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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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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