Lunch at the Dearborn Inn

Posted on June 5, 2017 by thewineraconteur

It was a very quiet week for me, and I really didn’t have anything special on the horizon. Then I got a message from my son in Las Vegas that he and his wife would be in town for only a couple of days. His schedule was rather hectic and still up in the air, but he was hoping that we could get together at least for lunch. I was all game for it, as my Bride was spending a week on business seeing accounts in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and her week was an intricately scheduled trip, with barely time to check up on me, to make sure that I wasn’t starving to death.  My son and his wife were staying at the Dearborn Inn, a famous landmark and historic location in the city of Dearborn. It is on the books as being the first airport hotel in the United States, and some of you may say, that there is no airport in Dearborn, but at one time there was, and it was basically for the convenience of the Ford Motor Company and Henry Ford had built the hotel to accommodate his business guests, and there were even a few extended stay bungalows in the back. Eventually the need for the airport wasn’t required and now all of that land has been walled in and it is used as a test track for the engineering department, and since all of the buildings around the track are Ford buildings the security is pretty good.


I told my son that I would meet them at the restaurant at the hotel, and he wasn’t even aware that there was a restaurant in the hotel, as when they arrived the night before, the restaurant is off to the side of the beautiful lobby and rather hidden from plain site. As we sat down for lunch, I told him that we had recently had lunch there with his sister when she made a quick trip back home. We ate the Edison, which is an appropriate name, as Edison and Ford were longtime friends, and Ford had moved the entire Menlo Park laboratory and his Florida laboratory as well to his Greenfield Village complex, not to mention the boarding house that was nearby to the Menlo Park complex where a lot of Edison’s employees stayed; it was the first boarding house that was electrically wired. All this as an introduction that my son and his wife both had a Reuben sandwich and a bowl of Kansas City soup, and I had a cheeseburger. The night before they had their fill of one of the famous Detroit locations for sliders that they long for living in Las Vegas.


They were being good and only had coffee or soft drinks, part of this was because they were still on Vegas time and it was really time for breakfast, but the restaurant was only serving lunch items at the time. I on the other hand, had a glass of wine, as if you are surprised. There were several bottles of real interest, but only sold by the bottle, so I chose a glass of Aquinas Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 from the North Coast of California. Aquinas is one of the labels of Don Sebastiani & Sons. The North Coast is really a huge area that encompasses Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, the Lake Counties and parts of Marin and Solano. The wine was a blend of 83% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest was Merlot with a dash of Malbec and Petite Sirah. It was aged for twelve months in a mix of American and French Oak. It was a very easy drinking glass of wine and worked well with my cheeseburger. Alas the meeting was all too short, but I was not the purpose of their visit, but I enjoyed the time immensely.

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Sonoma Brunch

Posted on June 3, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Brunch is an often-maligned term, a cross between breakfast and lunch. I shudder when I think of a buffet line as it is something that just makes me uncomfortable. I prefer a nice meal that is a juxtaposition of the two meals when one can have a nice conversation during the meal, rather than trying to juggle an assortment of food and plates, watching others try to accomplish the task of piling mountains of food, trying to recoup their expenditure. We planned on going out for brunch and then maybe a matinee at the cinema, since the next day my Bride was driving out to the Upper Peninsula for a week of business meetings, so we were going to make a day of it.


We went to one of our favorite haunts to eat when we are going out to see a film and that is Flemings Steak House, because it is convenient, though I am really a fan of independent restaurants as opposed to national chains. Flemings calls their meal the Sonoma Brunch as I guess that California evokes a mystique about cuisine. We both settled on the Filet Mignon Benedict which is their take on the classic Eggs Benedict. This dish was made with two filet medallions set on crispy potato pancakes topped with wilted arugula, poached eggs and Béarnaise Sauce. Alas, my Bride gave me one of hers, because it was saltier than she preferred and mine was perfect. In the end, we figured out that it was the potatoes are her order that were the culprit, but I overindulged and had an order and a half. While we were ordering a dessert of Crème Brulee we just mentioned about the potatoes. Much to our surprise they did not charge us for the dessert, and I told the manager that it wasn’t really necessary, because most of the meal was consumed with gusto.


