Boathouse Vineyards

Posted on August 18, 2017 by thewineraconteur

This was a first for me, a winery that can be visited by car or boat, as the tasting room is located on the waterway connecting North Lake Leelanau with South Lake Leelanau. Michigan is the pleasure boat capital of the country with all of its coastal areas and marinas. Boathouse Vineyards has capitalized on this and it was a new winery for us to visit. If you haven’t discovered it by now, I guess I am rather gregarious and when I am at a winery I like to take notes and my Bride and I were handed over to none other than Dave Albert, an ex-auto guy (go figure in Michigan) who decided to be in the wine business. What a pleasure it was to talk with him, his passion for what he is attempting is marvelous. He has developed twenty-one acres (ninety-nine percent vinifera) and of that acreage half is devoted to Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. Not only was there a crowd of people tasting, there was a small concert going on outside between the tasting room and the docks, it was like one big party.


Boathouse Vineyards is not a large winery, but they are dedicated to making the most of what they have. They were offering seventeen different wines and two ciders the day that we were there. Even with the crowd Dave was answering all of my questions and offering more wines for us to taste. He is a great business man and is using French Road Cellars for the winemaking. While French Road Cellars sounds like a competing winery, they are in fact the first custom-crusher in Michigan and they are aimed to assist the new wineries that are developing each year in the area, and they are planning to eventually to be a twenty-thousand case facility, and this is a rather common business in other parts of the country.


Did I tell you that we were having fun, I can tell you that my Bride was getting quite animated, and that is a sure sign that she is enjoying the moment. We started off with some white wines, first the Pinot Grigio 2016 which had a nice soft color, but a little light on the nose. Then I requested to try the Dry Dock Riesling 2016 and my Bride gave me a funny look, because she is not partial to the Riesling wines that she has tried from Michigan, and she was even impressed by this Estate Grown wine that was dry in a more Continental style with a delightfully long aftertaste. I had to try the Seas the Day 2015, because the name alone tickled my sensibilities and it was a blend of Muscat, Chardonnay, Auxerrois and Pinot Gris and it was sweeter than I prefer, but not overtly sweet and well balanced to my taste. The last white wine, we had was suggested by Dave and it was the Boathouse Bubbly 2016 and it was an off-dry Riesling that had been aerated, it was interesting, but not my glass of wine. Dave then switched us over to the red wines and we started off with Sunset 2014 which was non-oaked and each vintage will be different as it is a blend of all the left over red wines, and this one was Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Regent. We tried the Pinot Noir 2013 made from Dijon Clones and aged for nine months in French Oak and I found that this persnickety growing grape made a lighter wine, but as the vines mature, I think that they may bring more nuance to the wine. The Cabernet Franc 2012 was the wine that my Bride was chomping at the bit to try and this wine was aged for nineteen months in French Oak and it was delightful and well balanced. The winner of the day and it may be the dearest bottle of Michigan wine that I have ever bought and it was well worth the bottles that we took home with us, was the Merlot 2012. Can you say awesome and surprising, it was a perfect bottle of Merlot and almost made me forget where I was, after nineteen months in French Oak this wine won me over, and after looking over the tasting sheets, I guess it won others over as well, as it received the Gold Medal from the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. We may not cruise back there by boat, but I guarantee that we will be driving back there for a return visit and more space in the trunk of the car.

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Reunion 2017

Posted on August 16, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Woodrow Wilson Junior High School had their Seventh reunion and this one had Deja-vu written all over it. Most people have high school reunions, but in Southwest Detroit we celebrate our Junior High. I am not sure how many have gone to all seven of the reunions, but I know that I have. The first one was kind of an ad-hoc affair where we met at a bar and it was a good time. The second one was an organized affair that one thinks of, for a reunion, but our reunions are open-year parties; so, we have had graduates from the Fifties, Sixties, Seventies, Eighties and Nineties, until the school was changed to an academy. The third reunion I had the honor of being the chairman, but I was blessed to have a great group of people assisting and the groundwork was set for the years that followed. The reunion besides being a great way to see people that one grew up with, there have been teachers that have attended some of the events, we have had live music at times courtesy of the professional and semi-professional musicians that have walked the halls of the school and on a more solemn note there is a break in the good times, and the attendees take one of the helium balloons that adorn the tables as centerpieces and write the name of a friend and former graduate that is no longer with us, and the balloons are sent up to the heavens after a prayer.


