El Asador

Posted on May 10, 2017 by thewineraconteur

I really wanted to go and celebrate my five years of blogging and of course that meant wining and dining, as the expressions goes from my parent’s generation. This restaurant was in my old neighborhood that I have been talking about ever since I left to start my adult life after college, and I was looking forward to seeing a place that all the food critics were raving about. There were actually two things that really intrigued me about El Asador; they allow you to take your own wine or beer and they are located in my old neighborhood. I told my Bride about it and she was game for trying out a new restaurant and believe it or not, she had never been to my old stomping grounds of when I was a kid. She had an important meeting the day that I delivered the commencement speech to my old junior high school that was closing after that year. Even with all of the road construction we got there, and I guess that over the years I have still had reasons to go to the old neighborhood, so I guess I had gradually noted changes, but seeing the neighborhood through her eyes was different. I guess that since I had been talking about the neighborhood all of my life that perhaps I had allowed myself some rose-colored glasses. Thomas Wolfe was right. As we drove by looking at my old family home and at my cousin’s home and then driving by the gutted hulk that was the church my Mother attended all of her life, looking at the broken out stained glass windows the world had changed in one moment.


When we got to the restaurant that was basically across the street from another restaurant that is a fixture in the neighborhood, I kept looking at the building, but I could not remember what had previously been there, but I did admire the beautiful mural that they had commissioned to be painted on the side of the building and it was in sharp contrast to all of the graffiti-inspired “art” that has become the norm in the area. The chef/owner had worked at a couple of restaurants that we have gone to, and he is very well respected. Rather than going to the trendy areas of the Metropolitan Detroit, he was pioneering and created a Mexican Steakhouse. As soon as we were seated they brought out the standard chips and salsa, but while the chips were freshly made they were not the usual greasy ones that have become the norm and the salsa while not overly spicy had a nice flavor. We ordered the Guacamole en la Mesa and it was prepared tableside by our waitress. My Bride ordered the Mole de Gallina, which is probably what I would have ordered as I just adore a well-made Mole sauce and this was one for sure. The dish if you have never had it is a chicken breast in a sauce of sesame seeds, Chile ancho, pasilla and mulato with a hint of chocolate, peanuts and assorted spices. I didn’t order that dish, because El Asador is a Mexican Steakhouse, so I ordered the Ribeye Con Rajas, which was a char-grilled steak topped with a Poblano Pepper Green sauce and it came out perfectly cooked “medium-rare” as requested. What was kind of refreshing for a restaurant that has been discovered by “hipsters” is that the décor is not breathtaking and the dishes were not plated as most of the new places sometimes replace flavor with appearance.


When I called for reservations the young lady that answered the phone, almost immediately told me that I could bring my own beer or wine, but not liquor to the restaurant and she also suggested that I should bring a “tool” for opening whatever I was going to have with dinner, and that they have glasses. I asked my Bride if she would prefer a Malbec or something from Cain to celebrate with, and she wanted a Malbec. I thought it was a good call since the Malbec has natural spiciness and I like it with spicy dishes and with steaks as well. The wine I chose was a Heller Estate Malbec 2011 from the Carmel Valley, California. We have actually gone to the winery twice and they were not even offering Malbec wines when we were there, so I guess we are overdue for a trip to Carmel-by-the-Sea once more. In fact, the leather bag that I use to transport wines around was bought on our first trip to Carmel. As for the wine, 2011 was a rather dicey year for the whole Monterey region, but right from the first sip, this was a delightful wine. The color and the nose both impressed me immediately and it had aged and mellowed perfectly when we opened it. The only sad thing is that I no longer have any more of the 2011, but I have some more Heller Estate Malbec resting at the moment. I guess the next celebration that we have, will not be back in the old neighborhood, but I am sure that I will still find occasions to return on my own.

