Almost Back Home Again

Posted on March 6, 2015 by thewineraconteur

The other day I went to another planning meeting for my Junior High School open reunion. It is an open reunion because one could attend it, if they only attended the school for even one year, but it has also been opened up to the other students that attended the parochial schools in the geographic area as well. The planning meeting was being held at Roman Village restaurant which is actually in Dearborn, and I have mentioned this restaurant before. Why did we meet at this particular restaurant, if we had all attended school in Detroit? The answer is quite simple; because it was located across the street from a municipal park that everyone from the old neighborhood frequented from the time we were old enough to walk over to the park. The park not only had a magnificent enclosed swimming pool, but there were many baseball diamonds for us to play sandlot baseball, before all such activities became the realm of adult supervision of their children. It was a general meeting area for everyone, even if they had to walk ten or fifteen blocks to get there. The park is also held in high esteem for everyone that grew up there as the annual Fourth of July Parade in Detroit finished there at the park, and later that evening everyone was still there to watch the firework presentation. It is with fond memories for everyone that attended this planning meeting.

Ruffino Riserva Ducale 2011

As I pulled into the restaurant’s parking lot and noticed how packed the lot was, I realized that above and beyond the group I was meeting with, the restaurant still packs in people from all over, who return as well for the food and the great memories. I also had a moment to look over at the tip of the park, which to the best of my knowledge is still part of Dearborn, even though perhaps ninety-eight percent of it is located in Detroit. I also looked past the park to the cemetery that runs along the park on the other side and thought of my Mother who is interred there, as well as the many family relations and friends that left this Earth way too soon. We were all meeting in a side room, which also contained the bar service for the restaurant and there was ample room for all of us, though some of us were dining at the actual bar, because there was not enough tables and booths in this room. The service at the restaurant was excellent, and there was no problem with each of us having a separate bill for dinner and drinks, as some restaurants try to make it one tab for parties of this size. There were some jokes that we had all dined at Roman Village prior to all the staff that we encountered had even been born, I guess we are getting a little long in the tooth. I decided to have Gnocchi with a meat sauce, as this was the first restaurant that I had ever tried this dish and it brought back many memories for me as well as for the others.

MI Antonio's BC

As I was looking at the wine list, I had to recall the old days when there was only red and white wine by the carafes, and they were all jug wines. Times have changed and there was a very adequate selection of wines by the bottle and the glass being offered. I also admired the fact that there was a page of reserve wines being offered by the bottle including a wine by Gaja, but since I was by myself and not in the company of my Bride, I passed on such a lofty wine. I went with an old standby and it was a much better offering from this winery than is usually encountered. I decided that Ruffino Riserva Ducale Chianti Classico DOCG 2011 would be the wine to enjoy with my Gnocchi. This label is in a goldenrod yellow, where their premier Riserva Ducale Gold is printed on a gold label. Since I had just enjoyed a bottle of Ruffino Chianti a couple of days prior, I will not go over the same points, but will mention that this wine is from the “Classico” section of Tuscany, and the majority of the wine is made from Sangiovese grapes. The Riserva designation means that the wine has been aged commercially for twenty-four months prior to being distributed and it is a much more mellow wine and it may have been a bit over-kill for the Gnocchi, but it made the dinner even that much more enjoyable. Of course I do think back to those old glory days when we were drinking wines from carafes and having pizza there and thinking “la dolce vita.”

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“Open That Bottle Night”

Posted on March 4, 2015 by thewineraconteur

I am trying to keep abreast of the Wine Lover’s Calendar, and diverging from my usual writing, with the topic of “Open That Bottle Night.” It is the concept of opening a bottle of wine that you have been saving for a special occasion that never seems to occur. The wine could be expensive, or just has a great sentimental reason. The idea is to go and enjoy it, instead of leaving it collecting dust in the cellar, though the bottles do look cool that way. This special day for wine, was started from an article in the Wall Street Journal by Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher and I would say that it has been taken to heart by other writers, so I thought I would give it a try.

