MWWC#34: Memory

Posted on July 21, 2017 by thewineraconteur

“We met at nine,” “we met at eight,” “I was on time,” “no, you were late.”
“Ah, yes I remember it well.”
“We dined with friends,” “we dined alone,” “a tenor sang,” “a baritone.”
“Ah, yes I remember it well.”


If you are of a certain age, you will remember this charming duet that was captured on film of Maurice Chevalier and Hermione Gingold in the Lerner and Lowe musical Gigi. The theme of the Monthly Wine Writers Challenge as proposed by the last winner Kent of “Appetite for Wine” is “Memory.” For a theme like this, most will automatically think of Memory from another play, but I guess that I am a different soul.


Does a wine lover need memory? Nowadays one can pull out their “smart” phone, punch in an app and get all sorts of information about a wine. Boring! A wine lover should have memories of wines, both good and bad, that he or she carries around in an old tattered portmanteau and hopefully the good memories far exceed the bad. Can an app convey the ethereal emotion of that taste or that nose of a wine? Of course, it can’t, it can give you the descriptors and terminology of others, but only a memory will remind you of what you should expect from a varietal in the hands of a craftsman. For years I rather cavalierly mistreated most Pinot Noir wines, because in my very early days I had the fortune to experience a Richebourg 1921. Was it fair and just of me, no it wasn’t, but there was always something in the back of my brain that reminded me of what a stellar Burgundy wine tasted like and by extension, what I expected from all Pinot Noir wines.  It may be the same reason that I didn’t go ga-ga when I had the chance to try Screaming Eagle.


My brain is a maelstrom of memories and only a small percentage finally get to these pages. I think most of the wine lovers have the ability to remember the taste of a wine that they may have had years ago, though some only seem to have the ability of savoring of the moment. My Bride is always telling me that there are “left brain” people that are fully functional in society, but they are number oriented and not emotionally driven. Then there are the “right brain” people who are creative and probably emotional and driven by whimsy at times. Even memories, I guess are treated differently. Some can remember wines and vintages like grade school math by rote, but cannot gush about the wine except in descriptors that they know should be applied to the particular wine.


For me wine is a messy memory, because not only is that ethereal quality of taste and smell, but an attic full of matchbooks, menus and vistas. My greatest memories of wines are intricately woven with the moment. I think that is why I can smile about a bottle of Boones Farm NV with friends at the park when I was way underage to having a Chateau Latour 1961 that was too young when it was forty years old. As I look back in retrospect, wine was a part of the moment, albeit a delightful part. Some of the wines were awe-inspiring and some could be bought off the shelve at the corner market or party store. Can you remember that first bottle of Claret that changed your outlook of what wine could be? Can you remember that first real Chianti that didn’t have straw wrapped around the bottle, and if you can’t, then you missed the early days of wine.


One of my great memories of wine, didn’t even include wine, but my wine memories exploded after I met my Bride and that night was only cocktails and some great coffee. Most wine tastings are not nearly as memorable as the moment that everything just clicked, the food, the ambience and sometimes the wine was just ordinary, but it tasted wonderful and will forever have a higher score than what a wine magazine gave it.


“You wore a gown of gold,” “I was all in blue.”
“Am I getting old?” “Oh, no, not you.”
“How strong you were, how young and gay.”
“A prince of love in every way.”
“Ah, yes, I remember it well.”

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Ms. Yoga Touts

Posted on July 19, 2017 by thewineraconteur

One of my dear cast of characters has sent me a couple of wines that she has enjoyed and that is why I say she touts. I should further add that tout means to suggest, and isn’t used that often, think of the colorful characters in the opening act of Guys and Dolls and the very melodic “Fugue for a Tinhorn.” Ms. Yoga is a very old friend of ours and the rumor has it that she will be in town in the near future. We have dined with her at The French Laundry and many other various eateries down the food chain. In honor of her forthcoming visit, I thought I would mention the two latest wines that she has sent to me, that I should try.


