“A Beautiful Noise”

Posted on February 5, 2025 by thewineraconteur

You may have noticed over the years that my Bride is a planner, and she often plans things with her one of her former work associates.  I joke because sometimes, I am the afterthought, as they were going to see the play “The Neil Diamond Musical A Beautiful Noise” and it was going to be at the Fisher Theatre in an area, that historically was referred to as “Uptown.”  Uptown was where General Motors built there high-rise and sprawling two block headquarters, they have since moved to the Renaissance Center, and as they downsize again to the new Hudson block that is being built at the moment.  I ramble, as I am prone to do.  As I am writing this, it is appropo, that yesterday was Neil Diamond’s 84th birthday.  He has been writing songs since my youth back in the Sixties, and I must say that it was a lovely outing for the three of us. 

Way back in the last year, when the two conspirators were making plans, the play was almost completely sold out, as they plotted possible dates and times.  Her friend actually worked in the building where the Fisher Theatre is, but she was not in the automotive industry.  As for us, we had season tickets there for years, but eventually there was a dearth of new plays offered, just repeats; and I have to admit that I have lost interest in “musicals” where the music is the same dirge played with different lyrics and tempos.  I am old fashioned, but I do enjoy leaving a theater with a bounce to my step and singing the lyrics that I had just heard.  I think the last time that happened was “West Side Story” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”  So, these musical medleys that tie a series of songs with a story line is appreciated. The only tickets available two months prior for the three of us was up in the nose bleed section and we had never been this high up before, but for this theatrical production they were fine.

It had been a while since we had been to the Fisher Theatre, and I was surprised at the security system that was in place to see a play.  It was like going to catch an flight, as we had to go through a metal detector, and the women’s purses were inspected, and it was like we were in a police state; I guess they were after domestic terrorists who didn’t appreciated pop music from the Sixties and later.  After going through Checkpoint Charley, we then had to stand in another line to get a drink and I may have created a riot, if I tried to get a photo of my wine glass and a bottle of wine, so I cheated and got an official photo from the winery; but the good news is that they actually used a glass flute, instead of plastic, so a bit of civility.  We had Marques de Caceres Cava Brut NV from Catalunya.  Marques de Caceres is a large wine producer, predominately known for their Rioja wines and more than half of their production is exported.  The estate was founded in 1970 by Enrique Forner, whose family had been in the Spanish Wine industry to the 20th Century.  The winery is still family-owned and currently managed by his daughter.  Originally the wine was called “Champana” as it was made in the Methode Traditionelle, but in the Sixties Champagne authorities objected and in 1970 Cava DOC was introduced.  The wine is a blend of Xarel-lo, Macabeo and Parellada.  The vineyards are more than twenty-five years old and planted in a clay-calcareous soil, and hand-harvested.  The fruit is chilled before pressing to obtain the flower must, and the Initial Fermentation in oak barrels.  The Second Fermentation is achieved in the bottle, and the wine sits on the lees for eleven months before the disgorgement.  The pale-yellow wine displayed fine bubbles and offered notes of apples, white flowers and flaky pastry dough.  On the palate there were tones of apricot, honeydew, almonds and orange zest ending with short count finish of brioche and fruit.

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A Casual Dinner with Our Son’s Family

Posted on February 2, 2025 by thewineraconteur

One of the unique things, is that our son and his family have moved back from Las Vegas and my Bride is trying to get them into the social whirl.  I enjoy it immensely, because I don’t have to factor in time differences, plus wondering what his work schedule is like, as right now, he is fixing up his new home while he gets a new profession lined up,  We will just have to get him to appreciate wine, as we always try to make arrangements for dinners here or out.  My Bride enjoys it when her social calendar is full.  And she always enjoys being a social director.

We had another dinner with the family, before they get too settled in their new environment and new routines.  We are also trying to introduce them to some different foods as they are not that adventurous, without getting carried away, I mean they do come by it naturally, just look at who they have for a grandfather,  Appetizers before dinner is a great way for them to check out cheeses, dips, and pate dishes without a lot of fanfare.  It is also a sly way to let them try some potentially unique wines that they won’t automatically encounter.  We started out with Cline Family Cellars “Seven Ranchlands” Viognier North Coast 2021, which I have found to have a long life and can be perfect with spicier dishes.    Cline Family Cellars is a producer based in Carneros and known for Zinfandel and Rhone varieties and established in 1982 in Oakley.  Fred Cline is one of the original Rhone Rangers of California.  The “Seven Ranchlands” is a way of honoring both the seven children of the Cline family, and the seven vineyard ranches.  The fruit for this wine is from the Catapult Ranch Vineyard in the Petaluma Gap, and the balance is from the Diamond Pile Vineyard at the base of the Wild Cat Mountain.  The grapes are handpicked at night, where they are destemmed and pressed, and allowed to settle for forty-eight hours before racking.  The Catapult portion was inoculated with wild yeast, while the Diamond Pile portion was allowed to ferment naturally in barrels.  After fermentation, the wine was aged in neutral French Oak for six months before blending and bottling.  This was a very soft colored white wine with notes of mango, guava, and pineapple. On the palate tones of dried apricots, pears, and banana in a full-bodied wine with nice acidity and a nice finish.

