scratch, and I used to watch their little conveyor system that they had which kind of looked like an Erector Set on mild steroids.  I mention them, because every Christmas season they would have a wink, wink offering from the back room only of liquor filled chocolates that they made, they had a set price for a pound box, but they also required the customer to furnish a fifth of the liquor that they wanted used.  That company is long gone, but I do know that one of the restaurants in town actually bought their equipment, especially the ice cream stuff and the recipes, and the ice cream is still being produced.    All of this rambling on about Christmas and chocolate is because I received a box of candy for Christmas, and everyone complains that I am extremely difficult to shop for.  I received a box of Mieszko Cherrissimo Exclusive manufactured in Poland and it contains Chocolate-covered cherries surrounded by either rum, white wine, or Amaretto. The box alone had an old-world smell and aroma, and so far, I have tried one of the rums, and my Bride tried one of the white wines.

I will also mention at this time a bottle of wine that I received that I knew was from France, but that was all I ascertain from a quick scan of the label.  The label read Famille Perrin Les Cornuds Vinsobres AOC 2016.  It all started to make sense when I saw the neckband that had the vintage year on it.  Famille Perrin has the ownership of a famous estate Chateau de Beaucastel in Chateauneuf-du-Pape and they are wine producers and negocient in the Rhone Valley.  They are the owners and partners of another wine from Provence Miraval, which is famous for the actors associated with it, and they also produce another wine that has been around for ages La Vielle Ferme.   Vinsobres is a relatively new sub-appellation from the villages of the Cotes du Rhone and it is for red wines only.  The wine is half Syrah and half Grenache, so I am expecting a bit of boldness when it is opened.  I am like a little kid and I do so enjoy surprises.

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Picking Some Bubbles

Posted on January 12, 2019 by thewineraconteur

What to serve for New Year’s Eve for the big moment?  By now you must have realized that my Bride is a creature of habit, and when she finds something that she likes, she keeps going back, but it does not make it fun, if you are writing a wine blog.  She wanted to see what was out there and we went to our local purveyor of wine The Fine Wine Source in Livonia and they had a couple of sparkling wines to try, since the day was coming.  I have to admit that they greet me when I enter, but it is my Bride that gets all the attention, after all she is the Exchequer of the Realm and the one that will really let the purse strings  loosen when she finds a wine that makes her excited.

We started off with a tasting of G.H. Mumm Grand Cordon Brut NV, a famous Champagne house in Reims, France.  This is the wine that keeps the company afloat, most of the time, the wine is Non-Vintage, but they even declare a vintage year periodically for this wine as well.  This is their signature wine that they try to maintain a consistency year after year, decade after decade, and then at the top of the heap they also offer Cuvée R. Lalou.  The three varietals that are used to make this wine are Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier and it is grown on their estate and they also have long time contracts with growers to maintain the taste that they strive for.  They maintain three hundred base wines from a hundred different Cru vineyards to keep that consistency.  This signature wine that is non-vintage still requires twenty months in their cellar to age, before it can be released.  Over the years I have had some great Champagnes, but it is not the first wine that I go for, as I find that some Brut designations are just too dry for me, but this wine has enough of that “brioche” and yeast mix that I have come to expect from a good bottle of bubbles.  The next wine that we tasted from the chilled bin was Perrier-Jouet Grand Brut NV.  They began shipping Champagne to England in 1811 and they were a pioneer in Champagne: one of the first houses to label bottles with the year of vintage, and it was one of the first to make Champagne in the dry brut style. The latter was introduced in 1856, because of the English palate of the time; previously Champagnes had been made with high levels of added sugar or dosage.  After their success with brut Champagne, other houses began to release their own brut wines, and now that is the normal style found in Champagne.  They have one-hundred-sixty-one acres of vineyards each meticulously growing either Chardonnay, Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier, though the signature of the house is a more Chardonnay floral leaning wine.  The base wines are aged in the chalk cellars for at least three years before they are released and this wine delivered again what I expected from a classic French Champagne.  We were just going to make our decision when they brought out a third bubbly for us to try and one that was not on the tasting sheet.  They poured us some Perrier-Jouet Belle Epoque 2011, which was fifty percent Chardonnay, forty-five percent Pinot Noir and five percent Pinot Meunier.  This wine also had the luxury of having over six years of aging in their cellars before release.  This wine had a wonderfully long finish, but we decided that it was not the taste that most of the guests would expect from a Champagne and I really feel that this is the problem that the great houses face when they declare a vintage.  We decided to go with the Perrier-Jouet Grand Brut NV and there was only a glassful that was left at the end of the night.  We have had some nights in the past where the almost full glass was just left on the tables at the end of the evening.  I think that part of it is, because French Brut is not as dry as American Brut.  At least that is my story and I am sticking with it.

