A Syrah and a Cab

Posted on May 1, 2018 by thewineraconteur

The world of wines to me is still fascinating after all of these years and I am still a student of the grape.  I basically have wine where ever I go any more.  When I am at a restaurant, a hall or in a tasting room you can find me smiling to try something new.  I sometimes drive my Bride crazy, because I always want to try a new wine, instead of going with something we already know and enjoy, and sometimes that can backfire, but most of the time it is a positive experience.  In tasting rooms, it can be more solemn or it can be quite fun, and I tend to go for the latter.  I tried a couple more wines at Fine Wine Source in Livonia and they make it very easy and fun to try some wines.

I tried a glass of Hyatt Vineyards Floating Rock Rattlesnake Hills Syrah 2014.  Floating Rock is another label from Hyatt Vineyards in Washington State and they were established in 1983.  Rattlesnake Hills AVA is a sub-region of the Yakima Valley which is part of the much larger Columbia Valley in Washington State.  This wine spent eighteen months in American Oak with American Oak inserts, so I will presume that that the barrels may be neutral and with the additional inserts, it is a way to get some oak infused into the wine, as this is the first time I had seen this mentioned in notes.  The Floating Rock group produces about ten-thousand cases of wine for Hyatt Vineyards.  The wine had a distinctive nose of a Syrah to me, with the deep color that I expect from this grape and the wine had a nice finish that I found attractive and a great incentive for a popular priced wine.

The next wine was slightly more expensive, but still reasonable considering that it was a Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley.  The Frank Family Vineyards has three collections that they maintain; Reserve, Napa Valley and Bubbles.  I think the three designations are rather self-explanatory.  Frank Family Vineyards is owned by a former executive of the Walt Disney Corporation and this is not a “Mickey Mouse” company, and they started producing wines in 1983 and they are housed in the historic Larkmead Winery, one of the early pioneers of Napa Valley.  The Frank Family Vineyards Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 was the wine that I tried.  It is predominately Cabernet Sauvignon with eight percent Merlot, four percent Petit Verdot, and three percent Cabernet Franc.  This wine was produced from fruit harvested in three Rutherford vineyards and a couple of Napa Valley vineyards as well.  The wine was aged for twenty months in French Oak with a third being new.  It had that tempting nose of a Cab, with a deep color and a nice long finish, which was very impressive for an affordable Napa Cab. I considered that I was good have two for two enjoyable wines that would not break the budget, even in a restaurant setting.

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Populis Wabi-Sabi

Posted on April 29, 2018 by thewineraconteur

Yes, I did a double-take reminiscent of some of the old stand-by comics of the Golden Age of Cinema when I heard the name of this wine.  The name was very unique and my brain was trying to conjure up images for Wabi-Sabi.  I immediately thought of Kemo-Sabi from the Lone Ranger which originated on radio here in Detroit.  I even thought of Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi of Star War’s fame, I mean this is how my brain works.   Even the word Populis brought up visions of political aspects that I try to avoid when I think of wine.  Here I was at Fine Wine Source in Livonia tasting some wines and this was one of the wines that I tried and I was intrigued.

Populis Wines of Orinda, California is a joint effort of Diego Roig, Sam Baron and Shaunt Oungalian and is made in a partnership with Les Lunes Wines.  Their goal is to “Bring the wine to the people.”  They work with Northern California vineyards that grow with no herbicides and no synthetic pesticides.  They are trying to be an organic winery and they also search for vineyards that have old vines for concentrated flavor.  They also have a goal to make affordable wines, which is very laudable.  Along with the Wabi-Sabi, they produce a Sauvignon Blanc and a Rosé wine.  I had never heard of the winery or of the wine, but that is not something new, as there are thousands of wineries that have that distinction with me, after all of these years I am still learning.

