Lieux-Dits

Posted on September 19, 2017 by thewineraconteur

I am often learning about wines, but I just learned a new word in French, lieux-dits, which means localities. This all came about from going to a wine tasting at one of the finest wine shops I have ever been to, namely Elie Wine Co. I have written about this shop several times, because they do not encompass the world, they only do French wines, and a few Spanish wines that he is now acting as an importer for. I mean can you say First Growth? I am rambling again, but two wines that I tasted are felt to be on the short list to becoming a Premier Cru, according to the smart money, and I am not in that circle.


Domaine Regis Bouvier Marsannay Les Longeroies 2014 was a charming wine that I tried. Marsannay is considered the “Gateway to Nuits-Sainte-Georges in Burgundy and they only received AOC status in 1987, and also what is unique, is that they have AOC for red, white and rosé, and Domaine Regis Bouvier makes all three, but I had the red. There are no Premier Cru wines in Marsannay as of yet, but Les Longeroies is listed as lieux-dits, so the cru has been acknowledged and may in the future be designated, but I have no idea how long decisions can take in Burgundy, as it is nothing to be sneezed at. This wine is pure Pinot Noir and has been aged for twelve to sixteen months in French Oak, of which thirty percent is new.


Domaine Odoul-Coquard Nuits-Saints-Georges Aux Saints-Jacques 2014 was another charming red Burgundy wine that I had the good fortune to try. In Nuits-Saints-Georges there are no Grand Cru sites, but there are Premier Cru sites and Aux Saints-Jacques is another lieux-dits. This site is made of seventy-year-old vines and made in the old school manner and I was very happy to try this wine as well.

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Café Cortina

Posted on September 17, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Well I have to announce that I am another year older, but probably not any wiser. One of the questions that I received is where would you like to go for your dinner? I mean in the Metro Detroit area there is a plethora of fine dining, more than I can ever recall and probably more than we will ever attempt to dine at, at this point, as we are kind of watching our pennies as we get closer and closer to full retirement. As I thought of the venue that I wanted to try and there are so many, I kept going back in my head for something old school, which would be so fitting for the occasion. Café Cortina is such a place, they have been at the original location for forty years and when they bought the property it was a five-acre apple farm and how things have changed in the area. Café Cortina has also been voted “the most romantic” restaurant year after year that I can remember and the funny thing is that both my Bride and I have dined there, we were never there together, so that had to be rectified.


We were seated in probably the most “romantic” part of the restaurant at a table for two adjacent to the fireplace, and I watched as they kindled the fire from the next room over, so that we would not be disturbed. It is definitely old school with the amount of people servicing our table. My Bride ordered the “Pesce Fresco del Giorno dal Mal Tirremo” and gladly she did not try to pronounce it, and the Fish of the Day was Halibut simmered in a picante plum tomato, caper and Gaeta olive sauce with an Italian version of sliced potatoes with cheese. I would have been more at ease ordering the “Osso Bucco di Manzo in Amarone Della Valpolicella con Risotto al Midollo,” which was a bone-in Short Rib, braised in Amarone wine reduction served with green peas, carrots and bone-marrow Risotto and sautéed vegetables. To start off the dinner, they brought us some wonderful hard-crusted rolls that were so delicious that I think I actually ended up having four of them, and I am not a bread eater. The salad that came was a simple, but elegant tossed field greens with paper thin radish slices and tomatoes lightly covered with creamy house-made Italian dressing. Then there was a nice plate of house-made pasta with a Marinara Sauce with some fresh basil. When our entrée plates came, we both were unsure of how much we could manage, while I did a yeoman’s job and finished mine, my Bride showed some tact and upbringing and only ate half of her order. It was a birthday celebration, so we were going to have a dessert and I was going to go with a Limoncello pastry, but our waiter nixed it, in favor of their “chocolate cake.” The cake was a creation of sixteen crepe layers with chocolate Grenache between each layer of crepe with some Crème Fraiche atop and fresh strawberries. We somehow managed to finish off the cake between us. Of course, the restaurant was brought to a standstill for a moment, when our waiter lit a candle on the plate, that was more akin to a Roman Candle for a Fourth of July celebration, and he claimed that he didn’t want to jeopardize his tip, so he refrained from singing.