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Five Years

Posted on May 8, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Leave it to Social Media to remind me that I have been writing for five years. It may have dawned on me a couple of days later, as I have been quite busy, but I will accept the wake-up call. It truly doesn’t seem that I have been doing it for that long, well there are a couple of times that I have had to write, just to get under the bell, as I like things to be on an even keel. The first year I wrote an article every day, just to get into the habit of writing, because it had been years since I had been a student, and now it is every other day. I am still amazed that I have even wrote over a thousand articles and my ability to weave stories around wine is still intact, much to the chagrin of some of you, but as I have often stated, I don’t like wine jargon or to get too technical, because that is not my character. I am a creature of habit, as some of you may have noticed, as I like to have my article appear at the same time of the day, I know it is quirky, but that is just me. I have met some very interesting people through these five years, and so far, I have even met one other blogger, since I am in the Detroit area and that seems far from the maddening crowd.


Since I started discovering wines when I was in high school, there has been gallons of wine under that bridge. There have been some awful wines, some mediocre wines and some stellar wines that are truly the nectar of the Gods. For the record, the only wines that I have not actually paid for is because we were at a dinner where we were treated, as of yet I have never been offered to review wines; and I was brought up with the concept not to ask for anything free. Yes, I wax poetic at times, and sometimes I have to curb my opinions, as I try to stay positive. I very seldom get political, because from me you don’t want politics, from me, I hope you want enjoyable times with wine. I mean that is why I tend to leave my “lead” buried in the end of the article. I think wine makes the memory even better, especially when the stage has been set.


It is my Bride that sometimes gets the short shift at a dinner, at least for a few minutes, as I take a photograph of the wine and make some notes, but then I do go back to her. She has a much more hectic schedule than I do, so there are some things that we miss, as I try to include her as often as possible. I mean would Nick Charles be as much fun without Nora? I am writing this as I think of a small little race that will happen around 6:40 today and she has just returned from that city, because of business requirements. She did not bring me any wine, as if we need more wine in the cellar, I guess that is a silly statement as yes, we always need more wine, but she did bring me something to savor, since I had to be without her for five days, but hardly the same. So now to figure out how to celebrate this milestone, my next project. Most of all I would like to thank all that put up with my ramblings and know that I have been having fun, as I try to entertain you and perhaps impart a little wine knowledge to you.

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Two Reds From J

Posted on May 6, 2017 by thewineraconteur

The wine tasting from J Vineyards & Winery was thoroughly enjoyable. The winery began in 1986 by Judy Jordan, the daughter of Tom Jordan, founder of Jordan Vineyard & Winery fame. The father and daughter team began as equal partners, until the daughter was able to buy out her father and she became sole proprietor. As I stated earlier for the first ten years they only produced the J Vineyard Brut and what a fine job they did with it. Scott Anderson went up the ranks at the winery and finally went to Associate Winemaker with Nicole Hitchcock and he made the evening most enjoyable discussing some of the nuances of this job. In 2015 E&J Gallo bought J Vineyards & Winery and Scott maintained his position with the change of command. After the tasting, I had a chance to discuss wines with him and when I found out that he was staying at the Westin Book Cadillac in downtown Detroit, I learned that he had eaten at Roast, the first evening, and being a staunch Detroiter, I strongly urged him to walk out the side door of the hotel and cross the street and to go into Lafayette Coney Island to try one of the unique dining opportunities in Detroit and that they are an institution. I even get side-tracked in conversations.


The first red wine for the evening was the J Vineyard Pinot Noir California 2015. This was a blend of Pinot Noir from three areas. Seventy percent of the fruit came from the Olson Ranch in Santa Lucia Highlands in Monterey County and I have been praising the Pinots from that region for some time. Twenty-six percent of the fruit came from the Russian River Valley and four percent was harvested from Santa Maria Valley AVA in Santa Barbara County. The different wines were aged for six to seven months in a mix of French and American Oak, then blended and bottled. I thought this was the wine of the evening, as it impressed me on all points of the tasting.


The last wine of the evening was stellar and if I hadn’t been blown away from the last bottle, this one would have done it for me. The J Vineyards Estate Pinot Noir 2014 had fruit from all eight of the Russian River Valley estates. This was their flagship wine for the Pinot Noir line and there were ninety-nine different lots of fruit that was aged for eight months in French Oak, of which twenty-five percent were new and then aged in the bottle for an additional nine months before release. Just some truly wonderful wines, that seemed to evaporate in the glass after being poured and a delightful speaker who you could tell enjoyed winemaking much more than marketing.

