The Barrio in Plymouth, Michigan

Posted on April 27, 2015 by thewineraconteur

Once again, I found myself having dinner in Plymouth, Michigan which is the next city over from me, so we do go there quite a bit for a night out. Barrio Cocina y Tequileria is a brand new restaurant that has taken over from another establishment that we used to frequent, which was a wine bar and now it a Mexican restaurant. The beautiful wine racks that were built against the walls are now gone, and there is a huge mural painted on one wall that reminds me of what one encounters now in my old neighborhood in Southwest Detroit. As soon as we were seated, our waiter came and explained that this restaurant is not the usual Tex-Mex restaurant that is found all over the Detroit area and suburbs. This restaurant had a much smaller menu and was trying to convey the feeling of street vendors in Mexico, or maybe some of the now current food trucks that have been plying food without being a brick and mortar establishment.

Flaco Tempranillo DO Vinos de Madrid 2013

We started off with a couple of Margaritas, my Bride had a Blood Orange Margarita and I went with a classic Margarita. Even the drinks were served differently; they arrived in what I used to call a tall Tom Collins glass. We had a very busy morning, so we had a good appetite when we arrived. We started off with a classic bit of Mexican appetizers, namely some Guacamole and some Chips and Salsa. To maintain the aura of a street side vendor the chips were served in a paper bag with the top half cut off for a breezy casual dish. They had a series of “Street Tacos” and “Signature Tacos.” My Bride had the Carnitas from the “Street Tacos” and it was a dish of braised spice pork, Pico de Gallo and cilantro; while I tried the Camarones from the “Signature Tacos” which was shrimp, cebollitas, Pico de Gallo, shredded lettuce (actually micro-greens), Queso Fresco and cilantro. There were three tacos served on miniature corn tortillas on each plate, and another air to the street vendor theme was that each plate had a lining of wax paper over the plate; while it looked cute it made the cutting the tacos a bit more challenging. In hind sight, I think we should have taken the tacos off of the main plate and put each one on our side plate, oh well, the next time.

Rio Madre Rioja DOCa 2013

For our dinner we switched over from the Margaritas to wine. Not only did the Barrio have a large selection of Tequilas to choose from, they also had a good selection of Mexican beers on hand, but what caught our eye was they had a couple of Spanish wines on the menu. My Bride instantly decided that she wanted Rio Madre Rioja DOCa 2013. Most Rioja wines are made from Tempranillo and Garnacha, but this Rioja wine was made entirely from the varietal Graciano, still one of the accepted grapes for the Rioja designation and it had a slightly different taste, but still very appreciated. The Graciano is known as the Morrastel and is found mainly in the Languedoc region of France; this varietal is also known as Graciana, Morrastel, Tinta Miuda, Tintilla de Rota, Minustello and Parraleta (for all you Century Club entrants). The Graciano is harvested almost ninety-five percent world wide in Spain, so it is truly a local varietal. I on the other hand went with a glass of Flaco Tempranillo DO Vinos de Madrid 2013 from the Compania de Vinos Del Atlantica. Flaco is Spanish for “dude” and all I kept thinking of was the White Russian drinking Dude from “The Big Lebowski.” Madrid has only in the past thirty or forty years started producing artisan style wines, the area was known for its bulk wine production for years. Tinto Fino as Tempranillo is called in the Madrid area is one of the varietals that has been leading the change over from the bulk wine business. This particular wine was aged both in Stainless Steel and Concrete and then blended together. Both of these wines worked very well with the dinner, and this humble Dude “abides.”

MI Barrio Cocina Logo

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Fume Blanc

Posted on April 25, 2015 by thewineraconteur

My dinner club had another meeting and I tried a new wine, or so I thought. My club was meeting once again at The Courthouse Grille in Plymouth, Michigan. We have had several meetings there, because they fit our criteria very well for what the group requires. We require a private dining room to hold our meeting, and this restaurant has several rooms beyond their dining room and bar/tavern. We also require a restaurant that can offer us a variety of entrée dishes that have to be better than decent, if they want us to return. Most of the venues had figured out that a Wednesday night of thirty or more men for dinner along with cocktails and wine are worth a little extra effort and so far we have been pleased. I have written about The Courthouse Grille and some of the other names this restaurant has been associated with it.