We began the meal with glasses of Cavas Hill 1887 Brut Metodo Tradicional NV and what a wonderful glass of bubbly it was. It was one of the finest glasses of Cava that I had ever tried, more reminiscent of a Champagne with the texture and a steady consistent stream of very fine bubbles, until the glasses were finished. This was a charming straw-colored wine from Penedes in the Catalonia district of Spain and was a classic blend of Macabeo, Xarel-lo and Parellada. As you can tell from the label the winery began in 1887 and they had this wine down pat, as it was aged for twelve months before release. For dinner, I was going to go with an Amarone since the Osso Bucco was in a reduction sauce of that wine, but I chose a different red altogether. The Corte Alla Flora Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG  Riserva 2011 was a real winner, and of course all I have to say to my Bride is “Monte” and she is game, no matter what her entrée is. Corte Alla Flora for a Tuscan winery is rather unique, because they are only around twenty years of age, in an area where some wineries can count centuries of existence. Since the wine was almost entirely Prugnolo Gentile (the local name for Sangiovese) it was blended with ten percent Merlot and ten percent Cabernet Sauvignon and could still carry the DOCG designation. As it was a Riserva, the wine was aged for two years in the barrel and then an additional year in the bottle before being released. It was a nice heady wine with a deep purple color and I thought was a perfect match for my dish, but a bit heavy-handed for the halibut. So, for the next almost two months my Bride and I are of the same age, so I will have to wait until her birthday, before I can start saying that she “robbed the cradle” for the next ten months.

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The Duo in Grand Rapids

Posted on September 15, 2017 by thewineraconteur

While Ms. Yoga was up visiting us, it was not just all for pleasure, she also was up drumming up some business and making new connections, or in the modern parlance, she was networking. Ms. Yoga and my Bride both ended up leaving me high and dry to venture off to Grand Rapids for a two-day trip, as they could both accomplish some business and have some great time to catch up with each other on the commute both ways. They stayed at the Grande Dame of hotels in Grand Rapids, namely the Amway Grand, which is a beautiful hotel in the downtown area. The Amway Grand many years ago added an entire wing to the soaring hotel that it already was, and I prefer to stay in the original wing, if possible, because it has the charm of an older and more genteel times, but they ended up in the new wing, which is so similar to other hotels of the same ilk.


The hotel has had many changes even. from the last time, we were there and that includes the restaurants as well. The two of them had dinner at The Kitchen by Wolfgang Puck. Over the years we have dined at several different and divergent restaurants all under the auspices of the famed celebrity chef. I miss the days when the hotel had their own restaurants, as I do enjoy dining in singular restaurants, instead of chains, when possible. The hotel decided that they needed some names to attract new businesses, so they went with Wolfgang Puck and Ruth Chris; and there really is nothing wrong with either, but they are just homogenizing the dining scene across the country. I sometimes feel that I am like John the Baptist out in the wilderness bewailing the loss of individual communities, but I guess I may, because my Armenian first name is named for this Saint. There I go rambling on, but to get back to the duo, they decided to have dinner and they had Pad Thai, which is a dish that my Bride does not get a chance to eat that often, as I am not inclined to dine at most Pan-Asiatic restaurants, and I am not sure if Mr. Puck would be considered an authority on Thai cuisine.


They did have a very interesting wine with their meal and that caught my attention. They were enjoying Domaine de la Terre Rouge Fiddletown Viognier 2014. I am sure that they went with a Viognier wine for the taste and the delightful nose that a great winemaker will deliver. Domaine de la Terre Rouge is an organic winery in Amador County, in the Sierra Foothills of California. They produce about thirty different wines, most with a production of five-hundred cases or less of each wine, so it is a wine that will probably not be found in a corner market. This Viognier was harvested from the Rice-MacDonald Vineyard in the Fiddletown Estate AVA. The wine was fermented in Stainless Steel and then transferred to older French Oak barrels, with a couple of new ones for nuance and aged for about five months. The message I received from my Bride with the accompanying photo was “this was a really good wine!” After dinner, they stopped and had another glass of wine at the bar, and I guess they finished the bottle off, and took the bottle for the unique label for me. Alas, the label is not savable as it is printed directly on the glass, but I now have the cork to commemorate the bottle. I recently wrote about the wine at a tasting that I attended, so I will not get into a discussion about the wine again, but it was Tank Garage Winery Nothing Gold Can Stay Chardonnay 2015 from Napa Valley. All in all, the duo had two great wines for the evening.

