“It’s In Your Jeans”

Posted on October 16, 2016 by thewineraconteur

Over the years I have attended and sometimes participated in many charity events. I recently attended a new one called “It’s In Your Jeans” and I even wore a pair of denims to the event and earlier that day at work. The main thrust of the event was to raise money and awareness of the fight against colon, prostate and testicular cancer. Men being “men” tend to avoid talking about diseases of this sort and the dreaded test, which is more psychological taboo, then really discomforting. They also have blood tests that help and I speak first hand, not that I have any of the diseases, but since I have had over a dozen kidney stone attacks since my senior year in college, I have had a urologist for years. This charity enables those that cannot afford to have the test, to be able to. The fund raiser was rather unique in that it was held at a restaurant, and they had guest bartenders who worked the bar for tips and that is where the money was raised. Since I knew the two bartenders for that particular night, we went and had dinner and contributed as well.

j-lohr-arroyo-seco-chardonnay-2014

The event was held at Magdaleno Ristorante in Wyandotte and I have written about being there before. The restaurant was packed when I got there, and it was still going strong when we left. We both started off having the house salads, my Bride had the Champagne Vinaigrette and I had my usual Italian dressing. Then the fresh bread with a whipped type of sauce that one could use in lieu of just butter. My Bride surprised me and order Veal Marsala and I think that I surprised her, because I tried one of their specials for the evening which was Perch Piccata and both dishes came with a side of pasta. We did not have room for any dessert, in fact after dinner we strolled the whole downtown area, before we drove home.

The selection of wine was a bit trickier, it is easy to go with a white wine for both veal and fish. I was a bit daunted because of the Marsala and the Piccata which has lemon, butter and capers, but I know that my Bride enjoys a Chardonnay and they had a decent wine for us. The J. Lohr Estates Riverstone Arroyo Seco Chardonnay 2014 was up to the task. This is not a fancy Chardonnay but it has some breeding and comes from one of my favorite areas in California. Arroyo Seco AVA is in the middle of the Salinas Valley of the Monterey area and to me, it is always easy to select a Chardonnay from this area without any disappointment. This particular wine is made from Dijon clones and the wine is aged for seven to nine months in an assortment of American, Hungarian and French Oak. We both were happy and contented and before we left we congratulated the guest bartenders for bringing out a crowd of people for the event.

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Thanksgiving Eh

Posted on October 14, 2016 by thewineraconteur

Here in the United States of America we were celebrating Columbus Day, south of the border only for Detroiters, for the rest of the country north of us in Canada they were celebrating Thanksgiving. My grandparents could not get entry into the States after the Ottoman genocide of the Armenians, but they were allowed entry into Canada, so I have an affinity for Canada, and I have always said that if I stayed there for about a week, I could probably sound like a native and speak the language. I diverge as I often do, but I received a request from one of my cast of semi-regulars The Messenger asking if I could help her select a wine for her Thanksgiving dinner. You see The Messenger and I went to college together when she was a student, and she is still an American citizen living abroad as they say. I was grateful and “honoured” that she asked.

santa-margherita-valdobbiadene-prosecco-superiore-nv

 

She gave me the menu for the meal, starting off with appetizers with assorted cheese and crackers. She had selected bleu cheese with cranberries and cinnamon, Camembert and Boursin with garlic and herbs along with fresh strawberries and Concorde grapes. She also had selected a Kalamata Olive and Fig Tapenade and a Prosecco Sparkling Wine Salami that I had not heard of, but sounded interesting. She was making a turkey with a cranberry glaze and several sides that one would normally find in a meal like this. The last side dish I thought sounded interesting and different with the meal and that was Pierogis with Kielbasa and onions. Then of course there would be desserts, but they were being brought by some of the guests.

prosecco-sparkling-wine-salami

She sent me to a site to look at the wines being offered, because she uses a company that delivers and I was surprised to find that they offered any wines, because Ontario is quite strict about the distribution of alcoholic beverages, but they are relaxing some of their laws. We looked at several different wines as she was interested in a white wine that would be easy to drink, because she is not really a wine drinker. She found one wine and I went to look at it and I told her that it would be perfect for her party and that everyone could enjoy it, that I thought would also pair with the assorted dishes and it would be festive and it was a new wine for me as well. Santa Margherita Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore NV was the wine she had found. I knew the Santa Margherita winery as they are quite famous for their Pinot Grigio and it made sense that they would also make a Prosecco since they are in the Veneto region of Italy. In 2009 Prosecco di Conegliano-Vadobbiadene was promoted to DOCG and the Glera grape officially is now known as Prosecco. This wine had everything going for it in regards to heritage and district, and even though I did not have a chance to try it, I know that I shall look for it to try at a later date.

