Lodi and Puglia

Posted on August 31, 2018 by thewineraconteur

I recently picked up the monthly pair of wines from the Fine Wine Source Wine Club, our newest club and quite close to the house.  While it kind of seems odd to see Lodi and Puglia together in the title, the two wines were from these areas.  The two areas were both bulk grape growing areas at one time and now most of the farmers are making the wines in-house or in collectives.  I also think of both areas as excelling in a grape that is the same, in Italy it is Primitivo and in California it is known as Zinfandel, or they are so close depending on who you talk to, and then it seems that every seems to think that it came from Croatia where it is known as Crljenak.  While I really did not do any real research, I am sure that one can find a Rosé wine from Puglia, especially know as everyone seems to be producing one.

Speaking of Rosé, the first wine is Klinker Brick Winery “Bricks & Roses” 2017 from the sub district of Lodi-Mokelumne River of Lodi AVA.  I have only recently discovered the Lodi wines personally, though I have read about them and Klinker Brick Winery is one that I have actually tried six of their wines and this will make the seventh.  Klinker Brick Winery is into its Sixth Generation, but they began as grape farmers and would sell their fruit originally to the home wine makers and Zinfandel was the main crop in this area. Eventually they began selling the crops in the latter part of the 1900’s to other wine makers and eventually they took the plunge themselves as there was a strong demand for their crops. They have about sixteen plots of land mostly along what is known as the Lodi-Mokelumne River as well as some in the Clements Foothills. They produced their first bottle of Zinfandel in 2000, and their first Syrah in 2001.  This wine is a blend of Grenache, Carignane, Syrah and Mourvedre and while I could not find any production notes, I will venture to say that it was done in Stainless Steel to maintain the freshness and crispness of the grapes.  While I did not do a tasting of either wine from the club, I noticed that this wine has a beautiful salmon color, and it was described as having fresh summer fruits with a clean and light acidity.  The owner of the shop described it as rich and full flavored…not a wimpy Rosé.

The other wine is a Primitivo which is usually a big and bold in your face wine, whether as Primitivo or as a Zinfandel, and as I have stated often, for years I shied away from these wines as I grew up drinking homemade “Dago Red” as a kid, which was usually fined with egg whites and for years that was all I could taste, but in the last ten years or so, I have cautiously been dipping my toe in the water for these wines again and I have enjoyed what I have encountered, and I still do get bottles of the homemade stuff.  The second wine is Agricole Vallone Versante Primitivo Salento IGT 2016 and I was told that this is the first time this wine has been offered in Michigan.  Agricole Vallone was founded in 1934 with one-hundred-seventy hectares of vines and other crops, and the grapes were sold to the local cooperative.  It was only in the 1990’s that they began bottling their own estate wines, they had already began producing their own olive oil.  The wine carries the Salento IGT designation, the largest and most common designation in Puglia, and IGT which is on the bottom most rung on the pecking order in Italy, but it allows the wineries the most leeway in production, as long as the grapes all come from the district, and I might add that some of the dearest and sought-after Italian wines only carry an IGT designation.  This wine has been described to me as having big tannins, dental enamel darkening  with offerings of dark fruits and berries with a deep full finish, that may require some time in the cellar to tame the tannins.  A wine like this is a natural with tomato-based dishes that Southern Italian cuisine is all about, from classic pizzas to bold and heavy pastas, or comfort food to me.

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Mint 29

Posted on August 29, 2018 by thewineraconteur

Traditionally when my Favorite Daughter is in town, we take her to one of her prized memories of restaurants in Dearborn, Michigan where she grew up.  Alas the town is not the same, the so-called leaders of the community are letting the city be cobbled every which way according to who has the money and the current political sway.  All the grand places that were famous in Dearborn are gone, either to be torn down to be replaced by a Burger King, or to create new office campuses, because a new generation of workers cannot work in an office environment, or other similar tragedies.  She went to some of the ethnic eateries that have survived, with some of her cousins and friends, but I want to take her to potential new places that perchance live up to her memories of old.  You can’t really go back home.

