Success (?)

Posted on November 5, 2016 by thewineraconteur

I think that I have found a way to remove the stubborn labels that refuse to leave a wine bottle. I know it sounds silly, but I like to save the labels to look back on, and they are great for writing articles about, as I often do. I was out in the garage cleaning, and discarding stuff; getting ready for the winter and I found a tool, that I thought might be beneficial. The tool was a Black & Decker High Speed Paint Stripper which is a heat gun with a couple of scraping attachments. As I lamented a few articles ago, I have a couple of cartons of empty bottles with the labels that refuse to budge, using the most popular techniques.

I put the push scraper attachment onto the heat gun and fired it up. I decided to try the highest setting and it was actually browning the paper label as it was being removed. I ceased and let the tool cool down a bit, as well as the bottle. I went to the lowest setting and I thought I was doing good, but I guess I was not and must have been impatient, as the first label ripped half way through, but I eventually got the second part off as well and then I taped the two parts together, and for my scrap book it will be fine. The first bottle that I tried was Chateau du Pavillon 2000 from Saint-Croix-du-Mont.

If you try using this tool, you will discover that it is a lot more work, then just heating up the label and peeling off the label. I have broken up concrete that was less straining. I then decided that perhaps I could combine two techniques together to see if that would facilitate the removal. So, I put a bottle into the oven at two-hundred-fifty degrees for ten minutes, hoping that it would at least soften up the glue some, as this label had defied boiling water from the outside and from the inside, as well as just the baking. After letting it bake, I then applied the heat gun and slowly got a toe-hold and just kept working back and forth. I now have a label from Clos Du Bois Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 from Alexander Valley. Every time and every label from this winery has ended up a total mess and flung into the trash can. I think that I have found a potential cure for the permanent label adhesive, but I will keep working on it, as you noticed, I started off with smaller labels and more affordable wines. The Opus One bottles have huge labels, and after doing two bottles, my right hand was actually sore; so, I shall have to pace myself. I guess it is time for a glass of wine.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

My Sneaky Trick

Posted on November 3, 2016 by thewineraconteur

My sneaky trick has nothing to do with politics, so you can breathe a sigh of relief. It is just something I do when we are traveling and staying at hotels. If one is in the wine country, this isn’t necessary to do, but everywhere else it is. I didn’t take my wine carrier with us, as I wasn’t sure how much time we would be able to enjoy a glass of wine in the room and I didn’t take a bottle of wine either, since the laws in Michigan about wine have changed. In the old days, if you had ordered a bottle of wine with dinner, you had to finish the bottle or leave it, and as you know I like to save the labels, and you could always take an empty bottle home with you. Nowadays in Michigan, if you don’t finish your bottle of wine, you can have your server recork the bottle and take the unfinished bottle with you. This is much better as you don’t have to worry about drinking too much. That and I always have a corkscrew in my grooming bag.

caposaldo-pinot-grigio-2015
I always like to stop and take a look at what is being offered in the little sundry shop that most hotels have these days, as sometimes I might want some Lifesavers or in case I forgot to pack something. I also take a look to see if there is any wine being sold to take back to the room. The first one that I stayed at, did not have any wine glasses and the only wine to be purchased was small individual drink size bottles of Sutter Home, so I passed.

kendall-jackson-chardonnay-2014
I then crossed the lobby and walked into the bar and asked if I could take a couple of glasses of wine up to my room and they said “yes.” So I ordered a couple of glasses of wine, and that is how I usually have wine glasses in the room for later, if we decide to have some wine before retiring for the night. I usually get a couple of easy drinking wines this way and this last time was no different. The first wine was Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay 2014. This California wine is found almost everywhere and it is always a safe wine to order. By the magic of the winemaker and grapes purchased across the entire length of the state, they can produce a wine that is rather consistent year after year with no surprises, and the odds are that the bottle of wine in the bar is always either brand new or just recently opened, because it is that popular. The second glass of wine was one that I have had often in several different vintages and it has also proven to be very safe. Caposaldo Pinot Grigio delle Venezie IGT 2015 is a Pinot Grigio grown in an area where it is not native to in Italy, hence the IGT designation. The Veneto area is known for Valpolicella, Amarone, Soave and Prosecco; so, anything else can either be a table wine or an IGT. So, there is my little trick to make sure that I have some wine glasses in the room and I can start the afternoon off with a wine that will not run afoul of whatever wine is chosen later to go with dinner.

