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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Denouement

Posted on February 14, 2018 by thewineraconteur

The reason for the “Blow -out Wine Tasting” is that D. Vine Fine Wines is giving up their location, because of the increase in the rent. He is looking for a new location, so he decided to fete his customers with some of the wines that he had in stock that he really liked. Instead of some of the more popular wines that he carries. His back glass enclosed wine cellar had some very special wines. He wanted to close in a classy way, until he reopens and I think that is why he opened up seven wines for the last tasting, as he couldn’t settle on just six that he really enjoyed.


The last wine of the evening was a delicious proprietary red blend and I thought that the name was even indicative of all the tasters that evening. We ended the evening with Blackbird Vineyards Paramour Napa Valley 2014 from Oakville. The word paramour means “a lover, especially the illicit partner of a married person” and I thought that is what wine tends to be for most, especially of my age. Here was a wine that was a Claret, but from across the river, as it was eighty-four percent Cabernet Franc, nine percent Cabernet Sauvignon and the balance was Merlot. This secret little winery that I knew nothing of, which is not all that uncommon was first planted in 1997 and prior to that it was a walnut orchard on its ten acres. The juice was aged for twenty-one months in French Oak, of which seventy-five percent was new, and they even sourced coopers that supply some of the great estates across the river from the Medoc, and you can see his dedication for a certain taste, look and feel. The production was quite adequate as they made forty barrels of this wine, and perhaps it was a good thing that my Bride was not at the tasting, as she may have swooned. From the nose, color, depth, taste and finish I immediately thought of a great Bordeaux, the Cabernet Franc just swept me away, and in a sense, I thought it was special that Cabernet Sauvignon was used as an enhancing costar, instead of the lead. There was one last pour, which I graciously poured for myself, before taking the photograph, after all, it was too good to leave.


Even though I was a relative “Johnny-come-lately” for the Tuesday night tastings, I really enjoyed my evenings there. There are very few places I have ever encountered where one did tastings from Riedel crystal in a very serene setting. The tasters were all captive each evening and there was a certain comradery that one felt night after night. Of special note, the owner noticed that I was especially fond of the Young Inglewood Chardonnay 2014, and he still had two bottles left of a production of twenty-five cases, can I tell you that I felt like a million dollars as I left that evening with those two bottles and the seven dead soldiers to remember the evening. I will have to pick out two special nights to pamper my Bride and any other guests that might truly be rewarded.

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Two Enjoyable Reds

Posted on February 12, 2018 by thewineraconteur

We were getting to the end of the evening and there were still more wines to taste at D. Vine Fine Wines. I really had no problem, getting a new education on the last two wines and eagerly waiting to try some new wines. The wines that we were tasting were definitely above the normal selection and still more to come and everyone was having a good time.


The fifth wine of the night was from Haro, Spain and yes, it was a Rioja from Bodegas Roda. The Bodegas “Roda I” Rioja Reserva 2005 was an estate bottled pure Tempranillo from thirty to ninety-year-old vines. This winery was founded in 1987 and they are doing everything right from what I can see. Rioja was the first wine to receive DO status in Spain in 1933, and the first to receive DOCa status in 1991. They surpassed the basic requirements of creating a Rioja Reserva, because this wine spent sixteen months in French Oak, half new and half neutral, and then aged in the bottle for twenty months before being released. The nose was deep and impressive, with a black cherry color with a slight purple rim to the glass, long legs with a silky and elegant taste with the tannins still being feisty, and a very long finish. I have to admit that I am a sucker for a well-made Rioja wine and this one did not disappoint me in the least.


The sixth wine of the evening was quite a change from the Rioja, as it was a California red wine. The Adobe Road Kemp Vineyard Zinfandel 2014 from the Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma County was sublime, which is high praise from me, as I am just acquiring a true appreciation for this varietal. This is a family owned winery that features small lot, handcrafted wines owned by the sportscar racer Kevin Buckler and his wife Debra. Dry Creek Valley is a terroir driven AVA most known for its Zinfandel grapes, and these grapes came from the Kemp Vineyard which is now known as Famighetti Vineyard. It was a small lot indeed, as there were only two-hundred-sixty cases produce. This wine like all the other red wines of the evening were opened about an hour and half before the tasting started and it was a really jammy and full-bodied Zinfandel with a deep purple color and a good finish. The more good wines I taste, the less biases I have towards any wine that I may have tried almost fifty years ago.

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Never Be Hasty

Posted on February 10, 2018 by thewineraconteur

I was getting ready to try the third and fourth wines at a tasting at D. Vine Fine Wines in Livonia, Michigan. I was looking at the sheet and I saw one wine that I had just tried a couple of days earlier and a wine region that I remember trying in my youth that I was not particularly fond of. I guess I can be quick to jump the gun and I realize that most of all, I of all people, am not an authority and I cannot let prior remembrances bias my opinion. The next two wines were an example of open mouth and insert foot.


