A Mexican Restaurant

Posted on May 26, 2014 by thewineraconteur

I come from Southwest Detroit, so I did have a chance to enjoy some Mexican dinners in my life, though back in my day, the area for the Mexican restaurants was a more finite area. Now in my old neighborhood it is everywhere, and in fact the same could be said for most of the suburbs around Detroit as well. From my earliest days when I learned to enjoy Mexican restaurants and cuisine, I had discovered Mole Sauce (to this day I still cannot get an accent mark above letters). Mole Sauce tends to be a rich sauce that is made with Mexican Chocolate, and the flavor tends to be spicy rather then sweet, when one hears of the major ingredient. Years ago I enjoyed Mole Sauce with ribs, though now it seems that it is paired with chicken, which is fine. In fact I tend to question the “authenticity” of a Mexican restaurant if there is not Mole Sauce on the menu, as I tend to presume that it is a Mexican restaurant geared for Americans and just cover everything with cheese.

Stone Cellars Chardonnay NV

We discovered a wonderful restaurant by accident in a strip center in one of the suburbs around Detroit, by word of mouth. We have gone there often since our first introduction and we have never been disappointed even when it is packed with diners, the food and the service have still been great. Las Palapas has always pleased us, even the fresh Nacho chips are a hit. Add the sauce and some Guacamole dip and I could almost make a dinner from the appetizers. When I get the Chicken and Mole Sauce, I am a happy camper. While my Bride sometimes orders the same dish, she also tends to enjoy the Steak Fajitas though they end up giving her enough for two dinners. I know that they have dessert there, but we never seem to have any room left to try any of the choices.

MI Las Palapas BC

I tried to order wine with the dinner, but the wine list is a bit of an afterthought and probably so, as most people think of having beer with Mexican food. They had Stone Cellars California Chardonnay NV as one of the wine choices, and on the menu they are just listed by varietal. On the right day, this may be just as enjoyable as a beer with the dinner, as it is a crisp non-fussy Chardonnay. Try as a might when I go there I still end up succumbing to the house Margarita, which is offered both on the rocks or frozen. They pride themselves on making a huge batch of this drink every morning and allow it to mellow during the day and while it is the house drink, I have never had a better Margarita before or since I first have tried theirs. Tequila is one of the major liquors at Las Palapas, and I noticed on the drink card the long list of different tequilas they offer by the shot and one of them is $90.00 a drink, no I haven’t tried it, as I can get carried away enough with wine. So I guess that I shall continue to forgo wine on the occasions when we stop at this restaurant and go native.

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A Charity Event in Detroit

Posted on May 24, 2014 by thewineraconteur

Periodically I attend charity events that I write about, only if there is wine involved in the evening. Recently I went to a black tie optional event, unfortunately without my Bride, as she always makes any affair even more special. The event was the first year celebration of a mentor program to help high school young men better prepare themselves to attend college, a noble concept. The program was spearheaded by a local television journalist in the Detroit area and it was very well attended. The event was held at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History located in Wayne State University campus area of the city. This was the first time I had attended this museum and it is a block over from the famed Detroit Institute of Arts, which I have visited often over the years since my elementary school education days.

Canyon Road Cabernet Sauvignon 2012

I was attending this event through the largesse of an associate of mine as he was making a very generous gift to the top three students of a group of fourteen. With the benefit of his donation we had “V.I.P.” tickets which allowed us to go to a special early affair prior to the actual event. There was live entertainment and a special buffet set up for everyone to have hot and cold appetizers and a chance to mingle; and especially as a chance to meet the young men that were being honored for the evening. This area was in a side room in the museum that featured some beautiful pieces of art, but unfortunately the lighting was a bit too dim, for picture taking in the room. I have to say that the mentors did an exceptional job, as the young men were very polished and gregarious as they introduced themselves to the guests in the room. There was also television cameras recording parts of this special group and a special wall erected for photo ops with the logos of the event and some of the major sponsors, and there was another wall erected outside of museum with a road carpet at the entrance for another chance for photo ops. It had the “feel” of an Academy Award night.

