The Promise

Posted on April 22, 2017 by thewineraconteur

By the time this article publishes, the majority of the people that have tickets for the premier night showing of The Promise will just be reading some words of William Saroyan at the end of the movie, before the credits roll by. I am not a movie critic by any stretch of the imagination, though I have been a film student forever, but then most people are on the fence as to whether I am a wine critic as well. Kirk Kerkorian, the late philanthropist left money to have this film made and a fine job it was.  The premier of the film is trying to coincide with April 24, the hundred and two year anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and I guess one can say one hundred and two years of denial.  Some of the panoramic views of Constantinople and of the villages that later became under the French auspices of Cilicie after World War One were stunning.  The images of how men can be so evil to others permeates the story, and there was one scene that evoked comparisons to Kristalnacht or “The Night of Broken Glass” that began the genocide of the Jews in Germany prior to World War Two.  The viewer is left to interpret their own versions of the inhumanity that they are witnessing as well as the eternal spirit of courage and love by those down-trodden who really cannot believe what has befallen.  The movie even intertwines the story of Musa Dagh, the book and the eventual film, which were both forced out of existence by Turkey, could not force this film from being issued; and as an aside it was even mentioned by Zorba in the book version. As of 20 April 2017, the movie site IMDB.com has had 126,497 rating votes for a film that has been perhaps seen six or eight times in film festivals so far, and the majority were all negative “one” votes out of a possible “ten,” which I find interesting and appalling. I really cannot state the story line, as I am still rather choked up, as I know that both of my grandparents survived those days. If you have a chance I would strongly recommend that you see this film, as the one line of dialogue is still ringing in my ears “Our revenge will be to survive.”


We tried to get our tickets for the premier evening as one of the musicians that will be performing here before the film, I grew up with. We could not seem to secure any tickets, but then when I kept checking I saw that the original Cineplex that was going to show the film had added more nights, and the one night was prior to the premier. We also bought my sister a ticket for the movie as an Easter present and we took her out to dinner before the show as well. The weather was so bad that we decided to eat at one of the restaurants in the mall that is adjacent to the Cineplex. My Bride and my Sister shared an appetizer and a Chinese Chicken Salad that both of them enjoyed, as I have written about the menu at California Pizza before, and I had the Jambalaya Fettucine.

                                    
My Sister only wanted to drink a non-alcoholic cocktail and my Bride and I both opted for a glass of wine. We went with something on the lighter side as neither of us wanted to have anything too heavy. My Bride had a glass of Sonoma-Cutrer Russian River Ranches Chardonnay 2014. The Russian River Ranches is part of the much larger Sonoma County and as one can guess Sonoma-Cutrer is heavy into Sonoma country. A delightful wine with enough taste to take it way beyond the normal Chardonnay wines that one finds in California and we have had this wine often over the years and my Bride had the better of the two wines of the evening. I had a split of Le Grand Courtage Blanc de Blancs Brut NV with a screw cap for a sparkling wine. This wine comes from the Nuits St. George district of Burgundy and is a Stainless Steel fermented blend of Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Colombard and Ugni Blanc. There was ever so slight tinge of effervescence, but it was easy to drink and did not battle with the spices and mélange of food in my Jambalaya. I have to say that the food and the wine took a back seat today to the movie, and it is still haunting me, as I write.

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.”

― William Saroyan

 

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Easter Eve 2017

Posted on April 20, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Twas the night before Easter and all through the house…Oh I think that I have my holidays mixed up. One of my cousins has taken it upon herself a Herculean task of having all of the cousins for Easter Eve dinner. She does this, because we are all splintered off for the holidays with our holiday dinners, with everyone married off and spread across the metropolitan area. Not only does she make sure that all of the adult cousins get together, but she has an Easter Egg hunt for the little ones as well; and it is just a great way to see everyone other than a wedding or unfortunately a funeral.