Posted in Wine | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Butch’s Dry Dock

Posted on November 1, 2016 by thewineraconteur

After spending the day exploring and shopping in the downtown district of Holland, we were getting ready to have our dinner and celebrate the last night of our anniversary weekend. When I called to make the reservation, the young lady asked if there was an occasion and if we had been there before, and after answering her queries she informed me that they would give us an honored table. We were seated right in front at the window looking at the main street that we had spent all day shopping on and there was a handwritten message on our table saying Happy Anniversary that could even been seen by the people on the street. I was really looking forward to dinner at Butch’s as they are one of about eight hundred restaurants in the country that hold the Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence. The restaurant carries about eight hundred different wines in stock.

chateau-pedesclaux-pauillac-2011
Butch’s Dry Dock has a very tight and concise menu that doesn’t ramble for pages, and there were a couple of special dishes for the evening. We started off by sharing a plate of Brussel Sprouts prepared with Kimchi and house made bacon. We each had the Local Garden Salad. My Bride had one of the specials of the evening Sirloin Tips in a rich sauce served on a bed of pasta, and I had thought of ordering it, but she had chosen it first. I had their classic entrée Filet au Poivre with Chippewa potatoes, turnips, carrots and green beans. As we were sharing tastings from each other’s plates we decided that we had made a wise choice for dinner. The restaurant offered us a complimentary dessert for the occasion, but we chose to share one order of Crème Brulee and thanked them for the kind gesture.

butchs-happy-anniversary
Butch’s Dry Dock besides being a restaurant was also a wine retailer. The actual wine list for the restaurant was only a couple of dozen bottles and most of them were suggested as wine pairings for different dishes. The eight hundred different wines were either in racks or refrigerator cases and one could look at all the wines and choose. The selection was heavy into French and California wines, but there were also other wines from the Continent and some excellent Michigan wine selections as well. Since all of the wines were offered at retail, there was a ten-dollar corkage fee and I thought that was fair, since the wines were not marked up at the usual restaurant pricing. As I wandered the racks, I kept returning to the area where the Claret wines were and I decided on Chateau Pedesclaux Pauillac 2011. I mean one does not often find wines from the Pauillac and this wine was rated as a Cinquieme Grand Cru Classe from the 1855 rating that for the most part has still held up very well, and what it means is that it was a Fifth Growth. Chateau Pedesclaux was established in 1810 and has one hundred twenty acres and a very modern winery structure. The winery grows Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. They also have a second wine that is produced that is predominately Merlot called Fleur de Pedesclaux. The wine that we had was aged for twelve months in mostly new French Oak before bottling. Of all the wines of the Medoc, I seem to gravitate the most to Pauillac and Margaux and the wine did not disappoint. If and when we get back to Holland, I would make a point of dining here again.

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

A Day in Holland

Posted on October 30, 2016 by thewineraconteur

What a wonderful way to spend the day. The downtown district of Holland was so interesting, not only for the mixture of shops and restaurants, but also so idyllic. The downtown district had pulled up all the sidewalks and had it replaced with paver stones, but before they laid the stones, the entire district had a system installed whereas the entire area has no snow or shoveling which makes it great for visitors. There were also little areas of statuary to accentuate the small-town flavor and make one feel at home. Most of the time I stayed on the sidewalk, people watching and appreciating the architecture and facades of the buildings while my Bride shopped. I think her shopping that day may have doubled the cost of our long weekend, but besides getting herself some new clothes, she also bought future birthday presents as well as some additional Christmas shopping. With all of the walking, we decided to have a quick bit for lunch, so as not to ruin our dinner plans.

st-supery-cabernet-sauvignon-2013
We started looking at the menus of some of the restaurants up and down the street, in hopes of finding some good wine as well. I mean why not, we were relaxing and had no time table to observe, other than our dinner reservation. We settled on a quaint spot and walked into their coffee and pastry shop and had to walk around to get a table for lunch. AlpenRose has been in Holland for twenty-five years at least and looking at the menu it seemed more Austro-Hungarian instead of Dutch, but that was fine. We both wanted to get a bowl of soup just to hold us until dinner and as I looked at the menu, if we ever get back to Holland, I think that I would like to have dinner there. Their French Onion soup was a blend of seven different onions, beef consommé, Swiss cheese, crouton and topped with haystack onions.