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Help

Posted on October 12, 2016 by thewineraconteur

Not the work from the Beatles, but the fact is I like to give my empty bottles to people that make their own wines. I figure that it is a better way to recycle and on occasion I guess I have empty bottles. This is a good companion piece to my prior article about corks that I have saved over the years. I have all of these wine labels that I have saved over the years from all of these empty wine bottles.

empties-1
The reason that I am asking for help, is that I have found some wine labels that refuse to leave the bottles. I have tried a myriad of ways to separate the two and I must have a couple of cases of empty bottles that have tried my patience. I have tried the old tried and true method of filling the bottles with water and then placing them in containers and pouring boiling water in the container. In the old days, you could soak them off of the bottles just with room temperature water. Then I have tried the method of pouring boiling water into a funnel and filling just the bottle with the anticipation of melting the adhesive from the inside of the bottle. I have tried baking the bottles in the oven at 250F for ten minutes. Last winter I even thought that perhaps I should try freezing the labels off, by putting the filled bottles in a bucket of water and leaving them in the garage, until they were a solid block of ice. This group of bottles are defying me to get the labels.

empties-2
That is why I am asking for help, does anyone have another method that they have had good luck with? Some of the bottles are from classic producers, some are from popular price producers and some just have some beautiful designs. Please let me know if you have another trick; I know that there are chemicals that will dissolve the glue, but at the same time they dissolve the label as well, and that is not my goal.

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A $5,000.00 Hot Plate

Posted on October 10, 2016 by thewineraconteur

I don’t consider myself a hoarder, but I do collect things. I am very glad that I did amass items over the years, because it has made my writing this blog much easier with the visual aids. I mean I have added wine labels that I have saved in scrap books, and I have saved matchbooks for those old enough to remember when restaurants willingly had them printed, because they were the perfect piece of advertising. I have saved coasters and business cards and I have saved corks when they were salvageable. I mean we have all uncorked bottles of wine that have had the corks crumble, because of their age, and some have been destroyed because they are so long that it has taken multiple times to remove them. Some have even been ruined because of a poor worm-screw on inferior corkscrews. Then I have even lost many, because sommeliers are so quick to remove them from the table, after the one has sniffed the cork to make sure that it was not tainted.

hot-plate-finished
Why have I saved the corks? I have always had the plans to use the corks to make the crown molding in the wine cellar that I always wanted to have. Well I finally built that cellar, and I have paneled the walls with wine crates that I had saved and dismantled for it. I also “wallpapered” other walls with the labels of wine that I have had over the years and there have been many. I am getting ready to actually start the crown molding, once I get motivated. I have buckets of corks presorted as to whether they have printing on them or if they are plain corks. A lot of the wineries have branded the corks, not only with their name, but with the vintage as additional proof that the wine one is having, is actually that wine. There are times when I am not the most industrious individuals and years ago, I was given as a gift, a craft project, that one could use as a corkboard or as a hot pad and it was just put aside for that day when I would accomplish that task. I went through all of the corks that had been branded as I felt that it would make a better presentation on the completed job.

hot-plate-start

 

After that I amassed more corks then I needed for the project, I started sorting them by sizes as one can see that I had to make a like woven pattern of corks. As I was doing all of that, I started remembering most of the wines and wishing that I still had them resting in the cellar, as most of us wish that we had bought more a certain wine over the years. Then I started thinking what would it cost to replace those wines. I went to wine-searcher.com and actually typed in each bottle to see if they were still available, some were not, but then I would figure what the most recent vintage would cost me. I was truly amazed. I mean some I knew would be dear like a DRC Vosne-Romanee 1991 or an Hospice de Beaune Cuvee Betault 1997. I had to use two different Opus One corks so that I could show the signatures of the two principals of that famed joint venture. Some I figured that I may never have again like a Colgin IX Estate 2005, a Peter Michael Les Pavots 1996, a Chateau Latour 1967 and a 1986, and a Chateau Mouton-Rothschild 1990. Some were just favorites of mine that I still have more of in the cellar like Cain Five, Talbott Diamond T Chardonnay, Darioush Cabernet Sauvignon and PlumpJack. And then I had to include the whimsical Marilyn Merlot cork with the lipstick imprint, because what man would not have liked to have had that lipstick at least once upon his cheek. So now I have a great conversation piece for all the parties that we have here, since I won’t have the wines again.

