Pasty and Wine

Posted on August 11, 2018 by thewineraconteur

Our first night of getting situated up in Crystal Mountain in our vacation home for our Michigan adventure.  After schlepping all the groceries into the house, the sisters took it upon themselves to make sense out of the larders for the next couple of days.  It is good that we brought up our auxiliary electric car refrigerator as we ended up needed the additional space for a couple of days.  On our trip up, we had to make an extra stop and not even out of our way to Cadillac, Michigan to pick up an order that the Louisville contingent could not pick up, because they arrived too late in Cadillac to pick up it.  We picked up an order of Pasty, and not the glittery or tasseled pasties that the dancers in Burlesque used to wear while performing.

You may not know what a Pasty is, but in keeping with the theme of Michigan, it is relevant.  Historically it is Cornish and recorded from the 1300’s, originally a dish for the Royalty, but it ended up as a dish for the masses, and especially for miners, as the dish would remain hot for a long time and could be reheated on a shovel over a flame if necessary.  A Pasty is a self-contained savory pastry dish that does not require a pot or a pan to make and is filled with beef, potatoes, onions, spices and rutabagas, and some wags claim that the pastry shell will not crack even if it falls out of the pocket of a miner and falls to the bottom of a mine shaft.  You may ask what a Cornish Pasty has to do with Michigan, and you would be right, except that it was widely used by the Finn immigrants that ended up in the Upper Peninsula as miners in the 1800’s.  My Brother-in-Law’s family is Finnish from the U.P. and he is a maven on them.  These were from one of his two favorite Pasty shops in the Lower Peninsula and we were having them for dinner the first night.

We certainly did not have any problems pairing wine with our dinner.  Actually, we started enjoying our dinner wines, while dinner was baking.  The first bottles that we opened that evening was Bonterra Chardonnay 2017, a California Chardonnay with a touch of Muscat and Viognier to add some aromatics and an extra layer of nuance in the taste.  Bonterra is part of the much larger Fetzer Wines and the Bonterra line is crafted from Certified Organically Grown Grapes.  Seventy percent of the wine was aged in a combination of French and American Oak, of which fifteen percent was new, and the balance of the wine was done in Stainless Steel for a nice balanced wine that was great on its own and with our Pasty dinner eventually.  We then went with another tried and true friend to finish the evening and that was the Rodney Strong Vineyards Chardonnay Sonoma County 2016.  The winery was founded in 1959 and originally used bulk grapes under the label of Tiboron Vintners.  Then in 1962 they bought Windsor Vineyards and then in 1989 the Klein Family bought the winery and kept Rodney Strong on, until he retired.  This basic wine of theirs is also a blend of French and American Oak (fifty/fifty) with the wine on the lees for six months, and also some aged in Stainless Steel.  Our first night was just some easy drinking and then we called it a night and looked forward to the next wave of family to join us the next day.

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Up North Again

Posted on August 9, 2018 by thewineraconteur

When you live in the Detroit area, when you say up North, you are covering a lot of territory, not just the Lower Peninsula, but the Upper Peninsula as well.  We found ourselves going back to Crystal Mountain Resort and this time for a non-business trip.  With a trip like this, I also have to apologize as I am behind in my readings of my fellow Bloggers, but I will eventually get caught up again, as it was enough keeping up with the writing.  Since I have mentioned the resort often on these pages, I guess that I should mention a little bit about it, it located near Thompsonville, but to make it easy, it is near the wine country of Traverse City.  The resort was founded in 1956 and in the winter, it maintains fifty-eight downhill slopes, with seven chairlifts and two surface lifts, and is the only location to have an Alpine Slide in Michigan.  During the summer it maintains two eighteen-hole Championship golf courses and is the site of an annual LPGA tournament.  Conde Nast rated it one of the best “family ski resorts in the U.S.A.” and ranked it #1 for “family reunions.”  The accommodations include hotel rooms, suites, condominiums, chalets, townhouses and vacation homes.  I tagged along with my Bride and we met up with two of her other four sisters and their families in a vacation home that had four bedrooms, plus a huge loft for additional space, a full kitchen, dining, living areas, laundry, barbeque site and fire pit, not to mention a garage and a still unfinished basement.