gouguenheim-malbec-reserva-2012
The wine list which was not huge was well thought out and had some fine wines and none of them were on the list just for pretense, even the wines that were sold by the glass. My Bride had Gouguenheim Valle Escondido Tupungato Malbec Reserva 2012. Tupungato is a sub region of Uco Valley, the premier wine district of Argentina and where Malbec reigns. The winery was started in 2002 as the owners bought an old winery and brought it back to life. The Reserva is aged for eight months in French oak, whereas the basic wine is only aged for four months. For a new wine, this Malbec was very easy to drink and delivered what one would expect from that grape. I on the other hand ordered an old friend that I seldom see any more, so I was excited to try it, as we had bought a lot of their wines when we visited the winery. The St. Supery Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 was excellent. This wine was entirely made from their own vineyards in Napa Valley utilizing grapes from their Dollarhide Estate Vineyard and their Rutherford Estate Vineyard. While the wine was basically Cabernet Sauvignon it was blended with a small amount of Petite Verdot and Malbec. St. Supery was established in 1989 and we have fond memories of going there during harvest. This particular wine was aged for eighteen months in French Oak before bottling and it was wonderful. In fact, there was a table of women next to us that were ordering wine and a couple of them were thinking red, so I could not help, but interject and suggest the wine that I was drinking and when they tasted it, they thanked me for the suggestion. Then we were off for more shopping until dinner.

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

Holland, Michigan

Posted on October 28, 2016 by thewineraconteur

Another place in Michigan that I had never been to, on the west side of the state. We got in late in the afternoon, because of the board meeting that we attended on the east side of the state, so we had a bit of a drive. We made good time on the road and after we got to our hotel we called to see if we could change our dinner reservation to an earlier time, but it was not possible, so after we unpacked and got situated, we went to the downtown area. It was a beautiful and quite large downtown area with some great facades on the buildings. We really could not do much that first night, but my Bride was able to sneak in some shopping. I think we really don’t do much more than shop, and wine and dine. It is our patriotic duty to keep the economy running.


When we had booked our hotel room, the hotel touted us on a restaurant which we booked for our first night, as there was a restaurant that I really wanted to try, but I saved that one for the next night. We went to Boatwerks and it was a very nice looking waterfront establishment, and outside was a beautiful old style wooden speed boat on display. We were not really hungry because we had such a large breakfast and lunch that was served at the board meeting, but we knew that we had better keep our reservation and eat something. We were going to eat light that evening and it was just as well, because the restaurant was more of a sports bar and eatery, and I have to say that I don’t mind televisions going on in the bar area, but I dislike them in the dining room, just a pet peeve of mine. My Bride settled on having the Beet Salad which was Arugula, Blood Orange vinaigrette, roasted Golden Beets, red onion, Country Wind goat cheese, pickled raisins, toasted Pepitas and topped with a grilled chicken breast. I tried the Mexi Dip Sampler which was warm Chipotle Black Bean dip, Guacamole, Salsa Roja and fresh fried El Milagro tortilla chips. The food was better than most sport bars that I had been too, so we were both happy.


The wine list was not extensive, but we did find a couple of wines of interest. My Bride had Albertoni Chardonnay 2014 which was a California wine from the Bronco Wine Company  group. While it was listed as a Chardonnay, it was a proprietary blend with Viognier and Chenin Blanc and it was tasty. I usually refrain from having wine with my salad, but my Bride does not. I had a glass of Lindeman’s Winery Gentleman’s Collection Red Blend No. 2 2014. Lindeman’s Winery was founded in 1843 by Dr. John Lindeman, but this wine also carried a California AVA and was a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache and Shiraz and it had enough character to hold up to the spicy dish that I had and enjoyed. Our first night in Holland and we knew that there was much more to discover.