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New Year’s Eve 2018

Posted on January 10, 2019 by thewineraconteur

I really enjoy going out to eat and drink and if there is a chance to dance that is a real bonus.  How can a man not want to be out with his lady in all of their finery enjoying a night out on the town?  I am sorry, but there are a few nights that I just avoid going out and New Year’s Eve is one of those nights.  I find that the menu selection has been reduced to make the kitchen staff more productive and efficient and we go out often enough that normally what is exciting to others, just doesn’t do it for me anymore.   I am also leery of establishments that have a one price beverage charge included into a package for the night.  I find that there are some out there, especially the young, who have not honed their social and drinking skills, who think that they have to drink double what they think they must drink for the night.  I am sorry, but I do not suffer well the inebriated or the accidents waiting to happen.

We have been having a New Year’s Eve party at the house and it has become a night out for the family.  Some of the teenagers and the early twenties we lose for a couple of years, because they think that they have to go carousing.  We eventually get them back, especially after they pay the extra high prices for a night out on the town.  Also, just call me an old romantic, but how romantic is it, if at the stroke of midnight, they are taking photos and texting social media, instead of kissing their date?  All I know is that we put out a hell of a spread.   We have fruit and vegetables, pates and spreads, cheese and crackers, and this year we even found a wonderful raclette with truffles to add some extra interest.  Shrimp cocktails in the unlimited count containers I think are always a nice touch too.  Salmon, steaks and chicken appease all the protein choices, and if that selection doesn’t work, then maybe they need to go out and the following year, our menu won’t be so bad.  Then we clear it all away and bring out the sweets, and then some sit back and watch television, while others play board games designed for crowds with potentially lewd and boisterous answers, and to be truthful I can do without on both of those, but the majority rules.

Beverages flowed from the late afternoon onto the magic hour, and we always have some sparkling juice and ciders for the younger set, so that they can join in for the celebration.  I will only discuss two of the wines of the twelve or more bottles that seemed to evaporate that evening.  The celebrity of the evening that was opened up early to allow to breathe, got some extra breathing time as the cork crumble, which can be frightening, but the bottle was decanted and it was perfect.  We celebrated with Colgin Cellars IX Estate Napa Valley Red Wine 2005.   Ann Colgin founded this winery in 1992 and it has become one of the legendary “cult” wines of the valley.  The winery has three different vineyards and this comes from the Nine Estate is a twenty-acre vineyard on a broad slope of the St. Helena hill.   The IX estate red wine is a Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.  Every wine is aged in new French Oak barrels from the Cognac region.  The wine was just perfect and totally balanced and if there was a fault to be had, it was that this was the last bottle.  The second wine that will be mentioned was Far Niente Estate Bottled Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 1998 and if it hadn’t followed the Colgin, it would have been stellar, but it was still excellent and it was decanted as well before serving.  This is a legendary estate that was founded in 1885 by a relative of the famous American painter Winslow Homer, who may have even produced the artwork for some of the early labels.  Of course, this is another winery that became abandoned because of the Prohibition and was reclaimed and rebuild by Gil Nickel in 1979 of Nickel & Nickel fame.  Originally, they only made a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Chardonnay, though ten years later they also issued a dessert wine.  Here we were enjoying a wine that if similar to later offerings may have about three percent Petit Verdot and aged for about seventeen months in French Oak.  I found it curious that Oakville where Far Niente is based is one of the core sub-regions of Napa Valley and was granted an AVA in 1983, here was a wine in 1998 that was still using Napa Valley as a selling point.  This was really a charming wine, also with no faults, other than it followed the Colgin which was a bigger wine and almost three percent higher in proof.  A charming night with some great wines and not too often that we have two power-houses back to back.