We were going to have Mimosas with our meal and they brought us out a large carafe for the two of us, but we requested the classic version of just using orange juice, instead of their use of passion fruit juice, which we both find a bit overpowering; maybe it is a California thing. They use Wycliff American Champagne Brut NV, made by William Wycliff Vineyards of Modesto, California. This sparkling wine is used quite often by restaurants, as the wine is marketed to the hospitality industry and it is very easy for the help, since it has a screw cap closure. I suppose that because William Wycliff is owned by E& J Gallo Winery that the term American Champagne has been grandfathered in, as the term Champagne is now only recognized as coming from France. The wine is made in the bulk Charmat Method and the typical grapes used are Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. The Mimosas weren’t working for me, so I was rebellious and order a glass of something else bubbly. My choice was excellent, because the tiny little bubbles maintained a steady stream until the flute was emptied. I had a glass of Mas Fi Cava Brut from Penedes, Spain and I was just a happy guy. In the late Nineteenth Century, the Masach family started making wines at their Vilafranca del Penedes, and they started marketing their Cava in 1977. This wine was made in the Methode Traditional with a blend of Xarel-lo, Macabeo and Parellada grapes and it is aged an additional ten months after the secondary fermentation. Can I say that it was delightful once again? During our meal, we checked the local theaters for a film to see and we couldn’t find one, so my Bride had a Plan B. We went home and worked on the lawn, and I can attest that even with the able assistance of two lawn services, we still grow the best dirt you have ever seen.

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MWWC#33: Once Upon a Time

Posted on June 1, 2017 by thewineraconteur

there was a young man who grew up in a family that had orchards all around the state of Michigan, growing cherries, apples, plums and peaches. Michigan was always known as a great state for growing fruit and the young man would have continued in the family business. He graduated from Michigan State University in 1972 and would have had a very successful business if he had followed the easy path laid out for him. Though this young man during his college years decided to see Europe and was hitchhiking around and fell in love with the Burgundy region of France and though he knew that his calling was in farming, the farm started changing in his mind.


The young man was Larry Mawby and after graduating, he experimented by growing some vines in a small parcel of land on one of his family’s orchards in 1973 up in the Suttons Bay region of Michigan, and at that time hardly an area considered for serious grape growing. In 1974, he tried planting some French-American hybrids and he was on his way. He decided that he needed his own vineyard and in 1975 he bought his own land “Elm Valley.” In 1976, he planted on his own property and also took a three-day course at UC-Davis and from then on, the dream was manifesting. In 1978, he built a structure to handle the production of twenty-five-hundred gallons of wine, and living quarters above and he was on his way. He was growing Pinot Noir, Vignoles, Pinot Gris, Regent, Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier on twenty acres of land.


The winery was bonded in 1978 as L. Mawby Vineyards and his first wine was issued in 1979. His first wine was “Picnic Rose” and he made three-hundred-seventy-eight gallons of the wine, and it was a blend of every varietal on his property. Ever since that fateful trip to Europe and especially to Burgundy he attempted to emulate those wines during the 1980’s. The more he got involved with wine making, the more he realized that his property was on the same latitude as the Champagne region of France. In 1984, he created his first Methode Champenoise Brut NV using Vignoles and he had found his calling. He kept investing in more equipment to make sparkling wines.


He was making a name for himself, especially in Michigan; and then he and two other Michigan wineries were selected to participate in a part of George H. Bush’s inauguration, quite a heady accolade. The Wine Enthusiast declared in 1998 Larry Mawby as a “Great US Sparkling Wine Producer.” In the year of 2003, he was only producing sparkling wines and in 2004 he created his M. Lawrence division using the Charmat Method and introduced his three newest wines as Us, Sex and Fizz. He was now producing sparkling wines in both methods and his name and fame was growing.


Larry Mawby was also instrumental in the creation of the Leelanau Peninsula AVA. He also served on the board of the Leelanau Conservancy and helped form the Leelanau Peninsula Vintners Association and the Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail. In speaking to other wineries, Larry Mawby has been referred to as the Godfather of the Leelanau Peninsula wine growers, as he has offered his assistance and guidance through the years. He was one of the true visionaries in changing the outlook of wine in Michigan. I might also add, as a personal aside, it is a winery that we always make a special effort to visit when we are in that area of the state.
This un-fairy tale was brought about by the Monthly Wine Writers Challenge. The theme “once upon a time” was proposed by the winner of the last winner by Mel of Wining with Mel.

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Le George

Posted on May 30, 2017 by thewineraconteur

The metropolitan Detroit area is the home for the largest Middle Eastern population outside of the Middle East. Suffice it to say that there are plenty of Arabic style restaurants in the area. There is one in the area that is delightfully different and that is Le George in Northville. After the Great War, the Ottoman Empire was carved up and France oversaw some of the countries that had been under the thumb of the old regime. Le George has cuisine that evokes the memory of the Paris of the Middle East, which was Beirut, until the time of the civil war hostilities that are still festering. So, there was a charming bistro atmosphere to this restaurant and it was not just the typical dishes that one finds in most of Arabic eateries.