We then went and had dinner with a choice of tenderloin, salmon and chicken, because of the food preferences of our grandchildren; sometimes it is like having a restaurant, but that is fine, as I can remember times sitting at the dining room table all alone, until I finished eating a dish that I couldn’t stand and to this day, I still won’t even allow it in my house.  I also tried another wine that is off the beaten track, even for plenty of wine drinkers.  We enjoyed a bottle of Familia Fernandez Condado de Haza (Crianza) Ribera del Duero 1997 by Alejandro Fernandez. He began with Tinto Pesquera which was founded in 1972, and the first harvest was 1975.  Ribera del Duero received DO Status in 1982 from the prominence of estates like Vega Sicile and the work of individuals like Alejandro Fernandez and his Tinto Pesquera.  Condado de Haza was the second estate, and the first vineyards were planted in 1987 and there is now two-hundred hectares planted of Tempranillo on heterogenous soils with a high content of clay and the presence of sand.  He also built and dug into the hillside a bottle cellar that is almost thirty meters underground.  The aging requirements for Ribera del Duero is the same as Rioja, and that is how I was able to ascertain that this bottle was a Crianza, though it was not labeled as such, but it was aged for fifteen month in (American) oak, minimum aging is twelve months.  The wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered to enhance the full flavor of the wine.  Twenty-seven years later the wine still had a deep black cherry color with no signs of foxing and offered notes of black fruits, licorice, coffee beans and vanilla.  On the palate there were tones of the black fruit, some oak and vanilla, blended with now muted silk tannins and ending with a medium to long finish of fruit and terroir.  

   

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New Year’s Eve 2024

Posted on January 30, 2025 by thewineraconteur

We had a very quiet New Year’s Eve celebration, as the weather was terrible, and we live on the opposite side of the city from everyone else.  So, we had just a small gathering and my Bride was still a Whirling Dervish of activity.  She was enjoying herself, as she later told me, that she could relax and enjoy her company, because it was a quiet evening. 

My Bride loves to have cheese boards, and plenty of dips to nosh on.  She is not a fancy gourmet-style chef, but she enjoys good food.  She enjoys her whitefish pate, her shrimp cocktails, and she enjoys liver pate and mousse, and we have fine specialty markets where she can shop to her heart’s content.  For our guests, they prefer Chardonnay, and we have been drinking more Sauvignon Blanc lately, but we had no problem opening up some Dunning Vineyards Chardonnay Willow Creek District Paso Robles 2018.  Bob and Jo-Ann Dunning are the winemakers and owners of this forty-acre estate which was established in 1991 on the west side of Paso Robles.  The winery produces about fifteen-hundred cases a year using several different varietals.  This Chardonnay wine is produced in the classic Burgundian style with full oak barrel fermentation and sur-lees aged for one year.  It was a delightful wine with notes of pear and citrus, nutmeg and vanilla.  The wine had a nice creamy taste with balance acidity and layers of flavor that opened up and finished with a nice medium finish of terroir.

For our dinner my Bride prepared her Caesar Salad, Armenian Pilaf, a couple of side vegetables, a simple New York Strip Steak for one of the guests that has a certain food regimen, and a whole tenderloin for the rest of us.  We then had one of my Bride’s favorite wines, that she likes to save, but I went with one anyways.  We had Cain Vineyard and Winery Cain Cuvée Napa Valley  NV12.  Over the years I have called Cain Cuvée, Cain-Lite because it is made with the same loving attention, and with the same five grapes, but from two vineyards and much more affordable.  I still have in the cellar some of the original Cain Cuvée wines that have an actual vintage year.  I mention this because now the wine is a blend of two vintages and the date on the label refers to the year of the blending.  I think that it is a rather clever play on the term NV, as most of the time I use NV to mean Non-Vintage, some may think of Napa Valley and in some sort of texting language is can be read as eN-Vy or envy.  A great way to create interest, especially the first year that they did it.  Each blending year is a different blend and the wines are not a cookie-cutter duplicate of the year before and neither is the taste of wine, as compared to the Champagne houses that strive to have every batch of Non-Vintage taste like the last year for continuity and market appeal.  The labels are now a diamond shape and the back label now reads “harvested, vinified and blended for freshness, lightness, complexity and balance.” The wines also carry a Napa Valley designation as the fruit can be from their Spring Mountain estate and from their Benchland vineyards.   NV12 Cain Cuvee Napa Valley is a blend of fifty percent Merlot, thirty-two percent Cabernet Sauvignon, ten percent Cabernet Franc, four percent Petit Verdot and four percent Malbec.  A deep garnet red wine that offered a slightly funky nose when I first opened it, but about two hours later when we had it with dinner it showed a rich Medoc style wine and offered notes of black fruits, old leather, coffee, herbs and sous-bois.  On the palate a medium-bodied wine with striking tones of black cherry, plums, cedar, elegant tannins and a nice medium-count finish of fruit and forest floor terroir.  This is a totally pleasant wine that definitely is not a typical Napa Red Wine. 