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Pins and Skins and Whatever Else

Posted on January 8, 2019 by thewineraconteur

Some families are big, and some families are BIG.  There are five girls in my Bride’s family and then add husbands, children and grandchildren and then the numbers grow exponentially.  On top of that add just first cousins and their families and one almost feels like you need a convention center to handle the crowds.  The last several years, there has been a concerted effort to get as many together during the Christmas week, and I believe that my Bride is always one of the ringleaders.  Over the years they have tried a couple of venues, and one was very good, but the family had to be separated due to logistics of the rooms and it was kind of expensive.  Several places were bandied about and they finally settled on a place, that only required small minimums of charges and food, and they also allowed food, but not drinks, to be brought in.

This new place during the summer offers baseball diamonds, if you choose a time that doesn’t have a league going, and the same is for bowling, though I have to admit that it is the smallest bowling alley facility since my days growing up in a Detroit neighborhood, because most centers that I see now are huge.  They also had “wally ball” a variation of hand ball and unfortunately, we had one member from my generation discover that we cannot compete with the youngsters; our minds might think we are still young, but our bodies tell us a different message.  There was also a game called Pins and Skins, a game that I had heard about, but I did not know that it actually had a name.  The origin of this game as best as I have learned arose from tailgating parties and the State of Michigan is quite infamous for the extent that some tailgating parties go, to the point that some attend the party, but forgo the actual game.  Pins and Skins, if you are like me, needs a little introduction, in that the game is rather simple and a minimum of equipment.  One needs two complete sets of bowling pins (matching sets might be a bonus) and one football.  Two teams face off across the field (room here) and throw the football at the opposing teams bowling pins in the attempt of knocking them all down, then the other team takes the football and aims at the other set of pins.  While this was going on, in a big room the actual party was going on, and the facility started bring pizzas to the room, as I guess they had a formula of how many slices per person, and they also kept bringing pitchers of assorted soft drinks.  The balance of the food was the traditional potluck style of banqueting.  I do know that there was some coordination, so that no one dish would monopolize the selections.

The adult beverages had to be furnished by the establishment, so hence the per person charge for the evening was low, it could get expensive at the bar end of the affair.  The bar had a good selection of liquors for mixed drinks and quite a large selection of beers, both the commercial bulk types and the new craft beers that are the darlings of the drinking set these days.  I also would venture to say that between baseball, bowling and a couple other physical sports, beer would be the beverage of choice.  I might have even chosen a beer for myself, but then I would have deprived myself of an evening where the wine was selected as a convenience for the center.  I was going to buy a couple of bottles of wine from the bar to put out on the tables, but all the wine came in the handy dandy miniature bottles that one encounters on an airplane and a wine glass that when filled to the top contains the contents of the bottle.  My Bride and I were going to have Sutter Home California Chardonnay NV for the evening.  We have had the wine before, and on some business trips she actually takes bottles of this wine and gets a takeout meal for her hotel room, rather than having dinner in a restaurant by herself.  The Sutter Home Estate is located in St. Helena, one of the famed cities in Napa Valley, the estate was actually a winery in the 1870’s and continued until the government in their infinite wisdom decided to make decisions for the citizens and we had the great tragic experiment known as Prohibition.  After Prohibition the estate was just basically abandoned until 1948 when the Trinchero family purchased it and began a winery again.  In 1972, the family was experimenting with a Zinfandel wine that ended up white and dry and they called it “White Zinfandel, “and they produced 220 cases.  In 1975, the 1974 production had a problem and it had residual sugar and slight pink cast, and history was created.  The wine was getting popular and was at production of 25,000 cases and eventually this one wine grew to a count of 4.5 million cases.  This was nothing to sneeze at, and while the Chardonnay is probably not produced in that large of numbers, it is a bulk wine that pleases plenty of people.  In fact, in 1994 Wine Spectator gave Bob Trinchero a distinguished service award for “having introduced more Americans to wine on the table than anyone in history.”  I actually remember that issue, and at first, I was shocked, but then I agreed that any wine that is used as an introduction is great, and I have had worst wines over the years.  It is just fun learning some new things that I did not know, but then I also realize that Sutter Home Winery has allowed the Trinchero Family to expand and produce wines at the other end of the spectrum, so all is good.  I also know that the group enjoyed this outing so much, that my Bride actually paid for the rental of the room for next year.