MI CGP Booklet

Along with the buffet of appetizers, there was bar set up in one corner of the room with a selection of beer, liquor and wines for the guests to enjoy. There were four wines being served and I tried two of the wines so that I could write about them. The wines offered were a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Merlot, a Chardonnay and a Moscato. The two wines that I tried were both made by Canyon Road Winery of Modesto, California. The Canyon Road Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 had the generic California designation, but it tasted like what one would expect a Cabernet Sauvignon to taste like, which is a good thing. The room was getting warm, and I decided to switch over to a chilled wine especially as more people started coming into the room. Normally one goes from a white wine to a red wine, but I ended up doing it in reverse. I started drinking the Canyon Road Chardonnay 2012 and enjoyed it better then the red wine that I started with. This wine also had the generic California designation and it was a crisp Chardonnay rather then the buttery oakey wine that one encounters from the Napa Valley area and it just hit the spot, at least for this scribe who was making notes as well as enjoying the evening.

Canyon Road Chardonnay 2012

After this salon closed we then attended the main event in an auditorium where there was music, awards and accolades both for the mentors and the graduates. It was a polished event, even on their first night, so you could appreciate all the work the planners did. As a side note, from my clothier days, I appreciated how there was even a couple times where they mentioned the fact, that they taught the young gentlemen even the fine art of how to tie a necktie and I was glad to see that it was a Windsor Knot.

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“You Are Getting Sleepy…Sleepy”

Posted on May 22, 2014 by thewineraconteur

If you are of my generation that grew up watching black and white “B” movies on television when there was only six channels, then you remember hearing the above statement when there was a hypnotic experiment occurring whether for nefarious means or not. We went to see Kevin Lepine “Hypnosis Unleashed” at a theater in Royal Oak, Michigan. Kevin is a friend of the family and since he lives in Las Vegas, he even attended our son’s nuptials that I recently wrote about. Kevin was selected as “The Best of Las Vegas 2013” and is a nightly headliner at the Hooters Casino Hotel. The show was ribald, risqué, off colored and totally Politically Incorrect, so he had the audience roaring in their seats during the entire show. “I want my volunteers to have the time of their lives. Volunteers have more fun than the audiences. You will do insane things, but you will never be humiliated” are the statements that are repeated often by Kevin as he is looking for members of the audience to join him on the stage. While it is all true, it is said with a certain tongue-in-the-cheek attitude and a devilish sparkle in his eye. Suffice it to say that none from our table were volunteers and I might add that none of Kevin’s family who came for the show was either.

Kevin Lepine

We met our son and his new wife at The Royal Oak Brewery as they were treating us to a night out, as his Mother’s Day (and possibly Father’s Day) present. The restaurant was just around the corner from where Kevin was performing so it was a good location. My Bride and I got there very early, so we got a table and waited for them to join us, and since she was hungry we got an appetizer plate to share of Nacho Chips, Salsa and Guacamole. The restaurant since it is beer oriented, offered food that was more beer-centric and friendly, which to me meant salty, so that people should order an extra beer or two. When the newlyweds arrived we ordered our dinners, and since my Bride and I were sated, we shared an order of Jambalaya, which was very tasty, though I found the idea that there were only two pieces of shrimp in the order, a tad disconcerting especially when I think of the Jambalaya dishes that we have enjoyed down in Louisiana. The food was good and it is one of the favorite dining establishments in Royal Oak for the newlyweds, so it worked out well for the evening. In fact the last time we saw Kevin perform, my Bride and I ate elsewhere and met them at the theater, and they had dined at The Royal Oak Brewery that time as well.