We decided to meet at Mint 29, a very new restaurant that I had heard did a good job, even though I haven’t lived in Dearborn for ages, I still have eyes and ears in plenty of locations.  For the longest time while I was in Dearborn, I considered myself an amateur modern historian of the city, so I was surprised to find out that while I knew that Mint 29 was in the old Dearborn Music store, I did not realize that the building originally held a bank.  The structure was built in 1929 and when the walls were being gutted they found some old coins dated 1929, hence the name of the restaurant.  The restaurant has that “hip” Chicago feel to it with the exposed brick-work and the open un-finished ceiling which I feel makes a restaurant louder, but I guess the current trend makers prefer that, so real conversations are kept to a minimum.  Mint 29 is a fusion style restaurant, in that the cuisine is not of one area.  We ended up getting there a little early, so we had gone through one order of an appetizer and had to repeat it when my Favorite Daughter showed up.  We had the Blini Smoked Salmon on French Potato Pancakes with Crème Fraiche and Black Caviar.   My daughter had just come from another restaurant, so she was not hungry at all, but I guess she wanted to see us, so that counts for a few points, but we did make her nibble and drink.  My Bride had the Tuxedo Seared Yellow-fin Tuna, which was black and white sesame encrusted, served with spicy seaweed sesame salad, edamame relish and sweet soy sauce.  Being the more provincial guy that I am, I had the Mediterranean Sea Bass, a pan seared Bronzini with shaved fennel in a Lemon Beurre Blanc Sauce.  The food was excellent and definitely worth a repeat visit.

It is rather unique that none of our children drink wine, but we plod along anyways.  My Bride started off with a split of Cantine Vedova Casa Farive Prosecco-Superiore Extra Dry NV.   Here is a wine that would have been made with the Glera grape, but since it is from such a fine delineated area it can call the grape Prosecco, since the rules and laws changed in Italy.  This is a wine made from the Charmat Method and it was very tasty.  The wine had small bubbles, a light straw yellow color and a faint floral nose to it, and since it was Extra Dry compared to a Brut, I enjoyed the finish a bit more.  We ended up having a robust red wine for our entrée dishes.   We had a bottle of wine from Paoletti Winery in Calistoga, Napa Valley.   Paoletti Winery has thirty-six acres in Calistoga and their first release was in 1994, so the wine we were enjoying was from their Twentieth Anniversary and this is the second time that we have had this wine while out.  Their Piccolo Cru 2014 was all fruit from their own estate and it was a Bordeaux blend with half of the wine being Cabernet Sauvignon and then Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc.  The total time for the production of this wine was about sixteen months and it was delightful, with all the qualities that I expect from a Claret.  Thankfully the rules have changed in Michigan and if you don’t finish a bottle with your meal they will recork it for you and put it in a closed bag, so you can take it home with you.  We are not exactly sure when the next time we will all get together.

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A Singular Birthday

Posted on August 27, 2018 by thewineraconteur

We had just got back from Crystal Mountain and there was another get-together in the works.  This time four of the five sisters would be together, but they were all getting together to celebrate a two-year-old, who was getting her own birthday party, because her Mother didn’t want to the event to be co-mingled with the other birthdays as is the usual way to celebrate.  They used one of the sister’s home for the party, that had a swimming pool and invited some of their friends over as well, which is not a problem.  In fact, we even had an extra guest show up, as my Favorite Daughter was in town for a couple of days and she wanted to see everyone.

It can be an expense to cater an affair for twenty to thirty people, that is why most of the birthdays are grouped together for a once a month party.  The birthday dinner was very casual, consisting of hamburger, cheeseburgers, hot dogs and bratwursts, and three chicken breasts for three people that won’t eat the first four choices, and I am not one them just for clarification, because I am known to be fussy.  I think the menu was chosen, because the Father of the recipient of the party could do the food on the barbeque, while the Mother relaxed and let all of the other women take turns with the child.  I am glad that my Bride and some of the other sisters volunteered to bring dishes to the party as well.