Chateau Croizet-Bages 1970 Wine Crate

The other night I wrote about the “National Drink Wine Day” and I discussed about the first case of wine that I ever bought, and I thought that I still had a bottle of it, well I did. I dislike belaboring a subject, but I thought that I should continue talking about this wine and this was the perfect day to open it. When I was down in the cellar, making sure that I still had a bottle of it, I looked up at a wall of paneling in the cellar; that consists of the panels from assorted wooden wine crates from back in the day, and I had given this end panel a position of status. I guess that I am a sentimental raconteur and pack rat.

Considering that this was my last bottle of wine from the case, I decided to see if I could find anything new about the wine and winery. There is a plateau between Pauillac and Saint-Julian-Beychevelle and it is referred to as the Pauillac Bages plateau. Chateau Croizet-Bages takes its name from the original creators the Croizet brothers. These two brothers bought parcels of vines from their neighbors during the first half of the Eighteenth Century and created their own successful vineyard. During the Revolution the brothers sold the estate and it was resold again just two years before the famed 1855 Classification of the Medoc. The current owners, the Quie family, acquired Chateau Croizet-Bages in 1942 from an American entrepreneur Jean-Baptiste Monnot (who had bought the estate at the end of The Great War). The chateau is still managed by the Quie family. The vineyards consist of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc.

The last bottle of Ch Croizet-Bages Pauillac 1970

So, it was a bittersweet moment as I unwrapped this bottle of Chateau Croizet-Bages Pauillac 1970, it was wrapped still in tissue paper, which I used to do when I first started collecting wines to protect the bottles from light, and it was the last bottle in my cellar from this old tradition. After I cut away the foil cap, the cork looked like it had seen better days, and my corkscrew had nothing to grab onto, and my cork-puller also could not remove all of the cork. So I pushed the rest of the broken cork into the bottle, as I knew that this wine would need some decanting anyways. I used my trusty coffee filter in a funnel technique and decanted the whole bottle which caught cork debris as well as the sludge that I had anticipated from a forty-five year old bottle of wine. The color was that soft shade that aged Clarets get, and there was still a nose, though a bit feeble, but even my Bride was a bit excited that there was still a nose to be discovered. The wine still had grace, the tannins were gone, but there was still some fruit. I guess cellaring from day one was good for this wine and I am glad that I had it when we did. I am not sure that it would have survived its fiftieth birthday.

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Dinner with My Club

Posted on March 2, 2015 by thewineraconteur

Once a month I join with my fellow friends for our dinner club, and our hosts this evening chose a place that I have written about many times already. If one goes to the Plymouth Historical Museum, one can even see some of the mementos of this restaurant from its past lives, from the old Hillside, which I remember, to Ernesto’s and finally to The Courthouse Grille. Our room for the evening was just off the main bar, but because of the hillside on which the restaurant is located on, we were on the second floor in this part of the building and we had a grand view of a snow covered parking lot. As usual, we were all enjoying ourselves during the cocktail hour prior to dinner, when the owner brought in a couple and giving them a tour of the facility. I was surprised to see that it was a retired client of mine from years past and his wife, and they were looking at the restaurant for possibly booking a party for their Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary Party; it was grand to see them, as I tore my self away from the group and we caught up on past friends and history, and I also discussed the quality of the restaurant with them.

Ruffino Chianti 2013
The Courthouse Grille always prints out a nice private menu for the group, so that we can make our dinner selection and that evening our hosts rather then limiting the menu to three choices allowed us to choose from seven different entrée offerings. While the restaurant may have changed names, Ernesto still had a strong influence on the choice of dishes that he served, and it was still heavily slanted towards Italian standards: Veal Marsala, Shrimp Scampi, Chicken Piccata and Lasagna, as well as a couple of fish plates and a steak. I was torn between the Shrimp Scampi and the Veal Marsala, so when that happens I tend to look at the wine list, to see if it can help me finalized my decision.