MI The Royal Oak Brewery Coaster

With the name of The Royal Oak Brewery, one can imagine what the beverage of choice is, and I will say that it was not wine. The wine card had a total of nine choices of wine all priced at $6.50 a glass or $24.00 a bottle. They offered four white wines, a Chardonnay, a Pinot Grigio, a Riesling and a Moscato. The five red wines that were offered were a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Merlot, a Malbec, a Pinot Noir and Ménage a Trois (a blend of Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot). My Bride ordered a glass of the Lindeman’s Bin 65 Chardonnay 2013 from South Eastern Australia. This is more of a bulk wine, and it was fine in the setting and she was happy enough with it. I ordered a glass of Dona Paula Los Cardos Malbec 2012 from Mendoza, Argentina. The wine at first was on the bitter side, but mellowed a bit in the glass, but not what I would call a fine example of a Malbec wine. When the Jambalaya arrived I switched over to a Canyon Road Pinot Grigio from California in anticipation of some heat in my dish. The heat was not there, but the Pinot Grigio was the best of the three wines that we had during dinner. During the show we enjoyed cocktails and towards the end of the evening I was getting sleepy…sleepy (not really).

Dona Paula Los Cardos Malbec 2012      Lindeman's Bin 65 Chardonnay 2013

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The New Bulk Wines

Posted on May 20, 2014 by thewineraconteur

I have always been a champion for the independent merchant, the local butcher, the local fish monger, even the local clothier, which I have many years of experience to back up that belief. I had a short attempt in the corporate world of retail and decided that it was not for me. I guess that I have always enjoyed the concept of the immediacy of the moment, and not having to go through a labyrinth of corporate structure to get something accomplished. Be that as it may, I even prefer a local restraunteur over the cookie-cutter approach to food, even when the cookie-cutter is at the expensive end of the spectrum. I mean once you have eaten at a fine steak house, that is part of a chain, you know that the experience will be the same at another one a thousand miles away. I know that I have wrote about them, and I am not trying to start a debate, but when we do go away on holidays, I prefer to try a local restaurant in a new town to savor the local foods and flavor of any area.

Kirkland Sonoma County Chardonnay 2012

I guess this is just my introduction to discuss, what I view as the next wave of bulk wines. When I was a kid most of the bulk wine was found in markets in the handy-dandy gallon jugs of wine that proclaimed Zinfandel, Hearty Burgundy or California Red Wine. There was a market for that wine then, and there is still a market for generic wines today. For every artisan winery that is a start up business, it seems that I read about how another winery has been bought by a large conglomerate. Some of these large conglomerates are strictly beverage houses, but some produce all types of other products as well. I look at the beer industry and marvel at all of the new breweries that are popping up all over the landscape, and then I think of how years ago, how I stopped drinking beer. It seems that one of the larger beer companies decided to stop producing a Cream Porter that I so enjoyed, because it had a distinct taste and so distant from the lagers and ales that were available at the time.

Kirkland Napa Valley Meritage 2007

I think of the new jug wines that I am seeing, not from a winery, but as a brand from a commercial big box chain. The wine is just another branded item for them, no different from paper products, mixed nuts and food. The only difference is that these mass generic bottling of wines arrive in the classic format of traditional bottle of wine. I have some knowledge of the world of generic wines, as I have bought wines labeled Bordeaux, Bordeaux Superior, Medoc, Haute Medoc and even some that say Margaux. I have also bought wines that say Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and the likes of all of the other varietals, especially when they become trendy. We just tried a bottle of Kirkland Sonoma County Chardonnay 2012. This is the second Kirkland brand of wine that we have tried and I have to admit that it tasted like what I expected a Chardonnay wine from Sonoma to taste like, albeit with out the nuances that one would encounter from a small boutique winery. I think that the spillage of wine in the production may be the equivalent of another small winery’s total output. I have also tried a Kirkland Napa Valley Meritage 2007 that I wrote about before, which also achieved the taste that I expected from a Meritage style wine. The two wines that I have tried from the Kirkland brands were both good, I just wonder if the demand of fruit that they require to service all of their stores will cause a shortage of grapes for other wineries. Will it one day be Estate Winery offerings and the new generics?