We always bring wine with us for any gathering, just like we always bring food and this was no exception.  My Bride wanted one of her tried and true go-to Chardonnays and I wanted to bring something a little different even though I knew it wouldn’t be the best pairing for the meal, it was a hot summer afternoon, and I wasn’t going to be using the pool.  The other white wine for the afternoon came from a wine tasting that I had attended.  That wine was Milou Chardonnay 2016 from the Languedoc district of France, the fruit coming from the plateau of Asperes. Languedoc is getting more and more scrutiny as people are looking for some more affordable table wines. The terrain for this wine was basically limestone and clay, and had the taste of a basic Chablis. This wine is designated as a Vin de Pays D’Oc and while some may turn their nose at it, it was really good. It had the color of light straw and a soft nose, but it tasted very good, with even a nice finish. It was the type of Chardonnay that can fool people who claim that they don’t like big oaky and buttery California types, most would find it refreshing and then they would be surprised, but that is the beauty of wine.  My Bride decided that she was going to use the pool, and I and my Favorite Daughter went out for a drive and some coffee to catch up, but we were also going to meet for dinner one more evening, before she was going home.

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He’s a What?

Posted on August 25, 2018 by thewineraconteur

“He’s a Music Man” and that was the premise that brought half of the family up to Crystal Mountain for a get-away.  The Louisville clan’s twin children were both accepted to Interlochen Center for the Arts summer theatrical camp and the play that they were performing in for the 91’st Season was Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man.  I am sure that some of the students may have been disappointed with the selection of the play, as they have been brought up to appreciate funereal dirges that are the vogue for most Broadway productions, and yes that is my commentary.  I feel that the Fifties and the Sixties may have been the last Broadway musical productions that showed a wide range of music genres and had the ability to have the audience leaving the theater pumped up and singing show tunes.

It was a change of pace for my Bride and I to be in a group setting like we were.  I also felt like we were the Well’s Fargo man when we delivered tons of food up to the vacation home.  I felt sorry for my Bride, in one sense, because she took on the role of Mother Hen for her sister’s and family, making sure that everyone ate, as properly as we could enforce that concept.  My Bride and her one sister were the cooks for the week and her one sister can be very fancy in her approach to the culinary arts.  It did seem odd not to be choosing venues for dinner every night, but I have just always felt that my Bride is on vacation as well, and to me, that means away from the kitchen, but all in all it did work out well.

The third family did contribute to the food and beverage selection for the week, and it would be wrong of me to imply anything else.  It is just that the wine especially was a wine fest between the two brothers-in-law and trying to find some interesting wines for the week.  We were joking that even with me taking back a case of empty wine bottles, because I wanted to save the labels, there were still by the time the week was over, a couple of cases of empty bottles to throw out in the trash.  The good thing was that Crystal Mountain is known as a ski resort, so I am sure that the refuse collectors have seen their share of empty bottles, and at least our festivities were on the quieter side.  The last wine that I will discuss was a new one for the Louisville clan and a relatively new one for us, as we had bought this wine, with the intention of having it with them.  The Korbin Kameron Rosé Moon Mountain 2017 made by Moonridge Vineyards was a delightful wine.  Here was a Rosé wine that was made from Merlot grapes and from what I could gather the wine was made, because they were not sure about the grapes that had survived the major fire of that year.  Moon Mountain AVA was just granted in 2013 and it is a relatively new designation for Sonoma County.  The area is known for the iron rich volcanic soil and an elevation that is above the Sonoma Fog, so it has a warmer and a longer growing period compared to the areas lower down the slope; I also feel that this designation will see more play in the years to come.   A beautiful hued glass of wine with a freshness of fruit to the nose and taste of pomegranates to me, and this wine totally belied that it was Merlot, and I am a major Merlot fan, but then I have always been loyal to my old friends.  I will venture to go out on an easy limb and claim that this wine had a short aging period in Stainless Steel and there were one-hundred-fifteen cases of wine produced.  I think that they were surprised about this wine, but it was fun as we tried to find some special wines.  As for Professor Harold Hill, I am just glad that there is no “think method” for wine production.,