Since the inception the entrance price was twenty-five dollars, and for that one received the entertainment, food, beer, soft drinks and sometimes wine. The food is set up buffet-style with salads, breads, vegetables and starch and a choice of three entrée choices. The dinner choices this year was roast beef, mostaccioli with a meat sauce and “city-chicken.” “City Chicken” for the uninitiated is a skewer of veal and pork cubes that have been breaded and then baked and finished off with a gravy, it may be a Michigan dish for all I know, but I remember having it as a kid at some of my friend’s homes. There were a couple of sheet cakes for dessert, one frosted with the school upon it, and the other extolling the theme of Southwest Detroit. Afterwards one of our grads offered to take photographs of the attendees, and even with the attendance down there were plenty of group photos. Many were done by individual years, but alas, my classmates had prior commitments and we usually had the largest group, so the few of us that did attend were grouped with all of the Sixties alumni. Our photographer worked all evening and she did a tremendous job, as she even had time to take individual sittings, couples and then there were even some groups that wished to moon the camera. We also had a volunteer videographer who has been posting his work for the last couple of years, including some fun videos where one-person morphs into another person, and I feel sorry for the young lady that had to morph into herself from me and my moustache.


There was more Deja-vu as there was a repeat from the second reunion where a group had a magnum of Gallo Moscato and they were not aware that it did not have a screw-cap closure, so as they were hunting around for a corkscrew they were sent my way, as everyone surmised that I would have one, which of course I did. I handed them my waiter style corkscrew from my pocket and they had never used one before, so I did the honors, after all, who would want to see anyone parched on a summer day? Another example of Deja-vu is that I do stick out like a sore thumb, even with my dark indigo denim trousers, because I have my hat and a sport coat, alright I admit I wear a sport coat like a young lady carries a purse, because it is the only way to have everything that I might need without having bulging pockets on my trousers. The final Deja-vu is that I bring wine to the event, and nobody is surprised at that. It was a warm summer day/night and I decided to have a Sauvignon Blanc and I traveled with a wine glass, because it just wouldn’t work with a plastic or Styrofoam tumbler. I had a bottle of Quintessence Pouilly Fume 2015 from the Upper Loire Valley of France. This is one of the areas where Sauvignon Blanc really shines and shows off the typical flint and limestone of the terroir of the region, alas this wine was a pale representation of what I was hoping for. I also found out afterwards that it is imported by Bronco Wine Company and they are known for their popular priced wines without a lot of nuance, but they fit the niche market that they have developed. It was in my cellar, but I don’t recall purchasing it, but it did the job that I wanted, namely a nice chilled white wine while I enjoyed the festivities. Here is looking forward to the Eighth Reunion.

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Boskydel Vineyard

Posted on August 14, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Bosky means “befuddled with drink, inebriated” as once explained by Bernie Rink the proprietor of Boskydel Vineyard in the Leelanau Peninsula. I had to visit this winery, the first bonded winery, in the area and I read that the winery is going to retire. The Leelanau Peninsula and the adjoining Traverse area are now teeming with wineries in the state of Michigan, but in 1976 there was only Boskydel. The view from this difficult and off the beaten track destination was excellent, but there are some that call Mr. Rink, the Wine Nazi ala Jerry Seinfeld, for not wanting tour busses of visitors stopping to taste wines at his small and eclectic tasting room. He has been called a curmudgeon and I guess when one is in their nineties, that is a well-earned title. I wish that he had been present at the tasting room when we were there.


The tasting room reminded me of what I can imagine the early days of Napa were like, before it became a tourist destination. Posters and knick-knacks that vie for attention from the small tasting bar. Another throw-back to the old days, is that the tastings were gratis and that was very refreshing and a change of pace. Boskydel produces about five to six thousand gallons of wine per year from their own estate. They specialize in Cold-hardy grapes, the French-American hybrids created for colder climates, even though the area shares the same latitude as some of the greatest wine production areas of the world. The day that we were there, one of the sons was handling the tasting room and he was taciturn and not prone for any conversation, which made the moment not as memorable, but I can appreciate the fact that he could just be sad that they were closing down, and I get that.


The winery was offering several wines and some deep discounts on case purchases. The wines offered that day were Vignoles 2015, Soleil Blanc 2016, Seyval Blanc 2016, De Chaunac 2013, Roi des Rouges 2013, Rosé de Chaunac 2013 and Rosé du Cru 2013. We would have tried them all, but since we were not paying for the tasting, we felt that it was rather gauche. I will mention two of the wines that we tried as these are grapes that one does not usually encounter. The De Chaunac 2013 was described as ‘semi-dry,” but I would call it more semi-sweet and that is what I expected, from other Cold-hardy red wines that I have tried. It was very pleasant and I think that it would pair very well with more casual dinners or just by itself and some friends. The Roi des Rouges 2013 had more personality and a bit of spice that I found very attractive. This wine is a blend of Marquette, Noiret and Geneva Red, which was developed at Cornell University and was originally named GR7. The Noiret is what gives the wine the peppery spice flavor that I have found to be enjoyable and would pair very well with some zestier dishes or once again by itself. We left the winery with some wine and with some glasses as keepsakes from the very first winery in the Leelanau Peninsula.