 

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Wine and Architecture

Posted on October 8, 2016 by thewineraconteur

I think that as I get older, I have become a tourist. Years ago I never really did much sightseeing and that is starting to change. I live not far from one of the finest collections of historical buildings in the country, namely Greenfield Village; of course as a kid I used to ride my bike with friends and we would spend the day there, but it was more a museum. We just took a day trip to Marshall, Michigan which at one time was in contention to being the capital of this state, but that did not occur. Marshall is what one would call a quaint city and they have capitalized on that trait. The National Park Service calls Marshall “the best virtual textbook of 19th Century American architecture in the country.” There are over 800 structures in the National Historic Landmark district. One of the ways Marshall has capitalized on this, is by having different color dots painted on the sidewalk to allow people to have self-guided walking tours and there are maps at different points that show the routes and the special key points of interest. There is the Historic Homes Walk, the Downtown Walk, the Historic Capitol Hill Walk, the River Walk and the Oakridge Cemetery Walk. Then there are also five Museums that one can tour along the walks. We did the Historic Homes Walk and the Downtown Walk and that was about four and a half miles of walking.

echeverria-reserva-unwooded-chardonnay-2015

We also did one of the museums, which is the famous Honolulu House. The house was built as a private residence for Judge Abner Pratt who came to Marshall in 1839 and became a successful attorney and ended up serving as chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, and then he was appointed as U.S. consul to the Sandwich Islands in 1857, which is now called Hawaii. He had to leave the islands because of his wife’s poor health and he returned to Marshall and built his new home that reflected all that he came to enjoy about his life on the islands. This home has to be seen to truly appreciate his vision and the splendor. The house has had a few owners and some of the wall paintings have been changed, but they are magnificent, at first I thought it was wallpaper, but the walls and ceilings are hand-painted and they not only have texture in the paints, but they have a three-dimensional quality. The guided tour we had lasted about an hour and our guide was just perfect with all of his knowledge of the house and of the town and of its history.

Segura Viudas Brut NVThe most famous restaurant is the over hundred-year-old establishment of Win Schuler that is in its fourth generation of a family owned business. My Bride has eaten there long before I came into the picture and she was told about a new restaurant that we had to try. We went to Zarzuela, a tapas-style restaurant and though it was small, they offered plenty of choices to select, and we were stuffed, even with sharing these small plates of food. The food comes out rather helter-skelter at these types of restaurants, so one just goes with the flow. In no particular order we had Chorizo stuffed Mushrooms and they were a big hit. My Bride went crazy for the dates stuffed with goat cheese, wrapped in bacon and fried, she was concerned that it might have been greasy, but she was assured that it was not, and it wasn’t. We shared the Grande Mixta salad which was fresh greens, hearts of palm, asparagus, beets and a creamy garlic and cilantro dressing, we were a bit displeased that the dressing was lacking in more flavor, but the salad was enjoyable on its own merits. We also had Lobster Macaroni and Cheese and while it was good and filling it could have used a bit more zing.  As for the wines my Bride had Segura Viudas Cava Brut NV. Cava is becoming a powerhouse wine in recognition for Spain, and this wine from Penedes in the Catalonia region is a great choice. When France started flexing their muscles about protecting their famed Champagne, the Spaniards created a new name for their wines and called it Cava, because the wine is stored in caves while the wine is fermenting and this wine is made with the designation “Metodo Tradicional” or better known as the Traditional Method. The wine is a blend of Macebeo, Parellada and Xarel-lo grapes and we have had that wine several times before. I had a glass of Echeverria Reserva Unwooded Chardonnay 2015, which actually had five percent Viognier blended in. This Chilean wine is from the Curico Valley and the grounds there are so respected that there are more grape varieties grown there, then anywhere else in Chile. This wine spent twenty-five days fermenting in Stainless Steel, and then an addition six weeks aging also in Stainless Steel, hence the unique term “Unwooded.” My Bride enjoyed my wine even more than her choice. I think that another trip to Marshall may be in store for us, maybe next year for some more walking, and to try Win Schuler.

