Three Special Wines from Korbin Kameron

Posted on August 1, 2024 by thewineraconteur

Korbin Ming was pouring his wines at my local wine shop The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan and I think he was having as much fun as those that were there to taste the wines.  Now when I say special wines, to the wine maker, they are all special, but to the public, those that enjoy wines can appreciate the junctures that are sometimes offered.  Mitchell Ming first fell in love with the wines of northern California, then he found a property that he also fell in love with, and hoped that it would be ideal for his entire family to make wines together.  Korbin Ming is now the General Manager, Viticulturist and Winemaker, while his twin sister Kameron is the Wine Club Manager, and the younger sibling Kristin Ming is the Director of Design for Moonridge Vineyards.  Which bring us to Korbin Kameron Proprietary Red Blend Cuvee Kristin Moon Mountain District, Sonoma County 2019.  The Proprietary Red Blend is a mix of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Malbec.  The wine is fermented and aged in French Oak, of which seventy-five percent is new, and ages for eighteen months; and one-hundred-fifty-five cases were made.  A nice deep garnet colored wine that offered notes of dark fruit, figs, and rose petals.  On the palate this was a big chewy wine, which is how I like them, as well as a good candidate for staining your teeth and offered tones of blueberries, dark cherries, cola, baking spices, and some pink peppercorn to entice you to have another glass.

Now for a limited production wine, that is not always offered, the last was from the 2016 vintage and we still have a couple of bottles left.  We had some Korbin Kameron Malbec Moon Mountain District, Sonoma County 2018.  Malbec is one of the forgotten grapes of the Medoc, as it gets so much attention from Cahoors and from Argentina.  The wine was fermented and aged in French Oak, of which half was new, for eighteen months; and there were thirty-five cases produced.  It was a classic inky-dark-purple color and offered notes of dates, plums, chocolate, and sous-bois.  On the palate it was fruit forward with tones of concentrated dark bramble fruit, tannins, and a medium count finish of terroir. 

Then we had another limited production wine, and the first one that I had encountered from the winery.  We had a glass of Korbin Kameron Petit Verdot Moon Mountain District, Sonoma County 2018. Petit Verdot is also one of the “Holy Five” varietals of the Medoc, and has mostly been used for blending, and mostly less than ten percent of the blend.  It is also a grape that appreciates the additional hours of daily sun that a mountain grown wine can get, as it usually requires a longer growing season.  The wine also enjoyed fermentation and aging in French Oak, of which half was new, for eighteen months; and thirty-one cases were made.  Another varietal that is appreciated for its deep-dark red color and offered notes of dark fruit, anise, violets, and dried herbs and spices.  On the palate a full-bodied wine that offered tones of plums, blackberries, dark cherries, hazelnut, vanilla blended with robust tannins, bright acidity, and a nice dry finish.     

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Another Tasting of Korbin Kameron Winery Offerings

Posted on July 29, 2024 by thewineraconteur

A wonderful way to spend some time at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan is with Korbin Ming, winemaker at Moonridge Vineyards, as he poured and showcased some great wines started by his father who named the winery after his twins Korbin and Kameron.  The nineteen-acre estate was planted in 2000 and it sits on the ridge of Mt. Veeder on Mayacamas Mountain Range and straddles the Napa/Sonoma County line at 2,300 feet in elevation.  The majority of the estate is in Sonoma County and they can look out and see Santa Rosa, Sonoma Mountain and on a clear day the Pacific Ocean.  Then if you turn around you are looking at Oakville and Rutherford, below the fog line.  That is the beauty of a mountain winery and one of the added benefits is a couple of hours of extra sunlight for the vines.

We started off the tasting with Korbin Kameron Sauvignon Blanc Moon Mountain District, Sonoma County 2021. Moon Mountain District AVA which is a sub-appellation of the Sonoma County AVA.  Moon Mountain is for the western slopes of the Mayacamas mountai ns between Sugarloaf Ridge and Carneros; while Mount Veeder AVA encompasses the eastern slopes.  The AVA is named after Moon Mountain Road which runs through the area and means “valley of the moon” in the local Native American dialect.  The AVA was granted in 2013, because of the region’s iron-rich volcanic soils, quite distinctive form the sedimentary soils of the surrounding area.  Initial Fermentation is in Stainless Steel followed by Malolactic Fermentation in French Oak barrels, eighty percent neutral and twenty percent new, for four months.  With two hundred twenty cases of wine produced.  A pale straw-colored wine offering notes of lemongrass, guava, and lime.  On the palate there were strong tones of yuzu, grapefruit, and honeydew with bright acidity and a medium finish.