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Bear with Me

Posted on August 12, 2017 by thewineraconteur

This is just my way of giving an apology to the other bloggers, as I have been away on holidays. While I did take my laptop and my phone, I neglected my normal daily duties of keeping up with the writings of the others which is not my usual practice. It appears that between my holiday and then scrambling with my attempting to create a cash flow when I returned, it has been eighteen days since I have seen the working part of my blog from my publisher. I am in the process of catching up.


I wrote a couple of weeks of articles in anticipation of our latest trip, as I do like to keep a steady list of my ramblings out there. I was just remiss that I could not handle all of the responses and readings like I would normally do. There were too many places to visit and too many people to be with, so all of my Social Media endeavors had to take a back seat. I thank my Bride for allowing me some time to get some things accomplished and I will be back soon to a steadier stream of activity, but wine, friends, family and food do get my attention, so I don’t want anyone to think that I was snubbing or ignoring them. I also wish to thank those that kept up and approved of my writings without the quid pro quo, you are the best.

 

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A Cab and a Petite Sirah

Posted on August 10, 2017 by thewineraconteur

I am sure that most people must think that I am really strange, there I am at a wine tasting and I keep my glassful of wine, until they empty a bottle and then I take the bottle and the glass to my little impromptu photography studio with a bland piece of white paper in the background to take a photograph. I guess I do look pretty odd, but it makes me happy and the wine has a little longer to breath, before I taste it. At least that is my story and I will stick with it. Some of the regulars are getting used to me a D. Vine Fine Wines.


The last two wines of the evening’s tastes were both from Napa Valley. The Heritance Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 was from Palm Bay International/A Taub Family Company, and the Taub family has been in the wine business since just after Prohibition ended. The name Heritance is an amalgamation of Heritage and Inheritance as their web site proclaims. This is a wine that is 94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Merlot and 2% Petit Verdot and the winery uses fruit that has been harvested from St. Helena, Yountville, Oakville and Rutherford including grapes from the Beckstoffer Georges III Vineyard. The wine is aged for eighteen months in French oak. It had a full body and most pleasant finish and I think it could use some additional cellaring, maybe another five to ten years.


The last wine of the evening was very impressive to me, but then I am partial to big wines. The Retro Cellars Elevation Howell Mountain Petite Sirah 2012 was a great wine from Mike and Kara Dunn, and Mike is the son of Randy Dunn, so there is some great wine making in his genes. This wine is ninety percent Old Vine Petite Sirah and the balance is Syrah. Sixty percent of the grapes harvested come from the Park Muscatine Vineyard which was established in the 1890’s, hence the claim of Old Vines. The wine was aged for thirty months in all new French oak and it had a big bold taste and a great finish. My kind of wine for a fine winter meal and I think it could handle ten to twenty years in the cellar and still be a powerhouse. Everyone that asked my opinion, this was the wine that I touted, clearly from an innocent bystander opinion. We were having such a good time, that I had to remind the staff that I had to pay for the tasting, but it was well worth the investment.

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Two Red Blends

Posted on August 8, 2017 by thewineraconteur

I had left the house earlier than normal to go to the wine tasting and I snagged the last chair at the bar. It was another evening there of a social media social night and was the placed packed. One other gentleman came in after I did, who is semi-associated with the wine shop and a fellow blogger and I asked him if we should go and commandeer a table from one of the adjoining restaurants and he declined. It was another busy night at D. Vine Fine Wines in Livonia.


The first of the two blended red wines were the Gundlach Bundschu Mountain Cuvee 2013, one of the oldest family continuous owned and operating wineries in California, if not the country, since they were established in 1858. Their vineyard is the Rhinefarm, and from that name and the winery’s name you can figure out where they emigrated from. The claim is that for a sobriety check the Sonoma County police ask the driver to read aloud “Gundlach Bundschu Gewurztraminer” and if they can, they can continue on. The Rhinefarm is located up in the Maycamas Mountain Range which separates Sonoma and Napa. This wine is a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Petit Verdot and aged for fourteen months in mostly French oak. I have had this wine several times over the years and it is a good safe bet.


