Wine and Christmas

Posted on January 10, 2014 by thewineraconteur

Armenian Christmas has passed and it is now the time to pack up all of the decorations in the house.  Christmas is a major holiday here at the house.  The decorating is done the weekend after Thanksgiving and after carrying the thirty to forty cartons up from the basement, the enjoyment of wine is a great compensation.  We start so early, because the first Friday of December is the time honored date for my Bride’s “Ladies Party.”   So as I was taking down all of the decorations and finding the proper box to pack them away for another year, I took a moment to look at a couple of the decorations that I thought were germane to this blog.

 JATjatt Wedding Ornament

I have to mention that our Christmas tree is not one that would be in any of the glossy rotogravure sections of a newspaper or a periodical.  The majority of the ornaments on the tree have significant memories to us.  There are ornaments honoring children and grandchildren, and then there are silly inside jokes that only we would understand, and then there are ornaments for other family members as well.  My Bride is quite zealous about Christmas and the decorations, to the point where she almost has to hide the new decorations from me, as I complain that there is not enough space in the “closet” that I have created just to house the Christmas decorations.  The first ornament that I will mention is a bulb that features us on our Wedding, and as I look at it again, I have to question who that thin fellow is in the tuxedo next to my Bride.

 Wine Crate Ornament

The next ornament is a fun item and it commemorates the actual building of our wine cellar.  For a while I just had racks and cartons in a section of the basement, until I could actually design and build the cellar.  I have to admit that I am proud of the job that I did, though I wish that I had a little more room, but that is hindsight.  I thought that space for eight hundred bottles would suffice, silly me, as there is probably about twelve hundred bottles resting there at the moment.

 Winoseur Ornament

The last ornament is kind of a whimsical ornament, with a made up word on it.  It says “Winoseur” and I am not sure if it is a little dig that I am a wino, as I certainly do not consider myself a connoisseur.  If the word was “winosaur” I could say that I am an old dinosaur of wine stories, but hardly an expert, as I still consider myself a student of the wines.  My work for the holidays is over, as I enjoy a glass of wine and ponder where my thoughts will take me next.  I thank you all for your indulgence.

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Mystery: The Monthly Wine Writing Challenge

Posted on January 8, 2014 by thewineraconteur

“Oh, sweet mystery of life at last I’ve found you! At last, I know the secret of it all!” is the lines of the song that Madeline Kahn sings when she is with The Monster in “Young Frankenstein.”

 wine-stain Monthly Wine Challenge

Mystery is the theme that has been selected for the latest Monthly Wine Writing Challenge.  At first I was going to try to do a parody of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon.  I thought of Effie Perine, the secretary bringing in the Levantine Joel Cairo’s calling card scented with Viognier and a wine discussion between Sam Spade and Kasper Gutman and ending with Sam Spade walking into the elevator cage with Tom Polhaus carrying a bottle of wine in a brown paper bag and exclaiming “The, uh, stuff that dreams are made of.”  Then I thought of rehashing an earlier article that I wrote about one of the many Murder Mysteries that my Bride and I have hosted over the years and the wines that accompanied the dinners.  Then I thought another article that I had wrote about a puzzle that I had to put together to solve a short story.  My brain was going in a dozen different directions about what I could write about, and sometimes I am not that creative.  As a Raconteur I just relate actual stories or memories about wines.  Then another line of dialogue from a movie hit me and it made me think, it also made me think about having a glass of wine.

 Ch Ausone 1957

 Jack: If they want to drink Merlot, we’re drinking Merlot.
Miles Raymond: No, if anyone orders Merlot, I’m leaving. I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot!

 Duckhorn Merlot Three Palms Vineyard 1999

I apologize if anyone is offended by the language and I debated if I should censor the dialogue, but I decided to leave it intact.  A mystery that has haunted me, since the earliest days of my discovery and study of wines; why is the Merlot varietal so maligned and unappreciated?  From my early days I have drank and tasted Clarets from the Bordeaux region, but even from those early days I found that I really enjoyed the “Burgundy” of Bordeaux, the wines of Saint-Emilion across two rivers from Bordeaux.  It is here that the Merlot grape shines, though it is always going to take a back seat to the Cabernet Sauvignon of the Medoc.  The wines of Saint-Emilion are fuller, more supple, like a fine lady, than the heavy fist of a Pauillac, which I also enjoy.  I think that they were more “drinkable” in my youth, because they were not as heavy with tannins, which was an acquired taste.

 Marilyn Merlot Napa 1999

I am sure that part of this stems from the politics of the wine industry.  The Medoc was classified in 1855, but it took another hundred years to classify the wines of Saint-Emilion.  The pecking order even was handled differently, but as far as I am concerned a Chateau Ausone or a Chateau Cheval Blanc could rival any of the First Growths of the Medoc, and unfortunately they also command the same prices.