The first wine that she touted was De Proprio Gravitas 2014 from Bonny Doon Vineyard. This wine is basically a White Bordeaux blend with a twist. The wine is a mix of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc with just a dollop of Orange Muscat for a touch of sweet, as most white Bordeaux wines that I have had are on the dry side. The wine carries a California AVA, but the vineyards are listed by the winemaker and the wine was aged for five months in Stainless Steel before bottling, so I would venture to say that it should have a bit more of a crisp taste. Ms. Yoga did not elaborate other than to see that she enjoyed this wine and that it wasn’t sweet and very reasonably priced.


The other wine that she touted and enjoyed was Jax Vineyards Y3 Taureau Red 2013. Jax Vineyards is in Napa Valley and the fruit was harvested in Oak Knoll and Calistoga, and the fruit for this wine is a mix of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Zinfandel. Her very terse remark for this red wine was “this is good.” If anyone can add, I would be pleased to hear.

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Two Wines on a Humid Day

Posted on July 17, 2017 by thewineraconteur

I look out at what is normally a busy main street that has been closed off to traffic for the Wyandotte Art Fair. I am not sure how art fairs thrive in other states, but Michigan is very pro-art fair, though this one is more slanted to crafts as compared to main-stream art, which is fine and it is one of the largest in the state. I of course, for the most part am working inside of the store instead of contributing to the street fair for the store that I help out. Even semi-retired I have retail in my blood and am working a bit more to help them out. The first two days were very humid and we even saw some rain on the first day, and thankfully for all concerned it only rained before the actual show (and store) officially opened up and in case you are curious I have refrained from eating at any of the street vendors and prefer dining in any of the established restaurants in the downtown area. I worked a little later, but I knew that I had some free time before I would see my Bride, so I decided some wine was in order.


The first wine that I tried was Luis Pato Maria Gomes 2014 from Barraida, Portugal. Luis Pato is considered an innovative winemaker and he is also credited for bringing some fame to the Barraida district of Portugal, he is known for his use of Baga and Maria Gomes. Maria Gomes is the Portuguese name for a grape that is also known as Fernao Pires and this was a first for me.  This wine is basically Maria Gomes with a touch of Sercialinho (Sercial) and is fermented in Stainless Steel and bottled young. As one who shies away from describing wines, since this wine was out of my realm I will mention a few personal observations. The wine had a beautiful golden hue, a very soft nose, a touch of lemon and some spiciness and a very short finish, but it was just what I needed on a humid day, no reds for me at the moment.


The other wine that I tried was Azur Vineyards Rosé 2015 from Napa Valley. The winery was named after the Cote d’Azur where the three top Rosé regions of France are located. The winemaker Julian Fayard trained at Chateau Smith-Haut-Lafitte and Chateau Lafitte-Rothschild and his first bottling was released in 2009. The wine is pure Syrah and he produced eight-hundred cases of this wine and Napa is not considered a Rosé area and the fruit was harvested in Yountville and the Sierra Foothills. This wine was a bit more refreshing with a pretty soft pink, a soft nose and a decent finish, just what I look for from a Rosé wine.

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Ford’s Garage

Posted on July 15, 2017 by thewineraconteur

My Favorite Daughter was in town for a few days and I got to spend some time with her on two days, and I guess that was enough of Dear Old Dad. Actually, we had some great times, we spent some time on Sunday with our son and part of his family and we went to the Plymouth Art Fair, but alas I was out-voted and we had food from trucks that were servicing the fair, though I did get a chance to try a pizza from the Bigalora Food Truck with their built-in wood burning pizza stoves, but we did not have any wine as we ate in a communal picnic area.