The second red blend made me think of math lessons in high school, as “apriori” is a term meaning “from the beginning” or a fancy way of saying deductive reasoning. The Apriori Proprietary Red 2014 was from fruit all harvested from Napa Valley. Their proprietary blend is a mixture of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petite Sirah. The wine was fermented for thirty days in Stainless Steel and then aged for eleven months in neutral French Oak. There were 2,565 cases made of this wine which is not a large number for a Napa winery. All in all, the two blended wines I thought would be excellent with a dinner.

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Bellissima

Posted on August 6, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Belissima is Italian for “beautiful woman” and it is a line of three sparkling wines from Italy and Christie Brinkley. The Christie Brinkley who smiled at us, from my era, on the cover of over five-hundred magazine covers. Another celebrity that is making wine and I had the pleasure of trying two of the three wines the other night at D. vine wines, a wine shop near me, that has wine classes on Tuesday night, so on occasion I go and try some new wines. Though Christie is not featured on the wine labels, another beauty is and that is a version of Sandro Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus,” but in small print if one gets past Venus, one can read “Con Amore, Christie Brinkley” which would translate as “With Love, Christie Brinkley.”


The first wine that we tasted was Bellissima Sparkling Rosé Wine NV and it also proclaims as all of the wines do that it is made with organic grapes. The wine’s fruit comes from the Treviso-Veneto region of Italy and since the wine does not say Prosecco, the fruit is labeled as Glera. This wine had a pretty pink foam as it was being poured into the wine glass, but there was not a lot of bubbles emanating from the bottom of the glass. The wine spent forty-five days in secondary fermentation in an autoclave, which must be another style of producing the Charmat Method of sparkling wines.


The second bottle was Bellissima Zero Sugar Sparkling Wine NV also from the same region of Treviso-Veneto and it is also pure Glera. This wine also had very little in the way of bubbles and was a pale straw color. This wine spent its secondary fermentation of seven months in the autoclave. Of the two wines, I found the Rosé to have a better nose and a much smoother taste and finish, as the Zero Sugar was bone-dry and not appealing to me. The third wine that Ms. Brinkley produces is a Prosecco, which we did not try.

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Was this a Chard?

Posted on August 4, 2017 by thewineraconteur

After leaving the bar we all slowly ambled off to the private dining room for the evening. There would be awards to be given for the assorted golf achievements. There would special accolades for the guest speakers and a good time to be enjoyed for all, and a special treat for the spouses that attended as well, and I was part of that esteemed group. Somebody described me as “gregarious” to my Bride and I guess that she had to agree, as she relayed the information to me. I mean what does a Raconteur do at a table, but relate humorous moments to keep people smiling, after all now one is always on business.


As we were walking into the room, I got a bit sidetracked, as is my wont and noticed that they next room over was set up either for a wedding or to display what could be done at the hotel for a wedding. Those days are past for us and our children are all married, so we can just go with the flow. What caught my attention was two tables set up with empty wine bottles with new labels affixed that were labeled 1 Year, 3 Years, 5 Years and 10 Years with a slender pad of writing paper on the tray with the bottles and some pens to write well wishes to the new couple and then the notes are to be placed in the bottle to be read on the corresponding anniversary. I had never seen that before and I thought it was cute and a novel idea.


After I found my Bride and sat down for dinner we were brought out fresh baked rolls, and a special garden salad. The entrée that evening was a plate of salmon and a chicken breast with appropriate sauce, potatoes and a vegetable, followed by a dessert. Just a classic dinner for a large group. There was a large bar area set off on one side of the room with an assortment of fine liquors and liqueurs, an assortment of beers and of course a mix of wines. Of course, I had to brave the wines for that is what I do, but I wish sometimes that the wine selection could be put up a notch or two, at least comparable to the liquors being served. The wines were a mixed offering of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Chardonnay all by La Terre and all were California and non-vintage. I was stumped that I could not even find any information on this wine other than it is very popular for catering and restaurants as a house brand, because it is priced very affordably. It could see where it could be popular, as it was the sweetest Chardonnay that I have ever had and to us it was a bit disconcerting, but since we had enjoyed some wine earlier, we really did not have to indulge, though I did watch as many were getting refills, so maybe it was me and I am trying not to be snarky, I really am.