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My September Club Meeting

Posted on October 6, 2016 by thewineraconteur

My monthly dinner club met at one of our usual restaurants. The restaurant had changed ownership in this past year and one is always leery if management will make changes for the worse. So far it appears to be fine and with most of the regular staff still working there. The Masters Restaurant is a restaurant that was built to emulate the classic club house in Augusta, and there are antique golf memorabilia where ever one looks. Not only does my club use this venue a couple times during the year, but my Bride and her family uses it once a month for their “cousin’s get-together.” My dinner club has been meeting like this for over a hundred years and still going strong, though some changes have been made over the years and even the thirty some years that I have been a member.

finca-el-origen-reserva-estate-malbec-2015

Some of the venues are better than others and it depends on what the host members decide on the evening. This particular meeting during the cocktail part of the night, there were some hot appetizers offered, nothing real fancy, there were chicken strips and Swedish meatballs, but they added a nice extra touch. We were offered our choice of Beef Tenderloin Tips, Hawaiian Chicken or Salmon. I went with the Beef Tenderloin Tips which came with a mushroom gravy served on a bed of rice pilaf and a side of seasonal vegetables. The meal came with a fine dinner salad, but yours truly had to request a salad with Italian dressing, as the default dressing there is Greek. For dessert we traditionally have chocolate sundaes; what do you expect from forty men?

MI The Masters Restaurant BC

After enjoying my usual Whisky Sour, I had to choose a wine with dinner. The selection of wines by the glass at The Masters Restaurant is a bit limited, but I went with Finca el Origen Reserva Estate Malbec 2015. Finca el Origen is a relatively new winery as they were founded in 1996, but they have a great location in the Valle de Uco, which is a defined valley in the Mendoza district of Argentina. Malbec is the real star of the valley, though there are other varietals that are grown quite successfully there as well. The valley is quite recognized for its terroir and there are several Bordeaux wineries that have hoisted a flag there as well including the Rothschild group. The wine paired well with the dinner and what more can one ask for. Until the next meeting.

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Banda Azul

Posted on October 4, 2016 by thewineraconteur

Rioja wines were one of the first wines that I was touted towards when I first started learning about wines, if I wasn’t going to have a Medoc. I mention this because, I had just read an article by Thomas Matthews in an article about Spanish wines in the Wine Spectator magazine. I remember that I became an early fan about Rioja wines.

Mr. Matthews wrote “In 1978, I was an aspiring novelist living in Grenada, in Andalucía…I often chose a red wine from Rioja that was sold in every corner store: Paternina Banda Azul…Back then, Riojas rarely displayed vintages. Instead they were labeled ‘3rd Ano’ or ‘5th Ano’ to indicate how long they had been aged before release.” This made me go and look up my early notes from my well dog-eared and falling apart book “The Signet Book of Wine” by Alexis Bespaloff (1971). Mr. Bespaloff wrote “Vintages in Rioja do not have the same significance as in some other countries. Rioja is often a blend of several years, and a date on the label – sometimes preceded by the word Cosecha, or vintage – might only be meant to indicate the wine’s relative standing among the grades marketed by that shipper. If a shipper has had success with the wine of a particular vintage, he may maintain that year on subsequent labels, using it as an indication of quality rather than as an accurate guide to age. Thus it is not impossible to find a young white wine the unlikely legend Reserva 1930.” Add to this another caveat by Hugh Johnson in his “The World Atlas of Wine” (1971); “Vintage years are treated lightly. If a vintage is stated it is a good one, even if there is no guarantee that all of the wine in the bottle was made that year. Among white wines look for the youngest, among red wines look for one ten years old or even more.”

Reserva 904 La Rioja Alta 1959

While all of this information sounded quirky, it did not keep me from buying and tasting Rioja wines in my youth, especially because they were so affordable, even in a restaurant setting. That is why the second wine that I have in my scrapbook of wine labels is La Rioja Alta, S.A. Reserva 904 vintage 1959. Which leads me to Federico Paternina Banda Azul Ollauri vintage 1970, the first Rioja wine that I tried. Ollauri is a small town where the wine vaults for aging are held for the firm Federico Paternina. The Banda Azul was their labeled wine indicating that the wine was aged twelve months in Oak and then twelve months in bottle, before its release. Nowadays this wine would state “crianza” on the label, but that official designation was years later. This wine is the classic Rioja wine blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha (Grenache), Mazuela (Carignan) and Graciano. So you can see that some people refrained from Rioja wines, because of the writings of the day and it would make one scratch their head wondering what they were getting. I guess that I was rash and perhaps curious, so it never stopped me from trying the wines, and I still look forward to the next bottle of Rioja.