We were getting together, because the Louisville part of the family had their youngest children who are twins that were accepted to the Interlochen Center for the Arts for a summer theater camp program that was culminating in a presentation of Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man.  Interlochen was founded in 1928 and works with children from grades three to twelve as well as programs for adults as well.  The school is for music, theater, dance, visual arts, creative writing, motion picture arts and comparative arts.  The campus and grounds are located between two lakes on a very idyllic setting with two major theaters, one enclosed and one semi-enclosed and we were basically there between performances by Reba McEntire and a show featuring Steve Martin and Martin Short.   The twins are very honored and accomplished to have both been accepted for the program, as the students that were performing were from across the country, and two were international students.

We got there the night after the Louisville clan got there, and a day before the others.  Our catering company (well we should be) arrived with bags and bags of food and beverages, not to mention our clothes.  With all of the goods we actually were bringing with us for the week, we had to stop by for more food, as her Sister had an order of food to pick-up that they could not get to in time.  With all of the driving and everything else, it was now time to kind of relax before dinner.  We now switch gears and head to France for the wine that we were drinking that evening, and after a four-hour drive, not to mention all the schlepping of the grocery bags, we needed some wine.  We were enjoying some M. Chapoutier Belleruche Rosé 2016.  The Chapoutier family goes back to 1808 in the Rhone, but it was in 1879 that they stopped being farmers and began making wine and becoming negocient.  In 1988 Michael Chapoutier modernized the concern and switched from large Chestnut foudres to Oak casks for quicker aging.  He also began to become biodynamically and organic in the vineyards that he owns or oversees.  The wine that is made for immediate consumption is Grenache with Cinsault and Syrah.  It is aged from three to six months in Stainless Steel to keep the youthful fruit finish and it was very easy and refreshing and it was perfect to let us begin to rest.

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Two Italians

Posted on August 7, 2018 by thewineraconteur

I guess from almost the start of my wine appreciation journey, the wines of Italy have always been one of the cornerstones of my education process.  I mean there is not one country that I will ever know completely and even though I may have drunk my share of wines from Italy there is always something new to discover and to appreciate.  While I was at The Fine Wine Shop in Livonia, Michigan I had a chance to try a couple of interesting Italian red wines and through the use of the Coravin system they can pour some very exotic wines from time to time without the wine going bad waiting for the next individual that will appreciate the wine.

The first wine is one is from a region that is famous not only in Italy, but the world, as everyone enjoys a Barolo wine from the Piedmont.  I did a tasting of Cordero di Montezemolo Monfalletto Barolo 2013.  We have here a family that for nineteen generations since 1340 have been taking care of the Monfalletto Estate.  The Nebbiolo grape reigns here and this winery also makes a special wine during spectacular vintages of only their oldest vines, and they have some very old wines on the estate.  This particular wine that I had is one of their classics and depending on the grapes and vintage the aging period could be from eighteen to twenty-four months in a mix of French and Slovenian Oak barrels.  This wine had a great nose and a big full taste, the kind of wine that one wants to keep refilling the glass with.  That is appreciation.

The second wine had me intrigued and I had to discover it, because as I was learning about some other wines, I kept seeing the staff grab bottles of this wine and then return the bottles to the shelf and return with magnums.  The Isole e Ollena Cepparello Toscana IGT 2015 was very popular.  Here is a winery that is from the Tuscan region, made from all Sangiovese and is entirely in the boundaries of the Chianti Classico zone.  You may ask, why isn’t the wine using the more prestigious and readily known Chianti Classico appellation, and it is because they make the wine strictly with Sangiovese and do not blend it, as Chianti laws require.  Since 1980 when they started the Cepparello label they originally had to use the basic Vino da Tavola designation and even then, it was recognized by those in the know, that this was not a table wine, and when the laws changed in 1992 it became a Toscana IGT or popularly now known as Super Tuscan wines, because they do not play by the traditional rules of the region.  My immediate note that I wrote down for this wine was “FULL” and “CHEWY,” which I realize is very terse, but for me and my normal disdain for descriptors, it was plenty of information for a future purchase.

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A New Wine Club

Posted on August 5, 2018 by thewineraconteur

We just signed on for the monthly wine club at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  You may have noticed that I mention them if I go to a promotional wine tasting or sometimes I just go in to try some of the new wines that they are featuring.  Once a month they will automatically charge our credit card a set price and will send us out notices that the two wines are ready to be picked up.  I think the best feature of the club, is that one can pay the discount case price per bottle on all featured wines, even if you don’t buy a case at a time, and to be candid, there is not much room left to allow us to buy cases of wine, unless we go on some real benders and that would defeat the purpose of having good wines.