In the New World wines made from Merlot can be found from “jug” wines to artesian crafted wines.  The Duckhorn family I personally feel made their name from Merlot wines especially The Howell Mountain Merlot and Three Palms Vineyard.  I also have to admit that I have been a fan of the Marilyn Merlot wines for years and have enjoyed the many vintages that they have offered.  So I would have to disagree with the character Miles Raymond from the movie Sideways, that if anyone offered me a fine bottle of Merlot, I would be first in line to try a glass or two.

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A New Cabernet Sauvignon for Me

Posted on January 6, 2014 by thewineraconteur

The Christmas Holiday season has created havoc with everyone’s diets, but that is fine.  There was a big dinner for the families at a restaurant that I have written about several times already, usually with my dinner group, but my Bride and her family use this venue once a month for their “cousin’s get-together.”  There we were again at Masters Restaurant in the big back room and it was at full capacity.

 Oberon Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2011

There was a large group all ordering different dishes, without any problems perceived from the kitchen or the wait staff.  My Bride started off with an appetizer, as I had to meet her there, as I had to be elsewhere earlier that day.  Then we had salads and we both had an entrée dish of Sirloin tips over rice pilaf, as it was a different dish then I usually have there with my dinner club.  I had to laugh, because when we ordered a lemon cream dessert, our waitress looked at me, and said “you are not going to have vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup” which is the normal desert served at my club functions.

 MI The Masters Restaurant BC

When I walked into the dining area, where everyone was at, one of the first people that I met was my Brother-in-Law from Louisville and he had scoped out the wine list and touted me to order the Oberon Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2011.  He said that he was already enjoying it, and he also said that it was at a very reasonable price.  Oberon Wines are part of the Michael Mondavi Family wine group.  This wine was made from grapes grown in several different sections of Napa Valley and it was 89% Cabernet Sauvignon; the rest of the wine was from a blend of Merlot, Syrah, Petit Verdot and 5% other red wine varietals.  For a new wine it was very well made and easy to drink immediately, though the twelve months in oak, probably helped mellow the wine before we had it.  I hope that the restaurant still has this wine the next time I am there, as it was very enjoyable and I would have it again.

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A Few More Wine Gifts from Friends

Posted on January 4, 2014 by thewineraconteur

As I have stated before, and I am sure that other wine lovers can concur, that there are a lot of people that are hesitant to try to buy a bottle of wine for us as gifts.  Some people are indifferent to the concerns and buy a bottle that they enjoy and hope that we (as wine lovers) will enjoy as well.

 Hess Select Chardonnay Monterey 2008

I recently received three bottles of wine, and the first one, I have already enjoyed with some friends.  The first bottle came with a caveat that they hoped this wine was up to my standards and it was.  The wine was a Hess Select Chardonnay Monterey 2008.  My Bride and I visited Hess on our trip to Napa and I have written about it before.  This bottle while not from the Napa Valley is from the Monterey region, and I do enjoy most of the Chardonnay wines from this area.  Hess is a fine winery and I think that even their basic wines deliver quality and I will always opt for a bottle from them, where ever I am.

 Contempo Inferno NV

The second wine that I received was a proprietary red wine blend from the Fresno County area.  The wine is Contempo Inferno NV.  The blend is definitely a proprietary blend as I could not find any of the varietals listed for this wine, but I did find some reviews, and most felt that it was a good wine to serve to crowds where the nuance of the wine would be secondary to the event.  We shall see, at a later time.

 Walker Red Wine Napa Valley 2011

The third wine was Walker Red Wine Napa Valley 2011.  This is another proprietary blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah.  All three of these varietal grapes grow well in the Napa Valley.  It is a popular price wine, which should not be held against it, as not every wine from Napa Valley has to be a Screaming Eagle to be good.  Once again time will tell, when I open up this bottle of wine.

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A Small Dinner of Alumni

Posted on January 2, 2014 by thewineraconteur

Over the course of my writings, I have written about my assorted junior high reunions and assorted planning meetings.  Recently an alumna that could not make the last reunion was in town and created a mini get-together of some old friends, this is what makes social media so gratifying.  The other participants all live in the general vicinity of where the alumna was staying, so I suggested a restaurant that would be convenient for the majority, and I make the extra effort to make it down to where we would meet.

