Getting Situated in Vegas

Posted on March 6, 2018 by thewineraconteur

The joys of modern travel.  After scrambling off the plane with each of us carrying two bags, we made our way to the baggage area, to get our other luggage.  I have no idea, how people can do a flight with one bag.  Then we now each had three bags in tow and proceeded to the rental car agency to pick up a car.  We were kind of lucky that we got an upgrade, because I said that and showed that we were from Detroit, and I thought we should have an “American” car made by the Big Three.  Off we went to our hotel for the next week, and thankfully now the phones have GPS, so we don’t have to rely on memory.  I mean, I need as much memory space that I have left for wine information, since there is still so much to learn, as a rank amateur.

The other most important thing was to stop at a wine shop, before we got to the hotel.  I mean we did have to maintain a small oasis for relaxation.  Our room has a refrigerator, so that calls for wine, and in our checked luggage was a cork screw and some rubber corks for resealing the bottles.  We also had to buy a case of bottled water, as I discovered years ago, even in the homes, bottled water is the norm, and even the restaurants use it when serving glasses of water on the table.  Since we were getting wine, it was also only natural that we would get some wedges of cheese and of course some crackers.  One can’t be a heathen, even in the dessert.

I picked up a couple of easy drinking wines to get us started.  The first bottle was Domaine Chatelain Petit Chablis 2016, as I have read about the designation, but I had not tried one.   It is the lowest classification for Chablis, as most of it is for local consumption, because it is from the outlying areas of Chablis.  It had a nice crisp Chardonnay color and nose, without any oak and very easy to drink, when one is trying to maintain the lifestyle of Nick and Nora Charles.  The other wine that I picked up was for easy drinking as well.  The Chateau de Nages Cuvee JT Blanc Costiers de Nimes 2015 was just perfect, as it has our initials on it, though in reality the JT stands for Joseph Torres.  The wine is a blend of Roussanne, Viognier and Grenache Blanc.  The different juices spent eight months on the lees, before blending in French Oak.  The Costier de Nimes is the southern most designation of the Rhone, originally it was part of the Languedoc with the VDQS Costieres du Gard until 2004, so I thought it would be fun to try it.  It was very refreshing and the Viognier gave it the little extra plus to the nose.  We were off to a good start.

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Getting There…

Posted on March 4, 2018 by thewineraconteur

Getting there is half the fun, as they say, unless you can remember back in the good old days of airline travel when it was glamorous and going to Las Vegas used to be fun.  Nowadays airline travel is more reminiscent of Third World nations.  I can remember back when one actually had leg room, not to mention hip room and the seats actually had some recline to them, If the airlines continue their austerity programs, we may all be standing up, holding leather straps like on a trolley.  Perhaps, it is me, because I like to travel on Southwest Airlines and they actually seem to know what they are doing and they do not nickel and dime you for every convenience.  They allow you two suitcases to check, one overhead bag and one bag that you can place at your feet, which when you are travelling for over a week, one needs to have some luggage.  I am just chagrined that people tend to bring food to eat on the flight that is overly aromatic and most of the time does not smell enticing.  I also tend to remember when people dressed up to fly, and now everyone tries to look like that they just dug the Panama Canal by hand and boarded the plane.  I survived.

Even though we had a TSA Preapproval, we still take no chances and arrived at the airport two hours ahead of time.  I guess it is better to be safe than sorry.  With all that extra time we went in search of a restaurant to dine in, instead of bringing a sandwich onto the plane.  We were in the older airport at Detroit Metro, so the selections are not as good, so we went to a chain restaurant that has a presence.  Ruby Tuesday is not our first choice when we are going out, but that is where we decided to eat.  My Bride had a Chicken Caesar Kale Salad, and I decided to go safe and have a Bacon Cheeseburger.  We chose dishes that would hold us over for the next five hours as we would be surviving on peanuts, pretzels and cookies.