After we were seated and started to study the menu, a basket of fresh baked pita bread arrived with a side of the garlic mousse that was appreciated. My Bride started off with an order of the Gazpacho Libanaise, which instead of a tomato base, was a yogurt base and she certainly enjoyed it, while I had the house salad with the house dressing. Something else I noticed was that there were no salt and pepper shakers on the table, as I think that it addresses the fact that the chef feels that his dishes are properly seasoned, that classic Gallic temperament. My Bride then had a mix of two different skewers of Kebab, one was lamb, and the other was filet and it came out with a side of hummus and a side of bulgur cracked wheat. I decided to try something that I would normally not have in such a restaurant and I had the Tournedos Rossini with a Cabernet and Mushroom sauce on the side, along with the bulgur cracked wheat. I was expecting a couple of medallions of filet and instead I was served a filet mignon perfectly cooked to my request.


My Bride originally didn’t feel like have any wine, but then she spied a little tabletop sign about a Rosé wine and she went with that. She had the Caves de Cerca Famega 2016 from the Minho region of Portugal, which is the northern most agricultural area and farmed for grapes and for food. The wine was a blend of the noted wines of Portugal, namely Tinta Roriz, Touriga Franca and Tinta Nacional. It had a nice soft color and a soft nose and was an easy drinking wine on this particularly hot Spring day. Since not too many Arabic restaurants have wine, and the owner was Christian, I used the old concept of when in Rome and ordered a Lebanese wine and he had several very interesting other wines by the glass. I had the Massaya Le Colombier 2014 listed on the wine carte as a Vin Rouge. Massaya was a winery in Lebanon prior to the civil war there, and the vineyards and the facility had to be restored, and the first beverage they began making was their famed Arak. The winery is located in the Beqaa (Bekkaa) Valley where about ninety percent of all wine is produced in Lebanon. The wine was a blend of Cinsault, Grenache Noir, Syrah and Tempranillo. Fresh from the bottle the wine was a bit gamey, but it seemed to open up almost immediately and my fears were allayed. All the grapes melded into a most pleasant wine that would work as well with lamb, beef or even chicken with the assorted spices that the restaurant used. We hadn’t even gotten out of the door and my Bride said that she wants to go back there again.

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Two Wine Days

Posted on May 28, 2017 by thewineraconteur

It seems that there are always new “holidays” to celebrate especially when one follows Social Media. Of course, for some reason my radar goes up when there is a wine celebratory day. In the past I have tried to write about some of the days, and then some months have even been designated for wines. That is a lot of celebrating.


May 25’th has been designated as National Wine Day. I don’t know about you, but to me, almost every day is a wine day for me. Some days when we are home, I may not have a glass of wine, because of a project that I am doing, but if we are out, then I am always game for a glass of wine, unless the food calls for a Margarita or if the wine list is so poor, then a Whiskey Sour is my normal selection. Out of the fifty states in this great nation, I have only had the pleasure of enjoying wine from nine states so far, which is not a high percentage, but the odds of finding wine from most states is rather slim, but I keep looking. As for the type of wines, I am quite open and I will try most wines at least once and God himself knows that I have tried some wines that I may never write an article about, because I have no desire to be negative about the endeavors of other’s toils.

May 26’th is Languedoc Day and this is a new “holiday” for me. It also strikes me as opportune as I had just written about a wine tasting from this area in France. Way back in the ‘60’s when I was first learning about wines, there were actually a few wines that were available, and I checked my two oldest handbooks that I had bought back then, one mentioned the Languedoc and the other did not. During those days, the Languedoc was and is probably still the largest wine producing area in France, but mostly what is known as table wine. Some of the better areas in the region used to have an emblem of a hand holding a wine glass with VDQS. When I was first starting out these wines could be purchased in wine shops for around two dollars, but for three to five dollars one could buy a wine from the Medoc, so unless there was a distinct curiosity to try the wines, they were often eschewed. The region has since become more saleable and palatable for most and it is not that uncommon to see wines from the area, even on a restaurant wine carte. During the wine tasting that I recently attended, the winemaker Christine Bertoli mentioned that the Languedoc region is something akin to the old “wild west” of America, as it is the laboratory for France, because the wineries are not bound by traditions and rules about winemaking, so that there is experimenting going on. Wine can evolve and here is to everyone enjoying maybe an extra glass of wine in honor of these days.