MI The Courthouse Grille Menu Feb 2015
The wine list by the glass did make my choice easier, as the white wines were not that exciting for the Shrimp Scampi, so I went with an old standby, a glass of Ruffino Chianti DOCG 2013 from the fabled area of Tuscany. I have been enjoying Ruffino Chianti wines in all of their offerings for years and I know that I will get a good glass of wine, and this evening was no different. The Chianti association requires that a Chianti wine must be at least seventy percent Sangiovese, and if it is a Chianti Classico then it is required to have eighty percent of that varietal. The rest of the wine can be a mix of Canaiolo, Colorino, Ciliegiolo and or Mammolo. The one curious aspect of Chianti in the old days, and this was only prior to 2006, was that they could also use white grapes as well and they were often Trebbiano and Malvasia Bianca. All in all, it was another enjoyable evening of friends, food and wine.

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I Missed “National Drink Wine Day”

Posted on February 28, 2015 by thewineraconteur

I don’t want you to feel to badly for me, because I do know that I had wine on 18 February, but there is a National Drink Wine Day. I have also discovered The Wine Lover’s Calendar put forth by American Winery Guide. Since I started writing these posts, I have started reading a lot of other blogs by individuals that like wine as much as I do. Some of the writers are much more learned than I am, and some just like to give as much detail as possible. If you have read my articles for any length of time, you may have noticed that I am not big on technical data, as I prefer to write as if we are across the table from each other with a glass of wine for each of us to enjoy. The other thing that I tend to shy away from is the jargon of wine-speak, I do not belabor the flavors and tastes of what I drink, because a lot of the terms I do not find attractive in my mind’s eye.

Ch CroizetBages 1970
One thing is for sure, I enjoy drinking wine, but only with friends, and maybe the odd time when I am at the keyboard. I have always enjoyed spreading the word about wine, and I really enjoy having discussions about wine. I like to hear other people’s take on wines, what they like and what they dislike; I may not always agree, but it is interesting. I remember drinking “swill” and very questionable “wines” in my youth with my friends at the local park and all the places teenagers would congregate back in the dark ages. It was also at this time that I had some people that encouraged me to try wines and let me share some of the great wines that were available here in the United States back in the late Sixties.
I also try to write about a mix of wines, from opening price, popular price and (God) did I really spend that much for a bottle of wine. I often wonder what it would be like to only drink First Growths and Cult wines, but then I think that I may loose my appreciation for them. One needs, I feel, to know what table wines taste like, as well as wines up the pecking order. I know that I can drive my poor Bride crazy, because I love to look at wines in stores, as well as studying wine lists in a restaurant. I thank God that I have my Bride, because she is practical, while she is looking at the extreme right hand column on the wine lists, I am looking at where the wines are from. Anyone with enough money can buy a bottle of Chateau Latour, Lafite or Mouton from the commune of Pauillac. I like to hunt for a potential gem that I may find also from Pauillac, but you have to know what to look for. I remember my first big splurge on wine was buying a case of Chateau Croizet-Bages 1970 which is also from Pauillac, it is a Cinquiemes Crus or Fifth Growths, but it was the nectar of the Gods to me, and kind of affordable for a student at the time. To me that is what National Drink Wine Day should be about, enjoying a bottle of wine.

Ch Latour 1967 Pauillac
I have written about times when my local merchant ran a special on a Meritage, we tried a bottle, liked it and bought several cases of it. It was the perfect everyday wine for us, when we eat in, and sometimes it is even a great wine with left-over meals the next day. That is not to say that we drink a bottle of wine daily, most of the time, maybe a glass of wine for the evening. People extol the medical virtues of wine, and I am all for it, but I take everything said with a question mark in my brain. In my own life time, I can recall how butter became something to eschew, and now our same government agency is saying that it has virtue, and is probably better than an ersatz butter. Then again when I was growing up there used to be television, radio and print ads for cigarettes (yes I am that old) and there was even a company that used to advertise that it was the brand most favored by doctors. So I do like to talk about wine, all kinds of wine, and at all different price points; and I will continue to do so from this pulpit. So bear this in mind when one day I may post a label of a wine that everyone knows and maybe the next article will be about a wine that will make you scratch your head and say “why?”

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The Caller Calls From Ann Arbor

Posted on February 26, 2015 by thewineraconteur

One of the joys of writing this blog is that it can go in many directions and I never know where it is heading until I sit down at my keyboard. The Caller is one of my characters who get to live behind a nom de plume, and that is probably a good thing. While he may sound like someone from a Damon Runyon story, he is actually far from it, but he has a grand sense of humor, a preference for good food and he has been known to enjoy a glass or two of wine.