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A Garden Wedding

Posted on May 18, 2014 by thewineraconteur

I remember that we were driving and it seemed forever to get to a wedding site out near Holly, Michigan. It was a very pastoral area, and I thought for sure that we had made a wrong turn and we were lost, that is what happens when you get a city boy out of the city. We were part of a small group attending to celebrate a couple who each were each getting married for a second time. The ceremony and reception was being held at The Secret Garden, and I remember thinking how appropriate for the destination, as I was sure that it was a secret. We finally got there and parked our car and proceeded up a walkway and there in the middle of nowhere was this delightful 16’th Century Tuscan structure, it was gorgeous, with a patina of age that made it appear that it had been transported centuries ago and forgotten about until that day. The structure was a large semi covered garden where the ceremony was to be held in the garden and all of the guests were seated at tables surrounding the perimeter of the garden under roofs to protect the diners.

La Marca Piave Cabernet Sauvignon 1990

I was intrigued by the structure and how it looked so perfect in the setting, but I knew that it was like being on a cinema location where they could not find the proper structure, so they built it. It was perfect in all aspects of taking all of the guests to a more romantic and genteel era and it was beautiful. Everywhere you looked, the walls with frescos, the pillars, the plaster, the statuary and gates; all had been finished to have a patina of being there for centuries. In talking to some of the staff, I discovered that this was the first of seventeen planned structures each with its own unique personality. There was to be a Japanese Garden, a Hidden Garden, a Moss Garden, and English Garden among others, as well as a Labyrinth and a Maze all located on some 78 acres.

Bolla Soave Classico 1993

The tables were set up for eight dinners in like little porches and everyone was seated in such a way that the center garden was the focal point for everyone, and the wait staff brought out the food and drinks almost unseen. The ceremony and later dancing was in the courtyard of the garden, while the guests could stay under the protection of the roofline from the sun, and thankfully there was no inclimate weather. The dinner was started off with a classic interpretation of a Caesar Salad. The entrée was a Surf and Turf variation of Filet Medallions and Grilled Salmon.

The Secret Garden

There was a well stocked bar, but I was going to enjoy some of the wine of the evening. Whether the wine was selected to add to the ambiance of the Tuscan structure or just by happenstance the white and the red wine were both from Italy. The white wine was a Bolla Soave Classico 1993 and comes from a village just East of Verona. The Classico designation means that the fruit was harvested from hillside vineyards around Soave and Monteforte d’Alpone, the two villages that have the designation for this wine. It is a crisp wine that reminds one of a Chardonnay, but a bit more bitter or dryer then would be expected. The rules are that 70% of this wine has to be of the Garganega varietal, and that it may be blended with 30% of other grapes, but only 15% of it can be from Trebbiano di Soave, also known as Verdicchio or Nestrano, and there may also be Pinot Chardonnay. They also protect the local grapes and allow up to 5% of the blend to have Friulano, Cortese, Riesling Italiano, Vespaiolo and Serfrina. All the wines from Soave are white. The red wine for the evening was La Marca Piave Cabernet Sauvignon 1990 and this comes from the province of Venezie, near the Piave River. This area of Italy is rather unique in that it is mostly planted with French grape varietals that were brought over in the late 19’Th Century. Merlot is the leading varietal for this area and accounts for about 60% of the production.

Table Side at the Secret Garden

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The Rio Grill in Carmel

Posted on May 16, 2014 by thewineraconteur

One of the great things for a wine lover is to be in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Carmel Valley is just on the other side of the highway and that means wine and food, of course that is also true in Carmel. On one of our many driving trips into the valley to discover wineries we discovered little towns and shopping and even worked up an appetite.