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White with Salmon

Posted on August 23, 2018 by thewineraconteur

While we up at Crystal Mountain, everything was geared around seeing our niece and nephew in The Music Man at Interlochen, after all that is what the whole trip was about.  Three out of five sisters made it up for the event.  While it sounded like all we did was drink wine that is not true, but the bias or the conceit of this blog tends to emphasize the beverages and there was four of us that really enjoy our wines.  We were scheduling dinner times a bit early, so that everyone could be dressed and ready to make the drive to Interlochen for the show.  One of the evenings we were going to have salmon and my Bride found an enormous side of salmon for the dinner.  I had brought some wood planks in anticipation of doing the salmon that way, but there was so many to feed and no one was quite sure, so we ended up doing them on the grill with a Bourbon sauce that my Bride has discovered and put to good use.  We figured that white wines would be better with the marinade of Bourbon, instead of our usual choice of Pinot Noir.

We started off with a very crisp wine for the season with a very light white wine, from a winery that I have enjoyed and still have a bottle or two in the cellar. The Taft Street Winery Russian River Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2016 was a good choice. Originally the winery was known as Taft Street Garage, and they were what is now termed a “garagiste” and in 1979 they were making wines in a garage, and they gradually moved into an old apple processing plant in Sebastopol. Here was a wine where the fruit came from two estates, Bob Dempel Vineyards and the Giaquinta Valley Vineyard. The wine as would be expected for a Sauvignon Blanc was done in Stainless Steel to maintain the crispness and for the fruit forward taste. As much as I try to avoid descriptors the wine was a very pale and soft color, with good aromatics and the tartness that I enjoy from this grape.  There is just something wonderful about a Sauvignon Blanc when it is done perfectly and this is one wine that I think where this is true.

The other bottle was from a new winery that was established in 2015 by a band of artists, craftspeople, and lovers of life brought their wandering imaginations to a piece of land in Carmel, California. They named this location Folktale Winery and Vineyards. The Folktale Arroyo Seco Chardonnay 2015 has a whimsical label truthful to the image of the winery. The wine began in a vat and then was aged for six months in French Oak of which twenty percent was new. The wine was described as creamy with mineral notes drawing from the Le Mistral Vineyard on their estate when I first received this wine and I would agree with their description. This wine had a production of just under a thousand cases, and the aging potential is claimed for five to six years, though it didn’t stay in our cellar for that long, and that is the problem when you only get one bottle from your wine club.  It was a perfect Chardonnay, too bad that I only had the one bottle, but there were other wines and nobody wanted to be tired in the auditorium.

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Two from Mendoza

Posted on August 21, 2018 by thewineraconteur

There was plenty of wine transported up to Crystal Mountain for the week, and that doesn’t even cover the extra wine runs that were done, while we were up there.  For as many people that were up there, we didn’t run out of food, but the wine and the bottled water seemed to be neck and neck in the race for depletion.  We were all having a grand old time and while it seems that we enjoyed plenty of white wines, there were reds as well, because the dinners were all full bodied and grilled.  The Mendoza region of Argentina supplied us with a couple of good wines when we were having marinated pork tenderloins on the barbeque.

The first wine from Mendoza that I will mention is Vina Cobos Felino Malbec 2016.  This wine is a joint venture between Luis Barraud and Andrea Marchiori and the Californian Paul Hobbs; there inaugural vintage was 1999.  Paul Hobbs also has other wine ventures in other countries as well, in case you run into his name on the labels.  The fruit for this wine came from two famed sub-regions of Mendoza, Valle de Uco and Lujan de Cuyo, so it had to carry the more generic Mendoza, but Malbec is king of the district.  This wine was aged for nine months in American Oak, of which ten percent was new and it was bottled unfined.  This was a good deep inky violet colored wine with a good nose and very well balanced and very easy to drink with almost no decanting time.