The next day my Bride and I picked her up to take her out for lunch to a restaurant that is brand new in Dearborn and she had tried the first night with some of her cousins and friends to go there, but the wait was way too long for them. We had the good fortune to get there when there was some immediate seating. Ford’s Garage is officially licensed by the Ford Motor Company and is on a strip of land that is part of the Ford Motor Company land in Dearborn, the original restaurants are all located in Florida, so this was the first in Michigan. The restaurant has been designed and built to look like an old-fashioned gas station from the 1920’s and has some vintage cars and gas pumps on the premises. The door handles are gas pumps, and as a side note, when I had to use the facilities, I had to laugh because the urinals were made from recycled Anheuser-Busch aluminum barrels retrofitted, and the wash basins were tires that a basin was fitted into and the water was fed from more gas pumps; very cute. The burgers were made with signature buns that had the logo of the company branded on the top. The basic burger was Black Angus, which could be substituted with a Portabella mushroom, chicken breast or turkey or could be upgraded with American Kobe, Sushi-grade Ahi tuna or open-range bison and all of the burgers besides having house names, also had tag names of local celebrities or famous people from Detroit in past days. My Favorite Daughter had the Estate Burger, named after the Fairlane Estate and home to Henry Ford, and it had smoked Gouda, sweet red onion marmalade, arugula, fried onion straws and white truffle bacon aioli. My Bride had a Patty-melt with Baby Swiss cheese, caramelized onions and 1000 Island dressing, while I had the High-Octane Burger with guacamole and fresh jalapeño peppers. A friend of mine, actually is enshrined with a burger named after her, but it was served on a bed of lettuce and I wanted to see the branding on the bun, so perhaps the next time I will have the honor of seeing how she is immortalized. As a side note they also offer the “Henry Ford Hubcap” which is a ten-pound burger the size of a Model-T wheel and a brioche bun the size of a seat cover, the burger is priced at $125.00, but is free to any individual that eats the entire burger in two hours or less time, and I was not inclined to attempt it.


Ford’s Garage is more oriented towards craft beers, the current vogue and wines are a much distant third runner, I am sure after the cocktails. As is my norm when I order a glass of wine, I ask to see the bottle, so that I may photograph the label, the waitress returned with the wine orders, but she said that the wines are on tap, but that the manager said that I could go and take a picture of the wine taps. We were sitting out on the veranda and it was a rather warm day so my Bride had ordered a Chardonnay and I had ordered a Pinot Gris, while my Favorite Daughter had a Labatt’s Blue as she claims that she cannot get a good Canadian beer in La Vegas. I went over to where the wine taps were located and took my picture. They were serving Acrobat Pinot Gris 2015 from the King Estate Winery in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Two-thirds of the 1,112-acre estate is Pinot Gris, but they also use grapes harvested in the Columbia Valley and throughout Oregon. The St. Francis Winery & Vineyard Chardonnay 2015 is from Sonoma County and the wine spends six months in French Oak. The winery is part of the much larger Kobrand organization. The Hahn Family Wines Pinot Noir 2015 had a California AVA, though Hahn was founded in the Santa Lucia Highlands in 1979 and I feel that some of the greatest Pinot Noir wines come from that area of Monterey. The last wine was the Concannon Cabernet 2014 from Paso Robles and their slogan is “discover America’s oldest ongoing winery under the same family label and stewardship since 1883.” While the wines that we had were fine and fresh from the tap, I was a little disappointed in the serving size, so after a glass of wine, we both switched over and had a Margarita.

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A Pinot and a Meritage

Posted on July 13, 2017 by thewineraconteur

While I was still wandering around the wine department, I did some more exploring, after all who doesn’t like shopping for wine? I mean, not to boast, but if we drank a bottle a day, it would take about four years to deplete the cellar, but it is fun to find something new. If I left it to my Bride who enjoys wine as much as I do, but she tends to buy conservatively and safely. I want to find that new wine that can be our go-to wine. If that makes sense. So, I was at Costco to grab a couple more wines and then a couple of her already go-to wines as well.


I grabbed a bottle of Jean-Claude Boisset Pinot Noir Bourgogne Les Ursulines 2015. Boisset began as a family owned estate in 1961 within the walls of the historic Ursulines Convent in the Nuits-Saint-George area. They have since prospered and grown and have an extensive portfolio of Grand and Premier wines, as well as village-level and Bourgogne wines, and they were the first negocient to go on the big board with the stock market. This wine while on the basic level has a lot of good people behind it, and it was aged for fourteen months in French Oak on the lees, before bottling.