We arrived at the proper time with some dishes that we made to help out with the task of feeding everyone and most did the same thing, just to be good. I ended up sitting with one of her cousins and an Aunt and some others at the center of attention before the dinner. It was where all of the appetizers were arrayed and we could have all stopped eating then without the main entrée, it was that great. There was Lahmajoon, a delightful individual sized Armenian “pizza” with a very thin crust that is covered with finely ground lamb, mixed with tomatoes, garlic, parsley and other spices and then liberally doused with addition Cayenne red pepper just before eating. There were platters of Armenian Cheese Boereg, which are small individual size parcels of Phyllo-type dough wrapped around white cheese and baked until golden. Then there was Armenian String Cheese and Armenian Basturmah, a delicate cured lamb that is covered with Cumin and Chaiman (an Armenian hot sauce rub) and aged, which is then sliced paper-thin, a dish that I try to avoid only because the spices seem to permeate every pore on the body for several days and having always dealt with the public, is a cause to refrain. There was also Cheehemah or as most people now know it as Kibbe Nyee, the raw ground lamb dish with bulgur wheat, onions, tomatoes and parsley that the Armenians created and has been copied through the ages by other nationalities that knew a great dish. In case you may have noticed a trend that I have only mentioned Armenian delights, there was also a huge platter of mega-jumbo shrimp with a cocktail spice and then there was bread and pickled vegetables as well, and that was only for appetizers and we all had to somehow pace ourselves for the main meal. The main dish was done by a caterer and finished in the circular driveway in front of the house, there was a ninety-five-pound whole lamb that was barbecued and by the time it was done, the meat was literally falling off of the bones. Now add to that dish, Armenian Pilaf, salads, vegetables, an Armenian version of Mac and Cheese and belts had to be loosened. Then if that wasn’t enough there were cakes and desserts that rivaled impressive Sweet Tables at weddings. I think we all over ate.


As for the beverages, there was a liquor cart in one room and my Bride could have her Scotch and water, she may have given up wine for Lent, but she did allow herself to have an occasional Scotch. In another room, there was a bar set up with an assortment of waters, soda pops, beers and wine; and that was the room that I tended to frequent for some odd reason. I started off with Rodney Strong Chardonnay 2015 from Sonoma County. Even though there were appetizers with lamb, the chilled Chardonnay worked very well with them. This particular wine had sixty percent of the juice fermented in a mix of oak barrels and the balance was aged in Stainless Steel and then blended together for a nice refreshing glass of wine or several as the case may be. I brought a bottle of wine from my wine club that I was looking forward to trying, and the truth be told, there were very few wine drinkers there, but the wine did evaporate by the end of the evening. The Sinecure Grenache Noir 2013 with a Monterey AVA was I have to admit a great choice with all of the spices of the evening, as this was a wine that promised and fulfilled a full- bodied glass of wine with the taste of spices and peppers. I liked it and I guess that others that tried it also agreed. Throughout the evening my cousin was also wandering around pouring shots of Armenian Brandy just in case there wasn’t enough representation of Armenia during the affair.

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The Library

Posted on April 18, 2017 by thewineraconteur

I guess that I am a bit of a true curmudgeon, because I enjoy reading books and I prefer hard bound editions with marbled paper, deckled edges and ridges on the spine; and if possible leather bindings with gold lettering – nothing too fancy. I don’t own a Kindle, but I do own books. I even use an old-fashioned dictionary that my Mother bought for me that I still consult and have it sitting on its own stand. I have cryptically mentioned a project that I have been working on, that started before My Week of Hell and has just recently been completed.