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Two Whites From J

Posted on May 4, 2017 by thewineraconteur

The wine tasting event that centered around J Vineyards & Winery was not only a tasting, but kind of class as well. If one has been to a winery, most of the wine tastings, unless you have booked an appointment, the wines are just poured without much fan-fare and one usually has to pry information out of the hosts, where the pouring becomes rather mechanical. It was not the case this evening, and there were plenty of questions and interruptions, but the evening still progressed very well. D.vine Fine Wines did a fine job, supplying all of the tasters two different glasses, a plate of assorted cheeses and even an assortment of dark chocolates to try.


The first still white wine that we tried was J Vineyards Pinot Gris 2016 with a California AVA. This wine we were told was very expensive to make as they required hand-picked clusters and smaller crates to carry the fruit. The fruit for this wine was from the Russian River Valley and also from Lodi, hence the California designation. They started making this wine in 1996 and it is made entirely in Stainless Steel. I took a white sheet of paper as a background to discern the color of the wine, and for one like me that has worked with color for ages, I could not come up with a color name as it was a soft pink with some orange tossed in. Not a strong nose, but heavy legs on the glass and a charming taste for this particular wine.


The second still white wine for the evening was the J Vineyards Estate Chardonnay 2014. The fruit was harvested from their Dutton Ranch in the Russian River Valley. There were thirty different lots of the fruit from two different clones that were all aged for nine months in French Oak, of which twenty-five percent was new and then the wine was blended in the end. I really enjoyed this glass of wine.

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J Vineyards

Posted on May 2, 2017 by thewineraconteur

I don’t know about you, but I get an avalanche of emails constantly, but one from a fellow wine blogger caught my eye about a wine tasting of J Vineyards wines. I remember fondly the first time that I tried J Vineyards Brut, as we were sitting at the bar at Bacco’s enjoying a couple of plates of Beef Carpaccio in the traditional manner. The bartender and beverage buyer at the time touted me on a glass of bubbly to go with our order, and I was amazed that it was from California. Bacco’s has the largest Italian wine list in the state and could rival almost any restaurant in the country. Here was this new winery making sparkling wine and we were having the fruits of their first bottling and it was perfect. Now my Bride gets rather impulsive at times and within the week she had bought a six-pack of this new wine that blew our socks off.


Most of the time when I get notices from this particular wine blogger about wine tastings, I am usually already committed to something else for the evening. We seem to be book so far in advance that I miss a great many wine tastings, so I guess I need a clone of myself. My Bride was booked for the evening, but I was free, so off I went to wine shop D.vine Fine Wines not far from the house.


J Vineyards originally only made their Brut offering for the first ten years and now they offer thirty-two different wines. The tasting began with two different sparkling wines. The J Vineyards Cuvee 20 NV is commemorating the twentieth anniversary of their sparkling wine. The wine is made from their Russian River Valley grapes which is part of the much larger Sonoma County. As we were told by the winemaker this wine is a blend of half Chardonnay and half Pinot Noir and then the math got a little fuzzy, because there is also a touch of Pinot Meunier. The fruit was harvested in 2013, bottled in 2014 and two years later the disgorgement to make the wine Brut, as you can assess this wine is made in the Methode Champenoise and they really want their product to be in the French manner, even to the point of including the Pinot Meunier. The second wine that we tasted and it really should have been the first, was the J Vineyards Brut Rosé NV. Once again, the fruit was all from the Russian River Valley and again with the fuzzy math, because this wine was made from sixty percent Pinot Noir and forty percent Chardonnay and a touch of Pinot Meunier. This wine spent three years on the lees before bottling and then at the time of the “Champagne Dosage” they added two percent Pinot Noir still wine for uniform color. What a great way to start the evening.