After an assortment of desserts, they got ready to watch to watch a modern version of Dick Clark, and some entertainers that were all shivering from the cold weather in Manhattan.  For the count-down we had Andre Clouet “Spiritum 96” Rose Champagne NV. Today the estate is owned by Jean-Francois Clouet, a Bouzy native with a family history dating prior to the 17th Century.  The house of Andre Clouet was established in 1741, and over the years the family had built it up to the present portfolio and status.  The estate now has eight hectares of vineyards on the mid-slopes of Bouzy and Ambonnay in the Montagne de Reims, on the famous chalk soils of Champagne. The desire to make this wine was to have a Rosé that offered freshness and youth with the essence of a great vintage.  This wine is a blend of ninety percent of a white Pinot Noir base, seven percent Bouzy red and for the dosage three percent of a liqueur made from their 1996 Grand Cru Bouzy Pinot Noir.  A pinkish orange/salmon colored wine with tiny bubbles and fine mousse that offered notes of red cherries, strawberries, raspberry, blood orange, brioche, florals and minerals.  On the palate a medium-bodied, high acidic wine that offered tones of cherries, strawberries, raspberries, some grapefruit with toasted yeasts and a nice long finish.  My Bride and I are both not major sparkling wine drinkers, but we both really enjoyed this wine and looking forward to other wines from this house.  

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Christmas Dinner 2024

Posted on January 27, 2025 by thewineraconteur

I don’t know how it is in your family structure, but certain families have certain holidays booked, basically for life.  Which is great, as it makes sense and much easier to make plans.  One of my cousins has had a lock on Christmas dinner for ages, and I was looking forward to having our son’s family join in, as they had just moved back and bought a house.  It would be the first time that all second cousins could meet each other. 

We were asked to bring my Bride’s now famous and requested Caesar Salad, and a half tray of paklavah (the Armenian pronunciation), as none of us eat as much sweets as we used to. I also brought four bottles of wine to add for the festivities.  The first one is one of our go-to wines at our house Otella Lugano DOC 2021 from Azienda Agricola Otella.  The second wine was Domaine Houchart Rosé Cotes de Provence 2023 from Vignobles Famille Quiot.  The third wine was Close du Clocher Pomerol 2020 from Heritiers Bourotte-Audy.  While the fourth bottle was Highlands 41 Cabernet Sauvignon Paso Robles 2021.  I figured that group of four would accommodate any of the wine drinkers attending.

I figure that I will discuss two of the wines along with the meal.  There was Cheese Boereg, a flaky pastry stuffed with a white brick cheese.  There was Lahmajoon, the Armenian individual pizza for a lack of a better description, topped with sauteed ground lamb, onions, garlic and parsley.  Another cousin brought this huge irregular long board that was finished and was a Charcuterie Board with several versions of olives, peppers, Armenian String Cheese and of course the cherished shavings of Basturmah.  Now Basturmah is an acquired taste, because it is a dried beef that has been covered in spices and allowed to age and dry (as there was no refrigerators back then) and the meat is then cut paper thin.  It sounds pleasant enough, but the spices make the meat deadly lethal in spicy hot tastes and then to boot, the spices emanate out of your pores for a couple of days after digesting the Basturmah.  Needless to say, since I was in retail, I abstained for my customer’s sake.  I will start with Famille Quiot Domaine Houchart Cotes de Provence Rosé 2023.  Famille Quiot is a wine producer with numerous estates in southern France.  They have been making wine since 1748, starting in Vaucluse in Chateauneuf-du-Pape at Domaine du Vieux Lazaret.  The Domaine is run by the thirteenth-generation member Jerome Quiot and what was originally a few hectares is now one-hundred-ten hectares.  In 1890, they acquired the sixty-hectare estate of Domaine Houchart near Aix-en-Provence.  The family estate has its roots and was farmed during the Roman era and is located in the plain between Sainte Victoire and Aurelien mountains, and has its own climate.  The land is clay and limestone soils, from the decomposition of the scree from the surrounding mountains.  The wine is a blend of Cinsault, Grenache Noir, Syrah, and Tibouren; with the average age of the vines being thirty-five-years.  The fruit is harvested in September, with direct pressing for most of the varieties, with vatting for almost two weeks in I surmise Stainless-Steel to maintain freshness; the wines are bottled in December.  This salmon-pink colored wine offers notes of citrus and strawberries.  On the palate the wine offers tones of red currants, watermelon, with great acidity and ending with a nice medium count finish of fruit and terroir.  And as a side note, with all of the festivities, I forgot to take a photo of this wine, so I had to get another photo from a prior article, thankfully, we buy many of these wines by the case.   