 The Wine Raconteur

There was a slight disconnect about some possible invitees, but in the end, it was a nice evening with some story telling, mainly from a raconteur, but a most enjoyable time was had.  Even cell phones were kept away from the table for the most part, until it was discovered by all of us technology challenged, that something could be achieved with our phones that was unknown to the majority of us.  All of this was discussed through several courses of food and the fact, that all of us had dined at different times at this very same restaurant.  Some even mentioned that the actual size of the restaurant had grown since the last time, they had been there, and that was news to me, as I only had short history of this location.   We all ordered different dishes of homemade Italian cuisine and we were surprised or did not remember how ample the servings were, consequently there was no room for dessert that evening, but the conversations more then made up for the missing last plate.

 Sartori Valpolicella 2009

I took it upon my self to select a red wine that I thought would be easy for everyone to enjoy with their meals.  Since some were not really into wine, I did not want to select anything too dry or tannic for the meal.  I chose a bottle of Sartori Valpolicella Classico Superiore 2009, with the grapes from the Montegradella vineyards.  This was a D.O.C. wine from the Verona area and was a Valpolicella Classico in the designation.  The Superiore means that it has been aged for at least a year by the wine maker and it had to have an alcoholic proof of twelve percent.  The grape varietals for this wine are Corvina Veronese, Corvinone, Rondinella and Croatina.  The wine had a good color, a slight nose but a very balanced taste and was very smooth and it complimented everyone’s dinner for the evening.  That was the result that I was hoping for and it was accomplished without any fanfare or heavy wine making discussion, after all we were meeting out of friendship and not for a wine dinner.

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Happy New Year

Posted on December 31, 2013 by thewineraconteur

Mumm Cordon Rouge Tres Sec 1937

It is the time of the year when everyone wants to have some sparkling wine, the tinier the bubbles the better, and a vintage Champagne just adds to the festivities.  My Bride and I wish that everyone reading this has a great New Year with plenty of love, luck, health and happiness.

Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial 1966

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A Couple of Pinot Noir Wines on Christmas

Posted on December 29, 2013 by thewineraconteur

Christmas Day is a traditional time to have dinner at my cousin’s house.  She puts on a very nice spread of food, and there is always a lot of fun and good cheer.  She starts the evening off with several favorite appetizers of Armenian food and there are several different rooms where the guests enjoy these dishes.  One could make a meal just on these plates and if you are not careful there will be no room for the main course, as everyone is just nibbling and having good conversations and maybe a beer or a cocktail as well.  Then she puts out a fine spread for dinner, this year there were two different preparations of beef tenderloin, one in a traditional mode and one with Moroccan seasonings all cut into medallions for the dinner with gravy, and Armenian pilaf and several different side dishes and salads as well.  If one was not sated by the end of the meal, it was their own fault, as the food was all excellent.  Then there was the assortment of desserts, just to make sure that you did not leave hungry.  How can one not enjoy a great Christmas dinner?

 Russian Hill Pinot Noir 2007

There were several wines being poured that evening, but I thought that I would focus on two different Pinot Noir wines both from the Russian River Valley of Sonoma in California.  The first bottle of wine that was opened was a Mac Murray Ranch Pinot Noir 2011.  I wrote about this wine and their 2010 vintage, and the 2011 vintage was fine, but would probably enjoy some cellar time for added value.  This winery was originally a cattle ranch owned by the late actor Fred Mac Murray and later became a winery through his children, who changed the arrangements of the land.  The wine had good color, and was a good California Pinot Noir although lacking the terroir that one would expect from a classic wine, but it may develop some more nuances as this was a very young wine.

 MacMurray Ranch Pinot Noir 2011

The second bottle that we had was one that I brought over, besides a nice bottle as a gift, which I left untouched.  This bottle that we opened was a Russian Hill Estate Pinot Noir 2007.  This was a bottle that we discovered at a wine tasting in Charlotte, North Carolina and we were very impressed with it, even in its youth.  There was more body and character to this wine, than was found in the first wine, even though they are from the same area, and perhaps part of it was due to the extra cellaring time.  Russian Hill Estate started in 1997 and they offer several different Pinot Noir wines, a Chardonnay, a Syrah and a Viognier; they do not try to offer every popular varietal of California.  This wine had better reception from some of the wine drinkers that evening.

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A Couple of Different Wines

Posted on December 27, 2013 by thewineraconteur

Normally there seems to be a rhyme or a rhythm to our choices of wines that we drink, but this is not one of those articles.  It seems that wines that I write about are following a certain path, or we had similar wines, but these two wines are just grouped together as they were tried in two succeeding days, which is about as much of a theme as I can fathom from them, as you will see.