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It Had to Happen

Posted on October 2, 2016 by thewineraconteur

I have to admit, that I enjoy wine so much that I started to write about it.  I often remind you that I am not an authority or even profess to being one.  The school I went to for wines, was the school of hard knocks.  Everything that I have learned about wine is from my own self-studies.  I am not rich and every wine or meal that I have ever had for the most part is by sacrificing something else for that occasion.  In my “About” page I have a terse statement of what my goals for The Wine Raconteur are: “A non-technical wine site, where I get to talk about my memories, and the smiles that the wine makers skills have given to me.  I just wish I had more of some of the wines to share with you, and to taste again.  Though some are etched in the back of my brain, with the brazen defiance that I will never surpass that one perfect bottle, but I keep trying.”

Richebourg

I am getting close to my one-thousandth article, which to me, is a bit of an achievement.  I have written about my early days of my youth, right about to the present, and I have written about all points of time in between, when something jogs my memory.  Thank God that I have been a pack rat most of my life, as opposed to a member of the Rat Pack; and that is why I am able to post most of the time, not only a wine label, but usually a curio from the moment as well, like a matchbook.

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This article or something like it, should have been saved for my thousandth article, but I will write something more upbeat for that time.  I recently had the first negative response to my writings, which I did not allow to be published, but the words of the writer bothered me.  I had to sit back and think about it for a while.  I received these words “While you may know a thing or two about wine, your blog is nothing more than a weekly story about yourself.  Really stop!”

Chateau Latour Pauillac 1961

I had to ponder this statement.  The more I thought about it, the more I thought about what I was doing, and blogs are personal journeys.  While I follow many wine blogs and I always try to be encouraging, the ones that I enjoy most are the personal accounts, not just reviews on a wine, though I appreciate reading those as well to, I don’t feel that I am such an authority to make fiats about wine.  I relish reading about my fellow bloggers that go to conferences, elaborate wine tastings and even the wine junkets that some of them have the honor of going to; as I live vicariously through their words and images.  I am amazed at the wonderful articles about the wines that they receive from wineries and agencies for their appraisals.  Perhaps I am doing something wrong, as my memories all came from the wallet.

The French Laundry Entrance

 

I have decided though that I will continue writing the only way I know how and that is with the “conceit” that I am having a tete-a-tete with some one sitting at a table as we both enjoy a glass or two of wine.  As I look back over all of my writings I have written on wines as diverse Charles Shaw’s “Three Buck Chuck” and Barefoot to the wines of the DRC and some of the first growths of the Medoc.  I have been blessed to have tried so many different wines.  I have also written about home cooked meals, carry-outs and even left-overs that have been paired with wines to elaborate dinner parties.  I have written about small local eateries to some of the finest restaurants in the country.  I would not be willing to give up any of these memories, and there are many more to be recounted.  After all that is what a raconteur does, in spite of criticisms.  I am that old uncle at the dinner table that can keep the table entertained with stories, some that have been edited to make them suitable for all ages.

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Some Future Tastings

Posted on September 30, 2016 by thewineraconteur

It looks like I will not run out of wines to discuss, but three more have just entered into potential articles. I just opened up my latest shipment from my wine club “A Taste of Monterey.” I can’t even tell you for sure how long we have been receiving wine from this club, but it has been a very long time. We discovered the shop on our first trip to the city of Monterey, as we were going to have dinner at the famed restaurant The Sardine Factory. We spent the day in Monterey, tasting some wines and buying even more wines, had a stellar meal and we even bought a work of art. Let it suffice to say that on that first trip for holidays at Carmel-by-the-Sea we probably spent more money than we had allotted for, but some times that happens.

joullian-roger-rose-chardonnay-2014

The first wine that I pulled out of the shipping carton was a new winery for me. The Joullian Roger Rose Chardonnay 2014 from Joullian Vineyards Ltd. and the fruit came from the Roger Rose Vineyard in the Arroyo Secco AVA. The fruit is actually from Dijon Chardonnay clones and since the vines are twenty to forty years old they survived the drought year of 2014. They have strove to maintain the concept of a Burgundy Chardonnay by using French Oak that has been cured for three years to minimize the oakiness that could occur. There were one-hundred-twenty-five cases made of this wine and the aging potential is six to seven years.

