Off to Vegas

Posted on February 1, 2017 by thewineraconteur

We have been going to Las Vegas for decades and I have written about many of the trips and memories. Now-a-days we avoid the glitz of The Strip, because we are visiting our children and grandchildren. A week or more in Vegas is a unique experience, but it is easier because we stay in Summerlin, which is a distinct area of Las Vegas proper, created by Howard Hughes and it is still a living and growing entity.

press-run-sonoma-county-chardonnay-2014
On the plane, I passed on having a couple of glasses of wine and we decided to have some mixed drinks. I really think the Flight Attendant was trying to get me into the spirit of Vegas early. Traditionally I get one of those small plastic glasses with some ice, a miniature bottle of Bacardi Rum with the cap removed and a can of Coca Cola, but this time the bottle of rum was poured into the small glass with ice and then just a touch of cola. I was not expecting a drink like that, but they finally got me a chaser of cola, to slowly dilute the drink. That was quite a potent drink to have with the small nibbles that are now distributed on flights, I guess the airlines will be happy when the old dinosaurs like me are not around to remember the dinners that they used to serve.

josh-chardonnay-2015
After picking up our rental car, we decided to get some minor groceries for our room as there is always time for munchies in the room, because who needs to call for room service all the time. I went to a wine shop for an important purchase for the room, while my Bride got some basics at the market, of course the market that we usually go to was no longer near our hotel. The first bottle was Josh Cellars “Josh” Chardonnay 2015 by Joseph Carr. This winery was founded in 2007 and they dedicate themselves to raising money for volunteer firefighter organizations. This bottle carries the appellation of California, the fruit basically comes from Mendocino and Monterey, but their website also claims that the fruit is harvested from across the state. This wine was a bit flabby. The other wine had more butter or oak and was more enjoyable, but very little that I could find about the wine. The other wine was Press Run Sonoma County Chardonnay 2014 and I bought it, because my Bride is partial to Chardonnay wines from Sonoma County and it was already chilled. There will be plenty of wines to discuss during our visit with our children and grandchildren.

Posted in Wine | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

The Rhapsody

Posted on January 30, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Where I was born, and grew up there was a mix of different nationalities. The “borough” of Delray in Detroit was home to immigrants of Armenian, Hungarian, Italians and Polish descent and each group had their own church to further bolster their identity, though they all strove to become Americans. As I look back to those early days where most of us were either first or second generation of new Americans I can remember how the parents and the grandparents stressed the importance of speaking English first and their Mother tongue second. No one wanted the stigma of being a D.P. (Displaced Person) and most of them had come to America to start a new life after The Great War looking for the “streets paved in gold.”

EPSON MFP image

A wonderful Hungarian restaurant arrived in the Detroit area long after my original memories of the old neighborhood, but The Rhapsody followed the migration of the original Hungarians as they populated the Downriver suburbs as they discovered the American dream. Some families had lost the family traditions of old country dishes, but there were restaurants that could maintain the aromas and tastes that did not disappear from memory. Here was a restaurant where one could find Kolbasz, Palacsintas, Kaposztas Teszta, Paprikas, Goulash and other dishes known to the Magyar. Big hearty helpings of dishes with rich sauces and spices to feed the soul, as well as the stomach. This is a restaurant where the diners line up to get a table to enjoy food with gusto, not a place to photograph a perfectly plated dish, just like the old days. A place where they run special evenings for duck or for goose dinners and special nights when one can be serenaded by Romany violinists. A place where no matter how much you ate, you still had to make room for some rich desserts afterwards.

EPSON MFP image

As the saying goes “when in Rome…” so why not try a Hungarian wine. Of course, one night that I was there I may have had a Hungarian wine, but it was of a French varietal, as wine grapes have become international. One night we had Balatonboglar Winery Duna Merlot 1991 from the Balatonboglar Region. While winemaking has been in Hungary for ages, the Balatongoglar Region on Lake Balaton is a relative newcomer. Hungary is noted for big wines like the classic Tokays and Egri Bikaver, strong wines with some sweetness and this Merlot was in the same style. At first I was taken aback because it was not a Merlot in the style that I had known, but it paired well with the rich dishes on the table, and that is what a wine should do.