Ferrari Carano Fume Blanc 2013

Our abbreviated menu for the members this past meeting was more than adequate; some venues let us pick three different dishes, but The Courthouse Grille offers us a fine selection that is chosen ahead of time by our hosts for the evening. The menu for that evening was Veal Marsala, Shrimp Scampi Roma, Grilled Salmon, Sautéed Perch, Chicken Piccata, Lasagna and a New York Strip Steak. The meals come with the appropriate vegetables and starches, along with a salad, fresh baked dinner rolls and a Chocolate Sundae for dessert. I had the luxury of having several heavier dinners that week when I was with my Bride, so I opted for a lighter dinner that evening and chose the Sautéed Perch that was sautéed with capers and lemon and served over a roasted vegetable risotto. The dinner was a winner, and I did remark that the Veal Marsala that a couple of the members at the table I was at, looked great, and they also said that it was done to perfection.

MI Courthouse Grille Menu 4 15 15

I had started off the evening with my traditional Whiskey Sour during the Cocktail Hour prior to the meeting and the dinner. During this time, I was also requested and received a wine list from one of the servers that was taking care of our group, and this restaurant has a very fine selection of wines by the bottle. Since I was not hosting, I was looking at the wines by the glass, as not to be onerous to the evening’s hosts. There was a white wine listed as Ferrari-Carano Fume Blanc 2013 and I decided to order a glass of it for dinner. I have had many wines from Ferrari-Carano over the years and they are a good dependable winery. This wine was from Sonoma County and the grapes were harvested from Dry Creek, Alexander and Russian River Valleys. This was all fine and good, now onto this mystery varietal Fume Blanc, that I had ordered. Fume Blanc is a marketing name coined by Robert Mondavi for Sauvignon Blanc, which at the time was suffering an image problem, as most people were associating this varietal for a sweet white wine, which it can be when it is in the production of French Sauterne. It can also be a dryer white wine, when it is from Graves in Bordeaux or from the Loire Valley of France. It is from the Loire Valley that Robert Mondavi created this wine term of Fume Blanc playing on the reputation of Pouilly-Fume. The most remarkable thing is that several other wineries including Ferrari-Carano have jumped on the band-wagon and call their dry Sauvignon Blanc Fume Blanc. They also tend to make the wine more in the tradition of the Loire Valley by using both Stainless Steel and used French Oak barrels for the production of the wine, and I also have to say that Fume Blanc is not a trademark name, just one that has been used and accepted; and there are no actually regulations or requirements for this “proprietary” name.

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Armenian Martyr’s Day and Some Anecdotes

Posted on April 23, 2015 by thewineraconteur

April 24, 2015 will be the sad one hundredth anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. While I do not normally do any political statements here, because this is a Wine Blog; I feel that it would not be proper if I did not mention it. Two of my Grandparents were born in Armenia as well as some of my other relatives. While they did not speak much of the atrocities that they witnessed and suffered at the hands of the Ottoman Empire (now known as Turkey), it has always been in the background of the family and our ethnicity. They came to Canada with nothing and started a life anew, with no knowledge of a new language or the customs or the mores of their new land, only with a determination to make a life and some happiness, after so much pain and sorrow.

Ararat Brandy

So allow me to digress from my usual writing and mention a few things for fun. I went down to my cellar today, in hopes of finding a label that is pasted on the wall with many other wine labels, and there is a custom built wine rack that is mounted on the wall. I could not find the label, but it is a label for Ararat Brandy from the Yerevan Brandy Company and this is as close as I will be for a wine related story; after all Brandy is distilled wine. They use thirteen varietals in the production of the Brandy and the three main ones are Voskehat, Garan Dmak and Kangun. I had a bottle of it, but I had to get an image from the internet, because I could not find my label, and the name Ararat is for the most famous of the three mountains in Armenia and the site where Noah’s Ark landed after the rains subsided. The other great thing about Ararat is that it is my late Father’s name in Armenian.

Kilikia Beer

I have never had any wines from Armenia, but one day I am sure that I will. On one of my trips to see my children in Las Vegas, my daughter was so excited that she had a bottle of Armenian wine for me, but alas it was from the neighboring country of Georgia. One of interesting discoveries I made years ago, doing a paper in college was that the first recording in history of beer was by Xerxes on his way to another battle and he wrote about a wonderful draft that he had in Armenia mid way on his travels. There are several different beers made by Yerevan Brewery and the brand is called Kilikia, which is the Armenian pronunciation of Cilicia, which is historically known as Lesser Armenia, and one of the Holy Sees of the church was originally from Cilicia.

