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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Last Graduation

Posted on July 22, 2018 by thewineraconteur

I think we have gone to the last graduation party for the year and the last one was for my nephew.  I am basically retired, but I try to help out a store if I can, and the week up to my nephew’s graduation was a killer.  I have almost lost my “sea legs” when it comes to retail and here I was almost working fifty hours in five days, the only saving grace was that I was working inside and not out on the pavement as this additional time to work coincided with an art fair and sidewalk sale.  They had the good fortune that it did not rain, but the temperatures and humidity were classic Michigan.  I arranged to leave an hour earlier than planned at the store, which was not a problem, the problem was that the store is so far away from our home that my Bride drove me to work, dropped me off and made the day of it with a former co-worker who is now retired and widowed, so they went out for a leisurely lunch and of course some shopping in another state.  When she picked me up to go to the party I was still fresh as a daisy considering that I had worked nine hours in a shirt and tie and sport coat (my usual attire for work), but the daisy wilted within a half hour of arriving at my Brother’s home.

As soon as we arrived and were walking up the driveway to the backyard, we ran into the man of the hour and congratulated him.  He also informed us that we should go straight to the garage in the back, because that is where the caterers had set up for the party, and they were getting ready to leave soon, and since they were located about two hours away, I could understand their desire to call it a day.  In spite of my cracked tooth and an abscess, I had to eat the food from this catering company.  Can you say Armenian food?  I skipped the salad course, because it appeared to have Feta cheese and that is not Armenian.  I went directly to the delicacies that this caterer is known for.  There was Lahmajoon the delightful individual sized Armenian “pizzas” that one just rolls up and finishes in a couple of bites, I might add that this caterer makes the Lahmajoon in the same time honored and spiced the same as when my Grandmother was alive to make them, and yes, I piled them on the plate, because I was one of the last to arrive.  There was also Cheese Boereg, a light flaky pastry that is stuffed with a Brick cheese and is baked a golden brown, and yes plenty of those as well.  I also made some room for some Armenian Pilaf, which the caterer did a good job, but not nearly as good as my Bride’s.  Then there were three chaffing dishes filled with Sheesh-kabob, chicken, beef and lamb, and of course I only did the lamb.  I was extremely happy with the food and I did make the most of it.

By the time that I got to the backyard for the festivities, I had already removed my tie and sport coat, it was that hot, in the mid nineties for the minority that still use Fahrenheit for temperature.  I went up to the bar that was just off of the pool area and I went right passed the red wines as I wanted something that was in the ice troughs.  The safest of the white wines, is one that we actually have at the house ourselves, because my Bride is quite partial to it, just to drink.  I got a couple of glasses of JaM Cellars Butter Chardonnay 2016, as it is an easy to drink Chardonnay for the price. The wine carries a California AVA designation as the fruit comes from Mendocino County, Santa Barbara County and Clarksburg. It is a commercial bulk wine that has some appeal, and since it is not done in oak barrels for aging, they use oak chips to impart the taste of the oak and the butter taste and texture that one gets from small batch Chardonnay wines.  I really did not go beyond that wine as it worked in the heat of the backyard and after the long week of work, I was worn out, but I did make sure that I not only got a business card from the caterer, but I took a photo of the truck, after all, I may lose the card, but a photo on my site stays.

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Vintage Tavern

Posted on July 20, 2018 by thewineraconteur

One of the charms of visiting a different community is to check out the local establishments.  I have always enjoyed small local to large corporate.  Some people may argue that large is more affordable, but to me, it takes away from the local charm.  No matter how great that steak is at a corporate eatery, it will be a cookie-cutter repeat at any of their other locations, in fact most will even look the same.  The local guy has to work harder and better for you and I appreciate that.  The other day when we were in Port Huron we were going to have dinner with another couple.  The last time my Bride and I were in Port Huron she was on business and we had stayed at a quaint hotel that had been taken over by a major chain and we all went to dinner at a local barbecue establishment.  I did some research and I found a restaurant that sounded very interesting, especially in the wines that they had listed.