Now you have to understand that at an Armenian dinner after the appetizers, everyone says “I could have stopped after the appetizers,” but that never happens.  My cousin had made as the centerpiece of the dinner this huge beef tenderloin that actually fed the troops, cooked with onions and garlic and other spices.  There was Clams Spaghetti, my uncle’s favorite dish that is still served in his honor.  There were several assorted sides of vegetables, and I have to say, that she still makes the best roasted peppers I have ever encountered.   For the main course, I made sure that my Bride and I had the Clos du Clocher Pomerol 2020.  Jean-Baptiste Bourotte was front and center, as the great-grandson of Jean-Baptiste Audy the founder of Clos du Clocher.  The first vintage for this small, but consistent estate in Pomerol was in 1924.  The winery is just shy of six hectares and is home to some truly ancient vines.  The estate is set in four parcels and seventy percent of these parcels are dedicated to Merlot, and the balance is planted with Cabernet Franc.  The average age for the vines is forty years and they are planted on clay and gravel parcels on the Pomerol plateau.  No herbicides are used and organic treatments are implemented where possible.  The fruit is hand harvested, double-sorted with a density bath, de-stemmed to create a homogenous final crop.  Fermentation is done in small Stainless Steel and concrete tanks by parcel; hence the wines reflect the percentages of the grapes grown.  The wine then is aged for eighteen months in French Oak, of which two-thirds are new.  This was the first year that Organic conversion began and was officially instituted in 2021.  This vintage must be indicative of what should be expected from the entire plateau as well as the rest of Pomerol.  Another deep garnet-purple colored wine that offered big notes of black currants, black cherries, violets, and graphite.  On the palette, this was a big wine of black fruits, bold tannins and a great finish emphasizing fruit and terroir.  Then we all had to make room for the myriad of desserts, and the paklavah was only a small part of the selection.

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Planning Another Christmas Dinner

Posted on January 24, 2025 by thewineraconteur

Some dinners are easier to plan than others.  We have friends that are not wine drinkers like we are, and we have to create menus that will work for all concerned.  My Bride had a friend and her husband come for dinner, and her friend goes back to elementary school, so they have a couple of years between the two of them.  Her husband likes Bourbon, and he also likes Rum and Cola; so that was easy enough.  We started with an assortment of appetizers, which is now called a charcuterie board, and years ago, we may have called it an antipasto plate.  We had cheeses, meats, fish, peppers and assorted dips, crackers and the necessary accoutrements needed for the munchies.  I was also trying to select an opening wine that might work. 

I decided on an easy to drink and understand bottle of bubbly.  We started with The Furst Crémant D’Alsace NV which is produced by Cave Vinicole de Kietzenheim-Kaysersberg.  Cave Vinicole de Kietzenheim-Kaysersberg is a cooperative of one-hundred-thirty landowners in the villages of Ammerschwihr, Kientzheim, Kaysersbert and Sigolsheim and covers one-hundred-seventy hectares of vineyards.  This cooperative is part of a much larger cooperative of successive merger and is now called Bestheim.  Crémant d’Alsace is an appellation created in 1976 covering the sparkling (Methode Traditionelle) white and rosé wines of the Alsace region.  The wines must spend a minimum of nine months maturing on their lees, before disgorgement and the dosage; all vital and required steps to comply with the appellation.  The Furst is produced in concert with the Dopff au Moulin Estate with seventy hectares of vineyards, and currently in the thirteenth generation of wine makers.  The Estate is located in the historic Riquwhir at an altitude of 300 meters in the foothills of the Vosges Mountains.  The Estate is also credited with the creation of Crémant D’Alsace and the creation of the distinctive tall, slender Alsatian wine bottle.  This wine is a blend of fifty percent Pinot Blanc and fifty percent Pinot Auxerrois.  The golden-yellow wine with small to medium size bubbles offered cidery aromas notes.  On the palate there were  tones of apple, pear, and lemon zest which  complimented a delicate mousse, and ending with a savory finish.

My Bride had made her signature dishes of Caesar Salad, Armenian Pilaf and her Bourbon and Brown Sugar Salmon.  I knew our guest’s wife likes red wine, so I went with a bottle of J Vineyards & Winery Black Label Monterey-Sonoma County-Santa Barbara Pinot Noir 2015.   The winery began in 1986 by Judy Jordan, the daughter of Tom Jordan, founder of Jordan Vineyard & Winery fame. The father and daughter team began as equal partners, until the daughter was able to buy out her father and she became sole proprietor. Originally, I only knew the winery for their sparkling wine and for the first ten years they only produced the J Vineyard Brut and what a fine job they did with it. In 2015 E&J Gallo bought J Vineyards & Winery and maintained the winemaker. The wine is a blend of Pinot Noir from three areas: seventy percent of the fruit came from the Olson Ranch in Santa Lucia Highlands in Monterey County and I have been praising the Pinots from that region for some time, twenty-six percent of the fruit came from the Russian River Valley and four percent was harvested from Santa Maria Valley AVA in Santa Barbara County. The different wines were aged for six to seven months in a mix of French and American Oak, then blended and bottled.     The wine was a deep dark garnet color and offered notes of dark plums, vanilla and anise.  On the palate this medium-bodied wine showed tones of plums and rose petals and finished with a medium count finish of fruit and a trace of terroir.