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Wine and Music

Posted on April 30, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Our dear friend who dubbed himself The Wine Raconteur Jr. invited us out to see him perform and we have seen him musically several times. By trade he is an engineer which is a great profession especially in the Detroit area and he is also a musician who will sit in with bands when needed, especially for the schools that he has attended. It was in the latter capacity that we saw him when he aided the Henry Ford College Metropolitan Symphony Band, that particular school was only a few years ago Henry Ford Community College and before that it was Dearborn Junior College and it started out as Fordson Junior College, though when I was in high school and would use their library at times for studies it was known as “Hank High.” That evening we listened to Sousa’s “The Pride of the Wolverines,” Bellstedt’s “Napoli” which is known colloquially as “Funiculi, Funicula” with a guest Euphonium soloist, Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” (thankfully my Bride did not try to sing along with) and Prokofieff’s “Variation on a Theme.”


After the concert, we met up with the musician and his parents and we decided to go have a drink. I guess you could call it a casual “afterglow.” Of course, I thought the perfect setting would be at The Henry, which was originally the Ritz-Carlton of Dearborn and where my Bride and I had coffee the first night we met. I guess you can call us a couple of old romantics, as it was only ten days later then that original night in 1993, so there were the five of us, as The Wine Raconteur Jr. had to leave his Bride at home to watch their children.


That evening I was the odd man out, which is often the case, as I was the only one to have some wine. The others were all having cocktails and I was maneuvering around with the I-Pad menu looking for wines by the glass. My first choice was no longer available by the glass and only by the bottle, so I had a late start with the other revelers. I had a glass of Chateau de Sancerre 2015 from Sancerre in the Upper Loire of the Loire Valley of France. This is a fine bottle of wine made from Sauvignon Blanc, the premier grape of the region and it was aged on the lees for six months in Stainless Steel before bottling. This winery was founded in 1919 by Louis-Alexander Marnier Lapostolle, whose family back in 1827 created the liqueur Grand Marnier and years later also started Lapostolle wines in Chile. I guess one could say that the evening was steeped in history from my viewpoint and what a great evening it was.

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Mikette

Posted on April 28, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Mikette is a relatively new French restaurant in a strip center away from the downtown area of Ann Arbor. A couple of the other bloggers that I follow have mentioned it, and I am looking forward to trying it, as they tout themselves as “a taste of Southern France in Ann Arbor.” The other evening my Bride abandoned me as she was attending a fund raiser with one of her friends and a co-worker and there were only two tickets, so I was definitely odd man out. My Bride asked me if there was any place I could recommend for them to stop off afterwards for a glass of wine and perhaps a quick bite, because they were not sure of what to expect at the fund raiser.


I suggested Mikette as it is a place that I want to try and I would let my Bride test the waters first. So off they went, leaving me on the threshold watching them drive off together. After the fund raiser, which was kind of a business-related event, they found themselves at the restaurant and they were just going to have a quick bite and some wine. Her friend ordered Crab Cakes which were made from jumbo lump crab and accompanied with frisee and Old Bay Remoulade. My Bride had an order of Ratatouille, the classic dish of Provencal vegetables with olives, goat cheese and crostini. I think women tend to eat lighter when they are together, because they just want to talk and catch up on things.


Mikette has a small, but tight wine list as per the wine authority (My Bride) and when I looked at her slightly blurry photos, which she claims is because her phone is older than mine, there were a couple of interesting wines that were not the run of the mill choices. Her friend prefers wines that are on the sweeter side, so my Bride suggested Frey-Sohler Muscat Reserve 2013 from the Alsace region of France. The Muscat grape is one of the oldest recorded grapes in history and there are many variations of the grape over the years. My Bride used her intuition to decide that the Muscat grape was sweeter and that the Alsace region is more akin to Germany, and hence the wine should be on the sweeter side, though it was still a bit dry for her friend, but I give my Bride kudos for her thought process and without seeing all of the wines on the list, I may have suggested the same wine. My Bride chose for her own wine La Cave des Grands Cru Blancs Pouilly-Vinzelles 2015, which is grown by a group of farmers that established a cooperative in 1929. Pouilly-Vinzelles is a sub appellation of the Maconnais, which is part of the Burgundy region. Pouilly-Vinzelles may sound like its neighbor Pouilly-Fuisse, which has its own appellation and much more famous, hence the appending of the village name of Pouilly. The limestone hills of the region give this Chardonnay wine a unique taste of terroir and it is aged in oak to add more flavor. I think that my Bride did a fine job and now I really want to go to Mikette to try it out for myself.