ACC Plate
A fellow that I met through my association with my junior high school reunions who writes about beer and food send me an email a few days ago. He was having a meal at a Mexican Taco Trailer and the group he was with had ordered four plates of food. The neighborhood that I had grown up in Detroit now has a majority of Mexican families. As he was finishing up a plate of Chorizo Tacos, he was crumpling up the wax paper and noticed the writing that was on the plate underneath, and he wrote that this plate had my name all over it.  He was able to get the plate from the eatery and it will soon be in my possession.  As soon as I saw the plate in the accompanying picture I had to laugh, it is the old style industrial porcelain dishes from another era and it had a picture of and scroll in English and Armenian of the Armenian Community Center in Detroit 9, Michigan. Detroit 9 was a mailing code that was used in Detroit for sorting and was a precursor to the Zip Code that is now in effect. The Armenian Community Center was the home of my old Armenian Church and where I went to Armenian School. There was also room in the basement of the hall, one side had a coffee shop for the men to get together, and on the other side were rooms for the Armenian Youth Federation. I remember all the years that I went to Armenian School and the classroom that I was always in was directly above the coffee shop, and occasionally when the men had enjoyed too much “coffee” and were playing cards or backgammon there would be arguments in the most colorful Turkish that one would ever hear; there are no curse words in the Armenian language as when there is a need to curse they have always used the more foul Turkish language and I can remember how my teacher, who was the Priest’s wife would turn red when those expletives would be heard from the floor below.  In between the two sets of rooms was the smaller banquet hall with the kitchen adjacent to it and there was a dumbwaiter that was used to send the prepared food from the kitchen up to the main floor where the grand ballroom was located. I remember the plates being in the kitchen when I was a kid; in fact that is where I had my high school graduation party. Years later when the church built a new location, the building was sold to a Latino self-help organization. I would have forgotten about those plates and I am wondering how a Taco Trailer ended up with some of them.

AYF Blvd Sign

So I thank my readers to allow me to ramble off a bit, and I will get back to more words about wine the next time. I just felt that it was honorable to remember the past and hope that some good will come from all of the suffering and deaths that had occurred. A toast to the fallen, and may God bless their souls.

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A Hoarder or an Artist?

Posted on April 21, 2015 by thewineraconteur

Corks can be everywhere for a wine lover. The wonderful sound they make when they pop out of a bottle just perfectly and the wine is at its peak. Sometimes they can be the devil incarnate, it seems, when they refuse to come out of the bottle the way they should. Sometimes they crumble, sometimes they break in half and sometimes they just have to be pushed into the bottle and then the wine has to be strained before serving. I have a collection of assorted cork screws and apparatuses to help get a cork out of the bottle, some work great and some I just kind of shake my head at. This entire introduction and I am not going to go into a diatribe as to whether there should or shouldn’t be corks for sealing a bottle.

Corks for Trivet

I have been saving corks, just like I have been saving wine labels for years. For a long time I just saved the labels instead of mounting them in my wine scrap books for reference. They all ended up as “wall paper” inside of my wine cellar and the funny thing is, most of them you cannot see, until you remove a bottle of wine from the rack, but I enjoyed that labor of love. Now I can resume my wine scrap book, but I decided the other day to go and gather up all the corks that have been hiding throughout my house.

I am going to get creative again, and just like the wine labels, the corks are now going to become a decoration in the wine cellar. I am going to use them as a type of crown molding, and I have been thinking about this labor of future love for some time and the time is getting near.

Heart of Corks

I spent an afternoon opening up cookie tins, coffee can, popcorn tins and even those cute cork canisters that my Bride has bought to be decorative. I sorted and sorted and sorted corks. I now have one big bucket that has just plain corks with no decorations on them. Then there are two big buckets that have corks with designs and wordings on them. I also filled another bucket with sparkling wine corks, and I am still thinking of how they will fit into the grand scheme.