We had an arabesque carpet in our library that was starting to show its age, so that is what began the project. One has no idea how much material stuff is owned in such a small room until one starts to move it out, so that the carpet could be pulled up, and then again that meant a new paint job as well. The books and the bookcases, the electric piano, a desk, a table, a dictionary stand and a hat tree all had to be moved out. Not to mention the art work, a silk tapestry that my Grandmother had brought with her from the old country and the drapes and hardware, everything was removed. The three chromatic shades of paint were bought to complement the tapestry, so we were all set to start once we removed the carpeting, so that we could begin search for a replacement carpet too. I slowly and carefully removed the quarter-round shoe moldings from the baseboards to facilitate the removal of the carpeting and I figured that it would be one less expense, if I removed the carpet. The carpet was finally removed and the padding under the carpet was magnificent, I had never seen a padding that had a plastic moisture barrier before and the padding removed in one piece and had not disintegrated even after all of the steam cleanings and shampoos that the carpet had been subjected to over the years. There was an almost pristine hardwood floor underneath and we decided to go with it, instead of new carpeting. We rented a floor sander, bought some special respirators to save us from the fumes of the urethane that we had to apply three times with sanding in between to get a good finish. Yes, I guess I am a geek as well, as the first time I had the air respirator mask on, I looked at my Bride and said “Luke, I am your Father.” With the ceiling, walls and trim freshly painted and the floors finished to our satisfaction, we had to wait seventy-two hours before we could put everything back and we were working against the calendar, because we are having the usual crowd for Easter dinner here. The room is done.


If this hadn’t been Lent, and I am trying to be nice to my Bride who gave up wine for the season I would have opened up a bottle of bubbly to celebrate the completion. I have to be happy for the moment and produce a label from a bottle that may have been appropriate for the occasion. The label was from a split of Duval-Leroy Champagne Brut NV. Duval-Leroy was established in 1859 and is one of the few Champagne Houses that is still family owned and they are located in the Cotes des Blancs region. The Champagne is a blend of Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay and this wine is their basic brand as they offer many other choices as well. If anyone asks: Colonel Mustard with the Candlestick in the Library. In a few more days, I can toast the room properly as well as the Season and I wish all that celebrate a wonderful Easter Sunday.

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MWWC #32: Translation

Posted on April 16, 2017 by thewineraconteur

After Virgil Sollozzo offers a potential salary to Luca Brasi at the bar, Luca Brasi replies “Menge.” The translation on the screen read “Really.”
If you speak Italian, my apologies for the language, but since I am starting off with a movie scene, or sometimes with a song, or both; it must be time for the Monthly Wine Writers Challenge, and the theme for this challenge was picked by the last winner Nesli of Wi.Nes and she chose “translation.” Another poser, at least for me, and trying to figure out how it would relate to wine. After all, don’t all things end up relating to wine? Even though I am not Roman Catholic, this article should be dedicated to St. Jerome, the scholar who translated the Old Testament from Hebrew to Latin in the version known as the Vulgate. St. Jerome is considered the patron saint of translators. I am fortunate that another hobby of mine, also requires the ability to translate information from one language to another, as sometimes the only reference material available was published in another country. Imagine how much fun it is looking up an Italian item, in a French catalogue, so that it can be written about in English. Let me say that in no way, do I consider myself a linguist or a scholar, but I do muddle my way through most endeavors that I encounter.


It would be much easier for Americans, if everything was labeled in English, but that is not the way of the world. Let us take a look at a French wine, and see what is there. The label reads “Grand Vin de Chateau Latour; Premier Grand Cru Classe; Appellation Pauillac Controlee; Pauillac-Medoc; 1961; Mis en Bouteille au Chateau.” The label may use the Roman alphabet, but it is not English, so does a novice wine drinker decide to look at another bottle? There are a few words that we should all know how to translate when we are buying wine. “Grand Vin” has no official designation in French wine laws and is just superfluous puffery meaning “great wine” and any label can say this, but if one knows any of the great wines, this statement is true for this wine. “De Chateau Latour” just means that the wine is from Chateau Latour, the name of the estate. “Premier Grand Cru Classe” is an important statement, where Grand Vin is not important, Grand Cru is; it means that the wine is acknowledged to be a famed estate and the winery is pleased to have that on their label. The only caveat is that the famed Chateau Mouton-Rothschild up until 1970, never acknowledged the Classification until they were moved from the top of the Second Class to the First Class, but that is the only instance that I can think of. “Appellation Pauillac Controlee” means that the wine is guaranteed to be from the Pauillac district of the Medoc, and the Appellation laws of France precede the laws that the Common Market has allowed countries to list for noted wine districts and the label also tells us that this wine was from the stellar vintage year of 1961. “Mis en Bouteille au Chateau” tells us that the wine was bottled at the chateau and it never left the control of the winemaker, even many of the smaller estates have adopted this practice as well, to let the world know that the wine never leaves the grounds until it is sold.