Populis Wabi-Sabi 2016 is a very mixed bag, it is made with juice from Syrah, Carignan, Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Tempranillo.   It is a juxtaposition of Bordeaux, the Rhone and several other points.  Originally this wine was marketed as Populis Red Wine.  Perhaps I am not so keen, but I could not discern from the nose exactly what I wanted to know. The wine had a nice deep color with a bit of a pink rim at the edge of the poured glass and it was very pretty visually.  I was really excited to try this wine, as there were only ten cases produced, but after a couple of good chews of the wine, I could not put my head around what I was tasting.  There was nothing wrong with the wine and I am sure with some food, it would have been better, but I could not taste one grape or flavor enough to get a handle on this wine; though it was bold, it was not a shrinking wall flower.  I was stymied as I thought my taste buds had given up on me, as I really thought that the Syrah or the Zinfandel would come through as a dominate taste, but if I drank it blind folded, I would not be able to even tell you what I was drinking.  I thought it was unique enough that I should mention it, and perhaps others have tried it as well, though with the limited production, perhaps not.

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A Forlorn Hope and a Waugh

Posted on April 27, 2018 by thewineraconteur

I guess I just enjoy tasting wine, as I have been on a wine tasting spree lately.  I mean it is just fun to do and maybe you can even catch me for a tasting one day.  There are times when I leave empty handed and then there are times when I don’t, as it is just the luck of the draw, though I am sure that they would prefer that I leave with a purchase every time, but the people at The Fine Wine Source are great about it, and they are willing to get you a glass to get you started almost as soon as you walk in the door.  It is very casual and the tastings are done around a wine barrel for ambiance and they use the Coravin system, so that the wines do not go bad, which can be a problem if you open a bottle and then don’t use all of the wine within a certain period of time.  I will talk about two California white wines that I had a chance to try the other day.

The Forlorn Hope Que Saudade Verdelho 2015 was an interesting wine.  Verdelho was one of the grapes used in Portugal for years in Madeira wines, but now one sees it quite a bit from Australia and in California.  As the label reads “Another Rare Creature Vinted and Bottled by Winemaker Matthew Rorick.” This wine comes from Amador County and the fruit comes from Forlorn Hope’s Rorick Vineyard, as well as from DeWitt and Vista Lune Vineyards.  The fruit was hand harvested and whole cluster pressed with a total production time of fourteen months in Stainless Steel and Neutral Oak.  The wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered.  There were three-hundred-sixty-seven cases of this wine produced.  I found it to have a very subtle nose, which is how I find most Verdelho wines, with a soft straw color and a short finish.  I think this wine would be excellent with friends on a summer day while you are having a chat waiting for dinner.

The other white wine that I had that day was from Waugh Family Wines, which used to be known as Waugh Cellars.  Waugh Cellars had their first commercial release with a 2001 vintage and it was done in their garage, but they have since expanded and grown.  The Waugh Russian River Valley Chardonnay 2017 was fruit that came from the Indoli Vineyard.   This wine was made with no Malo-lactic fermentation and no new oak for aging and done Sur Lie or fermented on the lees.  There were eight-hundred cases made of this wine.  The wine had a good nose, nice color, surprisingly it had a soft butter taste and a tinge sweeter than I had expected, with a nice long finish.  At first, I was a bit shocked, but after chewing on the wine a bit, I could really enjoy the uniqueness of the wine and the art of the winemaker.

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Ladera Sauvignon Blanc

Posted on April 25, 2018 by thewineraconteur

As strange as it may sound, I keep going to wine tastings whenever I get a chance.  Some are organized and some are rather casual, almost done by the seat of the pants.  I have been to wineries where the tasting rooms can be described the same way, so I just go with the flow.  I am there for the discovery of wines, the ambience of the room can enhance the moment, but it really does eventually come down to the wines.  While I was at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan I tasted a Sauvignon Blanc wine that really got me excited.  I know that it may sound unusual, but it really made my day.