 Tire Swing Big Little Brut NV

The first wine was a bottle of wine that my Bride received as a birthday gift from one of her girlfriends, and she was raving how this wine has become one of her favorites, and she is known for usually drinking only Chardonnay wines.  It is from Big Little Wines on the Leelanau Peninsula in Suttons Bay, Michigan, and that whole area has just grown and grown with wine makers and vineyards, since the first days that we have driven up there.  The wine makers are a “big” and “little” brother that have developed a vineyard and are using the facilities of another winemaker to make their own wines.  Hence we had Big Little Tire Swing Sparkling Wine Brut NV.  This is a multi-vintage sparkling wine that had a very festive feel to it, and is a blend of Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir varietals, all which seem to grow quite well in that area of Michigan.  There were 186 cases of this wine produced and I would enjoy another bottle or two of it again.

 Home Made Wine

The other wine that I had was a wine that I have not had; perhaps subconsciously I have avoided it, since my youth.  I received four bottles of home-made wine, that I will show a picture of three of the bottles in a brown shopping bag, as the wine bottles, which were sterilized still had the original wine labels from another life on them.  This wine, in my area where I grew up, and I am sure in other areas, is commonly referred to a “Dago Red” wine, while perhaps not “politically correct” is an endearing and traditional name for this wine.  I had asked him, the “wine-maker” if he had used Primitivo, like they did back in the old country and he told me “no” as that it was too expensive, so he was using Zinfandel from California.  I laughed and told him, that the two varietals have been discovered to be one and the same and that made him smile.  I have not been a fan of Zinfandel wines in general, from the memories of the bitter wines that I remember were made in the old neighborhood, but I graciously accepted the gift, because that is my nature.  When I told my Bride about the wines, she kind of made a face, but I said, let us try them, as we have nothing to loose.  I was pleasantly surprised at how smooth this gentleman’s wine was, it had none of the harshness that I remembered, though there were not any nuances of terroir either.  My earliest memories of “Dago Red” wines were of the foul nose of egg whites that always bothered me from back in the Sixties, and this wine exhibited none of that, which was a pleasant surprise.  What was even more surprising is that my Bride actually had a couple of refills of the wine, and she was impressed at how well balanced the wine was.  So now I shall look more respectfully at this type of wine again, and not always presume it will always be the same, and that all wines are reliant on the quality of the “vintner” and his artistry.

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Merry Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2013 by thewineraconteur

Wine Cellar Far Wall

My Bride and I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and thank you for taking the time to read my recollections.  All the best of love, luck, health and happiness to you all.

KY Churchill Downs Club House 01

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A Couple of Early Christmas Gifts

Posted on December 23, 2013 by thewineraconteur

It is that time of year, when the cellar will get raided for some gifts to give over the Christmas season.  The funny thing is that the wines seem to go in cycles, in what seems to go out each year.  For some years in a row, it was Clarets in all of the different permutations of the blends, then there were the years of Merlot wines, and now Pinot Noir seems to be in the cycle.  Some people will try to buy wines from the cellar, thinking that if it is there, it must be good, and they do not have to do any shopping, because the research has already been performed.  This is all fine and good as there are a few bottles there, and I don’t think that my Bride and I will run out of wine in the foreseeable future.  The magical part of the season, is that some individuals will buy wine as gifts for us, while others are intimidated.

 Terrabianca Campaccio Toscana 2007

One of the gifts that I received is an Italian wine with Toscana IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica), which only a few years ago, because it was not a DOGG wine, would have had to list itself as a table wine.  These are the “Super Tuscany” wines that had taken a lot of press and interest these days.  The DOGG wines of Tuscany are made of Sangiovese grapes; these new wines have introduced horror of horrors, French varietals that are not local and traditional to the area; mainly Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.  The bottle that I received was a Terrabianca Campaccio Toscana IGT 2007.  This wine is 70% Sangiovese and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon.  This particular wine has had some good reviews and it seems that it will be best from 2014 to 2027, which tells me that should cellar well, and be a most enjoyable wine.  I am sure that I have the patience to delay opening the wine without too much problems, and I am sure that I will still find a wine in the cellar to enjoy in the meantime.

 Peller Icewine Cabernet Franc and Icewine Truffles

Another gift that we received was a gift set from Peller Estates with a VQA Niagara Peninsula designation from Ontario, Canada.  The last time, my Bride and I were up near the falls, we stopped at a couple of the wineries and did some tastings, and Peller Estates was one of the stops.  This particular gift set is a small bottle; I would say the size of an airline bottle of wine of Peller Estates Cabernet Franc Icewine NV and some dark chocolate Icewine Truffle candies as well.  A lot of the Icewines that we tried from this region was of the Vidal varietal, and when my Bride was informed that it was a Cabernet Franc, she was very interested.  Perhaps I may even get a chance to try it, if I am a good boy.

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