Le Masse di Greve Chianti Classico
Periodically without rhyme or reason and no set day or time, The Caller will call, actually he will text me. There will be some text, but mostly pictures of what he is enjoying. He sends me pictures of what he and his charming wife are eating, but I have found that photographing food is one of the hardest things to do, so I refrain from doing it, even though I am somewhat of a “Foodie.” Then again I have enough problems photographing wine labels, so all professional photographers need not worry that I will be taking work away from them. As it is, I don’t even think most Wine Bloggers need to worry either. Of course as always, I digress and tend to ramble at times, The Caller and his wife were having dinner at Gratzi, an Italian restaurant located in downtown Ann Arbor, and I have wrote a post about it. Gratzi is a fixture in Ann Arbor as I am not sure if I remember being in Ann Arbor before they were there, and I have had the pleasure of dining out for several decades (I guess that is OK to admit, since I have already admitted that my Bride and I are Grandparents).

Cono Sur Reserva Especial Pinot Noir 2013
The more intriguing part of The Callers calls is the labels of the wines that they are enjoying. He only does it when he has found something that has tickled his fancy. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, and at least for the first two bottles The Caller went with Tuscan wines from Italy, which are great choices with pasta and the like. The first bottle was Castello Banfi Rosso di Montalcino 2010. This is a charming Sangiovese wine that shares the same DOCG as its big brother Brunello di Montalcino. The Rosso wines are made to be enjoyed in their youth, as opposed to the big tannin bombshells that the Brunello wines can and usually deliver, not to mention that they really need cellar time to let them mellow out. The second wine was a new wine for me and I had to do some research (trust me, there is so much that I do not know about wine). Le Mass di Greve (NV or ?) is a Chianti Classico, by virtue that years ago, when they were drawing the boundaries for Chianti and Chianti Classico, the commune of Greve is located directly in the Chianti Classico boundaries, but it was always a sleepy little community that just evolved with the blossoming of the wines. The classic mixture for all types of Chianti wines is Sangiovese, Canaiolo and Malvese Bianca; one of my favorite asides about this area is that one can have a Chianti Superiore, but there is no Chianti Classico Superiore, I guess it is taken for granted that Chianti Classico is automatically Superiore. The last wine that I received a picture of was Cono Sur Reserva Especial Pinot Noir 2013 from the Valle de Casablanca in Chile. The Valle de Casablanca was initially planted in the 1980’s and I am not sure how much Pinot Noir is grown there, as this area is much closer to the Equator, and the Pacific breezes may not totally cool off the area to the liking of this finicky varietal that I enjoy so much. Since I did not get a dissertation on the wines, I will presume that they were all enjoyable, otherwise The Caller would not have taken the time and effort. I look forward to his next set of messages.

Castello Banfi Rosso di Montalcino 20110

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If it is February it is Time for Birthdays

Posted on February 24, 2015 by thewineraconteur

February rolled around and it was time to celebrate the birthday recipients for the month, as is our usual custom. We thought that we may have had to delay the good times, because of the potential inclement weather, but once again the weather forecasters were wrong and could still keep their jobs, instead of four to six inches of snow, we had a clear day and evening. Among the honorees was my Mother-in-Law and two of our grandchildren, and next year God willing they will both have milestones; one will celebrate ninety years and the other will have her Sweet Sixteenth. What great thoughts for both of them.

Ona Priorat 2011
As is the usual routine for my Bride, she was her Whirling Dervish in the kitchen and she prepared a wonderful dinner. For appetizers she had several assorted cheeses and our Daughter-in-Law made some dips as well. My Bride made a roast beef, chicken and salmon. She also prepared Armenian Pilaf, mashed potatoes, Caesar Salad, vegetables and there were also some sides that others brought over as well. For dessert she changed the usual birthday cake to cupcakes, cookies and my Mother-in-Law made her chocolate puddings. There was very little left to wrap up as most of the food was enjoyed that evening.