Posted in Dining, Wine | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

I Like Italian

Posted on January 28, 2017 by thewineraconteur

I guess a running theme that I tend to write about is Italy. I like Italian wines and I like Italian food. In my little ethnic ghetto that I grew up in in Southwest Detroit, beyond my own extended family of Armenians, the next biggest nationality that I was surrounded by were the Italians. Growing up, there were no Armenian restaurants, but there were plenty of Italian restaurants and I learned to discern the good from the bad. To this day, I still dislike ethnic restaurants that pass themselves off as caricatures of what Americans perceive to be that ethnic group’s style of food. As I so learned first-hand from all of the different families and friends, what I should expect from different types of foods, and it is from these early days that I have kind of sequestered myself to certain comfort foods, that I still find how to break out of.

EPSON MFP image

Whenever there is a time when we are to meet other people and the restaurant is undecided, I will usually suggest an Italian eatery, from a purely selfish point of view. I can also do this, because no matter the potential location, there will be an Italian restaurant; and on top of that, there may be a couple of different price categories, so as not to make the others squirm if they deem one too expensive. Over the course of years, I have found that the local Andiamo chain to be quite safe and dependable, though I have not tried their location in “The D” in Las Vegas. I have found that certain of the locations are better than others, but I can always expect to find something that will make everyone happy about in the dishes. My Bride and I may not order pasta as a main course, but there are always dishes like Osso Bucco alla Milanese that will work. Braised veal shanks over some fettuccine is always safe, and in fact I tend to prefer ordering a veal dish, because it is something that we have never even tried to do at home. I always try to order something that we normally do not make at home and anything braised requires such long periods of preparation that it is probably best to let the restaurants do it. My Bride is always happy and can find something, usually will order something much healthier, even if it is something that she will make at home and then we will split the orders between us.

MI Andiamo MB2

The other nice thing about going to an Italian restaurant is that they will usually have some interesting Italian wines. The fancier the restaurant, or the fancier they think they are, the better odds of getting something different. I have found that the restaurants in the mid-price range will offer a couple of stellar wines, that I will avoid, because I am sure that they do not turn over their stock of these and I always am concerned at how much consideration is given for the storage of these wines. I also, if I get a chance I will pass by the house wines as I figure there is not much nuance or structure, only a great profit margin for the house. I will select a wine like Villa Antinori Toscana IGT 2001 for dinner. The Antinori house is huge with a great selection of wines and most of them are affordable even with a restaurant mark-up and they are easy enough that even non-wine drinkers can appreciate. The Antinori family has been in the wine making business for about six-hundred years, so they have a good track record. This particular wine from the Tuscany region carries an IGT designation, because most of the great recognized DOC wines that are red rely on the Sangiovese grape with some other indigenous local grapes for blending; whereas these new “Super Tuscan” wines as they are billed on the wine carte have been blended with “foreign” varietals as this wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sangiovese. I have found that most of the mid-range “Super Tuscan” wines are well made and easy to drink without breaking the budget and I think that makes everyone happy when one goes out for dinner.

Posted in Dining, Wine | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

A Label Made Me Think of Pizza

Posted on January 26, 2017 by thewineraconteur

I have been going through all of my wine labels of wines past and sorted them by decades, and I think that I need a life. Writing this blog has altered some of my pack rat status into new avenues. If I get ambitious I might even try to get them arranged by years, but that might be too much of a chore. As I was doing the sorting I found a wine label that made me think of the pizza, and since our plans for the evening called for more mundane activities, I ordered a pizza, and alas it was rather mediocre.


The pizza that I remembered from the wine, was much better. When I was a kid, the best sit down pizzeria in my old neighborhood was Roman Village and they are still going strong to this day. In fact, when I have gone back to eat there, they are still mobbed and they are located in an out of the corner area, but when the food is good, people remember. The family that owns Roman Village have opened several more Italian a bit more upscale compared to the original, but still the same food and the new restaurants are called Antonio’s Cucina Italiana. I am just a purist when it comes to pizza and I like it loaded with toppings and extra cheese and don’t forget the anchovies. Every time that I try something novel for a pizza, I usually get disappointed, but that is just me.