Accumulation of Corks

All the while I was also tossing some corks into a special bucket. These were special corks. Like a Chateau Latour or a Colgin. There are several assorted Opus One corks, because they even have the vintage stamped onto the cork. The Domaine de la Romanee-Conti has a special design. All the while I am lamenting about all the corks that crumbled that were special like all the First Growth Medoc wines from 1961. Why you may ask did I make a special grouping of these corks? Several years ago, one of my Bride’s cousins bought me a special Christmas present, it was a trivet or a hot plate where the main part is corks that you supply, fit into the box like a jigsaw puzzle. I will finally get that gift out of one of the bookcases in the library and actually finish that gift. When it is done, it will be either a trivet or it can be hung on the wall and be a corkboard note collector. So yes I was a hoarder for years and now I am getting ready to be an artist again. Down the road there will be pictures; and I know that you are all excited.

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MWWC # 16: Finish

Posted on April 19, 2015 by thewineraconteur

It is hard to believe that this is the Sixteenth Wine Writers Challenge, which is a way to shake us Wine Bloggers from our ennui and make us think and write about something in a different way. “JVB Uncorked” won the last challenge and his prize was to pick out the new theme; and the theme is “Finish.”

wine-stain Monthly Wine Challenge

I have been putting off writing this exercise, because unlike most of the community of wine writers, I do not tend to write about how a wine tastes, the nose (or the aroma) of a wine unless it is very striking. And I very seldom write about the finish of the wine. While I may wax poetic about wines, it is about the setting to me that makes the wine memorable, yes there have been some exceptions, but I try not to belabor the descriptors. I feel silly writing about “wet leather,” “cigar box” and “kiwi.” These are all good words to describe a taste, but it is just not my style. I have written about jug wines, home-made Dago Red Wines and First Growths all with the same deference and my economical use of descriptors.

The word finish has many connotations in the world beyond the wine experience. I have always lived in the Detroit area, so of course the automotive industry speaks of finish, the way the all the parts of the car mesh finely together, not to mention the myriad of paint jobs that are now the norm. The painter of your house talks of the different finishes that can be done to the walls and the trim. My favorite finish is on a grand piano, it is so rich and such depth that I always stop just to admire the job.

The science community has done a fine job explaining how different parts of the tongue sense different sensations which is part of taste. The have also wrote how aromas and scents can heighten the moment and add to the potential sensual nature of taste. Finish is the after affect of taste, how long or short the taste lingers after the consumption or for the professional taster – the spit.

When I was first learning about wines, and mostly it is self-taught, I have spoken over the years to many people that I regard to be highly esteemed in the world of wine. When one of the gentlemen that I met was explaining to me the concept of finish, and I think that I was still in high school, he said that I should count silently (of course) until I could not taste the lingering affect from the first taste of the wine. This might all be well and good, but I am a people person, even at the expense of the wine, so I have a tacit feeling for the finish.

Ch Pichon Lalande 1964

To this day I really marvel at the wine speak that so many people use, and while I understand it, I do not add much to those conversations. There are some wines that I have tasted where my experience seems to be lacking in the fancy words that I hear bandied about. There are some taste experiences that seem universal to everyone at the moment, but some just go out of their way to try to coin a new descriptor and that is just not me.

All of this rambling is just my way of saying that I find the finish usually is equal to the craft of the winemaker. The more artistry that goes in, the more art there is to appreciate when the product is done. I am by no means a wine snob, as for the most part I enjoy good everyday wines from good houses. I am not partial to bulk wines, because I find no artistry, but give me a quality product and that does not mean a hundred dollar or more wine, though through the grace of God, I have had my enjoyment of them; I find that the finish is indicative of the craft. Now I am finished on the subject of finish, and I still found this a very hard exercise in writing; now for a well deserved glass of wine.

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World Malbec Day

Posted on April 17, 2015 by thewineraconteur

If I don’t watch out, I may start appearing to be a knowledgeable Wine Blogger, instead of the guy that has been having fun for the last couple of years in the cyber world, and in life for almost all of it. According to the American Winery Guide and their Wine Lover’s Calendar of 2015, April 17 is World Malbec Day.