We had just gotten off a river boat cruise and when I checked the GPS on my phone, we were only eight minutes away from the Vintage Tavern and that was in walking “time.”  We thought we were going to lose some time, because along the route we were walking was a draw bridge and we could see that it was up to allow some boat traffic, but by the time we actually got there, the bridge was almost down so we really didn’t lose any time.  The Vintage Tavern was on the backside of the main street and just across the street from the water and I looked up and saw a large open area on the third floor and that is where we went, to enjoy a nice panoramic view of Port Huron.  The building was from the late 1800’s and I am not sure what it originally was, but it would have been a great speak-easy during the Prohibition Era, because there were a couple of very cool private hidden rooms for parties.   The building must have been commercial, as there were leaded windows, millwork, exposed brick, tin ceilings and the old-fashioned belt and pulley ceiling fans.  We started off with a plate of Smoked Salmon Spread which is kind of a given especially on water-front establishments in Michigan, but if it is well done, it is a great way to start the meal.  My Bride had Grilled Yellowfin Tun with Pickled Ginger, Wasabi and two different Seaweeds and she was thrilled.  As for myself I went with the Braised Short Rib with Mashed Potatoes and Asparagus, and when I gave my request I had said “ribs” and the waitress corrected it to “rib.”  I found that curious until the “rib” arrived and I am not sure if I could have handled “ribs.”

My Bride urged me to get a full-bodied wine to go with my entrée, even though it would over-power her dish.  I ordered a bottle of Bennett Family the Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2014.  Now here is a wine that I could find no information, but what was on the back label, as they have a website listed it did not work.  I was really geeked because this was a very easy and drinkable Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon that was affordable even in a restaurant.  Bennett Family Wines is part of William Grant and Sons, a family owned wine and spirits maker since 1887.  This wine was bottled by the firm in St. Helena and I found that they make one other wine from the Russian River.  While we were wining and dining the owner of the establishment came by and he thought that we were having the best kept secret on his list, as he seemed to infer that the wine was there for his enjoyment.  When all was said and done, we had a wonderful afternoon in Port Huron and we would go back to the Vintage Tavern again.

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Virtual Reflections

Posted on July 18, 2018 by thewineraconteur

As I look back at my first “virtual wine tasting” I am smiling and thankful and with some insights.  I am thankful that Snooth found my writings and thought enough to invite me to be part of the event.  I am also thankful for Murrieta’s Well to underwrite the entire event by sending wine to all the participants.  I am also thankful to a dear fellow wine blogger who is much more accomplished in her writings and for her knowledge and experience in the modern world of wine tasting events.  I also have to thank my Bride, who is always willing to try new wines and put up with me, and I am pretty sure the Church would never approve of “Sainte Bride.”

As for the smiles, it was a unique experience.  I just thought of all the accoutrements that I normally encounter at a wine tasting and I went with that.  I went into the china cabinet and found two white, a rosé and two red wine glasses, plus some more for my Bride who joined me in the tasting event.  Cheese and crackers to munch on and to cleanse the palate between wines was easy, but I am smiling because I asked my Bride to pick up some dark chocolate, just in case it was suggested that a certain wine would be wonderful with it, and she returned with such an esoteric and exotic 92% Cacao that I am sure nothing would pair with, though I did find that if I had that chocolate with some milk chocolate at the same time, I could survive.  I am also smiling because two days before the virtual tasting, I developed an abscess on a tooth that had cracked vertically and I will go through the elongate process of having an implant procedure, and my Bride was taking photos, so that I would not look like Marlon Brando as Don Corleone, because my right cheek and jaw was all swollen.

I came away realizing that many of the wine bloggers know each other, as the opening salvo was all “hellos” and friendly remarks and some inside jokes.  I also realize that I have to become glibber, if an offer ever comes my way again.  I was also surprised that one participant and there could have been others actually opened at least one of the bottles a day or two earlier to have with a dinner.  I also think that I made my responses a bit stiff and not nearly in the usual way that I write and that will change.  I opened the wines an hour before the event to have an initial taste before it started, so that I could make some notes and I think that I should have maybe given myself two hours of preparation, but it was fun and a learning experience.   In case you are wondering, by the time you read this, I may be asleep from medication, because the oral surgeon removed the crack tooth and began the implant procedure today.  I hope by tomorrow, the pain that I have been living with for almost two months will abate and I will try to get back to a “normal” schedule.