It is always amusing when at times my Bride orders a Scotch and Soda and I order a glass of wine, because almost all the time, I am served the Scotch and she will receive the glass of wine.  I had a glass of Albert Bichote Bourgogne Vielles Vignes de Chardonnay 2015.   I had ordered the wine before I had looked at the menu, so don’t chastise me for the pairing.    I mean I figured that a Chardonnay wine from the Cote de Beaune would not be that bad.  The vines averaged from 25 to 35 years of age, hence the “viellles vignes.”  This family estate and negocient began in 1831, so they have been around Burgundy for a few years.  The wine was an easy to drink wine, as it was only aged for five to six weeks and mostly in oak barrels.  Later on, during the flight while my Bride had another Scotch and Soda, I was enjoying a Rum and Coke, I mean let’s go with something safe.  There was a lady in the third seat that was raving about her wine to us, so out of respect for research, I had to order a glass for myself.  The Whistling Thorn Chenin Blanc/Chardonnay NV of South Africa was an easy drinking wine, but it paled after the earlier white wine that I had before boarding the plane.  I found the wine to be on the sweet side, but drinkable. Oh well, soon we would be arriving in Las Vegas, so life was good.

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Viva Las Vegas

Posted on March 2, 2018 by thewineraconteur

It is time for another visit to see the children and the grandchildren in Las Vegas.   I have been going there for ever it seems.  Years back when I tried to gamble, I would go to the old downtown, which was rather seedy at the time, but it was a place where I could relearn the rules of the games without dropping a lot of money, and then I could go to the Strip and really blow some money.  After all, the casinos were not built by the winners.  In the old days, there were not as many casinos on the strip, and they were not as flashy as the new ones.

In the old days, food, liquor and wine flowed.   Along with another job that was lost over the year, the “cigarette girl.”  I can remember even getting fine cigars for the price of a tip, just like the drinks.  I remember getting “line passes” to see the shows, when there were real celebrities to see, and the shows came with dinner and drinks, all for the price of the tip to the man who got you a good table for the show.  Some of the wine labels that I have, still have the labels from the casinos where I was comped, ah, for the good old days.  All they wanted back then was for you to look glamorous and to gamble.  It was a glamorous era, and I can remember only packing suits, shirts and ties for my trips.  The big casinos of the day were the center of the universe.

Nowadays, I hardly ever go to the strip, unless we are going for dinner, or one of the outrageously expensive shows.  We stay out in Summerlin, where my children and grandchildren reside.  Summerlin is actually part of Las Vegas proper, but it is a designed section, where everything is platted, prior to the new construction, and the residents of Summerlin actually pay a surcharge for living there.  I stay at a casino complex in Summerlin which offers a variety of options even for the grandchildren to enjoy, and the kids refer to it as a Senior Citizen complex, but that is OK.  I joke that instead of Smoking/No Smoking they should have Oxygen/No Oxygen sections.  It is all good, because I am going to see the family, and to play the slightly eccentric Grandfather, not the type from the old Shirley Temple movies.  The good news is that there will be wine, and lots of it, where ever I go.  Fear not, I still take Sport Coats and I still pack some dress shirts and ties and my cufflinks, because that is just my style.  I don’t like to look like I cut the grass or worked on my car, when I am in Vegas, somethings just never change.  More stories to come, I am sure, as I always write enough articles to cover my trip, as I do not like to announce that I have an empty house.

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One Silky, One Robust

Posted on February 28, 2018 by thewineraconteur

The last two wines that I tasted at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan were very diverse.  One of the wines was from a lauded commune of the Haute Medoc and the other was from one of the least seen areas of the boot of Italy.  Both of the wines were worthy of being at the end of the tasting.

Blason D’Issan Margaux 2015 is the second label from the Troisiemes Cru or the Third Growth from the Medoc of Chateau D’Issan.  Chateau D’Issan is located in the middle of Margaux and is a great representation of the terroir of the district.  This second label was begun in 1995 to utilize some of the younger vines that were planted at the estate.  This wine is made from sixty percent Cabernet Sauvignon and the balance is Merlot.  The wine is aged for fourteen to sixteen months in French Oak of which a third is new, and they produce ninety-thousand bottles of this wine.  This wine had a beautiful color, and a terroir driven nose that delivered a very silky mouth and a very long finish; all of the signs that have made me order more Margaux wines than from any other commune.

The last wine offered was from Casa Vinicola Botter and their Verso Rosso Salento IGT 2014 from the Puglia region of Italy.  This big wine was a blend of sixty percent Negroamaro, thirty-five percent Primitivo and five percent Malvasia Nera and made with a small percent of “apassimento” or raisined grapes.  The wine spent six months in Slavonian Oak, then three months in Stainless Steel and then an additional three months in the bottle before release and there were eight-thousand bottles produced.  This wine had a deep color and a very earthy nose with a big and robust taste that one associates with the Italian wines as one goes further south in the country.  All in all, I was very impressed with the large and diverse selection of wines offered by The Fine Wine Source and look forward to trying more wines at a future time.