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A Visit

Posted on April 26, 2017 by thewineraconteur

My Favorite Daughter was in town with one of her cousins to attend several events on the same weekend, and she was even able to squeeze some time in for her dear old Dad. It was a nice visit and a delightful way to celebrate the time. It was not the best trip for her, only because when we saw her, she had already spent one night out with her cousins and friends that she grew up with and she had to change her hotel room twice that evening and still ended up with a room that had no air conditioning, so to put it mildly, she was not a happy camper and she had not slept when I saw her, so she will probably shoot me for publishing her photo.


We picked her up at the hotel that she was staying at and we were going to take her out for lunch, we asked her cousin to join us, but she was just going to try to relax, as they had so much more planned for the weekend. It was a Saturday afternoon and we started driving around Dearborn where she had been born and gone to school looking for a restaurant. We were surprised to see that her old favorite Kiernan’s had been leveled. I finally gave up thinking of places and we drove over to the Dearborn Inn, the first airport hotel in the country, but the airport across the street is no longer there. The hotel is owned by Ford Motor Company who originally built it, as accommodations for their visitors and it is now managed by the Marriott group. We stopped in to have a light lunch, but more importantly to just be together.


One may not be surprised that we had wine with our lunch, at least my Bride and I did, my Favorite Daughter just wanted some pop. Since my Bride was having French Onion Soup and a sandwich and I was having a plate of Mushroom Gnocchi with a Sage Cream Sauce, the wine selection was a bit unique. My Bride suggested something bubbly and we went with Segura Viudas Aria Estate Brut Penedes Cava NV. We have had other Cava wines from Segura Viudas and this was a new one for us and it was most pleasant. Segura Viudas was established in 1954, so it is the same age as I am, but the wine we had was much younger. The wine is a blend of Macabeo, Parellado and Xarel-lo, the three dominate wines of Penedes and the whole Catalonia region and this wine is made in the Methode Tradittionnelle way, years ago it was labeled Spanish Champagne, but they had to find a new name and it was called Cava for the original caves that were used for aging and storing the wines. It was a charming wine for the afternoon, made even better having the chance to spend some bonus time with one of the Vegas kids.

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Another Barbera

Posted on April 26, 2017 by thewineraconteur

It was another meeting of my dinner club and I was bringing a lot of items to the meeting in the pouring rain. It always seems to be that way, when I have way too much to carry in my current position with the club. Thankfully The Courthouse Grille is close to my home, as some of the members were complaining that due to the weather, their commute was twice the time of a normal trip. I also thought of my Bride who had to travel quite the distance that evening as she was having dinner with some of her former co-workers and they have been meeting monthly for the last couple of years.


My club meets often at The Courthouse Grille and I have written about this venue many times, because they have several private dining rooms that fit our requirements very well. With the average meeting of thirty men, we need a room off to ourselves to conduct the sessions. Most of the venues that we meet at, only offer us a choice of three different entrée dishes, but here we have the choice of seven different plates, along with a salad and dessert. Normally I have an Italian dish, as that is what they are known for, but the last couple of times there, I was visually impressed with their New York Strip steak, not an item that I order, or even buy for the home. I have to admit that it was quite a nice change of pace, as it was prepared to my request of medium rare and it came with a whole grain mustard cream sauce that had a nice flavor.