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Murrieta’s Well Reds

Posted on July 16, 2018 by thewineraconteur

We were coming up to the final two wines on the virtual wine tasting organized by Snooth featuring the wines of Murrieta’s Well with the guest speaker Robbie Meyer, their winemaker.  I think that I was kind of getting with the program, though a little late, because I was a complete novice, considering that half of my life was in the Twentieth Century, but my Bride and I were having fun.  I think that she was having more fun with the tasting initially, because she was just enjoying the wines, but I kept prodding her to give me terse and concise statements about each wine as she perceived them and I think she had never really focused her winetasting in that matter.  I am not saying that I am so learned about the process, since I have never had a wine course or a wine test per se.  At this stage of my life I really am not interested in getting a Sommelier designation, though I really admire those that have them and especially those that are moving up the ranks.  I am first and foremost a wine lover and secondly, I am a raconteur that likes to share the moment where the wine added color and texture to that moment.

We were now finishing off the talks of the two white wines and the dry rosé and heading to the last stretch which were two different red wines.   The first wine we tried was Murrieta’s Well “The Spur” Red Wine Blend 2015.  Here is a blended wine that features fruit grown in two of their vineyards.  The Petite Sirah and part of the Cabernet Sauvignon were grown in their historic Louis Mel Vineyard.  The balance of the Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petite Verdot and Cabernet Franc came from their Sachau Vineyard.  All of the varietals were fermented individually in Stainless Steel, and then they were blended together and aged in French Oak for twenty-four months, of which half was new, a quarter of the barrels were used for the second time and the other quarter were aged in barrels used for the third time.  While the wine is forty-eight percent Cabernet Sauvignon and thirty-two percent of the other famed varietals from the Medoc, there was twenty percent Petite Sirah to give the wine a Livermore Valley zing.  There were three-hundred-nine barrels produced and they suggest that this will be enjoyed up to 2023.  Here were our original thoughts on the wine.  I found the wine to have a good deep color with a soft reddish ring with cherry and cloves to the nose.  A big chewy wine with a long count for the aftertaste.  This would stand up very well to a nice full bodied red meat dish.  My Bride described and liked the Dark Cherry color with a cherry nose.  She thought it was a soft Cabernet Sauvignon blend and she would prefer it with a steak and not by itself.   As we went back for second tastings with the wines opening up more with time we were both very happy with this wine, but we both felt that this wine was still a better wine with a meal as it would pair very well with an assortment of dishes and she thought that she would like to try it with her marinated grilled salmon and I was still leaning more for some red meat, though I thought it might even be interesting with a pork tenderloin, because of the Petite Sirah.  As hard as my Bride tried she lamented that she could not taste her favorite varietal, namely Cabernet Franc in the wine, but I was explaining that there was so little in the blend that it was there to enhance the character of the wine.

The last wine of the evening and we were rather sad for this session to end was a big wine, and to my way of thinking that is always how a wine tasting should end.  The Murrieta’s Well Cabernet Sauvignon Small Lot 2015 was such a wine.  Here is a wine that can call itself a Cabernet Sauvignon because it is eighty-seven percent of the blend, and the fruit came from both the historic Louis Mel Vineyard and the Sachau Vineyard.  The wine was also blended with Petite Verdot and Malbec both of which were from the Sachau Vineyard.  The varieties were hand sorted and fermented for ten to twelve days in small Stainless-Steel tanks where they were pumped over three times daily, with varying amounts of time that the juice was left on the skins.  The wine was then aged for eighteen months in French Oak, of which eighty percent was new and the balance was either second or third time of usage.  There were twenty-seven barrels produced and they feel that this wine will age through to 2025.    Our initial thoughts on this wine and what I typed into the side bar where all the other wine bloggers were adding their opinions as well was that I felt it was a strikingly good inky Garnet with softer red rim and a real Cabernet nose.  A heavy Cabernet Sauvignon presence, but not an abundance of fruit (not a big jammy wine that some are so enthralled with), rather it had balanced tannins and a good aftertaste.  Definitely a great wine for a Filet or Braised Short Ribs.  My Bride said it was the color of my Garnet stoned pinky ring with a soft nose.  A Cabernet Sauvignon that she would like with lamb.  As we were having our second and third tastes of the wine I was enjoying the layers of texture and nuances, while my Bride was enjoying this wine more as the wine was opening up more in the glass.  This was just a totally fun and interesting experience and we really did enjoy the session and compared the evening to other sessions that we have both attended.  She actually does more of the wine shopping, so I will be curious to look at her future purchases to see if she has had success locally with any of these wines.  As for me, I was so geeked up by the event, that while I was finishing the wines that I had poured for my tastings, I actually wrote my first article.