Now onto another bottle of wine from Germany that had its own rules in place about wines before entering the Common Market as well. As we look at this wine label we can read “Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Qualitatswein mit Pradikat, 1971, Erdener Treppchen Riesling Auslese.” While some may see gibberish, this label is extremely tight and factual and very Teutonic in its simplicity. “Mosel-Saar-Ruwer” is an older term to describe the noted wine district, nowadays it seems to have been shortened to just “Mosel.” “Qualitatswein mit Pradikat” is very important in the wine laws of Germany. The term Tischwein means table wines, and Qualitatswein means that this is above table wines and has pedigree that has been acknowledged for ages, similar to the appellation controlee laws of France, whereas the term “mit Pradikat” elevates this wine to a higher ranking, because the grapes were harvested after the initial harvest, to allow more sugar to be concentrated. “Erdener” means that it comes from the village of Erden, in much the same way as one would refer to a Detroiter or a New Yorker. “Treppchen” is the name of the actual vineyard that the wine was harvested from, which is located in the Erden boundaries. “Riesling” is actually the name of the grape, which seems simple, but since certain areas are famed for growing more than one grape, the grape is listed. “Auslese” is the term that brought the “mit Pradikat” into play and the first three steps of “Pradikat” and there are more; Kabinet, Spatlese and Auslese.


I will take a look at one more label, where translating is not as easy to decipher. Italy has a long history of wine making and while in some areas there are very stringent laws, other areas there are those that are creating new rules. Let us take a look at a label that reads “Gaja, Barolo, Denominazion Di Origine Controllata E Garanita, Sperss, 1991.” “Gaja” refers to Angelo Gaja one of the “modernists” in a very traditional area of winemaking and one of the few that stuck by his guns with his convictions. “Barolo” is a very famed and lauded area of the Piedmont and by law it requires the Nebbiolo grape and there are rules about how the wine is to be aged and stored. “Denominazion Di Origine Controllata E Garanita” is the Italian version of the appellation controls on steroids, the DOC version is similar to AOC, whereas the DOCG is much more exacting. “Sperrs” is the colorful name for the wine as is Piedmontese for nostalgia, because Gaja had ceased making Barolo wines, because he originally bought his grapes from Serralunga to make this wine and he ceased making it in 1961, because he felt that he should only produce estate wine, so when he bought the property in 1988 he was back making Barolo wines. At first, because of his being such a maverick, this wine was going to carry the lower classification of Langhe Nebbiolo DOC, but as you can see it is now Barolo DOCG.

No mention of the classification

Since I started with an Italian phrase, I shall end with an Italian statement. Credo che tutto questo tradurre mi ha fatto sete e ho bisogno di un bicchiere di vino, prima del prossimo articolo. “I think all of this translating has made me thirsty and I need a glass of wine, before the next article.”

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Camp Ticonderoga

Posted on April 14, 2017 by thewineraconteur

I remember the day that we were going to meet another couple for dinner at a restaurant called Camp Ticonderoga, that I had never heard of, but we were game for something different. The funny thing was that I kept singing and thinking of a song from before I was a teenager by Allan Sherman that went “Hello Muddah, hello Faddah. Here I am at Camp Grenada. Camp is very entertaining. And they say we’ll have some fun if it stops raining.” When I saw the note on the back of the label, I began singing it again. I know that it is silly, but it is amazing what the brain will think of.


Camp Ticonderoga was the first of this chain’s offbeat restaurants geared I guess more to the generation after me, but it is fun. I think that they have four restaurants and since going to the Camp, I have been to their restaurant that is closer to my house called Deadwood Bar & Grill that I have mentioned before. Even though they are a chain, each restaurant has a different name, but the concept is the same. A rustic cabin structure with pool tables and “road-kill” entrees. They offer some game dishes, along with the usual bar food and it is really better than most of this ilk. We started off with their “Wild Thang” which has spicy venison sausage, rabbit ravioli, duck tenders, whitefish pate and barbecued buffalo balls. My Bride had the Potato Chip Walleye topped with Monterey Jack and cheddar cheese, which is then baked with a potato chip crust, served with red skin potatoes and corn bread. I had the Buffaloaf, which was too slabs of buffalo meat loaf served open face on white bread covered with buffalo gravy, grilled onions and mushrooms. Afterwards we all had the warm chocolate chip cookies that I guess they are always baking.