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Corporate Christmas 2018

Posted on January 6, 2019 by thewineraconteur

For years I was part of Small Business and every year at Christmas time some of the employees would lament that we didn’t have a party.  My boss who was the head of the corporation always use to say that it would be cheaper to throw a party, but he felt that a Christmas Bonus was a better incentive to keep his employees.  Over the years I learned how smart and intelligent he was, because the only way a corporate party would compete is if he flew my Bride and I to Paris and we had dinner at a different Michelin Five Star restaurant each night for a week, and a spacious suite over-looking the Eiffel Tower.  In today’s real world, most companies don’t give bonuses or parties and God forbid if they called it a Christmas party.  I have also talked to some people that have attended the parties that their company had thrown and each person was given one drink ticket and then they were on their own, and that is understandable, because some people could try to show how much they can drink when someone else is paying for it.  I bring all of this up, because we attended an employee party, and this was the first time that spouses were invited.  Trust me, my Bride and I were not interested in over-indulging, in fact, my Bride’s whole focus was going to be the dance music after dinner.

The company had sent out many memos about the evening, including the suggestion that the men dress for the party.  One could see a clear demarcation line of the generations employed by the cut of the clothes.  There was also a memo that was sent out for everyone to select a dinner entrée and there was a choice of three: “Airline chicken” which I have discovered at an earlier event is a chicken breast and a wing, Salmon with pineapple salsa and wild-mushroom ravioli.  I was cautious and went with the chicken and my Bride went with the salmon.  For a good hour or two prior to dinner there were servers at the event with an assortment of hot and cold appetizers, and they were popular with the crowd.  The salad before dinner was a version of what is known as a “Michigan” salad with a Champagne vinaigrette.   After dinner there was a very nice sweet table set up.

I thought that the company did a very nice job, as there was a large bar set up in the room, with an assortment of beers, a fine selection of liquors and they had a choice of three different wines.  We actually tried two of the three wines during the course of the party and they were workmanlike and not the typical catering wine selections.  We started off with some glasses of white wine that paired decently with most of the appetizers.  We were drinking Guenoc California Chardonnay 2017 which is part of the Langtry Estate & Vineyards, which is part of the much larger Foley Family Wines.  I was intrigued to discover that Langtry Estate is actually the thirty-five square mile get-away for the famed actress Lillian Langtry, but this wine was not from their vineyards and probably is a money maker for the winery for their more craft-like wines.  It was a good basic Chardonnay, so we were happy.  We then switched over to Donati Family Vineyards Claret 2014 a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Petit Verdot and from the Paicines AVA, which was new to me; actually, the more I write about wines the more new things I discover.  Paicines AVA is the southernmost region of San Benito County in the Central Coast.  It was actually known and used for the growing of bulk wines and extensively used by Almaden until they were sold and split up, and now there are some winemakers that are doing their own thing.  The red wines produced by the Donati Family Vineyards are aged for twelve to eighteen months in a mix of California and French Oak barrels.  This was a very easy to drink Claret and we stuck with it, through our time on the dance floor and judiciously leaving before the affair was officially closing for the night.

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Christmas Day 2018

Posted on January 4, 2019 by thewineraconteur

Christmas Day is always hectic, or at least it was to us.  After my Bride came back from assisting in the rites at her church for the morning mass, she came home and we exchanged the Christmas presents.  The next thing I knew we were packing up the car to take more presents and other stuff for a trip to her Mother’s for the Traditional Christmas Brunch of pancakes, scrambled eggs with spinach, doughnuts, bacon and fresh kielbasa.  The only thing that may have been updated to this breakfast was perhaps Mimosas and I think that was snuck in years ago, probably by my Bride, and years before she ever met me.

After the Traditional Christmas Brunch, we packed up and drove home to partially prepare an entree of Bourbon Salmon and take that to my cousin’s home as she was making dinner.  I think my cousin must have cornered the market on two Armenian delicacies for appetizers, because they were coming out of the ovens continuously for an hour or so.  There was Cheese Beoreg, an extremely flaky puff pastry stuffed with white cheese and there was Lahmajoon which if you can imagine small five-inch diameter light dough “pizzas” covered with a paste of ground lamb, tomatoes, onions, garlic and parsley followed by a generous dusting of cracked red pepper seeds; I could have made my entire dinner on those two dishes.  The dinner’s star attraction was this incredible tenderloin cooked perfectly and could feed the army of guests, along with Armenian Pilaf, “Hot Ham” which is a time honored and revered dish that has to be there, and some of the finished roasted peppers one could ever encounter, the aforementioned salmon, spaghetti with clams, salads, vegetables and the list still goes on.  Then later on, after all of that is cleared away, enough desserts to rival a sweet table at a wedding.