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A Night with Robbie Meyer

Posted on July 14, 2018 by thewineraconteur

Robbie Meyer is the winemaker at Murietta’s Well and while I did not have an actual meeting with, through the arrangements of Snooth, I along with forty-three other wine bloggers we did a virtual wine tasting.  I was actually enthralled listening to Mr. Meyer as he discussed many aspects of the winery and the passion that he spoke about the many wines, the different wines, the vineyards, the terroir and realized that he was the type of man that actually got his hands dirty out in the fields and not one to sit back and let others do the labor.  There were times when I was listening so intently about what he had to say, that I neglected to keep a better eye on the sidebar that showed all the remarks and questions being posted by the other bloggers.  There were times when I almost forgot to enter my remarks, because I was enjoying his company, if you can appreciate that he was on my computer screen and not actually in my presence, but it felt like he was.

The actual shift from the first wine of the evening to the second wine was very subtle, and I had my Bride sitting at the other end of the dining room table from me with her own laptop watching the same program, sometimes prodding me, but then my glasses were already poured and she had to keep pouring her own wine, I mean I am such a meanie.  The second wine that we were all tasting and commenting on was Murrieta’s Well “The Whip” White Wine Blend 2016.  Here is a wine that has a third of the wine from their legendary Sauvignon Blanc cuttings that started the winery, the rest of the fruit used for this wine comes from their Hayes Vineyard which has the widest elevation and the blocks are individually maintained for the specific requirements that the grapes require.  The balance of the grapes used for this wine are Semillon, Chardonnay, Orange Muscat and Viognier.  A portion of both the Sauvignon Blanc and the Chardonnay were fermented in small oak barrels and the rest of juice was ferment cold in Stainless Steel tanks.  The longest period of aging time was fourteen months.  There were two-hundred-ninety-seven barrels produced of this wine and they suggest that the wine will aged well to 2021.  I was looking at the wine and I describe the color as soft Gold with floral aromatics.  One can still taste the Sauvignon Blanc but tempered with the other wines to bring a nice aftertaste.  I think a great wine to drink with friends before dinner.  My Bride described the wine as a dark Straw color with the flowers of the Viognier.  She thought it would be best just to drink without food.  I had not told her what wines were in the blend and I think that when she saw the color, she immediately thought of Chardonnay, and she said that maybe she should have rinsed her glass after the Sauvignon Blanc, because she was still tasting that grape, then I told her that the wine was a third Sauvignon Blanc, so that made her happy that she wasn’t off base with her tasting abilities.  As we kept tasting and studying this wine, we appreciated the nuances of the other grapes and the minerality that neither of us mentioned at first, but we just kept enjoying the wine.

The third wine of the evening piqued my Bride’s thirst immediately as she has in the last couple of years taken a real interest in the different Rosé wines that we have encountered.  We were trying the Murrieta’s Well Dry Rosé 2017.  Here is a wine that has Grenache and Counoise grown in their Hayes Vineyard and the Mourvedre was grown in their Raboli Vineyard.  The grape clusters were handpicked in the morning hours and they used gentle whole cluster pressing.  Each varietal was cold-fermented separately and aged for about one month.  After the month the wines were blended and aged for an additional two months in Stainless Steel.  This wine produced two-thousand and one cases and they recommend that it will be best to be consumed by 2019.  My first thoughts on this wine was the soft Salmon shade with a delicate soft nose of soft fruits.  A good acid balance with harmonious blend of the fruit.  A shorter aftertaste with a little bite.  My Bride described this wine as a translucent Salmon color with a light nose.  A very subtle, not overpowering wine that she liked a lot.  We were a little disheartened when one of the other bloggers pointed out that this wine was now sold out at the winery, but we were glad that we had a chance to enjoy this bottle.   As we kept tasting the wine the terroir became more apparent and I think that it added to the appeal of the enjoyable aftertaste.  Years ago, when I first started learning about wine, I was told to count after drinking the wine, the longer the count the better the aftertaste, as some wine dissipate quickly.   My next article will cover the last two wines of the night.