The rest of the tasting featured red wines and we began with Korbin Kameron Merlot Moon Mountain District, Sonoma County 2019.  When Mitchell Ming began planting the estate, all five red Bordeaux varieties, as well as Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc were selected, after initial soil analysis.  Phil Coturri, the Vineyard Manager has been there since the beginning, and it has been said that no one has more experience farming mountain vineyards in Sonoma with thirty-five years pioneering organic and biodynamic winegrowing in California.  This wine was aged for eighteen months in French Oak, of which fifty percent was new; with eighty cases produced. A nice deep garnet color wine that offered notes of cherries, dark berries, alluring scents of cinnamon and cloves.  On the palate tones of black cherries, cola, and spices, blended with mellow tannins and a nice medium count finish.      

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Ygrec ’21

Posted on July 26, 2024 by thewineraconteur

I had a chance to try a White Bordeaux at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan and they were upset that my Bride was not with me, but I brought her there another day, after all, what I do for my blog (there is a big smile on my face).  It was a repeat for her of a still rather unknown white wine that carries the Appellation Bordeaux Controlee, which would not be all that remarkable, except that this wine is Chateau d’Yquem ‘Y” Bordeaux 2021 and not Chateau d’Yquem Sauternes that was famous and still has representation in the wine cellar of Thomas Jefferson

Chateau d’Yquem is by far the most famous dessert wine in the world and has definitely made the Sauternes district of Bordeaux prime real estate.  In the Classification of 1855 of the Medoc, it was the only estate to be rated as Premier Cru Supereiur and it still is, and while most say it will be great for a good fifty years, there are others that feel that it is the longest-lived wine and may be eternal.  The Yquem estate was owned by the King of England in the Middle Ages and has been producing late-harvest wines since at least the late 1500’s.  It is a two-hundred-ninety-acre vineyard situated on the highest hill in Sauternes.  Possibly the ideal setting to produce sweet wine; a warm, dry topsoil of pebbles and course gravel over a subsoil of clay that retains water reserves which aids the development of “noble rot” and the property has about sixty miles of drains to prevent waterlogging.  There is also normally about thirty acres of vineyard that is either fallow or with vines too young for the production of this noble wine.  The vineyard is seventy-five percent Semillon and the balance is Sauvignon Blanc.  There is a fine art to the winemaker’s craft and nothing is overlooked, including the almost continual hand harvesting of only the perfect grapes at each inspection to ensure that only fully botrytized fruit is selected or about one glass of wine per vine.  There have been nine vintages that were never produced in the last century, because the wine did not meet the specifications required.  The estate was under the Lur-Saluces family from 1785 to 1999 when it was sold to the luxury brand LVMH.  Our first time tasting this wine was the 2017 vintage.

The Chateau d’Yquem “Y” Ygrec Bordeaux 2021 was stunning and I will offer some background notes, because if you are like me, it is not a wine that one encounters that often.  It was originally made at the end of the harvest with the last bunches of grapes since 1959 and in 1966 the selection of the grapes changed and the wine is basically Sauvignon Blanc picked at the beginning of the harvest and a small amount of Semillon with Botrytis and in 2004 the brand was to be produced every vintage.  They now have a state-of-the-art vat room just to make this wine and the aging on the lees take place in the barrels, one-third of which are new and the lees are regularly stirred for ten months.  I thought I enjoyed White Bordeaux, but this was on a level, that I had never encountered before, it was so elegant with such finesse that I could barely contain myself, it was that awesome, almost ethereal in the finish. This is a white wine that is considered by many to cellar for twenty years.  If I thought it was wonderful, the look on my Bride’s face and in her eyes was scary as I started computing how expensive this wine would be, if she decided that this was her go-to wine and even though it is shipped in its own fancy wooden six-pack enclosed by cardboard for shipping, I was afraid that I would have to quit my retirement. A pale yellow wine with notes of pears, oranges, lime blossoms, vanilla, and almonds.  On the palate rich tones of white fruits, with traces of pear and lime, refreshing acidity, and a very long finish of saline, almonds, and terroir. I thought the 2017 vintage was awesome, this may be the freshest and liveliest white wine that I have ever tasted, and all my Bride said later, was who can we share this with?  Oh, by the way, if you are curious the “Y” is pronounced “ee-grek” in French. 