As for a beverage that goes with both, from a short wine list that they offered at the time, we had a bottle of Hess Select Cabernet Sauvignon 2002. This wine is from the Hess Family Estates and not the Hess Collection which is their flagship wines. The Hess Select wines carry a California designation, while the Collection is from Napa Valley. In fact, when we were at the winery, I don’t even remember being offered anything but the Collection, which I do not find often here, but the Select can be found quite readily and it is a safe bet, even with road-kill.

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Mitchell’s Fish Market

Posted on April 12, 2017 by thewineraconteur

I can’t believe that I haven’t written about Mitchell’s Fish Market, as I was digging through my box of wine labels. Mitchell’s Fish Market was at one time under the Cameron Mitchell umbrella of restaurants, and Cameron Mitchell is the star of Columbus, Ohio and he has many restaurants, the first ones that I knew of was Mitchell’s and Cameron for Steaks, and the funny thing is that he has sold both of those chains that has his name. We have also been to his M, after he ran out of his proper names and as I observed when we went to M, was that he was probably the only person that could successfully get away with naming anything M in Columbus, Ohio, because if you aren’t aware that is a slight rivalry that has been going on for ages between Michigan and a college that is located in Columbus.


As one can surmise from the name, the restaurant specializes in fish and seafood. My Bride started off with a bowl of New Orleans Seafood Gumbo and I had a bowl of the Maine Lobster Bisque; I mean why have a salad when the soups are so inviting? My Bride had the Ginger Crusted Salmon with sticky rice and stir-fried vegetables, since when we are out, she seldom gets a chance to have a dinner of this type, because I have a problem with most restaurants that would have dishes of that nature. I had the Georges Bank Sea Scallops, because it is a dish that we only recently have tried making at home.


The wine that we had that evening was Kali Hart Vineyard Chardonnay 2000 which is produced by Robert Talbott Vineyards from the Monterey area of California. Kali is one of the children of Robb Talbott and her name has been enshrined on one of the vineyards, and her brother also has a similar honor. We have had many wines from Talbott over the years, because as I stated often enough, I used to buy quite a few of the ties that were made by his parents, and I used to enjoy the handwritten Christmas cards that I used to receive each year from his Mother, Audrey. There really is not much more for me to add, since I have talked about the wines and of visiting the winery, so I guess I am rather biased towards a good Chardonnay.

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Paraduxx

Posted on April 10, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Between working on this project at home and Lent, I am still dipping into my treasure trove of labels with the name of the restaurant on it. I have four men’s shoe boxes filled with wine labels that I have broken down by decades, and there are a lot of wine labels that can be fit into each box. I do a search to make sure that I have not written about a wine before, or I try not to mention the same restaurant too often either, but let’s face it, I don’t know about you, but I can become a creature of habit when I am dining out and if I let my Bride pick out the wine, it will always be the same wine. Before I even thought about a blog and being The Wine Raconteur, it was easy and sometimes I did not feel like being challenged with a new venue or a new wine.


MacKinnon’s was a finely respected restaurant on the main drag of downtown Northville and Tom MacKinnon was one of the glory boys of the first round of chefs that had made a name for themselves after having worked at the old Golden Mushroom. Several of the chefs went on to start their own restaurants to show off the talents that they each had. Tom not only had a great place with great food, but he also had a great bar that was always a popular watering hole and the bar was also packed. MacKinnon’s was one of the first places that carried Piedmontese Beef and Kobe Beef and how the servers would love to explain the nuances and characteristics of those meats as compared to the classic Prime that other purveyors would offer. There were times when he would have something exotic like Bison or you could always get a classic dish like Dover Sole or Beef Wellington. The appetizers were such that one could make a meal from them, I remember when I was working across the street from the restaurant, I would order an appetizer to go and eat it at the store and it was like being a King. My Bride would never say “no” to dinner at MacKinnon’s and it was so close to home and if we over ate, one could always go window shopping in the downtown area, before driving off.