Purple Angel 2006

Malbec is a varietal that has become one of the big boys; it has its adherents just like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Of course it has not always been that way. It was a native grape in the South-Western part of France known as Cahors, and was the mainstay of their table wines of the region, and it was a happy little sleepy varietal. From this region the wine ended up being called besides Malbec, Auxerrois, Cot, Cahors and sometimes Malbeck. Then the winemakers of Bordeaux discovered it, and started growing some for its deep musky taste and dark color, but it was one of several that are known as the classic Bordeaux or Claret blend. This blend consists of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec, but it hit a very cold winter and a lot of vineyards had to dig up this grape and replant. Back in the dark days for wine lovers, pre-Internet days, the varietals were not posted, so one can only take a stab in the dark whether a particular Chateau used Malbec in its wine. Over in the New World, some wine makers were trying to make their own Claret and christened the wine Meritage. Of course some of the pioneers that were doing this have resisted calling their wine a Meritage and use their own proprietary name, and some have been extremely good at their craft. In California and other states, where wineries are using the label Meritage they may use the following varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot, Saint-Macaire, Gross Verdot and Carmenere. There are even some wine makers making Malbec wines, especially now to get on the bandwagon.

Cain Five 1994

So far, I have mentioned France and North America, but down in South America, especially in Argentina, is where Malbec has come into its own. I should also mention that Malbec is also planted down in Australia as well, and I am sure that it is being planted and used elsewhere as well. One could say that Argentina put Malbec on the map, or maybe that Malbec put Argentina on the map; which ever way you want to look at it, Malbec is the power house of Argentina. With all that wonderful Argentine beef, they needed a heavy red that could pair majestically with the cuisine and Malbec was a perfect choice. In North America the wine tends to be a bit more fruit forward, but in Argentina the wine is forceful and what a heavy red should be, but they do a great job with it and we are the fortunate recipients of their craft.

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Nico & Vali in Plymouth, Michigan

Posted on April 15, 2015 by thewineraconteur

I had heard about this restaurant from friends and really wanted to try it out, but the best laid plans of mice and men… The other night I was surprised to get a suggestion to go out for dinner and why not? As fine as the food is at home, the chance to go out is just as compelling. A couple of ideas were bandied about, and I mentioned lets try someplace new and off we went. Nico & Vali is a quaint structure that gives one the impression of a little shop in Tuscany, and it is just on the edge of downtown Plymouth, which is as cute of a downtown as one would enjoy. We walked into the restaurant and were informed that there would be about a twenty minute wait, which was fine, so we got a chance to peruse the menu and the wine list, not to mention, the time to enjoy a glass of wine while we were waiting. I wasn’t surprised to see a line up to get into the restaurant, as I had heard many good compliments about the establishment. What surprised me was that there were all of these people in line to have dinner in a restaurant that was being remodeled at the same time. I mean there were huge sheets of plastic stretch across from the ceiling to the floor and from wall to wall and some tables just placed near all of the construction, and nobody was complaining. I was impressed from what I saw, and we had a chance to chat with some regulars while we were waiting, who also made my decision even better. Your Raconteur is a very quiet and unassuming person, actually I tend to be rather gregarious, especially when I have such strange requests, as in may I see the bottles of wine, so that I may photograph them. Most of the time I have to allay the concerns of the staff that I am doing it for the purpose of my Blog, and I tend to stress that it is a wine blog. I do not want anyone to think that I a critic, or that I am looking for anything free, that I just want to record the events, plus I am a lousy photographer so I can not take “food porn” pictures, actually, most of the photographs by amateurs tend to look that way, and sometimes the plate can be a turn-off to me, when I see them in social media sites, but then I digress.

Caposaldo Pinot Grigio Veneto IGT 2013

When we were seated we discussed our options and decided to start off with an Antipasti plate, which was a little different in that it was more of a Charcuterie plate of classic Italian cured meats, some liver pate and some olives with eggplant, but no cheese, but it was a nice way to start the meal off. We each then had a Caesar Salad with a very subtle dressing and I had mine with black anchovy filets, which I did share with my Bride, who had originally decided that she did not want to have some on her salad. We went with a couple of classic dishes, my Bride selecting Penne pasta with an Alfredo Sauce and shrimp, while I tried the Spaghetti with Aglio e Olio and dice scallops. While I was asking about the dish and whether they could add some anchovies in my dish, one of the owners overheard my request and suggested that I should try White Anchovies in the dish for a lighter different flavor. Off course that set us off on a tangent discussing cooking styles and I found out that the owners are the children from another restaurant that we used to go to. I had to search my site on my phone, until I found my article about DePalma’s and I showed them the page, even with a photograph of the old matchbook that we had saved from the restaurant, and I think he was surprised and I hope a little impressed.