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A Family Reunion 2024

Posted on July 23, 2024 by thewineraconteur

My Bride promised her mother to keep the family together, her mother was the last of eleven siblings, and I and a few others felt that it meant the immediate family, but she likes to push the envelope, I guess. She contacted all of her first cousins, and got about ninety responses, so she created a party.  Most of her relatives live on the east side of Detroit, so she and a sister that lives in a far north-eastern suburb got up one morning and stood in line at a municipal city hall to put a deposit, on an enclosed hall, plus a nearby pavilion that had a large barbecue grill adjacent.  The grounds were perfect, clean, and offered a water park, and children’s park, a small walkway out onto Lake Saint Claire and plenty of parking with a guardhouse.  She went and had t-shirts, visors, and signs printed for the event. 

That morning, we were up at six in the morning to pack up the car, I was thinking that we should have rented a truck, but the car and the springs held up.  We took a portable refrigerator, a big chest, chaffing plates, a roaster, kitchen stuff, first aid kit, outside armchairs, two hams, and Armenian pilaf.  The park was about an hour away for us and she wanted to be there at nine, when they opened to make sure that she had both buildings and we also covered all the picnic tables in the morning as we set up signs.  She even bought a collapsable wagon to make it easier to carry stuff from the parking lot to the building. Here other big endeavor was that she made a video to explain to the younger first cousins and all the children, how everyone was related by family and then the ensuing families with names.  She bought a brand new “smart television monitor” that would accept a thumb drive with the video that played continuously on a loop.  Another sister brought a family tree and a cousin brought copies of census reports.  She also coordinated with everyone else regarding food, so that no one was hungry.  Unfortunately, with all of the coming and goings there was no group photo taken, and she had brought her fancy camera with panoramic potentials, and I think everyone was photographed, but her.

The park would not allow glass bottles, at first, we thought that they did not allow adult beverages, but it was only the glass that was not allowed.  So, we rinsed out two 2litre plastic Pepsi bottles and filled them with wine. We filled one with two bottles of Broadway Vineyards Keanu Chardonnay Los Carneros Sonoma 2019. In 2002 a prime property was found just 2 miles south from the Historic Square in downtown Sonoma and purchased by Jim and Marilyn Hybiske. Six of their wine loving friends joined forces to develop a small vineyard and produce exceptional Sonoma County wines exclusively for their family and friends. Work was begun on the vineyard in the spring of 2004 and in 2006 the first harvest produced very promising fruit and Broadway Vineyards began to thrive. The wine is pure Chardonnay, using Dijon clones.  A nice soft gold color wine that offers notes of white fruit, hay, pine, jasmine, and lilies.  On the palate tones of pear, apricot, pineapple, and vanilla with good acidity and a nice finish of pear and banana.  The second bottle was filled with Famille Quiot Domaine Houchart Cotes de Provence Rosé 2023.  Famille Quiot is a wine producer with numerous estates in southern France.  They have been making wine since 1748, starting in Vaucluse in Chateauneuf-du-Pape at Domaine du Vieux Lazaret. In 1890, they acquired the sixty-hectare estate of Domaine Houchart near Aix-en-Provence.  The family estate has its roots and was farmed during the Roman era, and is located in the plain between Sainte Victoire and Aurelien mountains, and has its own climate.  The land is clay and limestone soils, from the decomposition of the scree from the surrounding mountains.  The wine is a blend of Cinsault, Grenache Noir, Syrah, and Tibouren; with the average age of the vines being thirty-five-years.  The fruit is harvested in September, with direct pressing for most of the varieties, with vatting for almost two weeks in I surmise Stainless-Steel to maintain freshness; the wines are bottled in December.  This salmon-pink colored wine offers notes of citrus and strawberries.  On the palate the wine offers tones of red currants, watermelon, with great acidity and ending with a nice medium count finish of fruit and terroir.  Of course, my Bride wanted a photo of me, totally casual and drinking from a plastic cup, but I decided against it, as it has been done before.  

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Hillwalker Vineyards Mount Veeder

Posted on July 20, 2024 by thewineraconteur

I was at my local wineshop The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan to taste a vertical run of Hillwalker Vineyards of Mount Veeder.  Mount Veeder is an AVA in the southwest hills of Napa Valley, and famed for its Cabernet Sauvignon wines.  I had a chance to meet and chat with Kevin Morrison, who is the owner and winemaker at Hillwalker Vineyards, and he is a former Michigander.  The Fine Wine Source has acquired a quarter of the production of the three vintages from the estate.

We started with Hillwalker Vineyards Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder Napa Valley 2019.  The vineyard is now twenty years of age, and it is starting to produce it own wines.  The vineyard is 1600 feet above sea level, and is all organic, no pesticides, no machines for harvest, cow and horse plows, no irrigation, only dry farming.  This wine had an extended Maceration period of twenty-five days and aged for twenty months in French Oak, of which twenty-five percent was new.  The wine is sixty percent Cabernet Sauvignon and forty percent Merlot.  A deep red wine that offered notes of black fruit, blue fruit, rose petals and terroir.  On the palate there were tones of black cherry and blueberry, oak, pepper, with blended tannins, terroir, and a nice long finish.  This was not a typical California Cabernet that was a jammy fruit bomb to curry favors with the current wine tasters, this was an elegant Old School Napa, when they were more Medoc-centric and not trying to keep up with the neighbors.