The first wine for July 2018 is Bodegas Piqueras Black Label 2015.  The winery is in their fourth generation and is found in Almansa, a newer DO (1966) located in the much larger Castilla La Mancha of Spain.  They have been growing wines there since the Sixteenth Century in an area that is known for their lack of rain, but the gravelly limestone soil seems to hold the necessary water for the season.  Almansa “prefers” red wines, but the DO does “authorize” some white varietals as well.  The most famed grape for Almansa is Monastrell, or Mourvedre as it is known in the rest of the world, and this particular bottle is half Monastrell and the other half is Syrah, another grape that does exceedingly well in Spain.  The wine is aged four to six months in a mix of French and American Oak barrels.  The owner of the shop describes this wine as “a spice box…big intensity and flavor…best served with lamb or beef.”

The second wine is Ray’s Station Winery Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 from Mendocino and part of the larger Vintage Wine Estates family wineries.  The wine is named after former Army Captain and Bear Flag Republic Leader John Ray who established successful vineyards in the regions, especially in Mendocino County.  The area is known for it’s Redwoods, wines and now Cannabis crops.  This wine is eighty percent Cabernet Sauvignon and the balance is evenly split between Merlot and Malbec, with a suggest cellaring life of ten years.  The owner’s notes are “rich and complex Cab that is loaded with black fruit…best served with grilled meats…and flavorful cheeses.”

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Fort Ross Wines

Posted on August 3, 2018 by thewineraconteur

Diana Schweiger, the National Sales Manager for Fort Ross Vineyards was conducting the wine tasting at the Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  When we got there, there was not a crowd at the moment, which made it easier for me to take my rank-amateur photography shots of the wine.  It was interesting listening to Ms. Schweiger discuss the winery, the wines as well as her earlier days, as she comes from a wine making family as well, of no relation to the Fort Ross Vineyards.  She also had photographs of the winery and how the blocks were laid out, and she had some technical tear sheets as well, which is probably more interesting to wine geeks like me, than to the average person going in to taste some new wines to take home.

The Fort Ross Symposium Pinot Noir 2013 delivered to me what I expect from this grape.  This was like all of their wines Estate Grown, but it contained four percent Pinotage.  This wine was aged for eleven months in French Oak, of which a quarter was new and the wine was finished unfined and unfiltered.  There were three-hundred-fifty-nine cases of this wine and I think it will cellar nicely for seven to ten years.  I like the darker color of this Pinot Noir compared to the Sea Slopes, and the nose was much fuller, and I found the wine to be full-bodied and textured.

The last wine of the conducted tasting was the Fort Ross Pinotage 2012 which got my Bride nervous.  She has had two Pinotage wines, one that she enjoyed and one she had me finish, so she is still on the fence on this varietal.  Pinotage was first developed in South Africa in 1925 and is a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault (which used to be called Hermitage).  Lester and Linda Schwartz the owners and founders of Fort Ross Vineyard are from South Africa and in tribute to their homeland sourced Pinotage bud wood from the original founding blocks in that country and were the first private growers to import grapevine cuttings through the Foundation Plant Services that operates alongside the U.C. Davis School of Viticulture and Enology.  This wine was aged for ten months in French Oak, of which fifteen percent was new, and they produced three-hundred-seventy cases.  I think that this wine will age nicely for about ten years.  Here was a nice dark inky wine, and I have found that Pinotage goes out of its way to discover and unmask the terroir of the estate.  From the four or five different Pinotage wines that I have had, I find that it is the wilder and gamier relative of Pinot Noir and can really deliver when it is done right, and this bottle of wine hit all the right notes for me and is perfect for a big hearty dinner in the middle of winter.  I have to say that all in all, I enjoyed the wines of Fort Ross Vineyard and Winery and look forward to having them again.

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Fort Ross Sea Slopes

Posted on August 1, 2018 by thewineraconteur

Fort Ross Vineyards has the distinction of being the closest vineyard to the Pacific Ocean and they were one of the proponents that helped create the Fort Ross-Seaview AVA and it was achieved in 2012.  In 1988 Lester and Linda Schwartz purchased virgin forest and grasslands in the high coastal ridges of the Sonoma Coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  Even though they were told that the area was not wine country, they persevered and began experimenting with different clones and trellis systems and irrigation systems.  In 1994 they laid out by hand fifty-three acres of small blocks or parcels of land according to their studies and research.  Around 2000 they began producing their first wines and in 2012 they hired Jeff Pisoni as their winemaker.  This was the real reason that I went to Fine Wine Source to taste these wines.