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A Virtual Wine Tasting

Posted on July 12, 2018 by thewineraconteur

A little while ago, I was approached by a representative from Snooth, if I would be interested in participating with forty-three other wine bloggers in a virtual wine tasting.  I was intrigued, flattered and scared.  I mean, I am probably one of the oldest self-appointed wine writers out there.  Snooth for those that are more casual about wine is Social Networking website founded in 2006.  It is a community for research, review and shopping online and I have been kind of a lone wolf writing in the hinterlands about a subject that I enjoy so much.  I was intrigued and flattered that I was even noticed, since I am based in the mid-west, which is hardly the wine center of the country, even though the wine makers in Michigan and other parts of the mid-west are working hard for more recognition.  I was also scared, because I am probably considered an old curmudgeon, a relic from the last century and I hardly use the flowery prose and descriptors that are now in vogue.   The other aspect was the thought of a virtual wine tasting, the idea of tasting wines was not a concern, since I probably started tasting wines before most of my colleagues that I would be participating with were born.  So, I was game, since I have kind of conquered my fear of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, a new way to taste wines only seemed a bit daunting.  I did contact one of my oldest followers of my blog and maybe I am one of her oldest readers as well, but she has always been very friendly and helpful in the nuances of aspects of modern blogging, and she kind of assisted me in two different wine chats on Twitter and I survived, even with my rather limited typing skills, and I am eternally grateful and I was pleased to know that she would be one of the other forty-three.  She also gave me some great tips.

I received five bottles of wine courtesy of Murrieta’s Well in Livermore, California.  They are one of the oldest and original wine estates in California, and use only estate grown fruit for their wines.  The winery is in the Livermore Valley AVA which is in the eastern end of the San Francisco Bay AVA.  Louis Mel started planting grapes in the 1860’s and they were not just any grapes, but cuttings from Chateau d’Yquem and Chateau Margaux.  In 1884 Louis Mel built and installed in a hillside a gravity flow winery.  In 1933 Louis Mel sold his winery to Ernest Wente and the winery has been part of the Wente Family Estate ever since.  On the Murietta’s Well website they are showing fourteen different wines that they are selling.  The wines that will be part of the virtual wine tasting will be:  Sauvignon Blanc Small Lot 2017, “The Whip” White Wine Blend 2016, Dry Rosé 2017, “The Spur” Red Wine Blend 2015 and their Cabernet Sauvignon Small Lot 2015.

The Murrieta’s Well Sauvignon Blanc Small Lot 2017 was the first wine that we tried for the tasting.  The grapes in this wine are descendants of the original Chateau d’Yquem cuttings that Louis Mel planted in the 1860’s, in the Louis Mel Vineyard that is right in front of their historic tasting room.  The fruit is one of the earliest that is picked and it is hand-picked in the late evening and early morning hours.  The 2017 vintage was the first non-drought year since 2011.  The wine was aged in neutral French Oak for four months “Sur Lie” which will add nuance to the juice, without imparting an oaky flavor.  There were thirty barrels produced of this wine and it is suggested that this wine will be enjoyed through 2022.  I had two reports to issue as my Bride joined in for the occasion.  I found the wine to have a soft Straw color with a soft grapefruit aroma.  Good balanced acidity with a lingering aftertaste and a long count.  Great as a stand alone or with food.   My Bride opined that the wine had a soft Straw color with a delicate grapefruit aroma.  She also felt that it was good and refreshing.  There is still more to come about this evening.