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Keeping Up with Ms. Yoga

Posted on September 13, 2017 by thewineraconteur

I have never asked her, but I am sure that Ms. Yoga must have been voted “Miss Popular” in high school. When she is in town, there is just a whirl-wind of activity and she attempts to see everyone on her list, both friends and clients. She can remind one of the “Tasmanian Devil” from the old Looney Toon cartoons that I watch on television as a child, and if they are no longer being shown and you are of a much younger generation, ask someone older for a description (if it is not available on Google or YouTube). I guess the yoga classes gives her boundless energy. She wanted to see some mutual friends and so we were off.


We all climbed into one car and went off to visit the friends at their home. Our mutual friends are retired, but they put out a marvelous spread for us to snack on while we were there. Sometimes a sumptuous table of munchies brought out in a sequence is much more nourishing and enjoyable than a sit-down feast. The flow of food and conversation was at the perfect pace and one cannot ask for more. As a side note, the jumbo shrimp were divine and it took vast amounts of will-power not to devour the entire platter.


We had taken a bottle of JaM Cellars Butter Chardonnay 2015 with us, as this has become one of my Bride’s go-to wines these days, as it is an easy to drink Chardonnay for the price. The wine carries a California AVA designation as the fruit comes from Mendocino County, Santa Barbara County and Clarksburg. It is a commercial bulk wine that has some appeal, and since it is not done in oak barrels for aging, they use oak chips to impart the taste of the oak and the butter taste and texture that one gets from small batch Chardonnay wines. Our hosts brought out a bottle of wine that they wanted me to try, as they know my fondness for wines. We opened up a bottle of Leelanau Cellars Merlot 2012 from the Leelanau Peninsula. Now we had just got back from doing a few tastings up in that area and I was very impressed with the strides and quality that I was tasting in the red wines, as historically I had preferred the whites in the past. This wine confirmed my new thoughts. Leelanau Cellars is one of the older and larger wineries in that area, as they had originally started as a cherry orchard and processing facility and they planted their first batch of vines in 1974, and created their first commercially offered wines in 1977, and they now produce about two-hundred-fifty-thousand cases of wine a year. This particular wine was aged over one year in American oak and easily won nods at the table for its easy drinking flavor. Just another day of fun with Ms. Yoga.

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Bocelli Prosecco

Posted on September 11, 2017 by thewineraconteur

With Ms. Yoga in town, the families got some special time, first with ours and then the next morning with her family. We were going to meet at The Sardine Room, which is in downtown Plymouth and more or less centrally located for everyone. The Sardine Room, is the third restaurant owned by the same family and all the restaurants are right in a row on the main drag, and all three have sidewalk dining areas during the nice season. Of course, with a party of ten, we ended up eating indoors, because of the limited capacity on the sidewalk area. As with all families, messages got garbled in transmission and the restaurant originally had the reservation for eight, and my Bride and I grabbed a high top overlooking the big table and that was going to work out as far as we were concerned. Our waitress who was taking care of our high top, also was taking care of the party of eight and somehow, she commandeered another table to add and we all ended up dining together.


Sometimes when one hears the word brunch, visions of a long buffet table with chafing dish ad infinitum is pictured in one’s mind, or just a fancy word for a sit-down affair with some usual and some not so usual breakfast items; and that day it was the latter. There was quite an array of food being ordered and some of the younger nieces and nephews were in awe of the fanciness of the plating on their orders. My Bride and I had more of a classic selection for breakfast. My Bride had two eggs, bacon, house potatoes and toast. I went one step fancier and had Eggs Benedict with a ham steak, English Muffin, Hollandaise sauce and the house potatoes.