The first wine that we tasted was the Fort Ross Sea Slopes Chardonnay 2016 and like all of their wines at the tasting they were all Estate Grown.  With the unique layout of the vineyard and the small blocks or parcels that may have different varietals growing in the adjacent parcel, almost all of the harvesting is done by hand.  This wine spent fifteen months aging in a mix of Stainless Steel and French Oak (of which twenty percent was new).  The color of the wine was what I would call a classic Chardonnay yellow, and I could detect minerals in the nose and in the taste, which was very crisp and refreshing.  There was just over twenty-five-hundred case made of this wine.

The other wine of this collection was the Fort Ross Sea Slopes Pinot Noir 2014.  The two wines in the Sea Slopes collection showed a determined leaning towards the Burgundy region and that is fine with me.  This wine was aged for nine months in French Oak, of which ten percent was new and the wine was produced unfined and unfiltered.   I found the wine to have a softer color and nose, but maybe I expect more from Pinot Noir, I did notice some Pomegranate during the tasting. There were still two more wines to try from the winery.

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Blason D’Issan

Posted on July 30, 2018 by thewineraconteur

“Impetuous” maybe one of the greatest lines of cinematic dialogue especially when uttered by Michelin Oge Flynn and it has nothing to do with wine, but it best describes my Bride when she tasted this wine.  I am never sure how my Bride will respond to a wine tasting as I think she goes for the pure enjoyment of tasting new wines and while I do as well, I also think about an article.   To me, wine is the bonding agent that adheres one moment to another in my writings.  I may not drink wine every day, but there is always something to remind me about wine daily.

We were doing a wine tasting at Fine Wine Source in Livonia and this particular wine Blason D’Issan 2015 caught our attention.  While the gentleman that was pouring our tasting using the Coravin system, I think he just presumed that I would associate Blason D’Issan with Chateau D’Issan, one of the Third Growths from the legendary Classification of the Medoc in 1855.  Blason is a French word for “coat of arms” and I guess that is a nice way for them to list their second label.  Chateau D’Issan is from the commune of Margaux and it is one of the districts that I totally enjoy, encountered the most and probably drank the most or it may be tied with Pauillac.  The Chateaux is rather legendary and has been recorded in history as the wine served in 1152 at the marriage between Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II of England.

The best word in my mind to describe the great wines of Margaux is silky, I know it is a rather ethereal word, but it just seems like the perfect word when describing certain beverages.  The major difference between the first and second label, since all the fruit is from the same estate, is that the fruit harvest for Blason is from the younger vines, and since they started making this wine in 1995, as an alternative wine that is more fruit forward and drinkable much earlier.  One hears of some of the leading Margaux wines still being in their prime from the earliest years of the last century.  This wine is sixty percent Cabernet Sauvignon and the balance is Merlot.  The Blason is aged for fourteen to sixteen months in oak, of which a third is new, the blending and the aging is slightly different compared to the first label.  So, you may be curious why I started off with “impetuous” and now I will tell you.  I hadn’t even brought the wine up to my nose to start the tasting regimen, when my Bride had announced to me, that she was in love with the wine and wanted at least a six pack.  The joys of traveling with the Exchequer.

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My Day Out

Posted on July 28, 2018 by thewineraconteur

I was feeling quite good even with a sore gum after dental surgery, but it was like my first day out.  We had gone to a special wine tasting that I will get to, as well as some other wines that we encountered, which will all be in good time.  My Bride had to have some time for herself, not that she doesn’t mind doing wine tastings, actually I haven’t met anyone that doesn’t like a good wine tasting.  She wanted to see a movie and yes it was another chick flick, but that was alright as I liked the first.  The new Mama Mia movie was fun, but to me, not nearly as entertaining as the original, but I am not a movie critic.

We also went out for dinner and I was looking forward to it, as I have been babying myself from before the surgery and I was still being careful, but it was going beyond soup.  We went to one of our new regular restaurants French Toast which is Cajun in its flavor.  My Bride went with one of their specials of the night which was pan-sautéed Mackerel with grits and asparagus.   I was still being careful and I went with shrimp and grits.  I can’t wait till I am ready for something chewier.