Pat and Anne Stotesbery bought their first Napa Valley mountain vineyard in 1996 in the Mount Veeder district, with the intent of growing grapes to sell to other wineries.  The following year they bought a second mountain vineyard, Lone Canyon, and became wine makers.  In 1998 they had their first non-commercial vintage of one-hundred cases of Cabernet Sauvignon.  The following year with the addition of the Lone Canyon vineyard they had their first commercial vintage of six-hundred cases of Cabernet Sauvignon.  They named their winery Ladera Vineyards which means hillside or slope in both Italian and Spanish.  In 2000 they acquired an eighty-two-acre vineyard in Howell Mountain.  In 2016 they sold the Lone Canyon and Mount Veeder properties, though with the right to access some of the fruit, as they are planning on retiring.  Wine making is a full-time occupation and they actually closed on Sundays to allow themselves a day of rest each week.

The Ladera Sauvignon Blanc 2016 was the wine I tasted and bought, as I was that impressed with the wine.  This wine is a blend of three different clones of Sauvignon Blanc; Clone #1, Liparita and Sauvignon Musque.  Since they are a mountain vineyard the fruit was harvested in the evening to keep it cool.  The fruit was whole cluster pressed and cool settled for twenty-four hours.  Then the juice was aged Sur Lie in both Stainless Steel, which was seventy-six percent, and French Oak of which nine percent was new; for six months.  The wine had a perfume nose that belied just the typical grapefruit and citrus that one expects from this grape in the New World, with a soft light color and a very long finish, which really impressed me.  I usually like a Sauvignon Blanc in the summer to make the hot days more bearable, but this wine is not to be quaffed, but more to be enjoyed with like-minded friends.

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Tré Son Zinfandel

Posted on April 23, 2018 by thewineraconteur

Have you ever enjoyed something and then go to look it up and think am I in the Twilight Zone?  That was the case after I tasted a charming wine that showed the depth of terroir that I so enjoy.  Now the word terroir that I bandy about once in awhile is that ethereal term that I call “dirt.”  The dirt or the soil is what makes certain areas in the world so valuable to wine growing and making.  One can have two Chardonnay wines from different parts of the world and one will exhibit a taste that the other does not show, and that is the terroir.  You can taste the shale of the soil, or other minerals that gives one wine the edge over another for being memorable.  I was at Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan having a couple of different tastings of wine, and I know that may amaze you, that I would take time out to try wines.

They poured me a glass of Tré Son 4 Hearts Vineyard Zinfandel 2015 from Paso Robles, California and I was told that this was a Fine Wine Source Exclusive.  Who am I to pass up an offer like this?  I am slowly getting an appreciation for the Zinfandel grape, as for years I had shunned it, from the jam-bombs I remember having as a kid from the homemade “Dago Red” wines that were abundant in my neighborhood and we often received jugs of it as gifts.  All those years back as a child when I was allowed a glass of wine, my sensory functions would go tilt, because I could taste the jammy fruit and egg-whites, which the old men used to use to fine the wines.  As a kid, I could never eat the whites of the eggs by themselves, and that taste had turned me off.  Some fifty years later I guess that I have matured a bit, even though I still don’t eat fried eggs, I have learned to enjoy a good glass of Zinfandel.  This wine that I was tasting was not super jammy, even with the deep color and a truly delightful nose, but there was a charming earthy terroir that really won me over.  Alas, I can not find anything about this winery, because I really enjoyed it.

I went to search 4 Hearts Vineyard to see if I could find out about this wine from a backdoor, if you may.  The vineyard was bought in 2004, which at the time was a walnut ranch, and the first fifteen acres of thirty-seven were planted in 2007, of which ten acres were Zinfandel.  The vineyard is owned by a gentleman that hails from Ann Arbor, Michigan who now resides in Paso Robles.  The 4 Hearts refer to his wife and his three daughters, so that negated the three sons thought.  When one considers the tender young age of this vineyard, it is well respected by some other wineries that use their fruit.  Some of the wineries listed by the vineyard include some of their earliest purchasers like Dunning Vineyard, Saxum Vineyards and Venteux Vineyards and many others.  So, all I can say is, if you find this bottle of wine, give it a go, I don’t think you will be disappointed, unless like me you try to search it on the web; this is a case of just relaxing and enjoy the wine.