We are still in the midst of a one year experiment, each meeting three members are the host for the evening and then for the rest of the year they get to enjoy their meals on someone else’s dime. The experiment revolves around the bar tab, that some members complained about, since they do not drink and feel that it is onerous for them, I think that is rather petty, because even if people came to my home for dinner, I would have their beverage of choice on hand even if I did not drink it. A couple of us have come up with a Plan B to combat this, since we have to pay for our own drinks, what we do is buy a bottle of wine to share among us, that will be far more interesting compared to the wines that are normally offered by the glass. If we were not paying for our drinks as before, we would accept the wines from the bar, but I guess that some will rely on my choice and try a wine that they would not try otherwise and when you split the bottle up, it is not that much more expensive than a bar wine. The wine that we had was Pio Cesare Barbera d’Alba DOC 2014. Pio Cesare has been making wines since 1881 and they are famed for their Barolo and Barbaresca wines from the Piedmont region of Italy, and I have had their Barolo and this was a chance to try their Barbera and since they are situated in Alba, it was a natural choice. Barbera d’Alba is an important DOC for the Piedmont and the cellars of Pio Cesare have barrels of all their wines aging in walls that date back to the Roman days. While the DOC laws for this wine allow for some blending, this wine is pure Barbera and it was aged for twelve months in French Oak to tame the wine some. By the end of the meal, the wine was really opening up, as it was quite tight on the initial tasting and to be truthful, this wine was imbibed way too soon. I think that at least five years would have been the ideal time to uncork this wine, but alas, most restaurants that even carry better wines do not have that luxury of cellaring wines that long. It sure beat any of the bar wines offered that evening.

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Easter 2017

Posted on April 24, 2017 by thewineraconteur

There is just something about the holidays that are enjoyable, when you are around family and having nice food and dinner. This was another occasion and we also celebrated the birthday celebrations for the month of April, just to add a bit more chaos to the day. It was a unique day for people watching, because some had heard about the project that we completed in the library and others hadn’t and when they were in the room they just knew something was different, but couldn’t quite place their finger on the change. It was also unique, because one of the usual late comers for any party, was the first to arrive.


My Bride after going to church and then doing a visitation to a shut-in for Easter communion came home and began her routine, and I did mine, by trying to stay out of her way in the kitchen. The appetizers were easy, because it was just basically fruit, cheese and crackers. She was also preparing turkey and ham for the dinner. She also made her always requested stuffing and her Armenian Pilaf. She also made Brussel Sprouts with bacon as one of the side dishes, and she also made a pot of Fettucine Alfredo, so that there was a good mix of dishes and nobody should end up hungry or disappointed. After all of that food was cleared, then the desserts appeared. There were cakes, pies and puddings and a birthday cake and ice cream, just in case some people still had some room left for more.


When she had all the food preparations going at a steady pace, she finally decided that she wanted a glass of wine, since she had given up wine for Lent, and to a certain degree, I guess I had to as well. Now of all the wines that we have in the cellar to choose from and I would have gladly gone and opened any of them since she was breaking her fast, she chose her latest “go-to” wine to enjoy. She asked me to open up one of magnums of Kirkland Signature California Chardonnay 2015, as I truly think that she missed having that wine. This is just an easy to drink and understand new version of the jug wines of old from Costco, who is now the largest wine purveyors in the United States. The Kirkland Signature is also found on wines not only from the States, but also from France and Italy that I have seen, and probably from other countries as well, but she usually shops there by herself, as she doesn’t want me to loiter in the wine section of the store. As for me, I decided to open up one of my more unique bottles to offset her selection and I grabbed a red wine for dinner, and once again, there were only a couple of people that tried the wine. We had a bottle of L.A. Cetto Reserva Privado Nebbiolo 2009. Nebbiolo is that famed grape from the Piedmont region of Italy that has found its rightful honor in the wines of Barolo and Barbaresca, but this wine was from the Valle de Guadalupe or the Guadalupe Valley in Baja California, Mexico. The Valle de Guadalupe is the wine district for Mexico and they tend to grow most of the great varietals of France. L.A. Cetto is the largest producer of Nebbiolo in the world outside of Italy. I found the nose to be lighter compared to a Barolo, but the color was still very dark with just a touch of pink at the edge for a nine-year old. One could taste the grape easy enough, and a different terroir then from the Piedmont and it was earthier and less refined. I am getting slightly more technical than I usually do, because I have not had that many wines from Mexico and it may new to others as well. Even a couple of days later, when I tried another glass, it still had plenty of earthiness to it. There was not a lot of spice to it, and it was still a bit overpowering for the turkey and ham, but I enjoyed it and I am glad that I opened it up.

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