We continued the day with more wine as there is something commendable about this avocation of mine.  My Bride had a glass of Ruffino Lumina Pinot Grigio Delle Venezie IGT 2016. This light straw-colored wine was just the ticket as far as I was concerned to go with the seafood and the creaminess of the grits. This wine is only aged for ten days in Stainless Steel and is meant for quick and easy consumption and not for cellaring. The Delle Venezie IGT encompasses the three main areas noted for Pinot Grigio, namely Veneto, Friuli-Giulia and Trentino.  An easy choice and it paired well with her dinner.  As for me I went with a glass of Benziger Family Winery Chardonnay Sonoma County 2014.  This was just a soft buttery finished wine that was produced with whole cluster pressing with cold fermentation and then aged for nine months in Hungarian Oak barrels.  Benziger Family Winery purchased the old Wegener Ranch on Sonoma Mountain in Glen Ellen back in 1980.  The winery started transitioning towards being biodynamic in 1995 and were certified in 2000.  It was just the perfect way to end my day and my first day out.

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Korbin Kameron Wines

Posted on July 26, 2018 by thewineraconteur

My first day out in the real world after the first phase of my oral surgery regimen and I went wine tasting.   I couldn’t think of anything better for my gums and missing tooth, but some fine wines to salve the trauma.  My Bride and I had a full day planned and the first stop was to The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan and I was rather hesitant.  Not about the wines, but having the Exchequer of the Funds, because she can get quite animated about wines, even more than I do, and that can be a dangerous situation.   Korbin Kameron wines is the brand for Moonridge Vineyards located on Mount Veeder, a curious location which separates Napa County from Sonoma County and there nineteen acres can be found on both sides of the slope.  Mitchell Ming is the proprietor along with his wife, and the winery is named after his twin children and his other daughter has a vineyard named for her.

The Korbin Kameron Rosé Moon Mountain 2017 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.

The other wine from Moonridge Vineyards is their Korbin Kameron Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder 2012 and now we are on the Napa County side of the slopes.  Mount Veeder is in a very popular area with Carneros and Napa to the Southeast and Oak Knoll District and Yountville to the West.  Here was a true Napa Cabernet from the color, to the nose with a big chewy wine that had a long count aftertaste, I mean what more could you desire?  This wine spent eighteen months in French Oak and it was a very lush wine, the downside if there is, was that only fifty cases were produced.  My Bride will be wanting to share some of these wines and I can’t complain.

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Ehler’s Estate 1886

Posted on July 24, 2018 by thewineraconteur

Some days the Gods look down at you and smile when you run into a wine shop for a moment, or so you think.  I had to run into The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan and with the wonders of the Coravin system my visit was a little longer than expected.  The Coravin system is a God-send to the wine trade, I am not as sure for personal use, but with this system they can pour a glass of wine without removing the cork and the wine will keep for some time and the wine will stay fresh.  It is a perfect tool for doing impromptu wine tastings.  The wine I got to taste was Ehler’s Estate 1886 Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 from St. Helena in Napa Valley.

Bernard Ehler bought a dying vineyard in the late 1800’s in what is now St. Helena and he replanted the ten-acre vineyard and included an olive grove as well.  In 1886 he completed the construction of his stone barn that today is the winery building even on his original Bale Mill Winery.  About a century later and the winery changing hands a few times until Jean and Sylvaine LeDucq slowly but surely bought parcel by parcel and recreated the original Bale Mill Winery but renamed the property Ehler’s Estate in his honor.  The winery has been rated 100% Certified Organic and I am sure that is how Bernard Ehler did his work back then.

The Ehler’s Estate 1886 Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 was a big wine fresh from the bottle even without the aid of breathing.  The wine is eighty-five percent Cabernet Sauvignon with an additional blending of Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot.  The wine was aged entirely in French Oak, of which seventy percent was new and it was aged for at least twenty months.  This was a big wine in the classic style that I learned to appreciate back when I was a kid.  It reminded me a Claret with the big nose, strong color and a big chewy taste with a very long count on the finish.  This wine hit all the important points in my quick tasting and in fact it was so delicious I had a little bit more.  Another interesting item about this wine is that 100% of the proceeds from the sale of their wines are returned to the LeDucq Foundation to support International Cardio-vascular Research.

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