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Twenty-Five Years

Posted on April 21, 2018 by thewineraconteur

It was a quarter of a century ago, that I met my Bride at a singles dance.  We figured that was cause for something different to celebrate.  Of course, that evening was a Friday night, and now it was a Monday.  I am not sure about where you live, but in the Detroit area, there are many restaurants that are closed on Mondays, so I was doing research about where to go.  She wanted to spend the day at the Detroit Institute of Art before we had dinner.  I thought that was a great way to spend the afternoon, since our museum is considered a world-class contender.  I found a newer restaurant that we hadn’t been to before, which does not take reservations, so we figured that we would leave the museum in time to get there when they opened for the evening.  We drove down to the museum, found a parking space in their automated parking facility and walked over to the back entrance.  I checked out everything, but I forgot to check on the museum and they were closed.  It almost appeared that the romance was ending at the exact twenty-five-year mark.  I then suggested that we walk across the street to the magnificent main library and it was closed, the same for the Detroit Historical Museum and then the same for the Detroit Science Center.  The day was not going well and my Bride was not thrilled with my planning expertise.  We drove to Downtown Detroit and decided to take a different route to check out some of the other areas in the town.

As we were getting ready to get on the expressway to go and find a place closer to our home, I suggested that we go and have a late leisurely lunch at The Henry, which is what is now the old Ritz-Carlton where we went that first evening for coffee after the dance.  That suggestion worked.  We just started sharing plates of food.  We started with Roasted Elephant Garlic, which we haven’t had in ages.  My Bride had a Caesar Salad and an Apple Crusted Whitefish.  I had their Three Bean soup and their Crab and Lobster Cakes.  We finished it off by splitting a brownie.  All was good again and the Gods looked down and made it all work out.

My Bride ordered a glass of Cambria Chardonnay, which was listed as Cambria Katherine’s Vineyard, which made her remember our night in Cambria and that wine was one that we had.  This wine while it was from Cambria Estate Vineyard & Winery was their Cambria Benchbreak Santa Maria Valley Chardonnay 2015.  Cambria Estate is part of the Jackson Family Wines group and actually managed by the Jackson’s daughters and they have had the winery for about thirty years.  The winery has been Certified Sustainable since 2009.  The wine was aged for six and a half months in French Oak, of which twenty-one percent was new and offered a nice nose, with a pretty soft golden-yellow color and good finish.  I had a glass of Moutard-Diligent Bourgogne Blanc Chardonnay 2015 from Moutard Pere et Fils.  The Moutard-Diligent label represents their Negocient range as there are approximately three-hundred communes in Burgundy that can be used for that designation.  I could not find any production notes on this wine, but it did offer a fine basic white Burgundian glass of wine.  Of the two Chardonnay wines that we had, I would say that my Bride had the better of the two.  Here is to the next twenty-five years and longer and hopefully they will include wine for the both of us.

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Venn and Young Inglewood Estate

Posted on April 19, 2018 by thewineraconteur

The Young Inglewood Wine tasting that I attended at Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan was truly an eye opener.  Here was a tasting conducted by the winegrower and winemaker Scott Young and the last two wines were so impressive, even to a curmudgeon like myself.  Here is a winery that issued their first wine for the 2007 vintage and they are staying true to form.  A small fifteen-acre estate located in some prime Napa Valley real estate and they are interested in making Bordeaux style wines, rather than the wines that are expected from the valley.  The winery produces about one thousand cases total of wines each vintage and that includes fruit that they have contracts with beyond their own property.  They have a singular pursuit and goal and they seem to be achieving it.