We then had the Hillwalker Vineyards Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder Napa Valley 2020.  Now 2020 was a bad year for Napa Valley and the fires, but the fires were on the east side of the valley and Mount Veeder on the west side of the valley experienced virtually no smoke during the growing season. The owner/winemaker Keven Morison said that he is still experimenting as he proceeds, and this wine was eighty percent Cabernet Sauvignon, and twenty percent Merlot.  He also does his own crush-work, and he allowed twelve days for Initial Fermentation and then aged for twenty months in twenty-five percent new French Oak, and the balance in neutral French Oak; he also did a little testing using a glass carboy which allowed no air in.  The wines are aged in a cave onsite using indigenous yeast.  A deep dark red wine that offered notes of dark fruit, pomegranate, violets, dark chocolate, pepper, tobacco, and sous bois.  On the palate this wine offered tones of black cherry, black currants, ripe figs, baking spices, cocoa, tight tannins, and a long finish of fruit tones. Once again, this wine was not a fruit bomb from Napa Valley made to please a few writers and critics, this wine was old Napa, or the Medoc and to please the winemaker.  A great wine for cellaring.   

The lucky customers and clients that came for the tasting also got a chance to try the Hillwalker Vineyards Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder Napa Valley 2021 which was only being sold on a pre-pay program with delivery in the fall of this year, which tells me that there is some bottle aging done as well, before release.  This wine is still a work in progress for the winemaker as he is definitely not doing a cookie-cutter wine.  This wine was eighty-five percent Cabernet Sauvignon and fifteen percent Merlot.  More experimentation as this wine had Initial Fermentation for twenty-eight days using indigenous yeast and then aged in a combination of eighty percent concrete tanks and twenty percent new French Oak.  A deep red wine that offered notes of dark fruits, violets, dark chocolate, and sous bois.  On the palate there were tones of black cherry, currants, figs, baking spices, cocoa, tight tannins, and a long finish of fruit.  After two wines that were classic old-school Napa or Medoc, this wine at first surprised me, as it wasn’t following the same pattern and had a much fresher taste and only as we continued talking and taking notes did the finish get longer and bolder and this wine kept growing and growing on me.  I was one of the first people to try the wine and since this wine was still not even issued, I thought it would be in poor-taste for me, to ask for a second, but the finish totally impressed me.

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Fine Wine Source Club – July 2024

Posted on July 17, 2024 by thewineraconteur

It is always a pleasure to go to my favorite wine shop and it was double the fun, because besides picking up the club selections at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan; there was also going to be a special vertical tasting of Hillwalker Vineyards of Mt. Veeder, California.  A great daily double. 

As always there is a wine representing the Old World, and the New World and we will start with the Old World.  Monte del Fra Ca del Magro Custoza Superiore DOC 2019.  Azienda Agricola Monte del Fra is a wine producer near Verona in the Veneto region of northern Italy; they produce Veneto wines, Grappa and Olive Oil.  The winery dates to 1492, when it was owned by an order of monks.  The modern company was founded in 1958 and is owned by the Bonomo family.  The winery owns one-hundred-thirty-seven-hectares of vineyards and leases an additional sixty-eight.  Bianco di Custoza, also just Custoza as well as Costoza Superiore DOC are made using Garganega, Trebbianello, Trebbiano Toscano and Cortese grapes, and some view it as the white equivalent of red Bardolino, as the two overlap in the area.  The designation applies to dry white, passito sweet, and spumante wines.  As of 2019, seventy percent of the blend must be made from Cortese (Bianca Fernanda), Friulano (Tai), Garganega and/or Trebbiano Toscano, and no more than forty-five percent of any one variety; the balance can be Chardonnay, Malvasia, Manzoni, Bianco, Pinot Bianco and/or Welschriesling.  A Bianco di Custoza must reach 11% proof and be aged for three months, a Custoza Superiore must reach 11.5% proof and be aged for five months, and a Riserva must reach 12.5% proof and aged for twelve months.  Critics have rated this wine as one of the top five Bianco di Custoza wines.  Theis particular wine is a blend of forty percent Garganega, twenty percent Trebbiano (Ugni Blanc), ten percent Friulano (Tai), twenty percent Cortese, and ten percent Chardonnay.  The wine is described as “summertime in a glass” and is called refreshing and savory.  This wine is said to offer notes of white florals, botanical herbs, and yellow stone fruits.  On the palate it offers tones of apricot, honeydew melon, candied orange slices with a finish of bitter almond and traces of limestone, lemon, and lime.