scheid-cabernet-sauvignon-2012

The second bottle that I unpacked was from Scheid Vineyards of Greenfield, California. I have received one other bottle from this winery their Scheid Hames Valley Vineyard Petite Sirah 2009. The wine that I just received is Scheid Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 and it is listed as being Estate Grown from their San Lucas and Hames Valley Vineyards. The wine was barrel aged for twenty month and was bottled unfiltered to preserve the tannin structure. This wine produced six-hundred-fourteen cases and the aging potential is eight to ten years, though it may have the potential to cellar even longer, in my humble opinion.

pessagno-four-boys-pinot-noir-2013

The last bottle to come out of the carton was Pessagno Pinot Noir Four Boys Vineyard 2013, and I have had their Pessagno Chardonnay Sleepy Hollow Vineyard 2010. The new wine comes from the Santa Lucia Highlands AVA and I cannot say enough about the Pinot Noir wines that I have enjoyed from this area. This wine was made from lightly crushed berries with about forty percent of the berries left whole for fermentation. They used both Burgundian yeast and native yeast cultures and they made this wine Sur Lees and stirred over an eleven month period. There were one-hundred-fifty cases made of this wine with an aging potential of five to six years. Even though I have mentioned the aging potential for all of these wines, I think that they may make an early appearance on our table for Thanksgiving, as I think that they will be perfect for that dinner.

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“Singing”

Posted on September 28, 2016 by thewineraconteur

Here I was another lost soul having dinner. Not that dinner out is such a strange occurrence, but that I was to be found in an Asian style eatery. We were dining at the chain P.F. Chang’s. I go out of my way dining in most establishments, because of my concern for MSG (Mono-Sodium-Glutamate) which is a flavor enhancer that does havoc with my internal organs and system. To be honest, it is not just Asian restaurants, since the majority of catering halls seem to use it as well, consequently I usually eat before going to most weddings and similar functions, which does drive my Bride crazy, but she has gotten used to it.

laurenz-v-und-sophie-singing-gruner-veltliner-2013

P.F. Chang’s does not use this flavor enhancer, but I still tread lightly especially with foods that are out of my comfort zone. I feel safer since I have found out that the P.F. is for Paul Fleming of Fleming’s Steak House fame. My Bride was excited for the fact that she was going to eat there, as she normally goes there with some of her girlfriends. She also likes the fact that she is very adept at using chopsticks, and I am a heathen because I use a knife and fork. It was kind of amusing that she was guiding me through the menu, because she knows basically what I like and I don’t like and she was using mental algorithms to assist me. She decided that she was going to have the Hong Kong style Sea Bass with Asian mushrooms, asparagus in a ginger-coriander broth and she wanted brown rice. For me she suggested the Salt & Pepper Prawns with Chili peppers and chopped black beans, and they brought me a bowl of white rice, which I had no idea why, since the dish was dry. While I debated whether they were small prawns or kind of large shrimp, both dishes were very good. In fact I liked her Sea Bass, and we will probably go there again, because we have some gift cards to use up.

MI PF Chang's MB

I guess now that I know that Paul Fleming is behind this restaurant, it explains the decent wine selection. My first inclination would be to select a bottle of Gewurztraminer, because there is a natural spice to the fruit that compliments the few dishes that I have had over the years. As I was reading the list of wines offered, I knew that I was going to go for a white wine, and then I saw something interesting that I did not expect. We were going to have a bottle of Laurenz V und Sophie “Singing” Gruner Veltliner 2013. This wine is from Kremstal, Austria and Kremstal is known basically for two grape varietals: Riesling, but they are famed for their Gruner Veltliner. This wine is made by a Father and Daughter venture, but the V in their name pays homage to the fact that they are the Fifth Generation of winemakers on their land. This wine is only fermented for a couple of months in Stainless Steel before bottling, which allows the fruit to shine in the finished product. They call it “Singing” because they claim that is what you will do after enjoying the wine, and while I did not do my repertoire of Cole Porter or Meredith Wilson, it was a good wine, and I understand that it is one of the major wines exported from Kremstal. So the next we go, I may get a bid more adventurous.

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