The penultimate wine of the day was the Young Inglewood Venn Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 with a Napa Valley AVA.  The label is different from the rest, as it shows their tightrope walker in the center of a Venn-diagram, as this wine is a blend of their own estate fruit and fruit from a sister vineyard in the valley.   While the wine is listed as Cabernet Sauvignon there is ten percent Merlot blended in to the mix.  I did not get the aging, but going by the other wines, it was probably about the same twenty-one months and in French Oak to maintain their personal identity to the wine.  The wine had that beautiful deep Cabernet color with a soft rim to it, a great nose that I expect from a wine of this caliber and a finish that just kept expressing the terroir of the vineyards.  This was not a quick production product, but like the other wines, a labor of love and passion.

If I thought that the Venn wine showed depth and terroir, I was really blown away by the last wine of the tasting.  The Young Inglewood Estate Cabernet Sauvignon St. Helena 2013 was their signature wine.  This wine will age very well and I am sure will show nuances not detected so early on, at this tasting.  This wine was almost pure Cabernet Sauvignon except for two percent Cabernet Franc and one percent Merlot.  This wine was aged for twenty-one months in French Oak, of which sixty percent was new.  Visually, aromatically and in taste this wine hit all the proper notes to me and the terroir, which is always an added wow-factor to me was so impressive.  It was pure bliss and with only three hundred cases produced, it may prove difficult to locate, but worth the search.  It was just a great way to spend an afternoon, and since someone had to, I am glad that the someone was me.

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Two from Young Inglewood

Posted on April 17, 2018 by thewineraconteur

How much nicer of a day can it be, even with a cold rain, to be tasting some wines from Young Inglewood of Saint Helena, Napa Valley, California.  Scott Young the winegrower and winemaker was at Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan representing his family’s wine.  One could feel his passion for his craft and his products as he poured and talked about each wine.  He lifted everyone from a store setting to a winery setting with his casual, but highly professional demeanor.  He even joked that in the few days that he was in Michigan, he was able to experience all of our seasons from snow to sunny 70° weather and then back to a cold rain.

His wines brought us back to a sunny afternoon in Napa Valley.  The second wine that he was pouring for us that day was a wine that they wanted to make and were finally happy with the results.  The Young Inglewood Vin Clair Rosé 2017 was very interesting and intriguing.  Here was a Rosé that was made from seventy percent Malbec and the balance was Merlot.  The fruit came from both their own estate in Saint Helena and from a neighboring plot in the Valley.  The fruit was carefully crushed and then removed from the skins and seeds and aged for six months in Stainless Steel to maintain the flavor of the juice.  There was a soft nose of berries and the color was of a soft straw with just a tinge of pink to it, considering how dark a blend of Malbec and Merlot should be, with a soft finish that just invited another taste.  There were forty-two cases made of this wine, as the winery touts that they are hand crafted and small lots, and this was certainly the case.  While I was there, this was a crowd pleaser, because it was so unique.

The third wine of the tasting showed that the family was intent on making a Bordeaux style wine with a restrained elegant wine that they even named for this region.  The Young Inglewood Right Bank Blend 2013 was a delicious wine, and I imagine that in a blind tasting, it would have easy to say that it was a Claret, instead of a big red wine from Napa Valley.  The wine was eighty-seven percent Cabernet Franc and the balance was Cabernet Sauvignon.  Here once again was a wine that was blended from their Saint Helena and from the neighboring Napa Valley lots.  I really enjoyed the nose of this wine, but then I am very fond of Cabernet Franc, the color was rich, with long legs and a nice finish.  This wine was aged for twenty-one months in pure French Oak barrels, of which forty percent were new, and then the wine aged another twelve months in bottle before being released.  With production of one-hundred-sixty cases, it is easy to understand how the winery sells out each year.  After the first three wines, I was eager to try the last two wines, but also sad to think that the tasting would be over shortly.