 For dessert my Bride had stopped at our local Italian market and went to their bakery to buy an assortment of cakes, cookies and tarts.  I knew that the husband enjoyed Riesling wines, as that is what we have given him other bottles as gifts in the past.  So, we opened a bottle of Weingut Carl Ehrhard Rüdesheim Berg Rottland Riesling Auslese 2017 from the Rheingau.  The Rheingau was first settled by Celts, followed by the Romans in the First Century.  Rüdesheim is a town on the northern banks of the Rhine River and there are seven vineyards rated by the VDP as Grosse Lage (First Growths) and the best are west of the town with on the steep slopes with southern exposure and Berg Rottland is one of them.  Here is one of the steepest slopes and the soil is slate, quartzite, gravel, and scattered loess.  Weingut Carl Ehrhard is an historic family estate and winery founded in 1815 and is now organic and biodynamic.  All fruit is hand-harvested, Initial Fermentation occurs spontaneously from indigenous yeasts in large neutral oak barrels.  The juice remains in the barrels on their lees for over a year, and they like to release the wine seventeen months after harvest with no fining or filtering.  The wine had a nice golden color and offered notes of ripe peaches and apricots, white florals, and honey.  On the palate a rich full-bodied wine that had tones of ripe fruit, a touch of citrus with balanced acidity and a long finish of honey and terroir.

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Fine Wine Source Club – January 2025

Posted on January 21, 2025 by thewineraconteur

I figure that I will break up the current narrative to mention that I have stopped at my local wine shop The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan to pick up the monthly club offerings.  The club selections as well as all the wines offered there have been curated by the owner and staff, and they never go after popular brands like you can find at the local grocery store, drug store or even nowadays the gas station,

The first wine offered always represents the Old World and this selection is Azienda Agricola Lombardo “Confino” Toscana IGT Rosso 2020.  The winery was established by Antonio Lombardo who left Sicily to be in Montepulciano in Tuscany.  He began with a trucking company and in 1972 he planted his first vineyard.  He started with sixteen hectares and now has a total of thirty-five hectares.  His son, Giacinto took over the winery after his father’s demise and has continued to upgrade and improve upon what they have created.  The winery is basically planted in Sangiovese (Prugnolo Gentile) with vineyards in Caggiole, Confino, S. Polo and Graciano, where the winery is based.  Confino and Graciano vineyards are rich in clay soil producing powerful and tannic wines, while Caggiole is sandstone (Tufo) for making elegant and non-tannic wines.  Confino is Italian for border and this vineyard is in the north-east corner of Montepulciano.  The wine is a ruby colored wine offering notes of blackberries, cherries, cassis, violets, herbs and spices.  On the palate this medium-bodied wine offers tones of dark fruit, smooth and plush tannins that linger into a medium-count finish of fruit and terroir.    

The New World is represented by The Paring Pinot Noir Santa Barbara 2022.   The Paring was created in 2006 as a way to explore and experiment making wines without rules.  The fruit for this wine comes from vineyard blocks that are either too young or don’t fit into the vintage style of JONATA and The Hilt wines.  The winery uses fruit harvested from the Santa Barbara region: Santa Ynez Valley, Sta. Rita Hills and Santa Maria Valley.   The wine is aged in French Oak, of which thirty-five percent is new, and the balance is neutral, for eleven months.   The wine is described as having notes of blackberries, plums, red fruit and rosemary.  On the palate the wine has spicy red cherry, oak, and fine tannins with a lingering savory texture.

While I was picking up the club selections, I was also poured a quick tasting of eight wines, which I will eventually get to, but for the moment I will mention my thoughts on Bella Union Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2022.  Far Niente Wine Estates owes its history of dedication and passion starting with John Benson in 1880 who founded the estate and to Gil Nickel who brought the estate to the modern era.  Not only with an exceptional winery in Rutherford, but also with a small winery on Bell Oaks Lane when they purchased a sixty-acre vineyard for Bella Union, as the original name of the lane was Bella Union Roadway.  Bella Union Winery in Rutherford opened in 2024 with its current legacy going back to 1979.  The vineyard is located on well-drained loam, and the vines range from twenty to thirty years of age.  This wine is a blend of ninety-four percent Cabernet Sauvignon, two percent Merlot, two percent Cabernet Franc, 1.5% Malbec and .5% Petit Verdot.  Initial Fermentation was done with ninety-seven percent in Stainless-Steel and three percent concrete vats, with about nineteen days of skin contact.   The wine was aged for seventeen months in French Oak, half new and half neutral.  A deep dark garnet colored wine that offers notes of black cherry, cassis, cedar and herbs and spices.  On the palate there were tones of black cherry, ripe plums, dark chocolate and vanilla blending perfectly with firm tannins and ending with a nice medium to long count finish of fruit and tannins.  This wine is still “grippy” and needs some years to mellow out.     

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Christmas with The Wine Raconteur Jr. 2024 Part Two

Posted on January 18, 2025 by thewineraconteur

While my Bride was getting the main course prepared, she also had made her Caesar Salad, and vegetables.  The main course of the meal, she started preparing the night before, as she was making two different types of Ribs in Molé, a dark and a red sauce; according to our participants, the red sauce was the hit.

