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.

Posted in Dining, Wine | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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.

Posted in Wine | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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.

Posted in Wine | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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.

Posted in Dining, Wine | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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.

Posted in Dining, Wine | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

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.

Posted in Wine | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

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.

Posted in Dining, Wine | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Boyne Highlands

Posted on July 1, 2017 by thewineraconteur

We arrived at Boyne Highlands which is near the top of mitten, if you look at the Lower Peninsula of Michigan that way. Boyne Highlands is a year-round resort, with skiing in the winter and golf in the summer. We were up there for a board meeting and conference, well at least my Bride was. I was going to relax and enjoy the grounds, except that the day for that it was a continuous rain, though not as bad as other parts of the state had. The resort was under some construction as they had a fire in the main lodge where we were staying, and while you could still smell smoke in the front halls, you could not detect it in the rooms and suites. The only bad thing was that the hall that connected the wing where our rooms were to the main lobby was closed for reconstruction, and I am glad that at the last minute as we were leaving our house I decided to grab an umbrella. “Be prepared” was the Boy Scout motto and we were.


The breakfasts and lunches that we had were in the main dining room and they were all buffet style with extra islands set up for some special requests, and there was a theme to the meals. The dinner was going to be under a large pavilion on the grounds and then there was going to be Zip Line rides afterwards, but the weather was not conducive, and we ended up in another room for dinner and it was set up as a buffet as well, but it was only for the group. First, they set up an appetizer table of hot and cold choices. Then the main buffet was set up with an assortment of salads, potatoes and vegetables, fish and chicken. Afterwards they set up an island for sundaes and nobody went hungry.


The bar that was set up had an assortment of beers and soft drinks. There was also a large assortment of liquors for mixed drinks with some fine labels that I saw. The wines were all from Canyon Road Winery of Modesto, California. They were serving Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc all with the vintage year of 2015. Canyon Road Winery uses the California AVA designation as the fruit is harvested across the state and they make decent popular priced wines that are not intended for cellaring, but to be drank immediately, and there is a major market for wines of this nature. It is the type of wine that many places use as their “house” wines and catering companies use it, as it is dependable and safe, and there will be no complaints. The meetings and the meals were considered a success and everyone left quite happy for the little get-away. The meetings and the meals were considered a success and everyone left quite happy for the little get-away.

Posted in Dining, Wine | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Cold Creek Inn

Posted on June 29, 2017 by thewineraconteur

It is amazing the people that one meets through Social Media, even people that I should have known, but didn’t. I talk of my beloved Woodrow Wilson Junior High School in Detroit often and I have met old and new acquaintances from that site. One of them is a chef, who through the years has worked at some of the finest restaurants in the Detroit area. My first inclination of his culinary ability is when I wrote an article about an off the beaten path called The Rhinoceros which was one of the first “foodie” places before there were foodies, and I was contacted by one of my “friends” to let me know that he worked there. Over the years I have found out that he has worked at The Golden Mushroom, The London Chop House (the original), The Common Grill and Volare, all of which I have been to and wrote about with my memories of different wines. We were going to a resort for a board meeting in the northern part of the lower peninsula of Michigan, and I thought that I should truly meet this gentleman, so I made my Bride agree to make a detour to go have dinner at The Cold Creek Inn in Beulah, Michigan, because the first night of the board meeting would only be a cocktail party and appetizers.


Beulah, Michigan is one of those charming towns found along Lake Michigan just on the outskirts of the wine country known as the Leelanau Peninsula AVA and the whole coast line of Lake Michigan has been discovered by Chicago as a very attractive and affordable playground for them. They have by osmosis one can say, created a desire for culinary delights all along the coast and Beulah is another town that has been discovered. While we were making our drive up, I called the restaurant to make sure that the chef would be working and he answered the phone call, and I think that he was just as amazed to see my name on the caller ID as I was that he had picked up the phone. We were off for a dinner and we were expecting a wonderful Michigan Whitefish dinner, but we were surprised by the evening’s specials. My Bride had the Seared Ono with Honey-Soy Glaze and Pineapple Salsa. The Ono was served on a bed of the salsa with a side of rice pilaf, and it was the first time that we had seen Ono offered since our trip to Maui. I went with the other special of the evening the Whisky Bacon New York Butt Steak. This was the end-cut of a New York Strip Steak pan fried with a Whisky Bacon Sauce, served with freshly prepared mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. It may sound like I am prejudiced, but each dish came out prepared perfectly.


We started off with a local wine from the Leelanau Peninsula AVA from Chateau Fontaine Wines. The Chateau Fontaine Chardonnay 2015 was a pleasant wine that was a blend of juice that was aged for eight months in Stainless Steel and oak for a very crisp and subtle Chardonnay. The winery was started in the Seventies on a deserted potato farm as well as a former cattle pasture and is thirty acres in size and they grow several different varietals for their estate wines. The white was followed up with a red wine, namely Trapiche Oak Cask Malbec 2015 from Mendoza, Argentina.  In doing some additional research, it appears that the Oak Cask is a designation for a Reserve wine, but I can not totally verify it.  Trapiche began life in 1883 as El Trapiche and they are now one of the largest wine producers in Argentina. Mendoza is one of the leading areas in Argentina and Malbec is the leading grape for the area. One word of note, if you are traveling to this part of Michigan, what looks like a short drive from one destination to another is not, and it took about two hours to get to our final destination. The dinner was well worth the delay and we have already discussed potentially going there again in the near future is possible.

Posted in Dining, Wine | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Two More Reds

Posted on June 27, 2017 by thewineraconteur

When one is at a wine tasting, I always look forward to the last two wines of the evening, as the wine selection usually builds up to a crescendo in full body and taste. Wines start with the lightest and work their way up, as the taste buds can appreciate the gradual change. This particular evening at D.Vine Fine Wines was no different.


The penultimate wine selected for the tasting was Paoletti “Bella Novello” Cabernet Sauvignon 2013. Paoletti was established in 1994 and their first release was in 1989. This wine was eighty-five percent Cabernet Sauvignon and the balance was Malbec; and the grapes were harvested from twenty-year-old vines. The fruit was harvested from two sites, the Oak Knoll District and the Silverado Trail in Calistoga. The wine was aged for eighteen months in a mix of forty percent new oak and the balance was neutral. It was an enjoyable wine in the affordable price range.


The last wine for the evening is becoming one of the darlings from Napa Valley and I have written about the winery and their wines a couple of times before. The Tank Garage Winery “All or Nothing” Red Blend 2015 and they have a catchy slogan of “Never Dream Alone” as well as one of the most unique tasting rooms, a restored Art Deco gas station in Calistoga. The wine is a blend of Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Malbec and Mixed Black grapes. The “mixed black grapes” of Napa are a kind of well-kept secret of Napa Valley of indigenous native grapes of unknown lineage and are usually lumped in with other grapes. This wine was aged for fourteen months in forty percent new oak, which is a blend of 70/30 French/American Oak. Another Zinfandel wine that I found totally interesting and worth looking for.

Posted in Wine | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment