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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Dinner at Oakland Hills Country Club

Posted on December 21, 2013 by thewineraconteur

My dinner club had our annual Christmas dinner, but we held it at a new venue.  We ventured out to the Oakland Hills Country Club, which is a noted facility and they were the host to the 90’Th PGA Championship in 2008.  While there may be some duffers in my club, we were not there for golf.  I was one of the hosts for this meeting.

 Cristom Mt Jefferson Cuvee Pinot Noir 2011

One of the other hosts for the evening is a member of the club, and he made the dinner arrangements for the evening.  We started off with some Hors d’oeurvres which was slices of tenderloin topped with caramelized onions and bleu cheese, and the other was a Parmesan stuffed mushroom caps.  The dinner was a buffet set up, instead of a sit down dinner and it did go very smoothly.  The first course lentil soup, and then followed by salad bar.  There were dishes of Perch and Chicken Piccata with sides of whipped potatoes, Pomodoro Risotto and green bean Almandine.  For desert there was a Detroit themed Sander’s Hot Fudge Cream Puff Sundae.

 MI Oakland Hills CC MB

The hosts also provide an open bar, and there were house wines as well being served in our room.  One of the other hosts and me opted to enjoy a bottle of wine from the wine list and we decided to pay for that ourselves rather then ask the other hosts to contribute funds for our indulgence.  We had a bottle of wine from the Willamette Valley of Oregon, made by Cristom Vineyards.  The actual wine was Cristom “Mt. Jefferson Cuvee” Pinot Noir 2011.  The wine had a thin nose with not much terroir being expressed, and the color was good.  We opted for a Pinot Noir wine for a little more body, as there was both a chicken and a perch option for dinner, because they were both in a Piccata sauce preparation.  The lemon and the capers in the Piccata sauce, I find works better with a red wine, then with a white wine and a Pinot Noir wine is not as heavy as some other red wines can be.  All in all it was a fine evening and dinner, and I look forward to the next club dinner

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A Taste of Monterey

Posted on December 19, 2013 by thewineraconteur

Since this is December, the latest package of wines arrived at my house.  This is a wine shipment that I always look forward to, perhaps not the bill, but the wine.  A Taste of Monterey is a wine shop/wine club that we discovered on our first trip out to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.  The wine club has a couple of different shipment offerings, but we have stayed with the “Private Reserve Club” as I feel that this way, the best of the Monterey area wines have the potential to arrive at our door, rather then a couple of regular wines monthly.  I have always liked the idea of getting one great, rather then two mediocre in any category, like clothes or shoes.  You could say that I am high maintenance or just appreciate the finer things in life.  This is the last quarterly shipment for the year and I will discuss the three wines that arrived.

 Boete Cabernet Sauvignon 2007

The first wine is Boete Winery Cabernet Sauvignon 2007.  This winery is in the Carmel Valley and they specialize in Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc varietals.  According to the notes supplied this wine will offer the elusive terroir of the decomposed granite and limestone soil for a profound minerality of taste.  The wine stayed in barrels for twenty months prior to bottling and this wine that is entirely of the Cabernet Sauvignon has an expected aging potential of up to ten years.

 Bernardus Rosellas Chardonnay 2010

The next wine is a Bernardus Rosella’s Chardonnay 2010.  We have been to the Bernardus Winery, tried their wines in the tasting room and dined at their famous Marinus Restaurant that is in the lodge located on the winery grounds.  We have great memories of this winery.  This particular wine is made from Dijon clone Chardonnay grapes grown on the Rosella Vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands, and this vineyard is also known for their Pinot Noir grapes as well.  This particular wine was in cooperage for ten months and has an aging potential of up to six years, and there was only 201 cases produced of this wine, so I am looking forward to trying this wine for sure.

 PotBelly Vintners Port NV

The last wine of this shipment and it seems to be a tradition for December is from Pot Belly Vintners.  This wine is a blend of four different vintages from a three acre plot that only grows the Souzao varietal.  As in most traditional Port wines the fermentation has been arrested by the fortification with brandy which brings the alcohol content up to 18.5%.  The aging potential for this wine is up to twenty years.  This wine calls itself a Port wine, though the classic Port wines come from Porto in Portugal.  The Portuguese government and the winemakers have gotten a ruling that only wines from the Douro Valley can now be called Port, similar to the laws governing the usage of the word Champagne.  Though wineries that were making classic port-style wines prior to this ruling have been grandfathered in, and may continue using the word Port on the label.  There is just something always charming and pleasant about having a glass of Port after a fine meal.  Of course a fine cigar to accompany the wine is a no-no around my Bride, but I can abide by that rule in the house.