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Another Great Chardonnay

Posted on August 2, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Here we were in Bay City for a board meeting and after the lunch break, people went on their ways for the afternoon. There was a small golf tournament for the members that is highly popular, but I haven’t golfed since college and that was during the days of Richard M. Nixon. Some of the people went antiquing, my Bride was on her computer and phone catching up on work and I did some writing. Afterwards we went and explored the downtown area and got a good walk in as well. Then my Bride went to get dressed for the dinner and I meandered into the bar.


The bar was just off of the lobby of the hotel and across from their Riverfront Grille. As I walked in to see if there was anyone that I could join for a drink, I spotted our gracious host from the night before having a glass of Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve 2015, probably the most popular and best-selling Chardonnay in the country for several decades. It was a good choice for a wine that could be bought by the glass. The wine has aged on the lees for seven months in a mix of French and American oak barrels. This particular wine carries a California AVA, because the fruit is harvest from Monterey, Santa Barbara, Mendocino and Sonoma Counties and it has a taste that is very similar year after year, and people appreciate it. Kendall-Jackson is also great at advertising their wines, especially this one.


I bellied up to the bar, and asked for their wine list to see if there was anything that caught my eye, because I wasn’t sure what wines would be served during the dinner later in the evening, so I thought I would make the most of it. There was the perfect Chardonnay to share with my friend, and if my Bride gets down soon enough, she could enjoy some as well. They had Cakebread Cellars Chardonnay 2015 by the bottle, but not by the glass; and what is a mere bottle between friends? Cakebread Cellars has been around since 1973 and they make a wonderful Chardonnay as well as the other wines that they offer. This wine is all Napa fruit, with ninety percent from Carneros. They age this wine for eight months on the lees in a mix of French and American oak for a most pleasant experience. My Bride eventually made it to the bar to join us for a glass before dinner.

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An Enjoyable Chard

Posted on July 31, 2017 by thewineraconteur

We finally left Marquette and had to drive to Bay City, Michigan to attend a board meeting. Bay City has had its ups and downs over the years, but they definitely seem to be on the rise and that is great. The city is located on the water and there are hydraulic bridges that continue to operate to allow the boats to enter and the downtown area is also on the rise, as there were more storefronts open compared to the last time we were there. The night before the meeting we were treated to dinner by an old friend of my Bride and someone that I now consider to be my friend as well and there were three others that were invited as well.


We met at the Old City Hall, a restaurant that my Bride and I have been to before and I have discussed in the past. The name Old City Hall is fitting, because the building at one time was the original city hall of Bay City and at times was also the courthouse and the police station. The restaurant has a nice bar, craft beers and a nice wine list, as well as a menu that would please most people with very able people in the kitchen. I won’t get into the details of everyone’s dinner, but we did start off with a few appetizers that were shared among us. We enjoyed Beef Tenderloin skewers with candied ginger and Sriracha sauce, and a platter of Calamari sliced very thin and flash fried done with a Szechuan sauce; as a side note, this is a dish that I am often hesitant to try, because so many places over cook it and it becomes rubbery and this was not the case. My Bride had for dinner Red Curried Chicken with crisp green beans served atop Basmati rice and she was in heaven. While I had a dish of Beef Medallions with Beurre Blanc wild mushroom demi-glace, garlic mashed potatoes and the traditional summer medley of vegetables, that my Bride unabashedly liberated the vegetables that I am not partial to. This was just a small representation of the dishes and they were all seasoned differently, so everyone was very happy with their choices.


We walked over a little earlier from the hotel and were promptly seated at the reserved table. We decided that since we were going to be guests that the least we could do, was buy the first bottle of wine and since I knew that our host was partial to Chardonnay, I paid special attention to the Chards on the carte. I chose the Laguna Russian River Chardonnay 2014 and we were both immediately impressed with the wine. This wine came from the Laguna Ranch Vineyard which like the wine is owned by the parent company of E&J Gallo Winery, which when I was a kid learning about wines, was basically a jug wine company, but they have certainly expanded the scope of their wine making. This wine was lovely and when we finished the first bottle, everybody wanted another bottle, and when that was finished, we were all upset to find out that we had depleted the inventory of this wine. The third bottle that we ordered would normally be a fine wine that nobody would complain about, but it paled in comparison to the Laguna. The third bottle was Conundrum White by Caymus 2015, an excellent proprietary blend under the auspices of Charles Wagner. The wine carries a California AVA, because the fruit is harvested from Napa, Monterey, Santa Barbara and Tulare Counties. The wine is a blend of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Muscat Canelli and Viognier, but the percentages are a secret. As a rule, this wine would have made everyone happy as it normally does, but after following the Laguna, I have to say that Gallo topped Wagner that evening. We all left full and sated as we proceeded to walk back to the hotel.

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