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The Finale

Posted on May 26, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Continuing the theme of music concerning the wines of Domaine Sainte Cecile du Parc we have the finale of the evening. Since Sainte Cecile is the Patron Saint of Music, it is only proper. The wine tasting at D.vine Fine Wines in Livonia was packed, in fact it was Standing Room Only, and the management brought in an additional table from one of the nearby restaurants. It seems that a Social Media group had selected the venue for one of their meetings for its members to enjoy the wine tasting. The only grumblings were not about the wines, but that they were expecting cheese with the tasting and there was none to be seen.


The penultimate wine for the evening was Domaine Sainte Cecile du Parc Sonatina 2012 which had the AOC Coteaux du Languedoc Pezenas. A Sonatina is a short sonata, which definitely carried on the theme of the winery. This wine was a blend of seventy-five percent Syrah and the balance was Cinsault, and the vines on the estate for these grapes were about thirty-six years old. This wine was aged for twelve months in French Oak and it was very mellow with nice heavy legs. I think that the Cinsault evened out the Syrah and I think that this would be a great dinner wine, and talking with some others, this is where they were going to invest heavily into their purchase.


The final wine of the evening did not carry the musical motif, but rather it was heralding the wedded bliss of the owners. This was the first vintage of Domaine Sainte Cecile du Parc Mouton Bertoli 2011, which is going to be their flagship wine. This wine is sixty-five percent Cabernet Franc and the balance is Syrah and it was delightful. This wine carries the IGP Pays de Caux of the Languedoc-Roussillon. This wine was aged for twenty-four months in French Oak and there were two-thousand bottles produced. For the coda of the evening I ended up ordering the Cabernet Franc wines and my Bride will enjoy the selections as much as I did.

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Two “Notes”

Posted on May 24, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Continuing on with my notes about Domaine Sainte Cecile du Parc wines that I enjoyed at a wine tasting and the musical notations that the wine evokes from their patron Saint namesake. Sainte Cecile is for music and most of the wine labels have names that evoke the harmonious melody of the estate. The tasting was held at D.vine Fine Wines and it was a full house to sample all of these wines that carry the IGP Pays de Caux designation, which prior to tasting these wines, I may have cavalierly passed them on a merchant’s shelf. Christine Mouton Bertoli the charming wife of Stephane Mouton was the spokesperson for their winery and one immediately could feel the passion and the pride that she had in presenting her wares.

The second wine of the evening that we tasted was Domaine Sainte Cecile du Parc Notes Franches 2012 and Christine added that this name was playfully chosen as kind of a pun if you will for being frank, France and for the Cabernet Franc. Cabernet Franc was the star of this wine as it was seventy percent of the blend with the other being Merlot and frankly I just adored this wine. Actually, after tasting this wine, I had to step outside from the hubbub of the crowd to phone my Bride to let her know that she was missing something that she would have just adored, as it is her favorite varietal; and being the potentially good husband I knew that I would have to get some of this wine and worry where I would store it later. This wine had an aging period of twelve months between small concrete vats and French Oak. This wine also showed I thought extremely well as it was with young eight-year-old vines that they had planted after taking over the estate.


The third wine of the evening had a delightful musical connotation. Domaine Sainte Cecile du Parc Note d’Orphée 2013 was named for the legendary musician of Greek mythology Orpheus who it was claimed could charm all living creatures with his music, in fact he could even charm stones. This was a blend of eighty-five percent Syrah and the rest was Cabernet Franc and the vines were from eight to twenty-seven years old, so I would surmise that the Cabernet Franc vines were of the same as of the Notes Franches. This wine also had been aged for twelve months between small concrete vats and French Oak. This wine was enjoyable, but after having the Notes Franches and my own personal preference to Cabernet Franc as well, it had to take a back seat.

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Christine Bertoli

Posted on May 22, 2017 by thewineraconteur

I went to another wine tasting, and this one featured Christine Mouton Bertoli, who along with her husband who was not in attendance, acquired Domaine Sainte Cecile du Parc in 2005 just outside of Pezenas in the Languedoc. I really enjoy a wine tasting from a single estate to see what is being offered and this tasting was once again at D.wine Fine Wines. Christine was charming in her approach to wine making and one could see the passion that she has, even as she stressed that winemaking is not an easy endeavor.


The estate encompasses ten hectares of vineyards encircling the winery, so every vine is within walking distance and that they use small baskets during harvest, so as not to damage the fruit, and the harvest goes for a couple of weeks, as they pick the fruit individually as each cluster ripens. The vineyard was replanted in high-density rows, which is not the norm for the Languedoc, but is quite common in other areas of France. The 2013 vintage of Domaine Sainte Cecile du Parc will carry the Agriculture Biologique label, which means they have met the standards to be fully organic. While the art of winemaking is hard work, there is a bit of whimsy as they have taken the name of Sainte Cecile to heart, as Sainte Cecile is the Patron Saint of Music, so all the wines have musical associations.