Representing the New World is Stolpman Vineyard “Love you Bunches” Rosé Central Coast 2023.  Over twenty years ago Tom Stolpman found what he felt was the greatest viticultural site on Earth.  Hidden away on a limestone outcropping in the Central Coast region in Ballard Canyon.  He originally started with Syrah and Roussanne grapes, using sustainable growing measures and minimal manipulation. The original “Love you Bunches” was a Carbonic Fermented Sangiovese that they still make, and they also now make a “Love you Bunches” Orange using Orange Muscat, Pinot Gris, and Mourvedre.  The Rosé version is made from pure Grenache and the fruit is harvested from Southern San Luis, Obispo County and Santa Barbara County.  The fruit is pressed much more quickly for a pink-hued wine.  The grapes rest whole for twelve to twenty-four hours as Carbonic Fermentation begins, absorbing just a touch of pigment and texture.  The pun “Love you Bunches” refers to the extra “loving” treatment the grape bunches receive when the clusters are destined for Carbonic Fermentation.  The label shows the unique penmanship of their vineyard manager, Ruben Solorzano. A cool season, and late harvest allowed the wine to fully develop.  After the whole-grape Carbonic Fermentation, the grapes are then pressed and vatted in Stainless Steel tanks for a cool and extended fermentation for three months. The winery describes the wine as having a strawberry shortcake, fresh with a citrus zing.  A sassy pink wine that offers notes of fresh strawberries, florals, and citrus.  On the palate there are tones of upfront acidity, with traces of savory rhubarb with a dry finish of terroir with a spray of citrus.    

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An Afternoon Date at the DIA

Posted on July 14, 2024 by thewineraconteur

My Bride always seems to have several irons in the fire at any given time, as she has been a volunteer for many different organizations since before, we met.  Even though we are retired, I still have to book time for a date. Who ever created the concept of having mediocre looking watches that makes everyone act like Dick Tracy and count your footsteps was a genius; though for the record I still dislike that cellular phones make it too easy to find someone. She loves counting steps, so plenty of our dates include walking.  Well, there are plenty of places to go outdoors, but when the weather is getting close to ninety, we are neither kids, nor do we want to melt, hence some days at the museums are the perfect answer. 

The City of Detroit in its glory days created the Detroit Institute of Arts, and not only is it magnificent as a structure, it has been recognized as the finest art museum in the country, which is quite an accomplishment.  In elementary school, we used to take field trips there, and I have been going there ever since, some days in high school, we would cut classes to spend the day there; and on a hot summer day, it is the perfect place to be, as I always find something new after all these years.  My Bride and I even have Founder’s Society Memberships, even though residents of the tri-county area get free admission, which is wonderful, but so few people take advantage of it.  The museum even has there act together in halls that display priceless works of art in a cohesive flow, which is my biggest peeve, when we go to other museums while on holidays, art can appear to just be thrown on the wall, because there is space.  We both have our favorite halls, and sometimes we end up appreciating displays that we may have walked by in indifference at other trips.  There was even a special wing showcasing a modern artist from Detroit that made us feel like we were yokels from the boondocks rediscovering art.

All of this leads us to a little time of rest from meandering the three stories of a building the size of a city block.  Even with the wristwatch counting steps, it was time to take a moment and chat in the Kresge Court and have some refreshments, named after Sebastian Spering Kresge of S.S. Kresge’s 5 & 10¢ Stores, which later became Kmart’s.  When I was a kid and played hooky at times, the Kresge Court was actually open-air in the middle of the museum, but since those days it has been enclosed from the elements and for years, my Bride used to go to the Brunch with Bach sessions on the weekends.  We were going to have a casual dinner later, so we stopped for some Kettle Chips and some bubbles.  At times I am so romantic.  We had some Charles de Fere Cuvee Jean-Louis Blanc de Blancs Brut Vin de France NV.  Vin de France is a term for wines that do not fit the criteria for AOP or IGP appellation laws and are usually from high-yielding vineyards like in the south of France; usually found in “bag-wines” or “box-wines,” though there are exceptions and has more consumer acceptance compared to the old Vin de Table.  The history of Charles de Fere is the story one family’s commitment to the best traditional sparkling wine methods Jean-Louis Denois opened a sparkling winery at Fere-en-Tardenois, in the north-east of Reims in 1980, based on his family’s five generations of wine making.  The wine is a blend of Airen, Ugni Blanc, Durello, Chenin Blanc, and Chardonnay.  The wine is made in the traditional method (Methode Champenoise) and is aged on the lees for three months with daily stirring, and then second fermentation to create the Brut designation. A very pale golden colored wine with fine to medium bubbles and offering notes of tree fruits.  On the palate there were tones of fresh pears, and apples and rather crisp.  A very easy drinking wine on a hot day.     