Ch Julien Chardonnay 2001
One of the places that we had lunch was at Rio Grill, which was located at The Crossroads, a charming outdoor mall and when we were there, there were a couple of fine men’s shops that I had to wander around in, and there were also a couple ladies shops, not to mention a luggage shop, and I only mention this, because on this particular trip we had bought so much, we had to buy a monster rolling suitcase to pack all the additional items that we had to take back. I do digress at times, and since we had worked up an appetite, we went into the Rio Grill for lunch, looking for something to hold us over until our dinner reservations that evening. This restaurant not only had a nice selection of wines, but quite a varied selection of dishes to choose from as well. My Bride is always sensible, especially at lunch and ordered a salad with beans, black eyed peas and an avocado dressing, and I naturally went for something light as well; I ordered grilled prawns. We were so good about having something light for lunch; we even shared a wonderful chocolate flan afterwards.

CA Rio Grill MB

The wine list was very extensive for this venue and it leaned heavily into the local wineries of the area, and I think rightfully so. We have visited a couple of the same wineries each time we have gone to Carmel, and we had a bottle of wine that we had just tasted the day before at Chateau Julien, which is a charming place to visit if you get a chance to go there. We enjoyed a bottle of Chateau Julien Barrel Fermented Chardonnay 2001 that was more buttery and oakey, rather then a crisp Chardonnay that is usually encountered in this area. Evidently not all of the fruit came from their estate as it is designated Monterey County, rather then Carmel Valley and it was still a great bottle of wine. There is just something grand about being in wine country.

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Mother’s Day

Posted on May 14, 2014 by thewineraconteur

“So I said, ‘Where do you want to go for your anniversary?’ She said, ‘I want to go somewhere I’ve never been before.’ I said, ‘Try the kitchen!'” Henny Youngman in Goodfellas and almost every other television and nightclub spot in his career.

Boete Cabernet Sauvignon 2007
I have to say, that my Bride has always known where our kitchen is, and on Mother’s Day, she was there in all of her glory preparing another dinner that we were going to load into the sedan and take to her Mother’s home for a dinner for all of the families. I sometimes think that perhaps we need a paneled truck or a custom fitted vehicle with a kitchen in the back, but as I have written often, she is always game for making a dinner, and the more the merrier.
She was making a dinner to go, and what a dinner. She was making sautéed chicken, filet mignon medallions, lasagna, fettuccini Alfredo (her newest dish) and an assortment of side dishes as well. The whole morning was non-stop activity in the kitchen, and I was a wise man and tried to avoid the maelstrom. Actually I got off pretty easy as all I had to do was carve the medallions after the whole tenderloin was cooked. She is not partial to large kitchen knives, so I have to get the stone and sharpen the knives; I guess I have the easiest job of the day in hindsight.

Sterling Chardonnay 2012
Not only was the dinner transported, but so was all of the other items necessary for the dinner, I think she should be a caterer, in another life, but we also took some wine as well. We started the day of with one of our standby wines Sterling Chardonnay, though this time it was Sterling Chardonnay 2012 from the Central Coast. My Bride has been buying this wine by the case for the last year or so, as it is so dependable and just a good basic Chardonnay. It is a more crisp type, indicative from the Central Coast, instead of the buttery, oak wines found further North. The other wine we enjoyed was a wine from our wine club, and we have had the same wine from an earlier vintage. We opened up a bottle of Boete Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 and the fruit was from their Saunders Vineyard. The notes for this wine when we received it said that it would age for ten years or so, and even though we opened it only a year after its release date, it was excellent and was perfect with the filet medallions. It was full bodied, but had started to mellow and as it breathed, it even opened up more from the initial tasting. This was a fine wine from the Carmel Valley and the vintner did a fine job with his craft. We enjoyed a couple of nice wines and it was a great way to celebrate Mother’s Day along with a fine dinner.

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What Wine Goes With Leftovers?