Robert Mondavi Central Coast Riesling 2012
For our wine drinking family, we brought in some sweeter wine for those that enjoy this type of beverage. We were serving Robert Mondavi Central Coast Riesling 2012. The Mondavi family has had a long and popular reign in California, as they produce wines from generic to powerhouse wines. This particular Riesling was a step above the generic “California” wine and came from assorted vineyards in the Central Coast and was appreciated by those guests that find some of the wines that we serve too dry. I always get a kick out of how so many of these wines have marketing modifiers on the labels that have no true importance as in “Private Selection,” but it makes the wines appear all that more special. We also were pouring La Crema Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2012, as my Bride seems to enjoy having a glass or two of Chardonnay as she scurries around the kitchen preparing and overseeing the many dishes that she will be presenting.
I also decided to try a bottle of wine that we had purchased recently and I had never had a wine from this area, and I had wrote about this wine when we had purchase it and now it was time to try it. We opened up a bottle of Ona Priorat 2011 from the Catalan region of Spain. Priorat is one of two DOCa designations (DOQ in Catalan) in Spain, the highest qualification level for a wine region, the other being Rioja. This wine was a blend of Garnacha (Grenache), Syrah, Carinyena (Carignan) and a splash of Cabernet Sauvignon. The maker of the wine Blai Ferre Just used fruit from the Mos del Billo vineyard in Folset, and this is a relatively new vineyard as it was planted in 1999, and there was a production of 565 cases of wine. I should also mention that the label was designed by the daughter of the distributors of this wine, which even made it more fun. I found this wine to have enough spice and taste to work with not only the roast beef, but with the chicken as well. I am glad that I finally opened up this wine.

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Two Fine Gifts

Posted on February 22, 2015 by thewineraconteur

It is time to bid Oliver and Nina a fond farewell until the next time that they grace us with their friendship and companionship. The night was wonderful and the conversation was great, with them regaling us with anecdotes about places like South Africa, Germany, Sonoma, Napa, France, Laos and Zanzibar. They are true raconteurs and world travelers, while my Bride and I are much more parochial (though my Bride did quite a bit of traveling before I met her). I would be remiss, if I did not thank them, once again for their gracious gifts of wine when they arrived.

Von Hovel Scharzhofberg Riesling Kabinett 2008
The first bottle of wine that they gave us came from their recent trip to California, and they had a chance to visit Sonoma, which is an area that we have never gone to as of yet. The bottle was Anaba Las Brisas Vineyards Carneros Pinot Noir 2012. Anaba Wines have taken their name from the anabatic wind, which is a wind that blows up the steep hills of a vineyard during calm and sunny weather. The Las Brisas Vineyards are part of the Mahoney Vineyards; Francis Mahoney is an influential contributor to the study of Pinot Noir clones in the appellation. Carneros is one of the oldest Viticultural areas of California and has the unique feature of being partly in Sonoma and partly in Napa, two of the finest wine areas in the state. This particular wine spent eleven months “sur lees” in French Oak, and a third of which were new. He just knew that I am a fan of Pinot Noir wines.

Anaba Las Brisas Vineyards Pinot Noir Carneros 2012
The other gift was a bottle of wine that is truly Oliver, as it is a German Riesling. A bottle of Weingut Von Hovel Scharzhofberger Riesling Kabinett 2008 from the Mosel, and the town of Wiltingen; Wiltingen is a small but important town in the Lower Saar River area. Wiltingen has three vineyards classified as Erste Lage; Scharzhofberger, Braunfels and Gottesfuss. Scharzhofberger is the probably the most famous vineyard of the Saar and is an “ortseil,” as the vineyard is referred to only by the vineyard and not as Wiltingener Scharzhofberger. This vineyard is known for their legendary aging potential. So another wine that I can lay down in the cellar for awhile and enjoy at a later date. Once again, thank you Oliver and Nina.

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Dessert Wines on Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 20, 2015 by thewineraconteur

After our dinner, while we were finishing our red wines, no one had room for any dessert, and we had planned on making Bananas Foster, that grand dessert from the French Quarter of New Orleans. The conversations were flowing and the time was well spent. We waited awhile, and still there was no room for dessert. Of course there is always some room for dessert wines and we opened up a bottle.