The other wine from the Mendoza district was Finca Flichman “Paisaje de Tupungato” 2015 and this winery is over a hundred years of age.  Tupungato is the northern part of the smaller sub-region of the Valle de Uco and at the foot of Mt. Tupungato volcano.  The wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon with Malbec and Merlot.  The wine was aged in oak and some bottle time, before being released.  Just another easy drinking red wine with out a lot of fan-fare.  Another happy time for dinner.

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More Whites

Posted on August 19, 2018 by thewineraconteur

All the time that we were up at Crystal Mountain, there was a bit of The Thin Man that permeated the trip.  No there was no mystery and thankfully no murder, but the ambience in the vacation home was one of a good time and a constant flow of the nectar of the Gods.  There was an endless supply of food and that is a good thing, because the young ones ate on a different time zone compared to us, and they could not seem to enjoy what we were all preparing and enjoying.   Definitely different to the environment that I grew up in.  Some of it was because of the in and out adventures of all the things that could be done at the resort, so I guess I can excuse some, but not some of the diets.  While there were some excellent wines to be had while we were up there, some of the wines were just there to quench the thirst because of the heat and after long walks in the area.   We did go through an abundance of white wines.

One of the wines that we had was in keeping with the area, the wine country of Michigan.  We had a bottle of Leelanau Cellars Tall Ship Collection Chardonnay NV with an American AVA, so the winery was Michigan, but the grapes were not.  Leelanau Cellars is one of the oldest wineries in the area and it had begun as a cherry orchard in the 1960’s.  In 1974 they first uprooted some of the orchard and planted some grapes and in 1977 they released their first commercial wine.  The winery itself has eighty-nine acres and they grow classic international vitis-vinifera, non-vitis-vinifera and hybrid grapes as well.  They produce around two-hundred-fifty-thousand cases a year and they basically only sell in Michigan and a few of the adjoining states in the Mid-west.  There was not much information to be gleaned about this wine, but Leelanau Cellars refer to this wine as “off-dry” and I guess that is as good as a descriptor as there could be.  I mean it was just a refreshing chilled white wine that was working with the cheeses and most of the other noshes that were constantly being pulled out of the refrigerator.

Another of the white wines that was being quaffed down was one that is better known, but still the winery is rather close-fisted about their proprietary production.  The Sterling Vineyards Vintner’s Collection Central Coast Chardonnay 2016 was doing an admirable job.  Sterling Vineyards was founded in 1964 with fifty acres in Napa Valley near Calistoga.  One of the side notes of fame for Sterling Vineyards is that they were the first to issue a vintage dated Merlot in their inaugural 1969 production, which also featured Cabernet Sauvignon and a Sauvignon Blanc.  In 1977 the winery was sold to Coca Cola Company during their period of being in the wine industry, it was then sold in 1982 to Seagram and then by Diageo in 2001.  One of the fun things is that there is a tram at Sterling Vineyards that one can ride, similar to the ski-lift at Crystal Mountain, and when my Bride and I were at Sterling years ago, we use up a whole panoramic disposable camera while on the tram, alas the camera was defective we learned when we arrived back from that trip, so we have no photos from Sterling.

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M22 Wine

Posted on August 17, 2018 by thewineraconteur

We took a little side trip while we were up at Crystal Mountain and went to Glen Arbor, Michigan.  The Glen Lake area is the home to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and before you ask, we did not do the dunes.  We are not the most “touristy” type of people, we go somewhere, but we tend to walk, shop eat and drink.  Glen Arbor was bustling with tourism, one of the hardest things was to find a parking space.  It was a very quaint eight or ten block area with shops and galleries and I was surprised to see, the walking zombies that have more interest on their phone, than the surrounding sights that they drove out to see, as they walked into traffic situations totally oblivious to the three-thousand pound automobiles that they just ignored, not to mention the people that they would bump into on the sidewalks, because their indifference to their surroundings were only the concern of others.

