Apache Trout Grill in Traverse City, Michigan

Posted on July 14, 2013 by thewineraconteur

At one time Traverse City, Michigan was a quiet little resort town in Northern Michigan.  It is no longer quiet, as it has been discovered not only by Michiganders, but it has become a resort playground even for the city of Chicago and other states as well.   Without sounding like a commercial for “Pure Michigan” Traverse City has blossomed, where once cherry arbors were the norm, it has become a booming wine center for Michigan and not just for “jug” wines as some people presume, because it is in Michigan.  There are serious vintners that have discovered the area and one could easily spend a week there stopping at wineries and sampling the wares offered.  Also the area has become famous for “foodies” as well, no longer are there little restaurants, even though the area was famous for a couple of restaurants for years, now there is an abundance of fine dining establishments, far too many to even cover in a month-long vacation.

 Ch Chantal Gewurztraminer 2002

I was allowed to tag along with my Bride, on one of her many trips to this area for a conference, which is also a big business up there as well.  At some of the conferences, not every night is a dinner en masse, so groups of friends go out and discover new little gems, to discuss the next day and the months after.   I have the good fortune to know people that have summer residences in this part of the state, and they always wish to talk about a “hot” restaurant that they have already dined at, and I have always listened and taken notes.  On one of the trips a group of us went to Apache Trout Grill in Traverse City, which has the ambience of a rustic lodge that Hollywood would have created for a set.  It is a beautiful restaurant on the water, and the charming atmosphere that any restaurant would aspire to, especially in Traverse City.  I must insert a caveat that the match book that I am showing, when I asked for some matches they brought me this box, but the matchbox is actually from a tobacconist in Traverse City.   Fish is a natural entrée when one is in Northern Michigan and a restaurant called Apache Trout Grill certainly takes advantage of the Great Lakes.  There was a small group of us there one evening, and everyone was ordering plates of fish and even though one of the standards of this restaurant is Short Ribs, I refrained and followed the crowd as we had a feast of seafood.  We all shared each other’s appetizers, as well as trying the different choices of fish, and each of us ordered a different plate, just for that reason.  It was a wonderful choice for the evening, and we started the night early, as they do not take reservations, as I recall.  To us that just means getting there early and starting good times and memories a little earlier, rather then later; because sometimes a head start just makes the evening last longer.

 MI Apache Trout Grill MB

The restaurant also likes to feature some of the best wines from the local area, and since we have been to many of the wineries as well, it was all familiar.   Some of the ladies in our group were a little apprehensive about having wine as they felt that it may be too overpowering or too dry for their tastes.  As I was studying the wine list, I told them that I found a great wine for us to enjoy on this pleasant summer evening.  I started by relaying how when we first went to the winery, how we were dazzled by the natural beauty and the picturesque setting that they were located on, and that one could see both bays, as they were at the end of a peninsula in the Traverse area.  I then went on to explain about this one wine, that I thought everyone could enjoy, because it is not sweet, rather it has a great natural spice to it from the grape varietal.  That evening we went through several bottles of Chateau Chantal “Select Harvest” Gewürztraminer 2002.  Chateau Chantal is at the end of the Old Mission Peninsula and they have been making fine wines, from the first time that I tried them, and I am not afraid to suggest the wines to anyone that wants to try a Michigan wine.  Since as I said we had several bottles of the wine that evening, the other diners, though they may have been apprehensive at first, found that they really enjoyed the wine.

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Sauce Bolognese and an Awesome Brunello

Posted on July 12, 2013 by thewineraconteur

I like most people have an affinity for Italian cuisine, and I am very partial to a classic Bolognese Sauce as opposed to a Marinara Sauce.  I think that I make a very good sauce, if I may be so boastful, but then both my daughter and my Bride also concur.  In fact, my Bride will belabor the point to other couples, in the hopes that she can cajole me into making another pot full for company and then for leftovers  and she will even freeze some bags of it as well, for an emergency or quick meal.  So you can say that I am honored by her requests, though I do try to hide it.

 Brunello di Montalcino Loreto Mastrojani 1991

When our friends came over for dinner, we were aware that the lady required a gluten-free diet.  So we started out with a couple of gluten-free chips and crackers, along with some guacamole, and assorted cheeses.  Our dinner began with my Bride’s famous Caesar Salad, and we skipped the croutons.  Then the Sauce Bolognese that I had started about five hours earlier, while my Bride chided me about all of the different dishes I used because of all my prep work, while I was making the sauce, and we also made some gluten-free pasta, as well as some spaghetti squash.  We finished our dinner with Bananas Foster, and the good news is that the smoke alarms did not activate during the flambé sequence.