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Independence Day 2024

Posted on July 11, 2024 by thewineraconteur

When I was growing up, Independence Day was quite the holiday.  When I was a kid, the day started with a parade, that wasn’t even a block away from our house to watch, then we had a barbecue, and then a walk to George S. Patton Park, where there was room for everyone with eighty-four acres, for a tremendous display of fireworks, and yes, it holds great memories for me, and just about everyone else that I grew up with.  I am kind of old-fashioned, because I still refer to national holidays by their original name like: Independence Day, Decoration Day, George Washington Day, Abraham Lincoln Day, and across the river up down south in Canada, my family also celebrated Dominion Day.  The parade was disbanded by a former mayor of Detroit, and the fireworks were usurped by the International Fireworks celebration on a day before either of the two countries celebrate, though my current city has a wonderful fireworks celebration tied into their anniversary of going from a township to a city, but the barbecue continues.  I have to admit that neither my Bride or I are barbecue chefs.  Our one son is, and he has an elaborate smoker and barbecue apparatus, and he invited us for dinner, as he was making ribs, we also brought seven filets for him to make as well.  The ribs fell off the bone, I was a very happy camper. 

Beside bringing the filets, we brought some wine, as if you might be surprised.  We started off with Korbin Kameron Semillon Moon Mountain District 2018. For years, I would hear how some of the famed Medoc houses made a barrel or two of white wine for their own consumption.  I also heard how some of the great houses of Sauternes would make a barrel or two of dry white wine for their own personal consumption as well. I guess that I would lump this wine with those, as there was only one barrel made, or to make it easier to understand, there were twenty-five cases produced.  Normally, I try to have all the notes for this wine, I had originally tasted this wine, a day prior to the official tasting, and I bought what I could be allotted, as the following day, the entire twenty-five cases were sold.  The wine is organically made, using indigenous yeasts, it started in Stainless Steel and finished in new French Oak.  A very pretty yellow/golden colored wine which at the age of six, was still showing youthful appeal of citrus and white florals.  On the palate there was still fresh citrus, and ripe pear mingling together and ending with a nice long finish of fruit and a touch of terroir.

 I also raided the cellar for a wine that we fell in love with, when we tasted it at the winery, shipped it home, illegally at the time, put it on the rack and let it rest for a little while.  We had a bottle of St. Supery Vineyards & Winery Meritage Napa Valley Red Wine 1995.  In 1988, The Meritage Association (now The Meritage Alliance) was created to promote handcrafted wines blended from traditional noble Bordeaux varieties.  Meritage is a coined word combining merit and heritage, and is pronounced to rhyme with heritage.  The first wine with the term Meritage was the Cosentino Winery “The Poet” 1986.  This wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc and the fruit came from their Dollarhide Ranch and Rutherford Estate Vineyard.  The winery it appears now call this wine “Elu” and is still being made by winemaker Michael Scholz and consultant Michel Rolland; and the “Elu” is aged for twenty-months in French Oak, of which forty-seven percent is new, so I will go out on a limb and opine that the production for the Meritage must be quite similar.   When I removed the capsule, I thought the cork looked perfect, so I used my waiter’s key, but I had to finish opening it with The Durand, which I am glad that I packed, just-in-case.  For a twenty-nine-year-old wine, the deep garnet red color was showing no signs of foxing.  The wine offered notes of black cherries, blackberries, currants and secondary notes of graphite, anise, spices, and oak.  On the palate the tones of the fruit had mellowed along with the tannins and reminded me of many thirty-plus-year-old Medoc wines that I have had over the years.  I was very impressed, especially after I noticed that the back label said to “drink now through 2010.”    

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Dinner at Alpino Detroit

Posted on July 8, 2024 by thewineraconteur

I had just touched on the beginning of our dinner at Alpino Detroit in Corktown, after we had toured the renovated Michigan Central Station.  I was happy to have read that when Alpino Detroit was being designed they eliminated the communal tables, as I didn’t think that a restaurant that had the potential of being on the pricier side should avoid having private tables. 