Posted on May 12, 2014 by thewineraconteur

I wrote about all the preparations to get the Sunday afternoon reception done for friends and family of the happy couple. Needless to say, there was way more food made then was necessary, which tends to be the norm when my Bride begins cooking for a group. During cleanup, she was making “doggie bags” for anyone that wanted to take food home and there were plenty of takers. I mean there are families that have teenagers and that is a bottomless pit when trying to sate them with food. She was happy to inform me, that all the desserts were gone, but we still had some “doggie bags” of food that we took home.

Edna Valley Vineyard Paragon Chardonnay 2011

Now I am not complaining, because my Bride is an excellent cook, and my growing girth is a testament to that fact, oh for the days when I had a thirty-two inch waist, gone only with photographs of that memory. We still had ample amounts of roast chicken, Fettuccini Alfredo and the gluten-free Armenian Pilaf that she had made; and as a side note she had told me that she used an extra stick of butter to help disguise what she had done, all in the name of keeping dietary concerns of some of the guests happy. I have to admit, that the food was too delicious to discard, so we enjoyed the dinner repeatedly over several evenings.

La Crema Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2012
The only difference was the wine we had for the meals. Now you have to remember that it was technically leftovers, so we did not get too fancy, but the wines did help, especially by the second day of repeats. The first wine that we enjoyed was Edna Valley Vineyard “Paragon” Chardonnay 2011 from the AVA Central Coast of California. The winery is located in San Luis Obispo which has its own AVA, and there is an area known as Edna Valley AVA that saw a revival of interest when two large vineyards were planted, namely Paragon and Chamisal, so with the name Paragon on the label I guess that I may surmise that some of the fruit blended into the wine came from this vineyard. This was more of a crisp Chardonnay wine, more representative of this area, as compared to the oakey wines encountered further North in the state. The other wine that we opened to finish off the leftovers was La Crema Chardonnay 2012 from Sonoma Coast AVA. This is a much more advertised and commercially known brand and there is a touch of oak and butter to this wine, a smoother taste and less crisp. Even though they were both California Chardonnay wines they offered two different tastes for our dinners, but they both were fine for our meals and they did enhance the meals.

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Is It Just Me?

Posted on May 10, 2014 by thewineraconteur

“I can’t take it anymore, Felix, I’m cracking up. Everything you do irritates me. And when you’re not here, the things I know you’re gonna do when you come in irritate me. You leave me little notes on my pillow. Told you 158 times I can’t stand little notes on my pillow. “We’re all out of cornflakes. F.U.” Took me three hours to figure out F.U. was Felix Ungar!”

Gifts Waiting To Be Put Away                                               More Purchases

That quote has got to be one of the greatest riffs ever wrote by Neil Simon and sometimes I think that I waver between the two characters of Oscar and Felix. I guess I am just plagiarizing all over the board, because not only from that quote, but the title is a tag line for a national syndicated columnist, author and radio host as well, but I have to ask “is it just me?”

Two Cases in the Cellar                                       Purchases

I say this because as I wander around my home there are bottles of wine everywhere, not empty bottles, but wines that I have not gotten myself motivated to make tags for and then have to rearrange the bottles in the racks in my cellar. That is not to brag about the cellar, it just shows the dichotomy of my personality. I mean I enjoy having the wine and the ability to grab almost any type of wine that my Bride or I desire at any given moment, but I do enjoy the sanity of a neat environment, but that is not always the case. Especially when there are cases of wine to put away, and I wonder if other Bloggers and collectors sometimes face this same inertia.

More Bottles Waiting   Case Plus

There are times when I buy a case of wine or even just a couple of bottles, then there are times when my Bride buys a case of wine or more, especially when she sees one of her favorite every day bottles of wine on special at the wine shop or market. Then there are the odd bottles that we receive from friends as gifts, and other assorted moments of acquisition.