One night we had Paraduxx 2002 from Duckhorn Wines in Napa Valley and even though it carried a Napa Valley Red Wine tag, it was hardly a bulk wine. The Paraduxx label had a bit of whimsy to it, as a marketing concept, playing off of the Duckhorn name, the label would show a pair of ducks (Paraduxx) and the label would change yearly, as in this year they showed Canvasbacks. With the scalloped border, I always thought that the stamp reminded me of the yearly Duck stamps one would have to purchase to go hunting and there would always be a major art competition for the next duck painting. Paraduxx was a blend of Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, the three big varietals of California back in the day and still holding top ranks today. Just a big robust wine with the Cab and Merlot keeping the Zin from being overpowering, as I was not a big Zin drinker back then. MacKinnon’s is another restaurant that is no longer with us and has been replaced by another restaurant that is holding out quite well, and they have maintained the bar that still packs them in.

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Forte

Posted on April 8, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Finding more wine labels with notes on the back, until Lent ends or I find myself having a glass of wine without tempting my Bride. The restaurant that I am going to mention had a rather long run in Birmingham, Michigan, but it always had mixed reviews. Birmingham is a tough city for a restaurant as there has always been some die-hards that only frequent their favorite haunts and then there are others that have to be the latest and greatest, and we are somewhere in between. We usually like to wait for the dust to settle and hopefully for the kitchen and the wait staff to get their rhythm, before we venture to a new location, not to mention that it is easier to get a reservation.


Forte was a restaurant that I think really fell into the trap of being a “Birmingham” establishment and there was a bit of snootiness that I felt that we encountered, and for all of the great restaurants that we have dined in, thankfully only a few have given me that feel. Everything was ala carte, and the waitress didn’t seem thrilled that we were not ordering soup to nuts, as we used to say. When all else fails, and nothing sounds spectacular, we fall back and order tried and true dishes that we have a modicum of expectations. My Bride order grilled salmon which came with the slightest of pretty side vegetables to make the plate look pretty, as the restaurant was promoting side dishes. I went with braised short ribs, because it is a dish that I totally enjoy and only recently did we attempt to make the dish, and while ours was great, it is a lot of work and I guess it is better to leave it to the professionals. I am also fond of the dish, because I enjoy the root vegetables that are usually prepared with the dish for added flavor.


The wine we had that evening I am sorry to say will be a mystery to me. I mean I have the label, but it is no longer being made and there was no information that I could glean even searching the web for. The wine was Chateau Julien Aleatico 1995. We had this wine before we ever visited Chateau Julien in Carmel, California and this wine carries the California designation, so if any of the fruit was from Carmel or the Monterey area, it was also blended with fruit from other districts as well. I can also surmise since it had the fancy name of Aleatico that it must have been a blend of a couple of different varietals. This problem seldom occurs, but from looking at how hard the label came off of the bottle, I must also presume that the back label was lost as it was not in the box that held this label, so if there was any additional information it is now lost forever, at least for me. It was another night out with wine, and wine always tends to make the evening better. Forte has closed and one of the chain restaurants Hyde Park Steakhouse now has the address and as of yet, we have not tried it.

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Boocoo

Posted on April 6, 2017 by thewineraconteur

This being Lent, it has been a rather dry period around here, as one of us gave up wine. I have also been working on the project that was stopped in the initial stages during my week of hell, and now the whole house is a mess, but soon the remodeling will be done, it has to be done by Easter, as everyone is coming here for dinner. I have the Sword of Damocles hanging over me, if I don’t. Even with the house in total disarray, I have found time to go through one of the boxes of wine labels, to look at my notations on the back, I guess I can be rather anal in my passion about wines. Sometimes it is a matchbook and sometimes it is the label, and for this restaurant it should have been both, as there was still smoking in restaurants back then, but I guess we didn’t get a book or they didn’t offer them.