Posted in Dining, Wine | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Old City Hall

Posted on October 26, 2016 by thewineraconteur

Old City Hall Restaurant is in Bay City, Michigan and it is located in the building that was the old city hall of the city. We ended up in Bay City, because I was tagging along going as a guest for a board meeting, the dinner was Thursday night and then the meeting was Friday morning. I had been near the city before, but had never been there and the restaurant was only about two blocks from the hotel where the meeting would be held and we were staying at. Everything was prearranged, so I just went with the flow and I tried to be a wall-flower. Though it was the beginning of a long weekend that we were on to celebrate our anniversary, so I was doing research on the spots where we were going to go, and most of the time my research is fruitful.

louis-jadot-puligny-montrachet-2011
I had looked at the menu of Old City Hall and there was much that had piqued my interest. The dinner for the board meeting was being held in a private side room that had a bar as well, just for the group. The menu for the evening had been pre-selected and they were fine choices. Of course, yours truly is kind of “high maintenance” and I had to ask for substitutions starting with the salad course. They were offering salads with three different dressings, Ranch, Blue Cheese and Raspberry Vinaigrette; and I was able to get Italian dressing, just a simple request and that was easy. There were three choices for our entrée offerings. Salmon braised in fish stock with a Thyme and Citrus Crème Fraiche, which I did not see being served near me. The T-Bone Steak with Roasted Garlic Fingerling Potatoes and green beans seemed to be the choice of the majority. The last choice of the evening was Chicken Oscar, a variation of the classic Veal Oskar where this was a sautéed chicken breast topped with blue crabmeat, asparagus and a white wine butter sauce served with garlic mashed potatoes and green beans and that is what my Bride had ordered. This is where my chutzpah really came to the forefront, because I asked the server that I had noticed that they had on the regular menu Duck Confit served with a “lobi” which was a mixture of beans. Our server said that it would not be a problem, as the duck was priced less than the dishes being served and I was a happy camper, especially because it was prepared perfectly and it was one of the largest servings I had ever seen. I had been prepared to pay for my dinner if there would have been any problems with my substitution.

starborough-marlborough-sauvignon-blanc-2015
We started off the evening having some wine by the glass during the cocktail hour period and we had a most pleasant Starborough Winery Sauvignon Blanc 2015 from Marlborough region of New Zealand. Marlborough is the main wine growing region of New Zealand and Sauvignon Blanc is almost synonymous with Marlborough. It is a fresh and flinty tasting wine that is just so refreshing and a great way to start off a meal. We finished off the meal with Taylor Fladgate Late Bottled Vintage Port 2010. Taylor Fladgate is one of the most accessible of Port wines from Oporto in the Douro Region of Portugal. Late Bottled Vintage Ports are almost issued every year as compared to Vintage Port and the Late Bottled Vintage Ports stay in the barrel between four and six years and is a great way to appreciate Port without the major expense of a vintage declaration. Port wines are a mysterious blend of many varietals and perhaps the only one to know exactly would be the winemaker, but some of the vines have intermingled over the years, so it may be moot to be able to totally identify the grapes. The most common and traditional grapes are: Touriga Franca, Tinta Barroca, Tinta Roritz, Tinta Cao, Sousao, Tinta Amarela and Mourisco Tinto. The wine that we had between the two that I have mentioned I purchase separately as I did not want any complaints that I was taking advantage of the largesse of the board members, even though after they had found out that we were celebrating our anniversary. I selected a wine, even before I found out that I could have the Duck Confit, so it was not a Pinot Noir wine. The restaurant had on their wine carte Louis Jadot Puligny-Montrachet 2011 and that is not a Chardonnay wine encountered that often. Puligny-Montrachet is in the Cote de Beaune region of Burgundy and it is home to four Grand Cru and seventeen Premier Cru appellations. While both red and white wines are found in Puligny-Montrachet, it is the white wines that are famed. It was worth the added expense to have that wine with the meal. The next day we had breakfast and lunch with the board and after the meeting was completed we were off to enjoy the rest of the weekend.

taylor-fladgate-lbv-2010

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

Two Milestones

Posted on October 24, 2016 by thewineraconteur

My one-thousandth article is now published. I am sure that that it is considered inconsequential to some, but I think it is a big deal. It has been a slow learning curve and finding ways to get comfortable and introducing enough information about wine without getting too technical. My conceit in writing is not to lecture or impress with my vast knowledge (that is funny), but as if we were sitting at a table with a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses and I remember a moment where wine is part of the memory. I guess I am that relative that keeps telling stories, that you can’t quite avoid because of being related.


This will be a rather short article, only because as my Canadian relatives would say, I am on holidays, or what we Yanks call vacation. We are taking a long weekend that started off last night with a dinner for a conference that I am tagging along with and after the conference we are driving across the state to visit an area that I have never been to before and then will be more wine and food pairings to write about. Not that I live a glamorous life, but I try to enjoy what I can. I joke that I must be doing something wrong, because all the wine I tend to write about has been paid for by us and not solicited, maybe one day, but if it happens, my Bride would be surprised and thrilled.