A lot of the people were enjoying the Bloody Mary drinks, which are quite popular for brunch, but my Bride and I went the real classic way and had Mimosas. The brought out a large carafe of Mimosas made at the bar, and I asked our waitress, if I could see the bottle of wine that was being used, expecting to see a popular Charmat Methode California sparkling wine, but instead the sparkling wine was from Italy. The wine used was Bocelli Prosecco Extra Dry NV and this is from a winery that was established in 1730, and currently they have vines on the property that are over seventy years in age. If the name sounds familiar, one of the current Bocelli family members is Andrea, who has made quite a name for himself with his singing, but here is a case where it is not a “celebrity” wine, as the winery predates the celebrity. The Bocelli family spread their winemaking a bit more and started partnering with others in Valdobbiadene-Veneto and starting making Prosecco in 2011. They partnered with Trevisol, who is considered the “first family of Prosecco.” All the wines produced by the Bocelli family are hand-harvested, without irrigation and also without the use of pesticides or chemical agents. The wine is pure Prosecco and has been aged for two months in the bottle and it was a delightful taste change for the Mimosas. The weekend was just made for families this time.

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Ms. Yoga Returns

Posted on September 9, 2017 by thewineraconteur

One of our dear friends and part of my returning cast of character Ms. Yoga came up for a visit, and this time it was both personal and business in nature. Of course, I told her that her room was available and we could still slide her bill under the door when her departure date was due, yes, I am that kind of guy. Ms. Yoga is lucky though, because she gets some inside pull and her bill is always comped by a higher authority, she has an inside track on these things. The first night of her trip, we were going to go out for dinner and of course my Bride decided to make it a big event, because Ms. Yoga has not seen our grandchildren or our one son in ages, so we were off to have dinner for eight. Then the logistics of finding a venue that was about half-way between the two households, and then also a place that the grandchildren would want to eat at.


We ended up at Johnny Carino’s in Commerce Township, and I have written about this restaurant in another location, as they are a chain, albeit a much smaller chain in comparison to many of the others. The food is much better than some of the chains that I refer to as “Italian food for Americans.” I won’t go into all of the dishes that were served that evening, but suffice it to say that even with three teenagers, there was ample enough food and the desserts were large enough that they were actually shared. My Bride ordered the Grilled Citrus Salmon which was in a sweet citrus balsamic glaze with sautéed spinach and Angel Hair pasta and topped with Roma tomatoes and of course, never enough Parmesan cheese, and a side of fresh roasted vegetables. I wanted to try something different and I went with the Italian Sausage and Peppers, which were grilled with marinated peppers and onions with a Marinara sauce on a bed of roasted Rosemary potatoes, a different twist on an old classic dish that I haven’t had in ages.


Since there was only three of us having wine, we went with a bottle of Sartori di Verona Pinot Noir 2013. This wine carried the Delle Venezie IGT designation for winery of Casa Vinicola Sartori, because Pinot Noir is not an indicative grape varietal for the area, but many of the wineries have brought in some other types of grapes to grow to appease the large international consumer base that they are aiming for, and Pinot Noir is a very recognizable grape. The winery was founded in 1898 and is still family owned, but they have spread their wings beyond their traditional offerings and that is fine and the wine worked out well. Here was a classic French grape, grown in Italy and aimed at the American market, and the wine was aged in oak for twelve months, so it was not a light-weight. It had enough of the Pinot Noir flavor to pair with the dishes, but it was not stellar, but then neither was the price, even in a restaurant; and that is an important consideration in a crowd.

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A Nice Dinner in Wyandotte

Posted on September 7, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Every now and then the Gods look down on us mere mortals and smile. Sometimes with busy work schedules and time constraints, it is not always easy to meet and have dinner, without a lot of extra driving around; and rush hour can be exasperating. We were both fortunate to be in the Downriver area of the Greater Detroit area and we decided to meet at Magdaleno Ristorante where we have eaten before and enjoyed the meals that we have had there. I can now understand why, even more, the chef/owner of the restaurant spent seven years as the second in command at one of our favorite Italian restaurants. Magdaleno Guzman worked at Bacco’s in Southfield and now has his own place in Wyandotte.


When I got to the restaurant, my Bride was already waiting for me. She had selected the Fig and Prosciutto Salad, which was made with fresh Ricotta cheese, candied pecans, brown figs, prosciutto all atop a bed of baby spinach and drizzled with honey. My Bride was rather hesitant about the honey, so she asked if she could have the honey and another dressing brought on the side as well, in the end she decided that the honey was the best for the salad. I went with the Magdaleno Trio which was a nice arrangement of veal, shrimp and pasta with a Bolognese sauce, and I was very easy to please.