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A Two-Hour Cruise

Posted on July 10, 2018 by thewineraconteur

While “a two-hour cruise” may remind some of a long-ago television show, we actually went on a river cruise.  We went aboard the Huron Lady II for a cruise on the St. Clair River which connects Lake Huron to Lake St. Clair.  We went with another couple who have done this excursion before, so we drove to the city of Port Huron to spend the day.  On any normal outing when we go to Port Huron, it is because we are going to use the Blue Water Bridge to leave the states and go to Canada for a holiday trip.  For those of you that are not aware, the Great Lakes are so huge, that the water would cover the entire map of the United States of America nine feet deep.  The river is also one of the busiest waterways and conveys more shipments than the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal combined.

It was an enjoyable trip, but the boat is rather spartan in creature comforts.  The seats are like park benches, but one does get some beautiful views along the river, along both of the country’s shorelines.  Since we were not stopping at all during the excursion, there was no need to have our passport.  The weather was wonderful with a nice cool breeze, so we sat up on the top deck, while the lower deck did have an enclosed area with air conditioning.  The captain of the boat was a lady and I think she maintained a continuous narration of what we were seeing along the trip.  The captain also explained a few of the courtesies that the ships and boats display and the rules of “right of way,” especially since there was a sailboat race going on while we were on the cruise.  While we did see many sailboats, we also saw a large assortment of personal pleasure boats, which is a major hobby or sport in Michigan, but we also got a chance to see some cutters and ocean liners that ply the Great Lakes from the St. Lawrence Seaway.

They did announce just as we were leaving port, that there was a concession stand on the lower deck.  I have been in agony for a couple of weeks, but the pain has increased exponentially, almost to the point of not wanting to do anything, because a tooth that I had a root canal done years ago, cracked vertically and the soonest that I could get scheduled for an oral surgeon to remove the tooth and begin an implant procedure was over a month, and the pain that was just a dull throb has grown and as I sit to write this I have another eight days of blissed pain to endure.  I was all set to go and get some adult beverage, though I was the only one of the group that wanted some, and I was hoping to drown the pain for a little while.  They were selling small individual serving bottles of Barefoot Cellars California Chardonnay NV, I only mention this because some of the Chardonnay comes from South Australia.  The winery began in 1986 and is considered the second best selling brand in the United States and the largest wine brand in the world with current annual production around eighteen-million cases.  In 2005 Barefoot Cellars were purchased by E. & J. Gallo Winery.  Suffice it to say that this wine is produced in bulk with no concerns for extended aging, and even worse it was not even cold when pulled from the refrigerator and I was asked if I wanted ice cubes.  The offer of ice, may have helped, because it is perhaps the sweetest Chardonnay wine that I have ever had, but I really only wanted it for the alcohol, in hopes of numbing the tooth and gum area.  To be quite candid, outside of the wine and pain, it was a pleasurable afternoon.

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Samples

Posted on July 8, 2018 by thewineraconteur

Samples of wine sounds so enticing.  I think that every wine blogger when they begin writing, that they will come under an avalanche of wines sent to them, so that they can write about the wines.  For the past fifty years I have had the pleasure of tasting and drinking wines, and for the last six years I have even started rambling about the wines that I have tried.  I have never had to worry about offending anyone or a winery, because the price of admission was always from my own wallet, save for the few times that I have been to affairs where the wine was part of the evening.

Of course, when I did begin in earnest to learn about wines, it was kind of a rare item.  Cocktails and beer were the drink of the day and people that had wine cellars were far and few between.  Where I grew up, home-made “Dago Red” fined with egg whites was the usual wine one would encounter.  Houses had entertainment centers that were pieces of furniture with a record player with built-in speakers and a cabinet that had room for fifths of liquor, or the liquor was sequestered in the lower cabinets of dining room china cabinet.  Wine was really an after-thought, unless there was something to celebrate and then maybe there would be some “French” Champagne and I remember the first time drinking that, I must have been about seven or eight and I remember the puckering up sensation that I had, because the wine was so “dry,” and I had no words to describe it back then.  Which leads me to that eternal problem that I have about writing about wines, in that I have no real training in the appreciation of wine, it was all self-taught and when I would find a mentor in my youth, the wine was described as “this is what a fine Medoc tastes like” or “this is not what you should expect from a good Chablis.”  The charming descriptors that are bandied about these days, I have only seemed to have noticed for the last twenty or so years, and it seems that some go out of their way to embellish their descriptions as if they are tweaking the nose of the others at a tasting to let everyone know that the others are not as sophisticated as the embellisher.