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Enrico Santini

Posted on February 26, 2018 by thewineraconteur

I had the pleasure to try two of Enrico Santini’s wines at my recent tasting at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  Enrico Santini grew up in the Bolgheri district of Tuscany, which is one of the newer wine district designations in Italy.  He is also considered a true “garagiste” there, with his small organic estate where he produced his first wine in 1999.  He actually transformed his house and garage into a winery to achieve his dreams and goals and he already received accolades and admiration for what he has accomplished in a short period of time.

The first wine I tried was, Enrico Santini Poggio al Moro 2013.  This wine is a blend of thirty percent Sangiovese, thirty percent Cabernet Sauvignon, thirty percent Merlot and ten percent Syrah.  The wines were all separately macerated in Stainless Steel and then spent three months in small French Oak barrels, with additional aging in the bottle prior to release.  I found the wine to have a dark cherry color with a good nose and a good finish.  It was quite fresh and different from other wines that I have had from the area.

The second wine that I tried from this producer was the Enrico Santini I Montali 2012.  This wine was a blend of thirty percent Merlot, twenty percent Cabernet Sauvignon, twenty percent Syrah and twenty percent Sangiovese.  After separate maceration in Stainless Steel, the wine was aged for twelve months in small French Oak barrels.   I found this wine to have a very rich nose and taste, very full bodied and a very long finish.  I truly enjoyed this wine and Enrico Santini will have a tasting at the wine shop on March 9 and 10 of this year, and I am going to try to attend, just to savor more of these wines and the other wines that he has produced.

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Tricky Rules

Posted on February 24, 2018 by thewineraconteur

I am going to discuss two more wines that I tried at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  I say “tricky rules,” because it sounds like the two wines should be on either side of the river in Bordeaux, but both wineries are in the Saint-Emilion district, but they each carry a different designation for the wine on their label.

The first wine is Chateau Tour du Pas Saint-Georges-Saint-Emilion 2010.  Here is a wine that is sixty percent Merlot, thirty-five percent Cabernet Franc and five percent Cabernet Sauvignon.  This wine was aged for fifteen months in French Oak, of which thirty percent was new.  I found this wine to have a nice color, with a lot of spice and a fine finish.  I have always had a certain fondness for wines from Saint-Emilion, and this wine carries the Saint-Georges addition, which is the smallest sub-district of the area and according to the rules, it could either use Saint-Georges-Saint-Emilion or Montagne-Saint-Emilion, which I just find curious.

The other wine that I tasted immediately after is from a winery also situated in Saint-Emilion.  The Chateau Grand Francais Grand Cuvee Bordeaux Supereiur 2015.  This a third generation, eight-hectare estate that is organic.  The wine is fifty percent Merlot, thirty percent Cabernet Sauvignon and twenty percent Cabernet Franc and all the vines average about forty years.  The wines were aged from ten to fourteen months in new and older French Oak barrels.  This wine had good color, an excellent nose and a nice finish for a new wine that was poured directly from the bottle using the Coravin system, and I think this wine will be very nice in about five to ten years.  I am not that knowledgeable to state why each of these wines took the designations that they did, and perhaps someone smarter and more versed in the wine laws can enlighten me.

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Two from the Continent

Posted on February 22, 2018 by thewineraconteur

There I was trying some new wines at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia and I was just amazed at the range of wines that were being offered.  With the use of the Coravin system the wines poured were all fresh as if the bottle had just been uncorked, which works well, but sometimes one wonders if some of the wines would be better, if they had a chance to breath, but it is still a great experience without the waste of wines that could go bad, depending on how many people stop by for a tasting.

One of the wines that I tried was from Spain from Eguren Ugarte, a winery began in 1870.  The Bodegas Eguren Reinares Tempranillo 2015 from the Castile district, and this wine carries the Castilla VT (Vino de la Tierra) designation for the large Castilla-La Mancha in central Spain.  The wine was aged for two months in American Oak.  The wine had a soft nose and taste.  I do think that this wine would be better in a year or two of cellaring and some open time, before tasting.