Aisle in the Cellar

You see the cellar is not big, but it was designed to fit into the confines of the area in the basement that could be best utilized for storage. I am just an average size man, but the space in the aisle between the racks of wine is narrow enough that I can not turn around. I mean that if I was some classic wines from the long rack wall I must step into the cellar one step in and then side step down the aisle until I find the selection; Chardonnay and then the other assorted whites, Rose, Clarets, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Meritage, other assorted reds, and then Italian, Spanish and then World Wide. If I want dessert wines, or Champagnes; then I must step into the cellar backwards and then side step until I get the right section. It is because of the tightness of the room, I believe that causes my inertia periodically, until I have enough bottles to take a couple of hours to rearrange the wines. This is not a piece that I am writing to brag, more it is a piece to get me self motivated to do this bit of labor. If the cellar were only a little bigger…

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My Second Anniversary as a Blogger

Posted on May 8, 2014 by thewineraconteur

According to the all seeing and all knowing publisher of mine, it has been two years since I registered for an account. I have mentioned in my own non-technical style a lot of wine in that time, and perhaps to the chagrin of some there are still a lot more stories in this old raconteur. I am pondering that I have had the discipline to write over five hundred and fifty articles so far, and I am still having fun, most of the time. I am not the most knowledgeable author, and I am not sure that I could pass a taste for a sommelier, and then I would be a lousy one at that, because I would try to regale them with stories, rather then allow them to have dinner. I have discovered that there are some really friendly and great Bloggers that I have met, so far one in person, and I hope that in time I can meet more of you. I have also discovered that there are a group of Bloggers that for some odd reason want to “follow” you, in hopes of quid pro quo, and then you never hear from them again. Some of the Bloggers I will grant you, do not write about wine, but are doing other subjects and I try to follow them all.

The Wine Raconteur
Maybe there is something wrong with me, but I try to “like” and encourage every Blogger, especially that write about wine, if only marginally, as I know that it feels good to get a positive response from someone else. I am amazed at how indifferent some writers are towards their fellow writer, but I guess that is human nature and some people are just aloof and have no interest in anyone’s Blog except their own. I remember the day that I registered my name, and discovered that even with the myriad of wine blogs that my name was free and it was my first choice; I figured that was a good omen. I remember being daunted about writing my first article, and then I just sat down and wrote about six at the first sitting, and then I started to feel comfortable about it. Though to this day, I wonder if anyone cares, but I know that I have learned a lot more about wine since I began writing, and especially from reading all of the others that I follow.
I have always tried to work, and I am by no means a rich man (monetarily, but I feel rich in other ways), but I have had the good fortune to have enjoyed some legendary wines and some great meals. I have also had my share of mediocre and shabby wines and meals as well, and I even write about them. If one only drank Chateau Latour, one would have nothing to compare it to, and think that all wines should taste like that. I am an individual that enjoys to “wine and dine” as they used to say, in my Father’s generation. I hope that you enjoy that I try to make my stories personal, because the enjoyment of wine is personal, and that I tend to include my Bride in the stories when I feel that she contributes to the story, as she has contributed richly to my life.
I just went and reread my first article and I guess I can say that it still holds true and since it is short and sweet, I will just copy it here, rather then the use of hyper-links.

Ch Ausone 1957
Introduction
Posted on May 4, 2012 by thewineraconteur
My name is John and I have a passion for and romance for the wines. I can sing praises about the wonders of wine. People have suggested that I should start a blog and I thought first why should I blog, when there are great periodicals and websites that rate wines and technical facts. Well, currently I have the time to be reflective and retrospective. That would not be my intention, I am more a raconteur, and I shall wax poetic about stories and incidents that have fueled my ardent passion for the wines.
I came from humble beginnings growing up in southwest Detroit, not a major center for wines, especially in the sixties. It was a working class area, that had many watering holes, but they were establishments where one could have a few beers or shots with friends, not the place to study the nuances of the toil of the winemakers.
It is from this location, that I eventually discovered “the grape” and I have been discovering it ever since. At times I may seem to be rambling in my expositions, and I probably will. Stories may be short and sweet, or long depending on my muse.

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