MI Antonio's BC
I find that pizza is very egalitarian when it comes to pairing with wine, even with the spicy styled pies that I prefer. We don’t go out that often just to have a pizza, but when I do, I like to look for something different in a wine. Pizza is not expensive and I try to get a popular priced wine to pair with it. The label that caused me to ramble on was La Chiara “Figini” Gavi di Gavi 1999 and it is a white wine from Italy. Gavi di Gavi is from the southern part of Piedmont and it has its own DOCG and the wine is made from the Cortese grape. This wine shows the terroir of the area, as the wine is very crisp and what I would call flinty, and God knows that I am not big on descriptors. To maintain this crispness this wine is aged in Stainless Steel for five months and if you can find a wine from this area, it is a wine that I would recommend drinking it during its youth, as I do not think it is one for aging. See what happens when I start a new project.

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

Marilyn and Shamrocks

Posted on January 24, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Everyone tries to keep in touch with former schoolmates. There is something comforting about the old days, call it nostalgia or just a longing for what seemed a simpler time. I think that is why school reunions in any form are so popular. I don’t go to my high school reunions, because the class was so huge and the students were from all parts of the city of Detroit, and very few were from my neighborhood. On the other hand, most people actually grew up with the students from elementary school through the high school years, and that is what my Bride did. There were some students that she kept in touch with from those early days. Three other couples joined us at our house for dinner the other night to celebrate their continued friendship, and this has been a recurring event, and not long ago they all got together to for a class reunion and the school’s nickname was the Shamrocks.

marilyn-merlot-1997
At the beginning of the evening, they were all exchanging gifts like framed grouped class photos and computer discs of the last reunion. Some even brought some appetizers to our house to start the evening off properly. One brought a cheese deli tray to munch on, and one brought a tray of her famed Deviled Eggs, and I might add that, that tray was the first to be finished. My Bride had been corresponding with the other couples to make sure that the menu that she had planned would work for everyone. She started off with her Caesar Salad, but because of Gluten-free requests, she refrained from added the sautéed bread crumbs that she normally uses, instead of croutons. She also made a Pork Tenderloin and one of her favorite newer dishes, Salmon with a Bourbon Sauce. She also had made a Gluten-free version of Armenian Pilaf, that I thought suffered a bit through the translation (but it worked out alright) and Broccoli. For dessert, she decided to make Bananas Foster that wonderful dish that started at Brennan’s in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. I might add that the house smelled wonderful.

kendall-jackson-avant-2015
In the living room, where we started out with the appetizers we enjoyed a bottle of Kendall-Jackson Avant Chardonnay 2015. This is a crisper version of their more popular Vintners Reserve Chardonnay. While this wine also carries the California appellation the fruit only came from Monterey County, Santa Barbara County, Mendocino County and Sonoma County. This wine was made from fifty-one percent Stainless Steel and forty-nine percent neutral oak, so as not to be as oaky or buttery as what a lot of California Chardonnay wines have become noted for. For dinner, we enjoyed a couple bottles of Marilyn Merlot Napa Valley 1997 from Nova Wines, Inc. Now some may cringe or make a face, but I will tell you that I have been won over by the quality of the wines, from what started off as a “garage wine” in 1981 has become a winner. There are a lot of wines that could not make it in the bottle for ten years, and this wine was wonderful, it had mellowed out some, but still delivered a great bottle of Merlot, and I did not notice any difference from the first bottle to the second. While it is a Merlot, there was fifteen percent Cabernet Franc blended with it, and it is there tradition to release the wines on June 1, as that is Marilyn Monroe’s birthday and each vintage has a different photograph of this icon of American films. I have not had a bad bottle of this wine, so I shall keep getting some, even if the labels and name have a certain amount of kitsch to them.