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An Afternoon with Scott Young

Posted on April 15, 2018 by thewineraconteur

Scott Young is the winegrower and the winemaker for Young Inglewood Wines in Saint Helena, Napa Valley, California.  I had the good fortune to meet and taste his wines at Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  Fine Wine Source is one of the wine shops that I have been spending time at for tastings and shopping as the selection is well chosen and they don’t try to be an everything wine shop, as the name implies.  You won’t find the wines that are available at the mass market venues, party stores and grocery stores as they are not after that business.  The owner of the shop also has a wonderful restaurant in Downtown Detroit called Vertical that his daughter runs.

Young Inglewood is a small boutique winery in Napa Valley and they produce around a thousand cases of wine each year.  It is a family run business founded by Jacky and Jim Young, who loved French wines and wanted to produce their own style in their winery.  The winery grows five Bordeaux varietals; Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec.  Scott Young was a very passionate young man who has the heavy burden of overseeing the winery as winegrower and winemaker.  I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention his sister Mary, who is a musician and handles special projects for the winery.  The wine tasting was done in a very casual manner, almost reminding me of a tasting at a winery, as there were people coming in at different times, so the wines even though they were poured in a certain progression, Scott was able to make sure that every one tasted the wines thoroughly while discussing the wines, even repeating some of the information for some that came in after I did, and it was enjoyable to glean extra information that wasn’t mention the first time around.  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.  Almost the entire wine selection was estate grown.

With such a limited production, the first wine that was poured was the Young Inglewood Michael Mara Vineyard Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast 2014.  Scott was surprised that I knew this exact wine and I had wrote about it.  This is the one wine that is not estate grown, and in fact if you noticed, it is not even from Napa Valley, but from the Sonoma Coast.  Scott claims that Steve Mathieson of Michael Mara Vineyards is his wine mentor and he have a dedicated area that his fruit is harvested from each year, because of the friendship.  The hand-harvested clusters were gently pressed whole overnight 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.  This wine was sold out at the winery and there were only a few cases available at Fine Wine Source.  I was really looking forward to the rest of the tasting.

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Castillo Ygay Blanco Gran Reserva Especial

Posted on April 13, 2018 by thewineraconteur

This is a warning that I did not try this wine, and I don’t want anyone to get their skivvies bunched up.  In almost five years of writing about wines, I have only written about the wines that I have either drank or tasted, there is a slight codicil to that, as I have included wines that have been highly touted to me by a couple of my cast of characters that are paraded on these pages periodically.  I think that I should only write about what I know or have tried, that is why these articles have run the gamut from jug wines to First Growths that I have had the good fortune to encounter.  That being said, I do get a multitude of emails from assorted senders about wines, and I am sure that you won’t find that too strange, considering that I enjoy wines as a hobby.

This wine has kind of haunted me ever since I read about it from Elie Fine Wine in Birmingham, Michigan.  I also borrowed the photo from Elie Fine Wine as it is not in my cellar.  It has just sat kind of tucked away in a back room of my brain, that has been locked, padlocked, wrapped in barbed-wire and guarded by sentries and dogs.  It is the kind of wine that one could get divorced over, after being run over by the car a couple of times.  We are planning on retirement and this would just not fly as an ideal purchase and let’s face it, I have never been known as a cheap date.  I never discuss a rating for a wine, because I think it is an arbitrary number and I am always leery of anyone making a decision for me, but when you read about a white Rioja wine that is over thirty years of age that achieves a perfect 100, even I had to pay attention.

Marqués de Murrieta Castillo Ygay Blanco Gran Reserva Especial 1986 captured my fancy and my curiosity.  I have had red Rioja wines from Marqués de Murrieta in the past, but nothing of this grade and fame.  The grapes were planted in 1945 in the highest elevation of their Finca Ygay in the Rioja Alta.  The wine is almost entirely made from Viura with three percent Malvasia.  The wine was initially aged for two-hundred-fifty-two months in American Oak, and if that was not long enough it then spent an additional sixty-seven months in concrete.  This was not a quick bulk production job, in fact there was a little more than eighty-one hundred bottles produced.  I mean this is a story for a Raconteur, unfortunately, not this Raconteur.  My Bride will be pleased with my restraint.

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