Bridal Swing
The other milestone that is happening is that we are celebrating our twenty-first anniversary and we started the celebration with a Louis Jadot Puligny-Montrachet 2011, but more about the wine when the time comes to discuss that moment. Right now, I know that I have one more year than…
“It was twenty years ago today
Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play
They’ve been going in and out of style
But they’re guaranteed to raise a smile.”
…and I feel that covers me pretty well.

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

MWWC#28: Smile

Posted on October 22, 2016 by thewineraconteur

“Gray skies are gonna clear up
Put on a happy face
Brush off the clouds and cheer up
Put on a happy face.”

wine-stain Monthly Wine Challenge

The play and movie “Bye, Bye Birdie” may be considered dated, but so am I when it comes to music, I guess. This is the twenty-eighth edition of the Monthly Wine Writing Challenge and Beth of Traveling Wine Chick was the last winner and her distinct honor was to come up with the theme of this entry which is “smile.”

Pleiades

Smile is a great theme, as I think all wine drinkers are happy and why not? They get to enjoy the nectar of the Gods and wine has been around for ages. I would venture to say that almost every article I have written about wines is merged with happy occasions and I tend to even smile as I relate the events. I can only think of four events that would make a wine lover not smile. The first is when you have a bad bottle of wine, either it is too old, improperly stored or the cork did not do its job properly and thankfully this is a rare time. The second is going to a restaurant that you are looking forward to trying for the first time, and that usually means a monumental dinner tab at the end of the evening and the evening left you wanting or expecting more. The third would be when you are enjoying a wonderful bottle of wine and you realize that you are drinking the last glass of the wine. The last time that a wine drinker would not smile is when you realize that you are enjoying the last bottle of that case you bought and have cellared for ages and you can’t go back for more. Otherwise we are some of the happiest folks, especially when one is enjoying the wine with a great friend or friends.

Pazzo Wine
Smile is a theme that could go in many directions, but I always talk about how great wine enhances a dinner or a party and I have been lucky over the years to have dined at many stellar and unique restaurants. At The French Laundry with their spectacular wine list, I just asked the sommelier that evening to suggest a wine that is popular with the locals and he brought us a bottle of Pleiades VIII Old Vines of Marin County a truly unique wine that is non-vintage (bottled in July 1999) and is a blend of different red and white varieties and each issue of this wine is totally different from the prior bottling. What a smile I had that evening. And the evening that I was given the first glass of Screaming Eagle by some men that kept disturbing our dinner, yes I did smile afterwards and forgave them for the diversion.

Project Happiness Syrah Lodi 2011
What I am going to mention right now is some wines that make me smile because of their label or their name. I mean I am a very eclectic wine drinker. There was a wine that I had called Pazzo 2004, which in Italian means crazy and is made by Bacio Divino Cellars of Napa, California, and the winery in English translates into the Divine Kiss. This was a proprietary red blend of basically Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon as well as other varieties. This was not an expensive wine, but it was fun, then there is the equally fun and not expensive Project Happiness Syrah 2011 from Oreana Winery of Lodi, California and that big yellow smiley face on the label will make you smile, even if you say to yourself I can’t buy that. The third wine that brings a smile to my face is a winery from South Africa with a name that immediately made our dear friend Ms. Yoga buy me one year. The wine is Goats Do Roam 2002 which is a great take off, of one of my favorite types of wine Cotes-du-Rhone. She knew that, and that is why she bought it for me, and the winery actually raises goats on the property and makes cheese from the animals. This wine is a blend of Grenache, Shiraz (sounds like a Rhone wine so far) and some Pinotage, the famous varietal of South Africa.

goats-do-roam-2002
I also have to smile as this was almost my one-thousandth article to be published, but if I had delayed it, I might have been disqualified and I have only missed one entry in the Monthly Wine Writing Challenge from the beginning of this wonderful change from my usual writings. I also have to say that another reason that I am smiling right now, is that when this article publishes my Bride and I will be off for a little getaway to celebrate another wedding anniversary. Yes, I am a very lucky man and that keeps me smiling even more.
“Take off that gloomy mask of tragedy
It’s not your style
You’ll look so good that you’ll be glad
You decided to smile.”