Dr Hermann Erdener Pralat Riesling Auslese 2007
Oliver and Nina had brought a special dessert wine for the dinner, and it was special. It was a bottle of Dr. Hermann Erdener Pralat Riesling Auslese 2007. Oliver was especially pleased with his selection as it was the perfect ending that had started off the evening with the Erdener Treppchen Riesling Auslese 1971. Both of the wines were from the same village, whereas Erdener Treppchen is considered an Erste Lage, the Pralat is considered another great block of Erden, but since the producers as best as I can discover are not members of the VDP or Verband Deutscher Pradikats-und Qualitatsweinguter (The Association of German Quality and Pradikat Wine Estates) the land cannot be endowed with any awards or designations. The Pralat is a four acre parcel known for its red slate soil and great wines. This wine was everything that one wanted from a wonderful dessert wine, and it was great to be able to balance it against the 1971 bottle which was much more mature compared to this youthful 2007.

Chateau du Pavillon Sainte Croix du Mont 2000
The conversations were still flowing and we had finished the first bottle of dessert wine and I went into the cellar to find something interesting. If there really is a category that is lacking in my cellar, I would have to say that it is in the dessert wines, as we normally do not drink these at home, only when we are having a four start dinner at a restaurant. I found a bottle of wine that I was told was very similar to a Sauterne or a Barsac, but the vineyards are on the opposite bank of the Garonne River. Chateau du Pavillon Sainte-Croix-du-Mont 2000 was what I brought up. The wines from this district are made from Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle, and Sainte-Croix-du-Mont is an AOC designation for sweet wines from Bordeaux, a sub-region of the Entre-Deaux-Mers district. This would have probably been a fine dessert wine, but it did pale in comparison after having the Erdener Pralat which had a lot more body and nuance. Perhaps from now on, I should do a little more research in this area for future stocking of my cellar.

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A Couple of Red Wines for Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 18, 2015 by thewineraconteur

On Valentine’s Day, when you get two Wine Bloggers together, I guess you are going to have some wines during dinner. As I stated in my last post Oliver and Nina joined my Bride and me at our home for dinner and we each brought out a red wine for the dinner. The funny thing is that we each pulled a red wine, that we thought would be totally enjoyed by the other and they both were from the Pinot Noir varietal.

Ludger Veut Spatburgunder Auslese 2007
I guess that I tend to write a few articles about Pinot Noir wines, as I really enjoy them. I used to enjoy them from Burgundy until they became a bit dear, and now I have really started to enjoy them from the Monterey area of California. Oliver pays attention to my ramblings and he brought a Pinot Noir from Germany, which makes total sense. He brought a bottle of Weingut Ludger Veit Vinum Monticellum Spatburgunder Auslese Trocken 2007 from the Mosel. Spatburgunder is the German name for Pinot Noir and this was a late harvest for this vineyard. This label listed the wine as gutsabfulling, which is another way of stating estate grown. This wine comes from the Mosel, which back in the day was referred to as Mosel-Saar-Ruwer until 2007; and the Mosel is the third largest in terms of production of wine in Germany. Also on the label was the term “barrique” which I will presume to mean that there was one barrel produced and if one uses the Burgundy method of bottle production, there were 304 bottles produced or roughly twenty-five cases of wine. I found this wine to be supple and spicy, and rather sexy for a Pinot Noir.

Moreson Pinotage 2012
I on the other hand had reached into my cellar and got a bottle of Pinotage wine for Oliver, as I know that both he and Nina enjoy this famous signature varietal from the Republic of South Africa, and they had toured and tasted at some estates on their last vacation there. Pinotage is a cross between two varietals Pinot Noir and Hermitage, also known as Cinsault; while it was once only found in South Africa it is now being grown elsewhere as well. I was really looking forward to serving Oliver and Nina this bottle of wine, as I found it to be very full bodied with a great balance on the tannins. I have talked about this wine before as I was serving Moreson Pinotage 2012 from Franschoek and Oliver said that his travels did not include a visit there. This wine had a much larger production as there were forty barrels of it produced. I was watching Oliver as he did his initial tasting of the wine, and he really seemed to savor it, and that made me very happy.