I was a little puzzled as to what my Bride would want to drink, since she was having a large dinner salad, though she enjoys almost all wines with her salads and I usually refrain from wine when I am having a salad. She chose the Geyser Peak Winery Sauvignon Blanc 2015 with a California AVA. Geyser Peak Winery is one of the oldest wineries in Sonoma County as they were founded in 1880 originally in the Alexander Valley and now in the Dry Creek area. The wine carries the California AVA because all the fruit came from the North Coast region which encompasses several AVAs in the state. This wine actually worked very well with her salad since the Sauvignon Blanc had four percent Riesling and just a touch of Viognier and was aged in Stainless Steel to have a crisp flavor. I actually went with a light wine myself which was fine with the veal and the shrimp and overwhelmed by the Bolognese sauce. The Sauvion Rosé D’Anjou 2015 was semi-dry and a classic wine from the Loire Valley. Sauvion is one of the oldest estates in the Sevre et Maine region. This wine is seventy percent Groslot and the balance is Gamay. Groslot is one of the main grapes for this area, but it is being squeezed out by other grapes that are also allowed to be used for this wine like Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, which have a bigger name appeal. So, if you get a chance to try this type of wine from Anjou, try it with the original grape, before it fades into the sunset.

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A New Birthday

Posted on September 5, 2017 by thewineraconteur

The normal way to celebrate birthdays is that we lump all the celebrants of the month into one party and allow the cake to enumerate them. This works out well and it keeps the party scheduling a whole lot easier. There can be exceptions to the rule, if it is a special number, or if it is a surprise party, or if the parents of a newborn want to make a special fuss. I can understand the importance of a first child, or a first birthday, as I have been there a couple of times myself.


One of my Sister-in-Laws donated their house for the party, since there home has a beautiful in-ground pool which makes it ideal for the summer months, unless you are like me and have a body that looks better dressed than undressed. That point being moot for me, as I had to work that day, so everyone was saved from having their eyes burnt. For the party, the Father of the new one-year old spent most of his time over a hot barbeque and the Grandmother made and oversaw all of the other food preparations and some of the guests brought dishes for the party as well.


My Bride took a couple of bottles of wine to the party and both were white, and I knew that even before I heard about it, as she does enjoy her white wines. She had taken one of the bottles of wine from a winery we had just visited up in the Leelanau Peninsula of Michigan as she thought that some of her sister would enjoy it, as they are not fans of dry wines. The Boskydel Vignoles 2015 was a hit, as she told me that it almost disappeared after opening it. Vignoles, which is also known as Ravat Vignoles or Ravat 51, is a Cold Hardy varietal that was developed in the 1930’s in France by J. Ravat and is thought to be a cross of Pinot Noir or Chardonnay and one of the hybrid Seibel varieties. While this grape is not sanctioned for use in France it has become quite popular in the United States and Canada as it is late budding and an early ripening grape which works well for areas that have more severe winters. The wine tends to be on the sweeter side and I think that is what made it so popular at the party. The other wine that she took was a Chardonnay and that I could guarantee even before I asked. The Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay 2013 is a delightful wine and very easy drinking. This winery was established in 1967 and they rely heavily on the Columbia Valley in Washington where they are located. This wine was aged Sur Lie for six months in a mix of French and American oak, and then it was blended with thirty-five percent of the wine that was tank fermented to give the wine a mix of crisp and buttery notes. All in all, my Bride had a good time without me, and she may not have even noticed that I wasn’t there.

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Aerie

Posted on September 3, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Aerie is the most fitting name for a restaurant that sits atop the Tower at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa. While the resort sounds like it should be in Traverse City, it is actually a bit north of there in the town of Acme and houses not only a tower of rooms and suites, but there is another hotel on the grounds along with three golf courses and spas, and about eight different places to get a bite to eat and something refreshing to drink. We have been to the Grand Traverse before and I don’t know how I missed it, but hopefully this will do, until another time and another article.