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

Vinsetta Grill

Posted on January 22, 2017 by thewineraconteur

We recently had a chance to have dinner with our Son and his wife and we tried to choose a location that was between us geographically. We chose Vinsetta Grill and all we met there from our different routes. They did not take reservations, so we thought that we would try to get there early, so to get a table. I guess we got there right at the opportune moment, because afterwards there was an unbelievable line up of patrons, which is always a good sign.

franciscan-estate-chardonnay-2014
Since we got there early we decided to order an appetizer to go with our first round of wine and we went with their house specialty which was an Onion Loaf. We weren’t sure what to expect but it was a large stack of crispy onion rings in the shape of a loaf of bread, which we started to munch on, and almost after it arrived, so did our Son and his wife. Our Daughter-in-Law opted for a “Build Your Own” burger in a bowl, and my Bride ordered the same concept, but on a Brioche. Our Son opted for the French Dip and I order a slab of Baby Back Ribs. Since we don’t make ribs at the house, I thought it sounded like the best option, after I was assured that the meat falls off of the bone, and yes, I am sure that I am considered a pain in the arse for always questioning how the ribs are made. Afterwards our Son had a slab of Chocolate Cake and his wife had a slab of Carrot Cake, and as for my Bride and I we shared a Hot Fudge Cream Puff, as neither of us needed a whole dessert.

condes-de-albarei-albarino-2015
My Bride and I were the only ones to have some wine, so we just ordered by the glass, as we didn’t want to take another bottle of wine home with us. My Bride had the Bodegas Condes de Alberei Albarino 2015 which was delicious. This wine is from the Rias Baixas region of Galicia in Spain, and to carry the Rias Baixas designation the wine had to be at least seventy percent Albarino, but this wine was entirely Albarino. I had the Franciscan Estate Chardonnay 2014 from Napa Valley. Franciscan Estate began in 1975 and was originally Franciscan Oakville Estate and that is how I knew it. This wine was aged for seven months Sur Lie in small French and American barrels. Franciscan Estate was the first winery to produce wild yeast-fermented Chardonnay in Napa Valley. It was a good wine, but not as oaky as I had hoped it would be and the Albarino would have been better that evening with my ribs, otherwise it was fine.

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

MWWC#30: Obscure

Posted on January 20, 2017 by thewineraconteur

It is hard to believe that we are at the thirtieth Monthly Wine Writers Challenge, an exercise to make us write out of our usual box. The last winner was Shez of The Epicurious Texan and her distinct honor was to come up with the one word theme that we would all use, and that word is “obscure.” I went into my library and looked up the word, wondering if there was some meaning that was obscure about obscure that I wasn’t aware of. There were no surprises. As simply put, it gave the definitions of dim, indistinct, not clearly expressed or understood, or not distinguished or famous.

wine-stain Monthly Wine Challenge
After looking it up, all I could surmise was that it is me. One blogger had once mentioned that my articles were dim and obscure, because I always leave the wine to the end, but I guess I just like to lay out a situation where wine will be found, and yes, I tend to bury the lead, as I was reminded often in journalism classes. The other aspect is that I am neither famous or distinguished, but I just keep plugging along, because I am having fun.
So, I was at a loss and a standstill, which is rather common when I start thinking about these challenges. There is really nothing obscure anymore about wine, as it seems that the grapes are grown almost everywhere in the world, excluding the polar ice caps. When I was first learning about wine, the world was obscure except for France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal. I lived in the United States of America and the wines of California were obscure to the wine lovers back then, and as for some of the pioneers in the state of Michigan where I live they were not even on the map.

EST! EST!! EST!!!
I went to my copy of The World Atlas of Wine by Hugh Johnson, which was published in 1971 to see if my memory was correct about obscure wine regions. There were seventy-two pages devoted to France, twenty-two pages devoted to Germany, Southern and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean had sixty-two pages (including one page for the Far East) and the New World had ten pages for the United States, Australia had six pages, South Africa had four pages, South America had two pages and England and Wales had two pages. Most of the world was obscure to wine drinkers back then.