The next wine that I will mention was from Italy, and it was a Barolo and who can not get excited about trying a wine from that district.  The wine was made by Monchiero Vini which began in the 1950’s as grape growers who originally sold their grapes and have eventually grew into a winery showcasing their own products.  The Monchiero Roche di Castiglione Falleto Barolo 2012 was made entirely from the Nebbiolo grape, which is to be expected from a Barolo wine.  This wine spent thirty months in oak vats and an additional eighteen months in the bottle before being released.  This wine had a good classic interpretation of what I expected from a Barolo wine and I was very happy with this tasting and I expect that this wine will age easily for ten or more years.

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Two French Wines

Posted on February 20, 2018 by thewineraconteur

I thought I would stop by The Fine Wine Source in Livonia to really give the shop a once over, but I was wrong. After they gave me a glass and started using the Coravin opener, I was all ears and totally appreciative of what was being poured. The young lady was working her way to becoming a full Sommelier and I give her credit. As we were talking, I mentioned that I have no accreditations or any real training except years of tastings and drinking.


I will take the two French wines out of order, as I think that this one should have been first, because it was lighter and was a wine from Gascony. I asked her if she knew who a famous Gascon character was and she said “The Three Musketeers” and I told her that she was close. The Three Musketeers were Athos, Porthos and Aramis, but the fourth Musketeer was D’Artagnan and he was from Gascon, I mean that is how my brain works. The Domaine de Pellehaut Harmonie de Gascogne Rouge 2015 was an interesting wine. It carries the IGP Cotes de Gascogne and the Famille Beraut has been producing products there for over three hundred years, they also make Armagnacs and breed Blondes d’Aquitaine cattle. The wine was a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Tannat and Syrah. The aging of this wine was a blend of Stainless Steel and Oak. I was surprised that from these grapes the wine was a bit more cherry in color, with a soft but enticing nose, and a good finish, but the real surprise was that it was a bit on the sweet side, at least to me, but it was intriguing, but it could have been a bit sweet following the next wine of the tasting.


The wine that preceded it was from Cecile Trembley who formed her winery in 2003 from the plots of her grandfather and she is based in Morey-Saint-Dennis. She has a small Burgundy estate, but it is already growing and producing some great Pinot Noir wines along the Cote de Nuits, including Chambolle-Musigny, Vosne-Romanee, Nuits-Saint-Georges along with two Grand Cru wines of Chapelle-Chambertin and Echezeaux du Dessus. The Cecile Trembley Morey-Saint-Dennis Tres Girard 2013 was a pure delight. Here is a wine that was aged for about eighteen months in French Oak with no fining or filtering. It had a great color, nose, a taste of terroir and a good long finish, everything one would expect from a Burgundian wine and it brought back memories for me. I was also surprised at how good it was, fresh from the bottle without the aid of breathing, since it was poured using a Coravin. This wine will be amazing in ten to twenty years from my limited experience. I was giddy from the wine.

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A Quick Stop?

Posted on February 18, 2018 by thewineraconteur

I had some errands to take care of, as it has been a hectic couple of weeks and I thought I would stop by The Fine Wine Source in Livonia to take a look around. I immediately greeted the owner and the next thing I knew I had a wine glass in my hand, after he bent my arm a bit to coax me. I was taken over to a barrel sitting amid walls of wine and they began a tasting on the spot. They use the Coravin system to pour samples without opening a bottle of wine, and they use this same system at the restaurant he and his daughter have in downtown Detroit called Vertical that I have wrote about and the fine dinner and wines that we had there. To be quite candid, it was the first time that I had actually seen the device being used, though I knew of it, and have seen it.


I started off with a glass of Montaudon Brut Champagne NV from Reims, France. This Champagne house was founded in 1891, so they have been around for a few years. The wine is a blend of forty percent Pinot Noir, thirty-five percent Pinot Meunier and the balance is Chardonnay. The wine had a nice soft floral nose with a decent finish to it, and I found it quite refreshing as it was not as Brut, as some Champagnes are, so there was a dash of sweetness to it. A great way to start the day.