Catena Alamos Malbec 2013

As for the wine that we were having, my Bride started with a glass of Malbec, and I looked so macho having a glass of Pinot Grigio; actually my Bride liked my wine selection better than hers and she changed over during dinner. She started off with a glass of Catena Alamos Malbec 2013 from Mendoza, Argentina. When I was doing some research I discovered that this wine is actually made for the American Market and is a different bottle of wine then the one they produce for the local market. This bottle of Malbec was a bled of Malbec, Syrah and Bonarda, while the Argentine version substitutes Cabernet Sauvignon for the Syrah. I just found that an interesting bit of information. The wine I started with and we both ended up drinking was Caposaldo Pinot Grigio Veneto IGT 2013. It was very refreshing and because it was listed as Veneto IGT, it could be labeled as Pinot Grigio. The Veneto has several famous wines like Valpolicella, Amarone, Soave and Prosecco, where as with the IGT designation you will find some wines not indicative of the area, though Pinot Grigio is. You can imagine that I even had a chance to discuss wines a few times with the owners and they are looking forward to adding more wines to the mix, after the remodeling has been completed. I know that we shall be going back there again and again, as I heard that a couple of times from my Bride as we were driving home.

MI Nico & Vali BC

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“Little Ole Wine Drinker Me”

Posted on April 13, 2015 by thewineraconteur

“When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now. Will you still be sending me a valentine, birthday greetings, bottle of wine.” April is National Poetry Month according to an email that I received from my publisher. Now I have to admit that I am not a major poetry reader, though for my education I did have to read all of the classic literature and there was some poetry in the mix. One of the few poems that I could come up with in the labyrinth of memories was:
“A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;
The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune.”
Not exactly about wine in the Gold Rush Days of the North-West; the poem The Shooting of Dan McGrew by Robert W. Service. So I pondered about poetry, and then it dawned on me, that classic music when the lyrics are written are like poems, so I thought back to my youth and tried to remember some of them and offer a different type of article for your pleasure and some of the wines that were popular back then.
Tiny Bubbles

Of course the first couple of lines that I typed out were from The Beatles for those old enough to remember that group, and bear with me, because most of the lines will be from the ancient days, the days of my youth. Of course the next remembrance will make my Bride smile, because it was one the favorite songs of her late Father’s and her late Uncles called Elvira:
“Eyes that look like heaven, lips like sherry wine.”

In the old days of my youth, when we used to gather at the park and line up the cars with the windows open and the radios blaring, while we drank beer and even Boone’s Farm, and thankfully I do not have a label from those days, and I am not even sure if I would call that wine, but I digress, as I normally do, and I think of the song Bottle of Wine:
“Bottle of wine, fruit of the vine.
When you gonna let me get sober”
Leave me alone, let me go home.
Let me go home and start over.”
Or that other song that would get us a bit rowdy and loud Spill the Wine:
“I could feel hot flames of fire roaring at my back.
As she disappeared, but soon she returned.
In her hand was a bottle of wine, in the other a glass.
And raised it to her lips.
And just before the drank it she said
‘Spill the wine and take that pearl
Spill the wine and take that pearl
Spill the wine and take that pearl
Spill the wine and take that pearl’”

Champagne has been in songs for years and of course, my growing up with The Rat Pack for some guidance how could I neglect the great Cole Porter’s I Get a Kick out of you:
“I get no kick from champagne,
Mere alcohol doesn’t move me at all.
So tell me why should it be true?
That I get a kick out of you.”
While on the subject of Champagne, the “Frank Sinatra” of Hawaii, the theme song of Don Ho was Tiny Bubbles and I remember being on stage for a gag with him when I was in Las Vegas and I have the keepsake to prove it:
“Tiny bubbles (tiny bubbles)
In the wine (in the wine)
Make me happy (make me happy)
Make me feel fine (make me feel fine).”
Boones Farm Apple NV

Finally the old romantic in me, can’t leave this article (?) without mentioning another great crooner, who not only sang the title of this entry, but That’s Amore:
“When the moon hits your eye,
Like a big pizza pie, that’s amore.
When the world seems to shine,
Like you’ve had too much wine, that’s amore.”