The second small plate that we ordered and divided between the two of us was the Gurkensalat, which is German for “cucumber salad” and the dish was Persian Cucumbers, Pickled Shallots, Crème Fraiche, Dill, and Marigold.  It was refreshing and reminded me of the summer salads my mother made when I was a boy.  I was still in cooling-off mode, and while I normally don’t have wine with a salad, since it wasn’t a vinegar-based dressing, I thought I would try something different, that they had listed as an “Orange” wine, which seems to be a bit of a rage, but over the course of the last couple of years I have shown restraint.   I had the Perusini Ronchi di Gramogliano Ramato Colli Orientali del Friuli 2021 from Perusini Societa Agricola s.s. Perusini is one of the fifty members registered as an historical winemaker, as he tried to preserve native vines during the “fashion of the French wines” in the last century.  Giacomo Perusini, grandfather of the present owner, was responsible for the selection and planting in the Colli Orientali.  The family tradition has continued at the estate on the hills of Gramogliano edging on the Judrio River, which marked the border between Italy and Austria until 1918.  The area originally known as Colli Orientali del Friuli from 1970, became Friuli Colli Orientali (Eastern Hills of Friuli) in 2011; and known mostly for its white wines.  The soil is known as Flysch di Cormons, alternating layers of marl and sandstone.  The vineyards due to the altitudes are terraced.  The wine comes from Pinot Grigio vines planted on the top of Mount San Biagio and has a north-eastern exposure.  The unique color is obtained by a five-day cryomaceration, a pre-fermentation cold maceration process in a nitrogen saturated environment.  This eliminates the use of chemical preservatives without oxidation.  During a four-day period, with the lack of alcohol, the gentle extraction from the berries creates the unique color and the distinct flavors and nose.  The Initial Fermentation takes twelve days at low temperature to maintain the freshness of the juice.  The coppery colored wine with brick color toning offered notes of strawberries and tropical fruits.  On the palate it was a full-bodied wine with great tones of the fresh fruit promised by its nose, and finished with a good medium count of minerals (terroir).  Without the wine carte or label, I would not have thought this wine was a Pinot Grigio, as it was unique and totally interesting.

My Bride surprised me and had the Diots au Vin Blanc, French Pork Sausages, with White Savoie wine, Onion Broth, and a Mustard Rouille and a side of Rotkraut or Braised Red Cabbage.  I had the Wienerschnitzel, a Breaded Veal Cutlet, Morel Rahmsauce (a German Cream Gravy with Morel Mushrooms), topped with a Shaved Cremini Mushroom salad with a Pickled Mustard Seed Vinaigrette.   We definitely were sharing each other’s choices.  We then had Elena Walch Lagrein Alto Adige 2022, and Alto Adige is the most northerly wine region of Italy and famed for Pinot Grigio, Lagrein and Schiava.  Elena Walch has fifty-five hectares of vineyards around Alto Adige.  Elena Walch was an architect by trade and married into one of oldest wine families of the region, and now her daughters are representing the fifth generation of managing the family business.  Lagrein is considered a native of the region, as it has been recorded as far back as the 16th Century.  It exemplifies the north-Italian acidic structure that is admired and noted in the finer wines.  The fruit is hand-harvested from calcareous soils with clay and sand.  Traditional temperature-controlled Initial Fermentation for about ten days in Stainless Steel tank, followed by Malolactic Fermentation in French and Slavonian oak barrels, followed my maturation in large wooden barrels.  The wine is a deep garnet red and offered notes of wild berries, cherries, spices, and cocoa.  On the palate, I was pleased with a fresh, full-bodied wine that blended distinct tannins with red fruit, good acidity, and a finish beckoning another sip.

We should have finished, but the evening was delightful and the restaurant was filling up quite quickly.  I saw a dessert that also reminded me of my mother, a Rhubarb Tarte on Shortbread, Zabaione Mousse (a sweet and frothy custard), Braised Rhubarb, and Sweet Pistachio Pesto.  We shared the dessert and we shared a glass of Giacomo Bologna Braida Brachetto d’Acqui DOCG 2022 from the Piedmonte.  Giacomo Bologna Braida is an estate in Monferrato and is associated with Barbera wines; and they also produce other red wines, white wines and two dessert wines.  The current estate dates back to 1961 when Giacomo Bologna inherited vineyards from his father, including his nickname “Braida;” his son and daughter now run the estate.  In 1967, they began making Brachetto d’Acqui, sometimes known as Acqui, and this particular wine received its DOCG in 1966, for frizzante, spumante, passito and a rosé (2017), as long as the wine is made using the Brachetto grape variety.  There are twenty-six communes that can use this designation.  Brachetto is a black skinned grape, that is normally not blended, and in the past, there were some attempts to make a dry wine, but since the designation status, those wines are preferred.  The wine is produced by macerating the must with the grape skins for two days, to get the deep color.  After the fermentation is completed, the wine is aged in the bottle for three months or more, before being released.  The ruby red wine with fine frizzante perlage offers notes of raspberries, strawberries, and roses in a bold aromatic manner.  On the palate, the delicate frizzante accentuates the fresh fruit flavors, a very soft and a nice medium count finish of fruit.