We discovered a shop called Crystal River Outfitters that had casual clothing, rentals of kayaks and bicycles and an outdoor and an indoor wine tasting room for M22 Wines.  I never heard of M22 Wines and the odds are that you hadn’t either, but the main road in Glen Arbor was M22.  We were there, so we were game, as one never knows that one may discover a great find.  The tasting room charged you six dollars for five tastings and if you desired extra tastings they were an extra dollar per tasting, and one left with the glass if they so desired.  The would also pour one large pour at different prices for different wines while you were in the tasting areas.  The wines were all made for the M22 location by Black Star Farms and Black Star Farms began in 1998 in Suttons Bay in the Leelanau Peninsula.  The first person behind the counter when we started the tasting found someone else to help us, as she wasn’t sure how to answer my basic questions about the wines.

We started off with the M22 Late Harvest Riesling NV, as that is a popular varietal for the whole Northwestern corner of Michigan.  I might add that all of the wines were NV or “non-vintage” and I didn’t see any AVA on the labels, but I will presume that they were Michigan wines and grapes.  The Late Harvest Riesling was not a sweet as I was anticipating.  The next wine was M22 Chardonnay NV, which was stressed that it was pure Chardonnay and our host made it sound like the wine was made “Sur-Lie,” but no other information was forthcoming and it did taste like a Chardonnay.  The third wine was M22 Pinot Noir Rosé NV and this wine had a pretty color, a soft nose and short aftertaste.  We then tried the M22 Overlook Red NV which was a blend of Dornfelder and Marechal Foch, two distinct Cold-Hardy grapes which were very popular in the early days of winemaking in Michigan.  This wine was a sweeter red, but thankfully it did not have that foxy taste that some of those grapes can offer.  The fifth wine of the tasting was M22 Red NV which was a blend of Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Syrah.  With all of the grapes that I enjoy this wine was pleasant, but not worth taking a bottle home.  We splurged and had a sixth tasting and tried the M22 Vintners Red NV which was a blend of Cabernet Franc and Merlot.  Once again pleasant, but it did not give me or my Bride that Cabernet Franc taste that we were looking for.  There were another seven wines that we did not try, and while we have enjoyed Black Star Farms we left only with the tasting glass and not a bottle.

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Dinghy’s

Posted on August 15, 2018 by thewineraconteur

“Work is the curse of the Drinking Class” is one of the favorite expressions of a club member of mine, and sometimes it is so true.  Here we are, up in the serene setting of Crystal Mountain and my Bride has to make a business call.  I guess it wasn’t too bad, as it was not that far out of the way and we have gone to Frankfort on a couple of different occasions any ways.  After her business call, we had the chance to explore the area again.   Frankfort is a charming boating community with a large marina, in the old days there was a ferry service to the two states across Lake Michigan, but that service has been shuttered.  We walked up and down the downtown district, which is quite a good size and one of us did a bit of shopping and one of us was looking for some place new to have lunch at; and I think that the two roles are pretty easy to decipher.

We ended up having lunch at Dinghy’s Restaurant and Bar on the main drag of the road, but not on the water side.  Just from the name of the establishment, one can figure out that they are taking a nautical approach to the theme and to the décor.  The restaurant had hanging from the ceiling the signs from the Pilot Houses of the old ferries that use to ply Lake Michigan, there were also nautical maps and lighthouses featured.  We were just going to have a quick and light lunch and get back to our group, so we skipped what Dinghy’s is really noted for, and that is their smoked food dishes.  My Bride had a Caesar Salad with chicken, as if she doesn’t eat that dish enough in her life.  I went with a burger with Cheddar and sautéed onions, which I really don’t eat that often and I had an order of sweet potato fries, because I knew that would make my Bride happy.

As for our libations, our orders can sometimes get mixed up and it is understandable.  My Bride had the big robust wine, while I had the light white wine and they were both against the usual norms of pairing with our dishes.  My Bride had the Trapiche Oak Cask Malbec 2017 from the Mendoza region of Argentina.  I have found out that Trapiche uses Oak Cask or Reserve for the same wine, depending on the market.  Trapiche is one of the largest wine producers in Argentina and they now produce about one-hundred-thirty-three-million cases of wine a year, with multiple labels and categories, but Malbec is almost half of their output.   I went with The Prisoner Wine Company “The Snitch” Chardonnay Napa Valley 2016 and I think that I enjoy their wines as much as I enjoy their tongue-in-cheek attitude especially for the labels.  This wine company was originally made by Orin Swift Cellars, but they were sold to Honeeus Vintners in 2010, who later sold to Constellation Brands in2016.  Here is a Napa Valley Chardonnay with just a touch of Roussanne that is affordable and enjoyable, as the fruit came from Oak Knoll and Carneros.  What a fun way to spend a couple of hours with my Bride, because of her work.