The second wine that I was offered was also a white wine an it was from Les Heritiers du Comte Lafon which was founded in 1999 and they are biodynamic and organic from single sites and they shun the normal Maconnais way of high volume, industrial farming. The Lafon Macon-Milly-Lamartine 2015 was charming. The white wines that carry the Macon-Milly-Lamartine designation must be Chardonnay, otherwise it would carry the lower designation of Macon. This wine is aged for seven to eight months on the lees in larger, older oaken barrels and then gently racked before bottling. The wine had a terroir-driven nose and taste of limestone to me and a nice finish. The kind of Chardonnay that I really enjoy. The afternoon was starting off properly.

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February Birthdays 2018

Posted on February 16, 2018 by thewineraconteur

As is our usual thing we all get together one day in the month to celebrate all the birthdays of that month. This one was kind of touch and go, as it seems that Winter has lately been tormenting us here at the house. We ended up with two big plumbing problems in our en-suite, which resulted in a complete makeover of that room. The winter cold snap also caused our garage door to break down, which resulted in having to get a complete new system installed. All of this occurred just days before the scheduled party, and then another blizzard. For some odd reason the media kept reporting four inches and everyone I knew, including us had at least ten inches of snow, when it was all done, and we were running out of areas to put the snow. Not only was I trying to keep the driveway and the walks clear, I had to do extra duty as the snow plows insisted on putting more snow on the apron of the driveway. I was also clearing extra parking spaces on the street to accommodate our guests, just because Mother Nature kept trying to throw me some extra curve balls.


The day of the party my Bride was already in the kitchen preparing for the party and the phones kept ringing, because there was concern about the weather and the road conditions, which was totally understandable, but until the last minute, the real honoree of the day looked like she might be a no-show. My Mother-in-Law was celebrating her ninety-second birthday and she was concerned about the sidewalks and driveway. We put out extra salt and some extra shovel time and all was good, though we did have a few that did not make it, and their drive was the longest. My Bride had put out a salmon pate, cheeses and crackers and an assortment of fruit as appetizers. She was making two big pork tenderloins and about ten pounds of chicken, plus the usual sides that everyone agreed on. There were also plenty of desserts afterwards, as these are the most popular that the guests bring. The food was a big hit, there was very little left, so my Bride was elated and the birthday recipients were also happy.


There were some craft beers being poured, but I opened up two different wines for the evening and they were both from 2012. The first wine that I opened with a little trepidation, because it was a white wine; the Reif Estate Chardonnay Reserve Niagara River VQA 2012, which was made from a slow warm fermentation in Stainless Steel, followed by aging for twenty-four months in a mix of eighty percent new French Oak and the balance in American Oak. The winery was very proud of this vintage and suggested that it would age for seven to nine years. In fact, when we were at the winery, it was so hectic that we left without buying any and we made a special trip back just to buy this wine, as it rather haunted my Bride that it was so good. When I opened up the bottle and poured it into the glass, it had a very deep honey gold color and I was concerned that I had kept it in the cellar too long, but the winery was right, it aged perfectly and my Bride was ecstatic and it disappeared very quickly. I was trying to find something a little different that would work with both the chicken and the pork and I grabbed a bottle that I had received from our club “A Taste of Monterey.” This bottle was the Cambiata Tannat 2012 with a Monterey AVA. It is estate grown, produced and bottled by Laumann Family Estate Wines of Soledad, California. Eric Laumann intention was to make wines beyond the classic Bordeaux, Burgundy and Rhone wines of France that do so well in Monterey, and some of the varietals that he grows are Albarino, Tannat and Dornfelder. The Tannat grape actually means tannin, and the wines are known to be very dark and tannic, because of the thick skins and many seeds per grape, and the varietal is famed from the Madiran region of France, but it is becoming popular in South America and in the United States, it is being grown in Texas and Virginia, as it thrives in hot climates. The grape is also known as Maidiran, Harriague, Moustrou and Bordeleza Beltza. The wine was aged for twenty-eight months in sixty-gallon barrels, all French and forty percent new. All the fruit came from the Rocosa Loma Vineyard and 348 cases were produced, with a suggested aging potential of eight to ten years. As an aside, in music, the Nota Cambiata is a leaping note that enlivens a melody. This wine was pure bliss and my Bride mentioned it to me a couple of times that evening, because she didn’t want to miss out on it. So, in spite of Mother Nature, the party was a success and I can relax a bit, from all of the extra work that I had done in the last two weeks.

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