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Michigan Central Station and Corktown

Posted on July 5, 2024 by thewineraconteur

At one time Detroit was competing with Manhattan for being the most impressive city, because of commerce.  Architecture was grand, craftsmanship and pride were at an all time high.  A Beaux-Arts Classical style train station was built, by the same team that created the Grand Central Terminal, but this was the tallest station in the world; thirteen stories with two mezzanines. The station opened in 1914 and closed in 1988.  The owner of the station allowed the building to fall into disrepair and neglect and it became the poster child for all that was negative about Detroit.  In 2011, serious discussions about the renovation began, and Ford Motor Company stepped in at 2018, and $740 Million later (original price of building the station was $15 Million), the building has reopened and will become a campus for one of their divisions.  The marble, fine woods, and all the trim for interior and exterior have returned. I remember going there at eight years of age to go by rail from Detroit to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; it was frightening and exciting at the same time and exhilarating as well.  The train was like pitch dark as it traversed the train-tunnel underneath the Detroit River to Canada, and I remember that it was a “milk-run” which meant it stopped at almost every whistle-stop along the route; and there was a mother with her children and she would announce each stop and the children would spell out the name.  Needless to say, I felt like a country lad visiting the city for the first time when we returned to see the glory of the refurbished building.   The original tickets to be Mr. & Mrs. First Nighter was done on the computer, and the first hour it was opened, it crashed from the demand.  We waited until some of the hoopla was done and one didn’t need computer generated tickets to do the tour, and the turnout was still huge.

As we entered Michigan Central Station from Roosevelt Park, we were in Corktown, the oldest extant neighborhood in the city and now on the National Register of Historic Places, and there is a section of Michigan Avenue that still is driven over the original brick paver stones. Corktown was a term used by the Old Guard of Detroit for the sudden massive influx of migrants from County Cork after the Great Famine of Ireland.  The area then saw it as a haven for German, and later Maltese and Mexican immigrants lured to Detroit for the automobile industry and Detroit was one of the original homes of the Middle Class, because of all the hard workers that came to start or support a family.  We had some time to kill so Nick and Nora, after being tourists motored over maybe four blocks from the Corktown boundaries and went to one of the original Mexican restaurants in Detroit to get a couple of Margaritas and some fresh chips and hot sals to beat the extreme heat of the day.  Then we got back in the car, as we had reservations to a restaurant that I had been wanting to try, but I had to figure out a way to make it work, as Corktown is off the beaten track, even from my old original stomping grounds.  We were going to Alpino Detroit, which as the name suggests offers cuisine from the Italian, Swiss, and French Alps, and even the majority of the wines are from the same regions.  Prior to becoming Alpino Detroit, the location housed two different Irish restaurants; St. CeCe’s Pub and Lady of the House.  We sat in their parking lot and admired some of the architecture of the original homes and buildings that we could see, until they opened the doors.

We were still in the throes of a summer heat, that evolved from heavy rains earlier in the day, which had thankfully disappeared by the time we started out adventure, but the humidity was still hovering around a hundred.  As we studied the well created regional menu, our waiter suggested we start with two small plates, so we divided the plates between us, and my Bride ordered the Rosti, a Swiss Potato Pancake with Smoked Salmon, Crème Fraiche, and Mustard Greens.  Very refreshing and a nice appetizer.  We began with Frey-Sohler Rosé Cremant D’Alsace Brut NV.  Frey-Sohler is south of Strasbourg and twenty kilometers from Germany.  Frey-Sohler estate is the sole distributer of wines belonging to the Sohler family.   It is six generations old and is now run by Damien Sohler and his daughter Aude.  The family has an estate of thirty hectares and then has another estate Terra Vitis which is a network of French winegrowing regions.  Cremant d’Alsace appellation was created in 1976, and like all Cremant wines the Methode Traditionelle must be employed, and they must spend a minimum of nine months maturing on their lees.  For rosé wines, only Pinot Noir is permitted.  The making of sparkling wines in the region is relatively recent, as they began during the Alsace-Lorraine era under German control.  The salmon-pink colored wine offered delicate bubbles and notes of strawberry, raspberry, and chamomile tea.  On the palate there are tones of strawberries, raspberries, baked bread, and a slight bitter finish of lemon rind.   

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