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Wine is in the Air on Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 16, 2015 by thewineraconteur

One of the greatest benefits that I have acquired since I started writing these articles, is the fellow writers that I have corresponded with, became cyber friends with and I have even met one fellow Blogger and I have really enjoyed his friendship. Oliver of The Wingetter fame and his charming wife have met up with me and my Bride. We were recently messaging back and forth to see if we could come up with another night to have dinner, as my Bride had offered to prepare a meal for them. Nina has some dietary allergies and requirements that had to be addressed for the dinner, which is becoming a more common condition in these days; my main concern was coming up with some wines that could make Oliver smile and hopefully enjoy.

Erdener Treppchen Riesling Auslese 1971
While my Bride was busy researching recipes and scanning food labels for the dinner, one of the tasks I assigned myself was to go and reorganize the cellar and perchance find a couple of interesting wines to share for the evening. We both had our challenges and I am glad to say that I think we both accomplish our set goals.

Nina and Oliver Valentines Day 2015
My Bride had arranged a menu, starting off with some simple appetizers of assorted cheese and crackers to accommodate everybody’s tastes. She made her Caesar Salad that I always like to brag about, but for Nina we made a more traditional salad with a dressing that would work for her. For the dinner there was a special version of Armenian Pilaf, baked sweet potatoes, a dairy-less creamed cauliflower with garlic and Bourbon Glazed Salmon (and my Bride pulled out all the stops as she called me to find the location of my favorite sipping Booker’s Bourbon Tenth Anniversary bottling). For a dessert she planned Bananas Foster.

jatt at Valentines Day 2015
As I was searching in the cellar for a wine or two to make Oliver smile, I discovered a couple of wines that I had forgotten about; now I am not bragging, as I do not have the largest or the showiest cellar, but there is about 1200 bottles resting. With this many bottles there are some wines that one can be pardoned for being forgetful. Suffice it to say that I knew that Oliver has a predilection for aged German Riesling wines, especially those that are Auslese or better. I found two German wines that I hoped would make the grade as well as a red wine, which I thought he would enjoy, as Clarets are not his favorite. So I took the two whites that I rediscovered and placed them in the refrigerator in preparation for the dinner.
When they arrived, I did have to bore them a bit and take them down to see my cellar, which I have written about, and I do show a portion of one wall in my masthead. Afterwards when we went to the living room to enjoy some cheese and crackers, I let Oliver select from the two white wines that I had chilled. He, much to my enjoyment, made remarks about both of the wines, but he was excited to try the one wine, as he was surprised to even find the wine in the States, let alone in Michigan. I told him that I had bought the wine back in my student days at a department store, but it was not just a department store, it was J.L. Hudson’s which back in the day, prior to their demise was one of the most famed stores in the United States. The Hudson’s Thanksgiving Parade was on a par with the other famed parades of the era and would even get national coverage on television.

JAT at Valentines Day 2015
The wine that piqued Oliver’s attention was a bottle of Erdener Treppchen Riesling Auslese 1971 from the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer district of Germany. The label states erzeugerabfullung (estate bottled) and is produced by Bischoffliches Priesterseminar – Trier (the Bishop’s Priest Seminary in Trier and has one of the largest portfolios of premier vineyards in the district). Erden is an Erste Lager, a “first class site” recognized for exceptional terroir for wines with the QMP designation. Erdener Treppchen means “Little Staircase of Erden” and refers to the stone steps that were long ago dug into the vineyard’s steep hillside to facilitate the workers access to the wines. I was a little concerned when the cork was too soft for the corkscrew and of course when I used a two-steel remover the cork immediately went into the bottle, which necessitated the need for decanting, which the wine rightfully deserved. The wine was a wonderful amber color, and regular readers know that I normally do not use descriptors when describing wine, but I saw a notice that Oliver has already posted and it read “Had held up very nicely, still alive and kicking, with remarkable acidity and a good layer of wet tobacco, apricot, and caramel.” More wines and notes about this evening to follow.

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