Why do I bother even mentioning samples?  I think it is become a marketing tool for wineries and distributors to get the word out about the wines.  Historically I went to tastings or to wineries to try a myriad of different wines, because there were always some wines that I was not interested enough in, to buy a bottle of wine for my dinner, and for years that was the only way one could have wine in restaurants unless one wanted some mystery wine that arrived in a carafe.  I have only been to one restaurant in my life where the Sommelier actually had a tastevin hanging around his neck as part of his tuxedo.  The Sword of Damocles is now hanging precariously above me, as I have been contacted to try some samples.  While others would jump at the chance, and I am sure that some even court the powers to be for samples, I come from an era and a mind-set that one never asked, as it just was not the proper thing to do.  In the past, there have been plenty of wines that I have tried that I have never written about and I am sure that this will still occur in the future.  Since I know that the Sword is dangling overhead, all I can say is that I will always be honest and one will have to read between the lines.  If I am enthusiastic about a wine, I will say so, and if I am not, there will be very little to mention, as I realize that there are people that make a living in the production of wine and it would bother me if they lost their livelihood because of what I wrote.  This was a lesson that was burned into my memory, because I used to have a customer whose wife was a famed restaurant critic for one of the daily papers, and she told me that she would anguish over an article if the restaurant did not fulfil her criteria for a proper meal.  Whether I have another set of samples sent to me, is in God’s hands, but I can only do what I think is proper, and I will always mention that the wines are samples, because the odds are that I will still be writing more about wines that have been purchased.

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Another Graduation

Posted on July 6, 2018 by thewineraconteur

High School graduates have permeated my psyche these days.  A couple more and I think the season will draw to an end for this year.  It has been an interesting time and a very happy time to see all of these relatives getting ready for the next stage of their lives.  While I have attended plenty of graduation parties from way back in my teens, I have to say that the parties are getting much more organized and structured, but I guess the party concept is the same.

We had another nephew graduate and the party was at the parent’s home.  They had a large tent set up in the valley of their backyard with plenty of tables for all of the revelers.  One nice addition, because of the extreme heat that we have had, was a couple of large commercial fans to keep a breeze going.   There were also some tables set up in the house, for those that may have found the heat unbearable.  The food was all catered in, and the theme once again was of Mexican food.  They had about sixteen linear feet of assorted items to make hard and soft tortillas and assorted side dishes as well.  The table of food culminated with a couple of cooks who were making “to order” quesadillas and individual bags of tortilla chips for the dips.  I would be remiss not to mention the big cake and all the other pastries and sweets for after dinner indulgences.

There were plenty of beverages available for the teens and the adults.   There were a couple of large vessels with signage that read “Adult Sangria.”  There was a keg of beer which reminded me of my youth.  There was also an assortment of wines, both red and white and a rosé.  I started with Chateau Miraval Cotes de Provence 2017 the wine that has become popular, because of its owner Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.  The winery originally made Vin de Pays until it was modernized and the celebrity owners have partnered with the Perrin family to produce the wines.  The Cotes de Provence originally carried a VDQS designation until 1977 when it became an AOC designation; eighty percent of the Cote de Provence is Rosé.  This particular wine is a blend of Cinsaut, Grenache, Syrah and Rolle with ninety percent of the juice aged in Stainless Steel and the balance in barrels.  Of all of the wines that I had at the party, the last wine was a pleasant surprise.  I am sure that they must have found this bottle and I am not sure how it was stored, as they are not really wine drinkers, but what ever they did, it worked.  Towards the end of the party they opened a bottle of Louis Jadot Macon-Village Chardonnay 1996.  Louis Jadot began with his first vineyard Clos de Ursules in the 1820’s and became a negocient in 1859 based in Beaune, one of the centers of the Burgundy region of France.  The Louis Jadot firm has a portfolio of wines from the basic regional wines to some of the most lauded vineyards in the region.  This particular wine falls somewhere in the middle, but I was just amazed that the wine was absolutely fine, I mean I was ready to casually pour it down a sink, but it wasn’t necessary at all, it was delightful without any foxing or darkening of the wine.  A great way to end the party for us, before the long set of goodbyes when ever we leave a family function.

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