The other bottle that captured my curiosity was Kirkland Signature Rutherford Meritage 2015. Rutherford is almost the center of Napa Valley and the largest AVA within Napa, so a Meritage can’t be all bad. This wine is a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. When I went to do some additional research on this bottle, there seems to be no animosity on the regular Kirkland Signature wines, it seems only the “Series” wines get wrath. The only thing that I did notice was the lament that this wine is now made with Merlot as the major varietal, instead of Cabernet Sauvignon, but that is understandable as they are trying to keep the cost more affordable. As they say, the proof will be in the pudding.

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Two New Wines

Posted on July 11, 2017 by thewineraconteur

As I have become more and more in semi-retirement mode, I guess the concept of dialing down on expenses is becoming apparent. I seem to be going to wine shops with less frequency and that is not fun, but then there is a cellar full of wine, that must be addressed as well. I had mentioned some very popular priced wines that I saw mentioned in the Wine Spectator and since we needed some groceries and supplies, we went off to Costco. As an independent retailer almost my entire life, it is rather difficult to adjust to the big box stores and especially the concept of shopping online, as I enjoy the interaction of salespeople and the knowledge that I hope that I may glean from them. Then you might ask, why go to Costco? The two wines that I read about carried the Kirkland Signature label, and they can only mean Costco, and they have now become the largest wine seller in the United States of America.


I had to tag behind my Bride as she has the membership card and she knows her way around the store and would get aimlessly lost in the aisles. There were two wines that just caught my attention immediately and they were not the two wines that I had intended to get. The first bottle was Kirkland Signature Series Pauillac 2014. I did not expect to see the word Pauillac, like I would see Rioja or Chardonnay. When one goes down from the Bordeaux listing to a commune or village like Pauillac, you wonder if there are actually enough grapes to quench a behemoth order from Costco. I can appreciate a generic Chardonnay from California, but I was just baffled that such a small finite area could fulfill the demands, so I had to try it, just out of curiosity. Here was a nine-month aged French Oak blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Merlot, for the price of a popular priced wine.


The other wine that caught my attention was also from the same “Series.” I had to try a bottle of Kirkland Signature Series Brunello di Montalcino 2011 and it was priced in the low twenties and it has been years that I saw this type of wine priced like that. A Sangiovese wine that has to have a minimum of two years in oak, and at least three years in the bottle before being released, and this wine was aged for three years in oak, so yes, I was willing to try it. When I got home I had to do some research on these wines and they both had mixed reviews and I am wondering if it was based more on it being from Costco, which may have a built-in bias. After all, I can remember the same type of bias directed to California wines prior to 1976, so I will have to decide for myself. The funny thing is, that the two wines that we originally went in looking for, we didn’t get, but it gives me another reason to go back.

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Café Felix

Posted on July 9, 2017 by thewineraconteur

In this very busy lifestyle that has become the norm, one is always heading from one destination to the next without taking the time to just admire the location. That is usually the case when we go to Ann Arbor in Michigan. It is a bustling community with many little shops downtown and quite a few restaurants and watering holes, not to mention that it is a college town. I would say normally we meet friends have dinner and leave, or my Bride will have business there and then she leaves, so we really do not wander around, except for the art fair and then we are looking at other things.


After a nice leisurely stroll looking at shops and people watching, we started to get hungry. Alas this was on a Monday and most of the restaurants were either closed or were going to open up later in the day and we were looking for lunch; and of course, a glass of wine or two wouldn’t hurt either. I was hoping to try someplace new, but that wasn’t appearing on the horizon, so we went to a place that we have enjoyed several times before. We went to Café Felix and because of the heat of the day, we were not going to be brave and dine out on the sidewalk, we wanted to enjoy some air conditioning and listen to the great mix of music that they play in the background. We were looking for something light and some dishes to share and we found a few to hold us over until later. We ordered a plate of Deviled Eggs, this seemingly passé dish that has been rediscovered and it was made with Dijon mustard, chives and each was served on a thin slice of watermelon radish, both for color and for taste. We also shared a small round of Baked Brie that was drizzled with Honey-Sriracha and a small French baguette. We were going to also have some Smoked Salmon Pate, but the kitchen was out, but they offered us a substitution of a Smoked Whitefish Pate and it was excellent. So, there we were having a little picnic in the midst of downtown Ann Arbor.