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A Blogger Cooks (Part Two)

Posted on December 17, 2013 by thewineraconteur

While still with our gracious hosts of Oliver and Nina, dinner was finished.   What would be considered the norm, when two wine Bloggers get together the conversation always returns to wine.  We were still discussing the “dirt” or terroir of the Tudor Pinot Noir that we had enjoyed with dinner, which led to the ladies discussing their enjoyment of full bodied red wines, my Bride being overly fond of Cabernet Franc and Nina mentioning Pinotage.  I had remarked that we had only tried one Pinotage wine and I was not enamored with it.  Oliver then remarked that it was only because most of the Pinotage wines that are seen in the states are poor examples of the wine, and not a true depiction of what the wine could be.  He went on to say that a true Pinotage has a taste that goes beyond terroir and has to be experienced, and then he smiled.

 Tukulu Pinotage 2007

He left the three of us and ventured over to another room and grabbed a bottle of Tukulu Pinotage 2007 and said that it was the last of his cache, but that I had to experience this unique wine.  The wine is from Darling, New South Africa and in particular from the Papkuilsfontein Vineyards, which is a joint venture of Distell, South Africa’s leading wine and spirits producer; a consortium of black entrepreneurs and a trust representing the local Groenekloof community.  Members of this community work the land.  Oliver warned me as he was opening the wine, that not only would I taste the dirt, but burned rubber, paint and petrol, not the descriptive verbiage that one thinks of, when one discusses wine.  I must say that he was right, and the first taste was overpowering, especially after the feminine mystique of the Pinot Noir; here we were being pummeled with a sledge hammer of tastes and noses.  Which is very hard to imagine from reading because Pinotage is a cross varietal of Pinot Noir and Cinsault (also known as Hermitage) and the wine shows no influence of these two European varietals.  After the initial shock to the senses of this very unique wine, it tended to grow on me, and the sledge hammer effect dissipated and we continued discussing wines, Blogging and some of the acquaintances that Oliver had made in his quest for more knowledge of wines.

 Piesporter Schubertslay Riesling Spatlese 2003

When Oliver and I were discussing wines for the dinner, I had offered to bring a desert wine as well, and Oliver said that he had something special for the evening and left it at that.  My natural curiosity was piqued to say the least, but I looked forward to it, as I was sure that it would be an aged Riesling that Oliver tends to wax poetic about on occasion, and he knew that my knowledge of the wines was lacking.  The final wine of the evening was a Vereinigte Hospitien Piesporter Schubertslay Riesling Spatlese 2003.  The Vereinigte Hospitien translates to Unified Hospitals, in the same context as the Hospices de Beaune that I recently discussed in a couple of articles.  Piesporter was a small village that has now annexed another large area of land across the river, and Oliver went and showed me some pictures from a book of the original village and of the area that is now part of this famed name.  Schubertslay is an important vineyard of the original Piesporter, while the Riesling is the name of the varietal, and Spatlese is a special term for late harvesting of some of the grapes which have more concentrated sugar content.  Outside of a few French Sauternes wines that I have had over the years, I am leery of older white wines as they tend to turn, just as a lot of red wines can turn as they age.  This golden colored wine had a wonderful nose to it, and a very rich caramel or toffee aftertaste that was not overpowering or cloying, but rich and noble.  It was a true pleasure enjoying this wine after the other three wines that we had for the evening.  While I have had some Spatlese and Auslese wines before, this aged bottle was a totally different taste and now I can truly understand why Oliver gets so emphatic about his favorite varietal.  It was a most enjoyable wine, and we were sorry to see the bottle finished as we knew the evening was coming to an end.  So as we left thanking our hosts, we wished them a fond goodbye and wishes that they enjoy their trip to Alaska, and I do look forward to reading about his adventures there.

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