Of course, before and after dinner, most of the men gathered in an alcove in the family room to have some libations.  The two most popular beverages were beer and Scotch, but fear not there was plenty of wine as well, and I will only mention two of the many bottles that were there.  We started with Peter Michael Winery “L’ Après-Midi” 2013 from the Knights Valley AVA.  Here was a charming white wine that was basically Sauvignon Blanc with eight percent Semillon and these grapes were grown alongside the famed “Les Pavots” vineyard for their Bordeaux blend wine.  The juices were aged on the lees for eight months in French Oak and then blended together for a very fruit forward finished wine with the fable terroir that has made Knights Valley so popular and singular in Sonoma County.  The other was a wine that I brought as a special treat for the tenderloin that I wanted to share with the wine drinkers.  I opened up a bottle of Yao Ming Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2014 Yao Ming had retired from a career in basketball in July 2011, he began a new career as a winemaker in November 2011, barely enough time to realize that he had retired. 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 I knew that this would be the last of the case that I would open up as I think it will require about ten years and then this wine would be wonderful and by then I am not sure how much of this vintage will still be around.  There were twenty-eight-thousand cases produced of this wine and I think that I heard that it was sold out at the winery, and I do believe I may have gotten one of the last cases of the wine in Michigan.  As I like to say “even a blind squirrel finds an acorn occasionally.”

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Happy New Year 2019

Posted on January 2, 2019 by thewineraconteur

My Bride and I wish everyone a bountiful and fruitful coming year with plenty of love, luck, health and happiness.

“Why do I drink Champagne for breakfast? Doesn’t everyone?” Noel Coward

 

“Too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right.” Mark Twain

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Christmas Eve 2018

Posted on December 31, 2018 by thewineraconteur

It really felt odd this Christmas season, as we were not doing our normal hosting duties.  One of my Bride’s sisters wanted to hold the dinner at their house.  Which was a nice change of pace, though my Bride did seem just as hectic with all of her preparations.  My Bride was also like a military general plotting out the events for the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, so she was always having her brain go in a million directions.   I just kind of stay out of the way and let her do her thing.

There was plenty of food being prepared when we got there early, so that my Bride could assist.  One of the dishes that they were preparing that was new was a turkey done in a hot-air non-grease fryer which actually greeted us on the front porch, when we arrived, as I thought it was one of the deep-fryers that you see on Social Media that ignite and causes major fires.  It gave the turkey a different flavor, which was fine, but I guess I am just used to the classic stuffed and roasted bird.  There was also Prime Rib being prepared, so the house was very fragrant with great aromas.  There were all sorts of appetizers and side dishes and desserts that were brought in by some of the other attendees.  My Bride brought a big pot of Armenian Pilaf and a big pot of her Brussel Sprouts done with Bacon and drizzled with Aged Balsamic.  There was plenty to eat, in fact there was an over abundance and most left with doggie bags of food.

While there was plenty to eat, there was also plenty to drink.  We brought several bottles of wine that are my Bride’s favorites, but I can’t keep writing about the same wines, even as good as they are.  I brought a special bottle that I wanted to see how it was doing and it has been one of our favorite wineries since our first trip to California to taste wines.  The wine was St. Supery Merlot Napa Valley 2001 and this wine was still one of their main offering, before they really got into the single vineyard wines.  St. Supery was one of the first wineries that we visited and they are located in Rutherford where they have an estate and they also own another much larger estate in Napa Valley as well.  The original proprietor Robert Skalli came to Napa Valley from Corsica, where his grandparents founded the winery Terra Vecchi. In 1982, he purchased the Dollarhide estate, a 1500-acre cattle ranch in the northeast corner of Napa Valley. He also purchased 56 acres in Rutherford, where the winery was built and still stands today. The first vintage of wine was produced in 1989 and the wines began to gain acclaim.  The Skalli family sold the winery to the large fashion corporation Chanel in 2015, which makes me wonder if my “Lifetime Pass” will still be honored.  I am glad to report to all the Merlot fans, that this wine was far from being over the hill, it was very mellow and drank like a Grand Cru, so no complaints from my Bride or myself or anyone else that tried the wine.

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