Ralph and wine
I remember that I wanted to discover the wine world, but the merchants back then did not agree with me. I would revel to myself if I could find a wine off of the beaten track. The Coteaux du Languedoc in France might as well have been on the moon. I remember once finding a bottle of Anjou and I got excited that I would finally try a wine that the Three Musketeers drank, or the chance to try a Muscadet or a Vouvray wine, as these were all considered esoteric when Bordeaux and Burgundy were the only areas that any serious wine drinker should consider. There was the romantic story of “Est! Est!, Est!” from Italy and I once even found a sparkling wine from Germany. The only wines that one could find from Hungary was Tokaji Aszu and then I could only find the Three, Four and Five Puttonos. At a small Hungarian market in my old neighborhood I found three other bottles that were not Tokay, and as you can see, I really tried. As hard as it was, I eventually found a bottle of Amontillado, because I was always fascinated by the Edgar Allan Poe story. My curiosity compelled me to keep looking for the obscure and I was pleased to find a bottle from Yugoslavia.

AmontilladoLabel
My searches were done in the Dark Ages, most of the California wines were in the handy-dandy gallon bottles back then, and Chianti wines came with a straw wrapping about the bottle. Wine was not the commodity that it is today. I had always though it would be cool to have tried every wine from the great Classification of the Medoc, but alas, I don’t think some of the chateaus actually crossed the pond.

Anjou
Today, the variety of wines and regions are vast and one can actually find much more, even local restaurants and corner stores offer more wines then was available when I started. Today there has been a shift to locate obscure grape varietals and that has become much easier, because the consumer has become more knowledgeable about wines and there is a greater demand to try something new.

Egri Bikaver
Though I realize that this article about obscure has been dim, indistinct and not clearly expressed by one that is neither famous or distinguished; I would not have my early days of wine education any other way.

Posted in Monthly Wine Writing Challenge, Wine | 6 Comments

The Caller at Maru

Posted on January 18, 2017 by thewineraconteur

Just when I think The Caller has disappeared, he sends me a couple of text messages to let me know that he is having a grand time without us. We don’t get a chance to be with them as often as we would like, but that is the way the world revolves these days. My Bride and The Caller work together, and it is through their employment that we get together. He has had quite a varied career and he is just one of the most enjoyable people that you would ever want to be across the table from for dinner and drinks.

pehhcora-pecorino-2014

His latest missive was that he and his wife were at Maru in Okemos, Michigan. Maru does Japanese cuisine and since they have opened up in 2009 in Okemos, they now have five other locations. As I have stated before, I am uncomfortable with foods from this part of the world, only because the cuisine is alien to me, and not a “feel good” situation for me, and over the years I have tried, but not very successfully. The Caller is much more open to all cuisines, as is my Bride, so it must be me. His message to me about the dinner was short and informative; “Sashimi and Sushi…wonderful spicy tuna, mackerel, Tempura Shrimp, calamari, and Fire House Shrimp.”

llama-malbec-old-vine-2014
He also sent me photographs of the two wines that they were enjoying that evening with the meal and he thought that they both paired well with the spiciness of the dishes. I was also surprised at the choices of wines that the restaurant offered and they both were good choices, so they were doing their patrons a fine service. The first wine was Orion Wines PehhCora Pecorino 2014 with a Terre di Chieti IGT designation from Abruzzo in Italy. Pecorino is a white wine that is grown rather extensively in the Abruzzo region, but it is not one of the main grapes that has brought this area fame, hence the IGT listing. The wine is aged for six months in Stainless Steel and the ages another six months in the bottle before it is released. The Caller added his notes to this wine as “between a Chardonnay and a Sauvignon Blanc, clean with crisp notes. Went well with the spicy food.” The second wine I could also understand complimenting the spiciness of the food, as it was Belasco de Baquedano “Llama” Malbec Old Vine 2014. This wine is from the Alto Agrelo Valley, a highly-respected region of the Lujan de Cuvo district of Mendoza in Argentina. There are quite a few winemakers that take advantage if they can of these two areas. This wine was aged in French Oak for six months and then aged for another six months in the bottle before it is released as well. The Caller was a very happy man that evening, and my Bride and I both agree that it is time to get together with them soon.