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Chateau D’Issan

Posted on August 13, 2018 by thewineraconteur

I guess it will go down in the annals of The Wine Raconteur as a moment of serendipity.  It was kind of funny, a mixed case of wine from Louisville meets a mixed case of wine from Detroit up at a resort at Thompsonville, Michigan.  Both of the cases were mostly for the enjoyment of the moment, but we each brought one special wine for the dinner that we would have before we went to see The Music Man featuring family members who were accepted for the summer theater program at Interlochen.  By this day the balance of the family members that were coming up had appeared, but the actual number of wine drinkers had not changed, but there was still an electricity in the air and it had nothing to do with a billiard parlor table in River City, Iowa.

Well friends, let me tell you what I mean.  We were making a dinner that evening of two awesome sized beef tenderloins that had been marinating in olive oil, vinegar, garlic and fresh rosemary.  My Bride was making her Caesar Salad, she had premixed the dressing before we left, and had prepped the Romaine lettuce, to make her life easier.  She was also making Armenian Pilaf, but it came out a little different because the vacation home came with an electric stove.  The tenderloins were so large that after being on the barbeque, we actually had to bring them in, carve them into medallions and put them back on the grill to finish them off properly, and the good news is that they came out perfectly, as it would have been a shame to over cook a couple choice cuts of meat like that.

Here is where the serendipity moment came.  My Brother-in-Law and I like to bring out some very interesting wines at times, and while I think that I have a decent cellar, it pales in comparison to his.  That is just the way of life, there is always something better, unless maybe you own the Hope Diamond and then you have total bragging rights.  I brought up Blason D’Issan Margaux 2015 that we had just found and I wrote how we were so impressed that we bought a six pack of the wine.  Blason is a French word for “coat of arms” and I guess that is a nice way for them to list the second label from Chateau D’Issan.  The wine was a blend of sixty percent Cabernet Sauvignon and the balance was Merlot.  The wine is aged from fourteen to sixteen months in French Oak, of which a third is new.  The major difference between the first label and the second label, is a little shorter aging period and the fruit is harvested from younger vines.  The best way that I could describe this wine was “silky” and it was very impressive.  We were looking forward to this dinner, because when we were comparing wines that we had both carried up, he looked at the label of the Blason and thought it looked familiar and it should have.  He had brought a bottle of Chateau D’Issan Margaux 2005, a Troisiemes Grand Cru Classe en 1855 or in plain English a Third Growth from the great classification of the Medoc, and the labels are quite similar.  Chateau D’Issan is a legendary estate in Margaux, just south of Chateau Margaux and next door to Chateau Palmer, I mean some great real estate especially if you are into terroir.  The blend of the two grapes were the same, but because this was fruit from much older vines, the wine was aged for eighteen months in French Oak, of which fifty-five percent was new.  I kind of let a promotion of the dinner out a little early on Twitter showing the tops of the two capsules.  I said that Blason was “silky” and I thought it was the ideal way to describe a great wine from the Margaux, which if you bother to check, I have to admit, that I have had my share of these wines over the decades.  The Chateau D’Issan was ten years older and it still had the deep color and nose that was so impressive about the Blason, without any signs of age and probably way too early to have been disturbed.  I will add two more ethereal words to “silky” as I am not of this new generation that adores finding unique descriptors, but I will add “opulent” and “elegant.” Those three words just all go together after a full tasting of this wine, especially paired with a properly prepared filet.  Who would have ever thought that the two would be united that evening.  Then off to the opening night of the play.

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