We were both looking to having some white wine to cool off with and my Bride had a glass of Domaine Felines Jourdan Picpoul de Pinet 2015. This wine carried the marking of Appellation d’Originene Protegee, which showed that it was a sub-region of note of the much larger Languedoc-Roussillon of France. This wine was entirely made from the Picpoul (Piquepoul) grape, which kind of translates to “stings the lip,” because of the high natural acidity of the grapes when made into wine. The wine showed the acidity as well as a marked feature of minerals, which I would call flint-like. I went with something bubbly, because we were having a good time and I felt like having a different wine as well. I had the Poulet & Fils Clairette de Die Tradition Methode Dioise Ancestrale NV. Here is one of the lesser grapes of the Rhone Valley, but it shines in the village of Die. While Clairette de Die would indicate that Clairette is the leading grape for this wine, with the addition Tradition Methode Dioise Ancestrale, Clairette is only twenty-five percent of the mix, and the balance is Muscat Blanc a Petits Grains, which is one of the oldest recognized varietals known. The other unique aspect of this wine is that while it is bubbly, the method that creates it, predates how Champagne is made. The wine is only fermented once in either oak or Stainless Steel and then is bottled without the addition of yeast or sugar and there is no Disgorgement step involved. I found the wine to have some enjoyable sweetness to it, without being overpowering and a set of continuous flowing small bubbles which was a delight to the eye as well. After our little lunch, we walked a little more and then casually, or as casually as one can drive in Ann Arbor, drove home.

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Dinner at the Dotte

Posted on July 7, 2017 by thewineraconteur

After our river cruise, the four of us went to have dinner at the Wine Dotte Bistro. I have had many lunches there, but it was the first time to have dinner there. I really enjoy the name of the establishment as it is a great play on the name of the city of Wyandotte. The restaurant is on the back side of the main street and it has a view of the waterfront and they have some outdoor seating as well, but after being out on the water, the creature comforts of air-conditioning was too inviting not to ignore.


The menu offers several different dishes and a couple of specials were also offered that day. Our friend had the “Baseball Cut” Sirloin, which is a center cut topped with a Zip Sauce and vegetables, preceded by a house salad. His wife ordered one of the daily specials, the Jerk-spiced salmon and she had the soup of the day. My Bride was not hungry so she ordered an appetizer and a bowl of soup. She had the Steak Bites, which were done in a Zip Sauce with mushrooms, onions, green peppers, garlic and pita bread along with the soup, which was Tomato-Basil; and between the two sides, she had ample food. I went with the other special of the day, a version of Surf & Turf, it was three marinated lamb chops done with Chimichurri and a lobster tail with drawn butter.


My Bride commandeered the wine list and immediately ordered a bottle of wine, even before we knew what everyone was ordering, but her selection was fine as it had been a hot and summery day. She ordered the Chateau de Sancerre 2014 from the hamlet of Sancerre in the Upper Loire region of the Loire Valley. Sancerre is famed for their white wines, which is Sauvignon Blanc and the varietal has a distinct tang there, that most Sauvignon Blanc wines do not have, and there is a bit more body and I attribute to the region. This wine is aged on the lees for six months in Stainless Steel before bottling and offers a nuance all its own. The winery was founded in 1919 by Louis-Alexander Marnier Lapostolle, whose family back in 1827 discovered liquid gold when they created Grand Marnier. The Lapostolle family has also found more accolades for their own Lapostolle wines in Chile. This is a Sancerre wine that is a little easier to find and well worth trying a different take on Sauvignon Blanc.

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Oh, Canada

Posted on July 5, 2017 by thewineraconteur

We had a peaceful and serene way to celebrate Canada Day, while technically staying in the United States. We took a two-hour river tour on the Detroit River with another couple. The Diamond Jack’s company has a couple of boats that ply the river from a couple of different locations. One of their ports is in Detroit and the other is in Wyandotte, and we took the Wyandotte-Detroit Tour.