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

I Forgot These Labels

Posted on January 16, 2017 by thewineraconteur

As some of you may have noticed, I am a pack rat of sorts; of course, to a degree I am happy that I am, because it has allowed me to “show and tell” wines and the events where the wines were enjoyed. While I was packing away the Christmas decorations, I also decided to grab a storage box of odds and ends and go through them to see if there were items that no longer needed to be saved. There were several big manila envelopes containing wine labels in this box, which caused everything to come to a screaming halt for a couple of days, until I could sort through and see what I have written about and what I haven’t written about. In these manila envelopes, I found a couple of pristine labels and it dawned on me that they were from tastings that we did of wines that we had not purchased.

EPSON MFP image
There were two labels from Garland Ranch from California. At first I, did not recognize the label and then I found my notes about these wines. Garland Ranch is a value driven wine from Chateau Julien in Carmel Valley in the Monterey region of California. My Bride and I have visited Chateau Julien a couple of times and we have always enjoyed and purchased wines each time we were there. The wines from the Garland Ranch were fine, but it was not what we were looking for, during our trips, as the wines carry the California appellation and not a designation from the Monterey area, and buying popular priced wines to send home, is never our plan when we are tasting wines at a winery. The first wine, I am sure that we tasted only out of being nice, as neither of us were really interested in the Garland Ranch California White Zinfandel 1999 though we do know friends and family that would. The other wine Garland Ranch California Cabernet Sauvignon 1998 was fine, but we were in the Monterey area and we were looking for wines that remind us of the trip.

EPSON MFP image
The other wine label that I had, that had stumped me originally was also from Chateau Julien and must have been from our second trip there. Emerald Bay Coastal California Merlot 2000 was also another entry level wine and while good, was not what we were looking for. When we are at a winery we are looking for wines that I think are indicative of the area and of course we will try their popular priced wine offerings as well, but we really are not seeking out generic wines on the trips, and I think that is why I originally did not recognize either of these labels, while marveling at other labels that will eventually be formal remembrances.

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

Two Wine Gifts

Posted on January 14, 2017 by thewineraconteur

As much as I do not want to see the end of the Christmas season, all things must end. So now that all of the decorations are stored away for another year, I will mention two more wines that I will one day write about in the future, that we received as gifts.

montesel-vigna-del-paradiso-2015
The first wine is one that I actually wrote about at Thanksgiving, as we had a chance to open one of the bottles to try, as it is very popular in Kentucky. As I said then, it is the Old South merging with Spain. Southern Belle Precious Syrah 2011 is from Murcia in the Jumilla region. What makes this wine unique, other than the convoluted label is that the wine is aged in Bourbon barrels from Kentucky; and not just any Bourbon barrels, but those that held Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon for twenty years. Pappy Van Winkle is the most elusive and sought after of the cult Bourbons in the United States. The wine was aged for eighteen months in these barrels before bottling, and when one opened the bottle, the soft fragrance of the Bourbon melded with the distinctive nose of the Syrah to create a very pleasant and unique experience. I am looking forward to another chance to savor this wine at the right moment.

Southern Belle Precious Syrah 2011
The other wine at first I thought was a non-vintage bottle of sparkling wine, until I looked at the back label, where the vintage year is stated. Montesel Conegliano-Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCC Extra Dry “Vigna del Paradiso” 2015 and I am so looking forward to trying this wine. The wine is “100% Mono Vitigno” which means that it is all from one grape varietal and in this case that is Prosecco, which is now the formal name for Glera when it is used in the Prosecco designated areas. In 2010 Conegliano-Valdobbiadene was designated as the only area to be listed as Prosecco Superiore which is considered to be the finest of the Prosecco wines. This wine is also following the guidelines of the Common Market and is listing this wine as Extra Dry which means that it is not Brut, so it should have just a touch of added sugar to mellow the flavor. This “Vigna del Paradiso” or “Wine of Paradise” should be a great wine to try with friends. That is the beauty of gifts, that they can be shared with others, to make the gift even that much more enjoyable.

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