The first wine of the evening was Domaine Ste. Cecile du Parc Notes Frivoles Rosé 2015, and here is the first example of the music theme as the name of the wine means Frivolous Notes, and Christine stressed that the wine was not frivolous, but the wine should be enjoyed capriciously. The wine is a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Carignan and Cabernet Franc and began first in concrete and then was aged in Stainless Steel for eight months. It was rather intriguing to hear some of the audience kind of gasp when they heard about using concrete, but their fears were allayed as Christine explained about the concrete vats. The wine carries the IGP Pays de Caux which is a subset of the IGP Pays d’Oc which covers most of the Languedoc-Roussillon region. The wine had a pretty pink shade in the glass, though the wine shop should have opened the bottles a little sooner to let the wine breathe. After I allowed the wine a few minutes of swirling in the glass it was a nice easy glass to drink and would be perfect to enjoy in the weather we are now approaching.

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Two Malbecs

Posted on May 20, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Some times without any forethought one encounters a couple of wines that are of the same grape. Malbec started off in the Cahoors region of France, ended up as one of the grapes for blending in Bordeaux and then took off around the world. It has acquired much more of a cachet today as compared to when I first started enjoying wines. I am going to discuss a couple of wines that were complimentary pours before a couple of wine tastings that I attended at D.vine Fine Wines not far from my home.


The first wine was a bit of a surprise for me and a delightful one at that. Les Jamelles Malbec Cepage Rare 2015 was from the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France, and the term Cepage Rare just means rare grape variety and I guess it is an homage to how it is part of the Bordeaux blend of grapes. This wine carries the Pays d’Oc IGP designation which was formally Vin de Pays d’Oc, which is basically the entire Languedoc-Roussillon region and the designation was changed to make it more in line with the wine rules of European Union and their terminology. This designation is the middle of the road between Vin de Table and the AOC that France is known for. This wine is made from two vineyards of Les Jamelles that have thirty-year old Malbec vines and the aged in oak, with ten percent new. I really enjoyed this wine and it is a very affordable bottle of wine and I guess that makes it even better.


The second wine that I will discuss is Casarena Estate Malbec 2014 from Casarena Bodega y Vinedos in Argentina. Malbec is the king of grapes in Argentina and this wine is from the sub-region of Lujan de Cuyo which is part of the largest wine region Mendoza. I really could not find out much additional information about this wine and while it was good, it was not as big and bold that I look for in a Malbec, but that is just me. When I think of a Malbec, I think of a steak, so for this wine, perhaps a steak barbequed in the backyard in a more informal setting.

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Two Full Bodied Reds

Posted on May 18, 2017 by thewineraconteur

It was the end of the wine tasting for the evening and of course that meant some full bodied red wines to finish the flight. My white wine glass had become the receptacle for the water that I would pour into my red wine glass to remove the last wine that I had. At D.vine Fine Wines where I was at, they had selected two types of wines that I normally do not end up selecting. The reason is that I usually find something else to pique my curiosity, so certain wines go lacking.


The second to the last wine that I had was Bouza Tannat Reserva 2015. This wine had the appellation of Canelones a region near Montevideo, Uruguay. Tannat is the major grape of Uruguay and the fruit for this wine was hand harvested from the family’s two vineyards, Las Violetas and Melilla. The wines were aged from twelve to fifteen months in a mix of French and American Oak and it was unfiltered. There were twenty-six-hundred cases of this wine produced. The wine was deep in color with a good medium nose and very heavy legs on the glass. As a side note and don’t ask me why, but every time I see Tannat, I think back to my days of scouting where they had all the scouts gather to sing praises to three kings of yore whose names were Owah, Tanah, Siam and we had to keep saying those three names until the last scout figured it out.


The last wine of the evening was a Zinfandel and I have to say that I do tend to refrain from ordering this by the bottle, because of all the heavy jam-fruit bombs that I have encountered which tend to always remind of the home-made “Dago Red” wines that we used to get at home during the Christmas season from friends of the family when I was still not even in high school. The Peachy Canyon Westside Zinfandel 2014 is from Paso Robles. Paso Robles is the northern half of San Luis Obispo County and Peachy Canyon which was founded in 1988 was one of the original wineries in Paso Robles. This wine while being seventy-seven percent Zinfandel was blended with Petite Sirah, Alicante Bouschet, Tannat and Syrah. There were just over seven thousand cases produced of this wine and it was more impressive than what I was expecting, so I was quite pleased, as it did not hit either of my two preconceived notions. So, it was two for two of nice wine tastings that I had, so I may go back for some more wine tastings.

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