Boocoo was one of those restaurants that was hot from day one and it was in the right city at that time. Royal Oak was almost the epicenter of where new restaurants were popping up, of course they were a little off the beaten track from the downtown district. They had a European flavor to the food, but it was a bit across the board, from pizzas to some fussy dishes. They also had live music several days of the week, but their flame did not stay lit for that long.  We even were there before it became a “restaurant of the year” by one of the local publications.  My Bride had Georges Bank Scallops with asparagus, Trumpet Royal mushrooms, onions and carrots. I had the braised short ribs, Crème Fraiche mashed  potatoes and pea tendrils. I remember the pea tendrils as I think that is the first time and I think the last time that I ever had that served.

We went with a wine that evening that was a bit off of the beaten track back then.  We chose a bottle of Domaine du Poujol Rosé Coteaux du Languedoc 2002.  This winery was established in 1998 by some Americans from Napa Valley who liked the limestone terroir in this area of the Midi.  The wine is a blend of Cinsault, Carignan, Mourvedre, and Grenache.  It was in 2007 that the area became AOC Languedoc, as the district received more and more attention.  A wonderful wine and a wonderful meal, it is a shame that the restaurant is no longer around.  The name is a play on the French word beaucoup which means “great quantity” and I think they were invoking that name for full bodied taste of the dishes on the menu.

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Keeping it Local

Posted on April 4, 2017 by thewineraconteur

I am very sorry to say that prior commitments kept us from seeing “Dinner in Abruzzo: A Journey Home with My Culinary Godfather” and I have devoted three articles about past memories of Luciano Del Signore and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the other chef on that journey James Rigato. I originally heard of James Rigato from his first restaurant The Root in White Lake Township, Michigan and he has since opened a second restaurant that is also getting rave reviews called Mabel Gray, but we haven’t gone there yet. We went to The Root before it was named Restaurant of the Year by two different publications. White Lake Township, Michigan is about fifty miles from Downtown Detroit and it is not easily accessible, in fact from our house, it seemed like you couldn’t get there from here, but we did and it was worth the drive. The restaurant is located in a small strip center. James Rigato was perhaps the first chef to make a major splash locally about being local, I mean when we went there, everything we had for dinner that evening was from Michigan, save the appetizers. I remember trying to do an “aha” on one item on the menu, because it was shrimp, and one doesn’t think of Michigan as being the shrimp center of the United States, but I was surprised to learn that there was a Michigan man-made estuary created for the sole purpose of harvesting shrimp.

We were going to be good Michiganders that evening, but we did take one side-step, and who could blame us, as they had Hudson Valley Foie Gras (New York) on the menu and it was served with Sherry and onion jam and smoked Marcona Almonds and we also shared an order of Crab Cakes with avocado mousse and a mango-poblano salsa, and yes, we were really rebellious that evening. The rest of the meal was totally Michigan-centric. My Bride had pork shoulder with smoked cheddar grits, the grits were very creamy and the pork was prepared perfectly. I had the free-range chicken with a risotto of house-made chorizo, Swiss chard and roasted mushrooms in a white wine and what a delicious dish it was. We kept picking at each other’s plates both for the appetizers and for the entrée dishes. Afterwards we had coffee and split a Crème Brulee.

We maintained the Michigan theme of the evening with our bottle of wine. We had a bottle of L. Mawby Blanc de Blancs Brut NV from the Leelanau Peninsula in north-west Michigan near Traverse City. Larry Mawby has become the Godfather of the entire area there, helping other wineries get started and he is very proud of his products. This particular wine is made in the Traditional Method that one thinks of, when one thinks of great sparkling wine. This wine is made entirely from Chardonnay grapes and aged first in Stainless Steel, before the long arduous task of making the sparkling wine in the old-school tradition. I think that this wine just made the whole evening more festive, especially since Mawby is one of the wineries that we always try to visit when we are in that area. I must say that this short documentary that we did not have a chance to see, allowed me to remember some great dinners and wines.

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