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“The Caller” Shows Up in Midland, Michigan

Posted on April 11, 2015 by thewineraconteur

I am starting to think that I am going to have to give “The Caller” second billing as he is all of a sudden appearing all over the map sending me cryptic messages about wines. I think he is having more fun with wines than I am at times. He also finds some wines that I may overlook, maybe not, but the one wine had a very unique label especially where it is from. His message to me was “lots of interesting wine in Midland mi eating paninnis” (sic); so one must presume that he is with friends and just out on the town.

If You See Kay Lazio IGT 2011

The first wine that he sent me a picture of was Vino de Eyzaguirre Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 from the Colchagua Valley in Chile. Chile is having a wonderful time with an explosion of better wines, and the Colchagua Valley is being called the “Napa” of Chile, because not only is it a fairly new location for wine production, but they are also building tasting rooms and making the area much more geared for tourists and wine enthusiasts. The Colchagua Valley is located in central Chile and is the South-Western half of the much larger Rapel Valley that has already been established for its wines.

Eyzaguirre Cabernet Sauvignon 2013

The other wine required much more research as the label appeared to be more California at the expense of Italy and is made by No Holds Barred Wine and is another venture by Jayson Woodbridge and Chris Radomski who have several assorted wine companies and brands including Layer Cake Wines. When I first saw the label all I could think of was an updated version of the old Groucho Marx song “Lydia the Tattooed Lady.” That is the fun thing about wine is that you can find something new all the time like the If You See Kay Lazio IGT 2011 that he was enjoying that night. Lazio is a new location to me and is in central Italy and home to Rome. This wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Verdot and Primitivo and after doing some research I have found that Cabernet Sauvignon has been planted in several vineyards in Lazio, because of the popularity that it has achieved in the Tuscan region nearby. Knowing “The Caller” as I do, he must have enjoyed both wines or else he would not have bothered sending me text messages and photographs of these two wines. I do wonder where he and his wife will pop up next.

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Easter Sunday

Posted on April 9, 2015 by thewineraconteur

Everyone came over on Easter for dinner at our house, and we also celebrated four birthdays for the month as well. The menu ended up being a roast leg of lamb and turkey with all of the assorted sides that should go with the meal. We had a few less people than ordinary because of assorted and varied reasons, but we still had a fine crowd. Our one son and his family stopped by early as they were traveling to the West coast for a vacation and to visit and I am sure that they are having a fine time on their adventure. My Bride had everything under control and it was rather calm in the kitchen, as she was prepared; she even had time to drive our son’s family to the airport, while I stayed to man the house for any early guests and we had two arrive just after they left.

Pessagno Chardonnay Sleepy Hollow 2010

We opened a couple of white wines for the appetizers and for the pre-dinner crowd. The first bottle we opened was a wine that my Bride wanted to try. She had bought a bottle of Apothic White 2011 from Apothic Wines, as she liked the Apothic Red wines that she has had. This wine is just listed as a California wine and there must be two versions of the wine, as I went to their website and they show Apothic White NV which is a blend of Chardonnay, Riesling and Pinot Grigio, while the bottle we served the Apothic White 2011 was a blend of Chardonnay, Riesling and Moscato. The wine we poured was decidedly sweeter than we usually drink, but it was a hit with the crowd that mentions that some of our wines are too dry.

Apothic White 2011

The second bottle of white that we opened was Pessagno Chardonnay Sleepy Hollow Vineyard 2010 from the Santa Lucia Highlands. Pessagno Winery is one of a group of wineries that have fruit coming from the famed Sleepy Hollow Vineyard, as I have had wine from other wineries that get fruit harvested from there as well. The wine was much crisper and reminded me of a Chardonnay from Burgundy, rather than a Chardonnay from California, so there was a lot of nuance and quality and it was very fresh for a 2010 vintage. We just continued drinking this wine through dinner, rather than open a bottle of red wine, as it happened that only my Bride and I were drinking wine that day. It was not my first choice with the lamb, but it worked with the turkey and it was enjoyable enough that it was a fine wine to end the day.

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