 The dinner was a night to enjoy wines from the Sixties.  The Wine Raconteur Jr. was excited as he brought a bottle of Marchesi Villadoria Barola DOCG 1964 from the Cascine Rivette e Marena Vineyard in the Piedmont.  It began with Daniele Lanzavecchia (Sr.) who began a vine plant nursery with the dream of eventually making wine.  He then had a son, who shared his passion and in 1959, the Villadoria Estate was established in the Serralunga hills; and now the third generation is assisting.  Besides growing Nebbiolo for Barolo, they also grow Merlot and Muscat, as well as having a hazelnut grove.  Serralunga is one of the eleven best known towns producing Barolo and known for their famed terroir of limestone and sandstone soil.  The fruit is hand-harvested, destemmed and crushed gently, and Initial Fermentation occurs in Stainless-Steel tanks on the skins for about twenty-eight days,  and Malolactic Fermentation follows.   The wine is aged for a total of five years, the first twenty months in Slavonian Oak; followed by time in concrete and steel tanks to tamper the strong tannins of the Nebbiolo grape.  The bottle came with a candle mounted on it, to allow for decanting illumination, but directly in line with the candle was the old Italian Export label that is no longer used,  and the bottle had a wax closure over the bottle, try as I could, even with my Durand, the cork crumbled and I used a funnel and coffee filter to drain and decant the wine before dinner.   For a sixty-year-old wine the color was still a deep garnet with no foxing or browning.  The wine was still offering notes of cherries, roses, tobacco, truffles, old leather and tar.  On the palate the tones of cherries and tannins were finally tamed and tempered with secondary notes of truffles and licorice and ending with a finish of subtle fruit and terroir.       

While we continued with the dinner choices, we enjoyed a second bottle of wine, this time from Familia Fernandez de Manzanos 1961.  Bodegas Manzanos is a large wine producer in Spain, founded in 1890 and is now run by the fifth generation of the Fernandez de Manzanos family.  They are in the top three of Navarra and the top five in Rioja for production and they own ten wineries.  The original winery for the family is in the Rioja Alta zone back in 1890.  A cache of bottles was discovered in the cellar of the winery by Victor Manzanos.  After trying a bottle of wine, the decision was made to rebottle, recork and relabel the wine.  After spending three years in French Oak, this wine was bottled in the mid-Sixties and has been untouched since then, until two years ago.  Familia Fernandez de Manzanos “Manzanos Red Wine 1961 Spain” was the relabeled wine that was reissued.  The designation of Rioja was not as well known internationally, and it was not always indicated on the labels of wines from the region.  The wine is a blend of Tempranillo and Grenache (Garnacha) and was considered a Vino Tinto at the time.  The fruit was hand-harvested (automated wasn’t available then).  The wine on the first time was aged for three years in French Oak.  This wine was originally listed as a lighter wine at the time, and perhaps that is why it was left to age longer and then forgotten, as it was stored in a hillside cellar. There was six-hundred bottles of the original cache, every bottle was opened and four-hundred bottles were selected. The four-hundred bottles were emptied into vat and re-blended together, prior to re-bottling and re-labeling.  The wine was a deep garnet with notes of dark fruit, cigar box and spices.   On the palate there were tones of dark cherry, plums, licorice, soft tannins with secondary tones of coffee, vanilla and balsamic tastes.  The wine had a medium-count finish fruit with a touch of terroir.  It was definitely a Rioja, even without being identified as one, and a very interesting wine to chew on and I needed to use one word, it would be elegant and at sixty-three, it held its own.

For dessert we had several choices of pastries and cookies and coffee.  Then we had Korbin Kameron Late Harvest “Sweet Isla” Moon Mountain District 2018 from Moonridge Vineyards in Sonoma County and it is Estate Grown.  I was able to get in touch with Korbin Ming and he was able to give me some information. The wine is late harvested Sauvignon Blanc with an addition of fifteen percent Botrytised Semillon. One week cold soak and fermented on the skins for an additional two weeks to pick up extra color and flavors, called phenolics, which was a really long and cool fermentation for intense aromatics. The wine was aged for eight months in neutral oak. .  A beautiful wine that was just magnificent and reminded me of a French Sauternes with a nose of honeysuckle, a silky texture offering notes of sweet lemons, apricots and marmalade with a nice long count in the finish.  If I must say, we had a wonderful dinner until the next time we get together   

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Christmas With The Wine Raconteur Jr. 2024 – Part One

Posted on January 15, 2025 by thewineraconteur

I have an appreciation for nom de plumes, and so does The Wine Raconteur Jr., as he gave himself that sobriquet years ago, when he asked me, if he could try guest writing a couple of articles.  I met him when I was posting a job notice at his university, and we have been together ever since.  We attended his wedding, and numerous other events over the years and his children, we consider as our own, and I am sure that they considered me a “crazy uncle” with the nice aunt. 