Posted in Monthly Wine Writing Challenge | 4 Comments

A New Car and Wine

Posted on October 20, 2016 by thewineraconteur

I always like to hear about good customer service as this maintains customer loyalty. I have mentioned enough times that I was in retail all of my life (but not wine retail) and I think of the little things that one can do to keep the customer happy. One of the adjunct services that I used to do was to keep abreast with the local restaurants around the metropolitan area, so that I could potentially send someone to a new place that they might not have been aware. If they were travelling to a city that I had been, I could also make some recommendations there as well.

tenuta-santome-cabernet-sauvignon-2013

People would also ask me about wines, not that I am a maven, but I try. Well just a couple of days after helping The Messenger pick out some wines for her Thanksgiving table, she sent me a photo of another bottle of wine. It seems that she had gone and selected a new automobile and when she picked it up, she was given a bottle of wine as a token of appreciation and she asked me my opinion. She even joked that it may make another article, and yes I think she is right.

new-car
The Messenger sent me a photograph of the label of the wine and asked me about it. The wine is Tenuta Santome Cabernet Sauvignon Marca Trevigiana IGT 2013. The winery was new to me and so was the IGT. The IGT stands for Indicazione Geograficatica Tipica and well, I knew the region Marca Trevigiana in Veneto for Prosecco, this designation refers to wines made in the district that are not Prosecco. The IGT covers any red, white or rosé, a blend or a varietal and the wine can be still, sparkling or sweet, so it allows a lot of leeway if the winery wants to do something different and in this case that are using Cabernet Sauvignon grapes for the wine. The principal grapes found in Veneto are Prosecco/Glera and Pinot Grigio, but now Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay is also used and there are red grapes that are new to the area as well like Pinot Noir, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. So even though The Messenger is not a wine drinker, especially dry red wines, she has received a nice bottle to put out for company during a dinner in the future, and I would say that it was a nice gift.

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

Carryout Pizza

Posted on October 18, 2016 by thewineraconteur

I was having a relaxing day working on my blog and a bunch of small projects that I can get into on occasion. The only thing better than writing about wines is enjoying wines, but the day had been dry. I am, unfortunately, not one of the writers that is always surrounded and immersed in wine and there are plenty of days and even nights when I do not have a glass of wine. On the other hand, my Bride had a very busy day and had been running around trying to keep everyone happy and even though we had Italian food the evening before she was craving pizza.

san-felice-il-grigio-chianti-classico-riserva-1986

She was not in the mood to go out, as she wanted to relax at home, which she so enjoys. She went to one of the small local chains of pizzas to get a pie. Michigan if you are not aware is home to two giant pizza corporations and no we don’t get their pizzas, but the pizza business is huge in this state, and I really can’t speak for other states, as I have not had pizza outside of the Detroit area, except years ago when I was very young, an uncle of mine opened the first pizzeria in St. Catherine’s, Ontario because he saw what a gold mine they were here in Detroit. She got a pizza that I would approve of, just tons of meat, onions, mushrooms, olives, peppers and onions, as she knows that I don’t like frou-frou pizzas. She likes to eat a pizza with a knife and fork and I just like the grab a big slice and fold it, just like I was taught back in the Fifties, did I just say that? ; of course that must be a mistake on my part.

chianti-in-decanter
Well I went down to the cellar to see what I could find and believe it or not, I found something that I thought would be fun to try. It was a wine that I had bought when it was brand new and sometimes one puts the bottle aside in the cellar and it gets forgotten about. Of course I got nervous, because the cork broke apart and I could neither work the cork out with that wire contraption that I have and I couldn’t poke the cork into the bottle. So I slowly worked a hole through the cork, then I got a decanter, a funnel and a coffee filter and poured the wine through the filter. The aroma was wonderful and the deep color was fascinating as it filled the decanter, no sign of aging. I had grabbed a bottle of San Felice Il Grigio Chianti Riserva 1986. After two years in oak, and one in the bottle, then all those years in the cellar there was still heat in that first taste, the Sangiovese grape has enormous life to it, as I have observed over the years. You could never tell without seeing the label that it was a thirty-year-old wine, so now I am really looking forward to some of my heavy duty Italians that have been resting for decades. See what a pizza night can cause. As a postscript to this story, we didn’t finish the bottle that evening and the next night, the wine was a bit tired compared to the first night, but still very drinkable.

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