We travelled up river from Wyandotte along the Michigan coast line and saw some of the different parks, industries and marinas that naturally congregate on waterfronts. As we got into the Detroit area we saw the industry on Zug Island, the desolation of Delray, which is where they will be the site of the Gordie Howe Bridge from Detroit to Windsor. We also saw historic Fort Wayne which sits up overlooking the southern border of the United States protecting us from an assault from Canada; and yes, you did read that right Detroit is the only point where Canada is south of the border. We also went past the famed JW Westcott Mailboat, the only floating Zip Code in the country, and they make sure that the boats all get their mail in a timely manner. Our tour boat slowly started turning around as we were under the Ambassador Bridge and I can recall how I have always heard that my Grandfather as soon as he got back on the Canadian side of the bridge would exclaim how fresh the air smelled after leaving Detroit. On the return trip back to Wyandotte we saw the Canadian shoreline with its industries and the already to go area for the new bridge.


Once the boat left the dock, we could get some refreshments during our tour. It was quite sunny and the temperatures were in the eighties with a nice breeze, so we decided to have something chilled; and of course, that meant some wine. The wine selection was very limited and we opted for the safest choice, a few glasses of Pinot Grigio. The first wine was Belle Ambiance Pinot Grigio 2015 with a California AVA. Belle Ambiance Family Vineyards produce this wine that is geared for the bulk wine users, namely catering companies and restaurants. The wine is very inexpensive, no nuance or craftsmanship, but it did deliver a Pinot Grigio taste though a bit on the sweeter side. They ran out of this wine and the other wine that we ended up having was Coastal Vines Pinot Grigio 2016, also with a California AVA. This wine was blended with some French Colombard and it was much sweeter than the Belle Ambience. This was another wine that was made for bulk consumption and is under the auspices of the very large Bronco Wine Company. One observation that I noticed, is that after the initial tasting of a sweeter wine both times, perhaps it was the heat of the sun, but they both did go down rather easily. All in all, it was a most pleasurable way to spend a couple of hours doing something different without the expenditure of owning a boat.

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A Retirement Party

Posted on July 3, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Lately there have been plenty of retirement parties, so I guess I am getting to the age when I am aware of more of these. When one starts out on a career, no matter how many curves there may be in the road, retirement seems so far in the distance. I only knew of one fellow that spent his entire career plotting out his retirement and more power to him, for the rest of us, it is something we think of, make some investments and hope for the best. I was recently invited to another retirement party for a woman that my Bride has worked with, off and on, longer than either would really like to admit.


The party was held after a meeting that they were attending and then the party was going to be after the meeting and on company time, not a bad gig, if it can happen. The party was being held at Beans & Cornbread, a restaurant that has a private dining room on the side, and the menu would work for a myriad of people that have different food restrictions. When the partiers got there, they immediately began rearranging the tables and chairs, as the set-up was much too confining with no elbow room, and then it was much more comfortable. The meal was a buffet style with an assortment of foods. There was salads, vegetables, macaroni and cheese, corn bread, salmon croquettes and fried chicken. Afterwards there was a large sheet cake with the appropriate verbiage extolling the well-wishes of everyone there.


I probably would not have mentioned this party, except that I misjudged traffic and I got to the restaurant with plenty of time to spare, as they were all at their meeting. Since most of the people were going back to work, it would have been a “dry” party. I decided to go the bar of the restaurant and wait and I ordered a glass of wine. The wine list was short and sweet, as I expect that this venue does more in the way of beer and mixed drinks. After I ascertained that I could take my glass to the other room, I ordered, and immediately asked for my tab, as I did not want to charge the price of a drink to the party, since the others were not drinking, and that would have been rude and obnoxious on my part. I had a glass of Philip Schell PSH Malbec 2015 from Mendoza, Argentina. I had never seen this wine before and figured that it would be the safest of the wines offered and how bad can a Malbec from Argentina be? It was a good basic wine and after it opened up a bit more in the glass it was fine, perhaps a bit overpowering for the food, but I did not know the menu before-hand. Mendoza produces about seventy percent of all the wine in Argentina and Malbec accounts for almost a half of all of Mendoza, so the varietal is very important to the area. As most of the participants went back to work, I had a chance to drive home and ponder the closeness of our own retirements, as it is getting closer.

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