He is a much busier man, than I am, so I reached out for potential dinner dates, as well as whose house.  I mean his children can’t really disappear at our house as readily as they can at their own home, but they wanted to come here.  We started off with appetizers of cheese, crackers, vegetables, and shrimp; though I think the stuffed peppadews were the big hit.  I also scored some “brownie points” as I asked if it was alright for his children to have a  glass of bubbly, since they are nearing the age of majority and under the watchful eye of their parents; and they were appreciative of the offer.  We started the meal off with a bottle of Albert Bichot Crémant de Bourgogne Brut Rosé NV.  Domaine Albert Bichot is a major family-owned and run negociant house and estate owner in Burgundy, that began in 1831 and is now based in Beaune.  Their focus is Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines and in their more southern holdings they also produce some Gamay in Beaujolais.  Alberic Bichot took over the reins in 1996 and is the sixth generation of family to run the holdings.  They own more than one hundred hectares of sustainably farmed vineyards divided among six estates, and the majority are run organically.  The wine is eighty percent Pinot Noir from the Cote Chalonnaise, ten percent, and more Chardonnay from Auxerrois and less than ten percent Gamay from the Maconnais.  Each grape variety is vinified separately to enhance the qualities of the varietal.  The base wine is thermoregulated in Stainless Steel vats, then blended and aged for at least twelve months on laths, with three additional months after disgorgement before it is released.  A nice coppery-salmon wine with fine even bubbles and offered notes of currants, raspberry, strawberry, and a touch of lemon citrus.  On the palate a bright, fresh wine that showed tones of the red berries, and ended with a nice dry finish. 

We then moved into the dining room for the next courses.  My Bride made her version of Coquilles St. Jacques al crème de Xeres, which is a fancy way of saying Sea Scallops sautéed with  mushrooms and garlic, pan sauced with Sherry and cream and served with Armenian Rice Pilaf.  We paired this course with Chateau d’Yquem “Y” Ygrec Bordeaux 2021, from one of the most legendary wineries in the world (if I may say) and it was stunning; I will offer some background notes, because if you are like me, it is not a wine that one encounters that often.  It was originally made at the end of the harvest with the last bunches of grapes since 1959 and in 1966 the selection of the grapes changed and the wine is basically Sauvignon Blanc picked at the beginning of the harvest and a small amount of Semillon with Botrytis and in 2004 the brand was to be produced every vintage.  They now have a state-of-the-art vat room just to make this wine and the aging on the lees take place in the barrels, one-third of which are new and the lees are regularly stirred for ten months. This is a white wine that is considered by many to cellar for twenty years, and while I do like to get multiple bottles of wine, this one bottle was my self-imposed allotment.  A pale yellow wine with notes of pears, oranges, lime blossoms, vanilla, and almonds.  On the palate rich tones of white fruits, with traces of pear and lime, refreshing acidity, and a very long finish of saline, almonds, and terroir. I thought the 2017 vintage was awesome, this may be the freshest and liveliest white wine that I have ever tasted, and all my Bride said later, was who can we share this with?  Oh, by the way, if you are curious the “Y” is pronounced “ee-grek” in French.

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A Wine Delivery to The Caller

Posted on January 12, 2025 by thewineraconteur

We were going to meet The Caller, as they live in a remote area, and they asked us to get them some wine.  Which was opportune, as we could get together to see them for the Christmas season, as they will begone for the next couple of months on one of their vagabond vacations.  When one doesn’t have children or grandchildren it is easier to get away.  My Bride would be lost.

We always try to meet somewhere midpoint between our two homes, so we agreed on the Ciao Amici in Brighton, Michigan for lunch.  It was just the three of us, as his wife had made a quick trip to see some friends, before their extended road trip.  The Caller started lunch off with one of his exotic cocktails, that he is very partial too, and my Bride decided that she wanted a Negroni.  I, in keeping with the theme of my articles had a split of Da Luca Prosecco DOC NV.   Prosecco is a sparkling wine produced from nine provinces of the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia regions.  Prosecco wine is made from the Glera grape, but when it comes from the Prosecco DOC region, the grape is called Prosecco; and sparkling wines from outside of the region still use the name Glera.  It is one of the sparkling wines that is often referred to as “a poor man’s Champagne.” It is made using a low-pressure carbonation process, known as the Charmat Method, the Marinotti Method or the tank method; the bubbles tend to be bigger, lighter and less persistent.   This pale straw-yellow wine offers notes of peaches, apricots, and white flowers.   On the palate the wine offers tones of stone fruits, yellow apples and lemon candy in an off-dry style with crispness, bright acidity and a medium-count finish of pineapple.

After our drinks, we started looking at the lunch menu, but ended up ordering from the dinner menu, I guess we are just anarchists at heart.  The Caller had his Sausage Rustica, Italian sausage pan seared with sautéed banana peppers and onions.  My Bride had the Butternut Ravioli stuffed with Butternut Squash puree, walnuts and mushrooms in a creamy Marsala-sage sauce.  I had the Shrimp Luca, lightly breaded jumbo shrimp that was flash fried with fresh vegetables and polenta, finished with a lemon-garlic-cream sauce.  We shared a bottle of M. Chapoutier Belleruche Cotes-du-Rhone Blanc 2022.  The Chapoutier family has been in the Rhone since 1808 and have transitioned from just a grower to a Bwinemaker and a negociant, and a genuine force in the area and France; not to mention that they have holdings now in three other countries beyond France.  They have also included Braille embossing on their labels for some time now, since their estate in Hermitage was originally owned by the creator of the modern version of Braille.  The Belleruche label is their popular priced wine and readily available at many restaurants.  The wine is a blend of White Grenache, Roussanne, Viognier, Clairette and Bourboulenc grown on vineyards of stony marls and clay-limestone hills.  The fruit is mechanically harvested at night, light maceration, with fermentation at cool-controlled Stainless-Steel tanks, and five months on the lees.  A soft golden-yellow colored wine that offers notes of apricots, fennel and irises.  On the palate there were tones of citrus, pears and dried fruits, fresh and balanced with a medium finish with a trace of anise.