We were having a dinner for eight at the Aerie, and what a beautiful view it commands, as the Tower is the highest structure in the area for miles. The teenagers had their own table and I am sure that they were pleased and the oldsters had our own table along with some adult beverages. I won’t get into all of the meals that were served, but I will mention a couple, so that one can appreciate the quality of the meal. Aerie prided itself on using as much local food as permitted and this is a growing concept especially in a state like Michigan that has a large agrarian base, as it is not just automotive, though there was a large automotive association that had meetings there as we saw quite a few name tags on the elevator going up to the restaurant. There was the Local Pork Tenderloin, which was a bacon wrapped tenderloin pan seared and basted, with herbed fingerling potatoes, Port poached apple slices and a Tarragon and Dijon Demi-glace sauce. One other dish was the cast iron blackened Bronzini, with hand-made Potato Gnocchi, brown butter crème, sweet corn, tomato and asparagus succotash with Morel mushrooms and corn shoots.


Since it had been a hot sunny day while we were out during the day, we started off with a bottle of Quintessence Pouilly Fume 2015. The Upper Loire Valley in France is a place where Sauvignon Blanc really shines and holds its own. Alas this wine only had a glimmer of the greatness of what this area can offer, as it is handled by Bronco Wine Company which basically offers good and sound wines, but their wines are made for mass distributorship, so the nuance of the region suffers, because of the quantities made, but it was fine for openers. For our dinner, we had the CVNE “CUNE” Gran Reserva Rioja 2010 and while we encounter plenty of Rioja wines and even quite a few Rioja Reserva wines, the Gran Reserva designation is not that often seen. “CUNE” actually represents Companie Vinicola del Norte de Espana, a winery that was founded in 1879 in the Rioja Alta district which is considered the best of the Rioja area. The wine is a blend of Tempranillo, Graciano and Mazuelo which is the classic trio for Rioja, but to carry the Gran Reserva status it has to be aged for a minimum of two years in the barrel and then then aged three years in the bottle prior to being released for sale. It was an excellent wine and it even paired decently with the fish entrée that was enjoyed at the table. The wines and the dinner were totally enhanced by the vista that we enjoyed as we were seated right along one of the large windows.

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Grand Traverse Distillery

Posted on September 1, 2017 by thewineraconteur

While wandering the downtown district off Traverse City, wondering what would be bought by the professional shopper that I am married to. My Brother-in-Law I think was having the same thoughts. All of a sudden, we walked by the tasting room for the Grand Traverse Distillery. I normally refrain from discussing any adult beverages other than wine, but on occasion something stronger does arrive. In my early days, I enjoyed Chivas Regal and the now gone, but highly remembered Dewar’s Ne Plus Ultra. I also nowadays enjoy some sipping Bourbon as it is called, which is single barrel aged liquid gold. Then I can’t forget my heritage of learning to appreciate Crown Royal, when that was considered the Gold Standard.


The two of us walked into the tasting room and kind of bellied up to the bar. Grand Traverse Distillery officially began selling their products in 2007 using local grains for their beverages. There were fourteen different items that one could taste from Whiskey, both Rye and Bourbon, Vodka, Gin and Rum. Most of the golden beverages from what I could ascertain were aged for three years and three months in American Oak barrels. They are doing so well, that they now have tasting rooms beyond Traverse City, in Leland, Frankenmuth and recently in Grand Rapids.


Since, we had wine for lunch and were going to have wine again for dinner, I had no desire to do too many tastings. I guess I would call it maturation, or maybe just realizing that I am not a kid anymore. One of the brands caught my eye, as I had remembered trying some when I was extremely young; I had to try the Grand Traverse Cherry Flavored Whiskey. I mean this is Traverse City, home of the Michigan Cherry Festival, and so many cherry orchards gave their lives, so that vinifera could be planted instead. This is their flavored version of their Straight Bourbon which is made from Corn, Rye and Malted Barley and then blended afterwards with three percent Cherry Concentrate from the Leelanau Fruit Company. It was a very easy drinking whiskey, especially since we were drinking it neat. I also tried their Dark Reserve Rum and other than the aging and the barrels, I am not sure what the mixture involved, but I was looking for something new to add to the bar at home and this was a very smooth Rum, and I very seldom drink Rum. My Brother-in-Law to his credit was more of a man, as he also tried the Chipotle Flavored Whiskey and he said that it was very hot and spicy, I declined as it didn’t sound like something I would like. After we paid and were ready to walk out, the young lady that attended to our tasting gave us each a boxed dram glass with the name printed on the side. I thought that it was a nice touch.

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