Three days earlier I had a chance to try Loring Wine Clos Pepe Vineyard Pinot Noir 2015 and I was not really impressed with this wine, and I opined about that moment. Was I wrong, the first time I had it, it was from a freshly opened bottle of wine that was being poured, and this time the bottle had been opened about an hour and a half before the tasting, what a difference. In case you don’t recall the information about the wine, I will repeat some of the important notes about it. This single vineyard wine is in the AVA that originally was Santa Rita Hills when it was established in 2001 as a sub district of the Santa Barbara County; due to protests from the large Chilean wine company Vina Santa Rita, the AVA was changed to Sta. Rita Hills in 2006. This wine spent ten months aging in French Oak, of which fifteen percent was new, and they produced one-hundred-fifty cases. It was night and day different then the last time, and I made no bones that I had spoke out of turn, as I was really impressed with the wine this time, I initially thought that it was a light tasting Pinot Noir, but with the time for the wine to breath, it was delicious and everything that I enjoy about this varietal.


The fourth wine that was up for tasting was from the Languedoc, and I have periodically tried some wines from this region and my appreciation has increased over the years. When I first started learning about wines back in high school, a great Claret could be bought for five dollars, and a Languedoc could be bought for about two dollars; and back then there was a world of difference between the two and I often felt sorry for the Frenchmen and their table wines. This fourth bottle proved me wrong, though I did get some nods of comprehension from a couple of old timers that could appreciate what I was talking about. The Mas de Daumas Gassac 2014 is from the Haute Valleee du Gassac and carries an IGP Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert and prior to 2010 it was IGP Pays de l’Herault. Here is a winery that was established in 1971 and they are now referred to as “the Lafite of the Languedoc” or by themselves as “the Grand Cru of the Languedoc.” High praise indeed, but it was true. I mean this wine is a “Heinz 57 as we used to say about anything that had many parts to the whole. The wine was a blend of 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc 3% Petit Verdot, 2% Malbec, 2% Pinot Noir, 1% Tannat and the balance was a blend of “rare grape varieties” Nebbiolo, Barbera, Dolcetto, Armigne, Arenie, Bastardo, Saperavi, Tchkaveri, Montepulciano, Arena Noir, Tchekapesi, Souzan, Brancalleo, Carmenere, Abouridu, and Plavac Mali. The average age for all of the vines was 42 years of age. The wine was made in the “classic” Medoc vinification of long fermentation and maceration (a minimum of twenty days) in Stainless Steel with no filtration, and then the juices were aged in neutral oak for twelve to fifteen months. If I had tasted this wine blindly, I would have guessed a Claret, but with something more, that I couldn’t put my finger on, as it had a deep nose, and a deep purple color with a tinge of garnet at the edges, with a very satisfying finish. The wine was meaty and chewy and I was totally impressed and of course there was none of this wine to be had. So, from now on, I will have my hat in hand and not opine about another wine until I try it, I guess perhaps, that some old dogs can learn new tricks.

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A Blow-out Tasting

Posted on February 8, 2018 by thewineraconteur

I received a rather cryptic email telling me that there would be a blow-out tasting at D. Vine Fine Wines in Livonia, and I was free, so my curiosity got the best of me. I got there a bit early, not knowing what to expect, but it was not an S.R.O. evening, I did see some of the usual crowd and a few new faces, though I have to admit that I am not that frequent of an attendee. I went about setting up my little “photography studio” atop of a couple of cartons of wine with a blank piece of white paper for a back drop and I was ready to do some tasting.


The first wine of the evening was an Apriori Sauvignon Blanc 2014 from Napa Valley. I have had another wine from this winery that I enjoyed, so I looked forward to it, and the name of the winery actually means “from the beginning” or a fancy way of saying deductive reasoning. The fruit came from the Farella, Morgan Lee and Yount Mill vineyards. The fruit was hand harvested and fermented in Stainless Steel for thirty days, and then it was aged for eleven months in neutral French Oak. The winery produced five-hundred-forty cases of this wine. The wine had a very soft straw color in the glass and I thought a much better nose than I usually encounter from a Sauvignon Blanc with a decent finish to it. One of the people at the table that I was seated at, attested to tasting white grape juice, but I thought that it had the classic flavor of grapefruit, which I look for, from this varietal and others as well as our host agreed.


The second wine of the evening was from a new winery to me, not that I am such a maven. The Young Inglewood Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2014. The winery itself is located in St. Helena and was originally part of Rancho Carne Humana, a Mexican government land grant that stretched from what is now Rutherford north to Calistoga, and vineyards were planted there in the late 1870’s, continuously except for the Prohibition era. This wine had its fruit from the Michael Mara Vineyard in the Sonoma Coast, so I did not get a chance to taste an estate wine, and I am sure that the estate wines must be stellar from the care that they used to make this wine. The hand-harvested clusters were gently pressed whole over night and two-thirds of the juice was aged in French Oak, and one-third in Stainless Steel. The juice was aged Sur Lie for sixteen months without racking, fining or filtering. Only twenty-five cases of this wine were produced. This wine had a great nose, too bad that every Chardonnay wine does not, a beautiful light gold color, decent legs and a long finish. I was upset that there was a disclaimer at the top of the wine sheet, that said most of the wines would not be available for purchase. I thought this would be a wine that would stop the ABC (Anything but Chardonnay) crowd dead in their tracks, but I was surprised that most of the attendees were not crazy about this wine, but then it was not the usual California Chardonnay and all I could think of, is that it is a shame that my Bride had a prior commitment as she would have gone crazy for this wine. I felt like I was a voice in the wilderness about this wine, and with the small production, I was just glad that I had a chance to try it.

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