We were getting ready to enjoy some dessert, and while The Caller and my Bride were deciding, I was going to just have a glass of dessert wine, and maybe as I am getting older, I am enjoying my after dinner wines more and more.  I was going to have a glass of Warre’s Otima 10 Tawny Porto NV, and our waiter suggested that I get some Vanilla Bean ice cream, and he would drizzle some of the Tawny on the ice cream as well.  The other two’s ears perked up, and they wanted to try this as well.  Warre’s is one of Portugal’s most famous Port houses and it began in 1670.  William Warre became a partner in 1729 and then it was known as Clark, Thorton and Warre.   The house stayed exclusively in the Warren family until 1905, when Andrew James Symington was admitted as a partner of Warre and Co.  Warre’s is managed by the 13th generation of the Symington family, who also own the Dow’s and Graham’s Port houses.  The Otima 10 and Otima 20 Year Old Tawny was developed about twenty-five years ago aimed at a younger demographic group, than what is usually associated with Port drinkers.    While there are over eighty sanctioned grapes allowed in the production of Port, most have been forgotten, lost, and intermingled over the centuries.  The five main grapes used are: Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinto Barroca, Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo), and Tinto Cao; and some other relatively common varieties are Sousao, Tinta Amarela and Mourisco Tinto.   Port wines are what is known as fortified wines, and is achieved by adding high proof grape spirit during the fermentation process as the spirit kills of the yeast before all the sugars have fermented, then it is aged in barrel, where the coloring comes from.  The wine is a golden red color and offers notes of golden raisins, figs, dried fruits and butterscotch.  On the palate there are tones of dried apricots, orange marmalade blending perfectly with raisins, figs, butterscotch and caramelized sugar with enough acidity to keep the wine fresh and not cloying, and the finish is a nice long count of dried fruit and barrel aging.  

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Kamper’s

Posted on January 9, 2025 by thewineraconteur

My Bride and I are still tourists in Detroit, even though I was born in the borough of Delray, then Southwest Detroit and went to school and college there, while my Bride had her first real job in downtown.  During the holiday season we went to see the pop-up retail establishments in Campus Martius and Kennedy Square; not to mention the ice-skating rink.  Campus Martius was adjacent to the Old City Hall, and after they tore down that building, they developed a huge underground parking structure with a big concrete topping and a fountain that was eventually removed.  The grounds were named Kennedy Square, many years after John F. Kennedy spoke during the Labor Day festivities while campaigning in 1960.

We decided to go to the Book Tower as my Bride had a thirst for a Spanish Coffee.  It was about an eight block walk and I still enjoy the architecture of Detroit,  The Book Tower was built by the Book brothers, who at the time were the wealthiest two men in Detroit and they had a desire to make Washington Boulevard competition to Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.  They built the Book Cadillac  Hotel, and the Book Tower and both became instant Detroit Landmarks with their Roman-influenced designs and embellishments.  Both buildings along with others were designed by the architect Louis Kamper and they were built during the heyday of Detroit, before the Great Depression.  We decided to go to Kamper’s, which is the city’s largest rooftop bar and lounge and evokes a Basque tapas establishment.  It is on the 14th floor, but we had to get permission to go there, and security had to make sure that there was a table for us, then they contacted us on our phone that we could go up the elevator, the funny thing is that there was no 14th floor, but security tapped the controls in the elevator and then we were taken to our table.  The view was wonderful, as I saw structures for the first time, not from the street. 

Alas, my Bride was disappointed again, first we tried on the main floor at Le Supreme for a Spanish Coffee (who didn’t have whipped cream or Crème Fraiche) and Kamper’s didn’t have coffee.  You would have been proud of us, as we were able to find an alternative, while admiring the scenery, as we stepped out onto the rooftop to be tourists.   While my Bride decided on having one of her backup drinks of a Negroni, I opted to maintain the theme of the room and had Bodegas Agro de Bazan Granbazan Etiqueta Verde Albarino Salnés Valley Rias Baixas 2023.  Bodegas Granbazan is considered a crown jewel of the region with its pronounced French chateau influence.  Albarino has been praised in the area since the days of the Galician kingdom.  The wine is pure Albarino from vines that are over thirty-five years of age, grown on high granite soils on the banks of an estuary with strong Atlantic influence.  The fruit is destemmed and undergoes cold maceration for six to eight hours, with controlled fermentation in Stainless Steel tanks.  The wine rests on fine lees without batonage, and then bottled four to five months after fermentation is complete.  A bright yellow wine offering notes of stone fruit, tropical fruits and white florals.  On the palate there were notes of white stone fruit, mandarin, touches of marzipan with refreshing acidity and a good medium count finish of salty air (salinity). Afterwards, when we arrived on the main floor, we found out that the Rotunda Bar could make a Spanish Coffee, and another trip and adventure.

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