 Brunello di Montalcino Loreto Mastrojani 1991 cork

We had started with a Chardonnay, but it is the red wine that I grabbed from the cellar that I want to discuss.  Just before our guests arrived I went to choose a wine for the dinner.  I found a Brunello di Montalcino ‘Loreto’ 1991 by Mastrojanni and I also looked at a second wine, just in case, that I had kept this wine too long.   I removed the foil capsule and everything looked good, and then I used my best corkscrew, which always seems to get a good bite on the cork.  The cork once removed was sound and had no bad odors, so far so good.   I poured just a tasting amount in my wine glass, on a side table and I was amazed at how rich the color still was, as there was no lightening or brownish tinge to be seen.  Since this wine is made from the Brunello (Little Brown One) grape it has since been proven to actually be the Sangiovese varietal that is famous for the Tuscan region where this wine hails from.  When I took the first taste, I was amazed at how smooth this wine had matured; the tannins had mellowed out so gracefully that I even had to share that first taste with my Bride.  I was going to decant the wine, but our company arrived, so I just let it breathe on the side table, away from all the other activities.  When it came to pour the wine along with our entrée, it was just awesome and I am sorry that I did not have another bottle of this wine left in my cellar.  I am not sure that our guests were as amazed by the wine as my Bride and I were, but I am still admiring its quality mentally.

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Hess Select Chardonnay

Posted on July 10, 2013 by thewineraconteur

Very recently we had some wine, which was an old friend of ours.  It was one of the first wineries that we visited during our week in Napa Valley.  I am talking about Hess Collection.  Well my Bride was excited because she had found some Hess Chardonnay at our local merchant, and it is not a wine that we encounter all that often.

 Hess Select Chardonnay 2011

The first thing I noticed was that the label was different, but at first I figured that it was just an updated label.  Then I noticed that the wine was from Monterey County, rather than Napa Valley and that this wine was labeled Hess Select, instead of Hess Collection.  I also looked at the back label and saw that it now was part of Hess Family Estates, and that the parent company was still located in Napa County.

 Hess Cork

So now I was curious and I had to visit the website and found that they still produce a couple of Hess Collection Chardonnay wines in Napa, but they also have a grouping that was new to me.  The Hess Select Chardonnay, like I remarked earlier was from Monterey County and I am very partial to Chardonnay wines from this area.  If I can make a generalization, which I know that I shouldn’t, but I find that Chardonnay wines from Napa are more buttery and creamy, while I find that the Chardonnay wines from Monterey are more fruit forward and more refreshing.  I find that I enjoy this type of wine to be great with appetizers, cheese plates and just to have while chatting with friends.  I am sure that my Bride will be bringing home more of this Hess Select Chardonnay 2011, and as of yet, I have not had a bad 2011 Chardonnay, so we may stock up for the year.

Hess Chardonnay

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A Visit and a Bottle of Chimney Rock

Posted on July 8, 2013 by thewineraconteur

The week of the Fourth of July, we had family in from out of town for a couple of events.  During one of the down days, I was watching some of the boys, while some of the girls went to watch a Softball game that one of our granddaughters was playing in.  While with the boys, my Brother-in-Law stopped by with one of his sons for a visit and he brought some wine with him for the visit.

 Chimney Rock Cabernet Sauvignon 2003

Now my Brother-in-Law is a physician, he also received a Doctorate in Engineering before he started Medical School.  He is quite the scholar and a student.  While he was over, and I started to open a bottle of wine that he had brought over, he was playing with his I-Pad and was showing me a car that he was researching.  Now he has owned some very unique and fun cars since I have known him, and I know that he is very deliberate in what ever has caught his attention and he does studies on the subject, until he is totally satisfied with his research, or he will set his focus on an alternative.  I wish that I had his focus and determination.

While he was going on about the virtues of this car, and of all that he had learned about it, I was getting the wine ready to serve and to get some glasses, while we were talking.  I think he was explaining some of the mechanics in a simpler form for me, as I am neither an engineer nor a mechanic, but he was very enthralled by all of his research.  He is the same way about his wine cellar, so sometimes we have some great discussions about wines, alas that day was not one, but we did enjoy the wine.

 Chimney Rock Cork

The wine he brought over was a Chimney Rock Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 from the Stags Leap District in Napa Valley.  I believe that this district was the first American Viticultural Area (AVA) designation in Napa Valley.  The area has been growing grapes since the 1870’s, but it was not until the early 1960’s that the Cabernet Sauvignon varietal was planted there, and the grape was an excellent match for the terrain.  The wine opened up very quickly and had great color and a good nose.  It was a very easy wine for us to have as we were just chatting and relaxing, and thankfully the boys were behaving.  It was just a great way to spend the afternoon.

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Harvest on Huron in Chicago, Illinois

Posted on July 6, 2013 by thewineraconteur

I am looking at a book of matches and remembering a day that was rather unique.  I was in Chicago for business and I was walking along the street making my way to the Merchandise Mart for a trade show.  All of a sudden I heard someone yelling my name above the roar of the traffic and other urban sounds.  It was a friend of ours in Chicago who was dating one of my Bride’s friends.  We talked a bit on the side of the street and then he had to go off to his job.  I was surprised that anyone would even see me in the throng of pedestrians on a busy street.  During a break at the trade show, I called my Bride to let her know, what had happened and she had informed me that she had got a hold of her girlfriend and that the four of us were going out for dinner.

 Penfolds Regional SelectionShiraz Connawarra 2003

All was good, the trade show had been a good day, and I had stopped to pick up my Bride at the hotel and then we walked to the restaurant that had been decided on.  That is the great thing about Chicago when you are staying downtown, there is such a plethora of choices to dine at, and most of the time, one doesn’t even need to take a cab, as so much is in walking distance, and there are always people on the street.  When we got to Harvest on Huron, we went to the bar, to wait for our friends.  My Bride’s girlfriend showed up, but she was alone, as her friend claimed to have had something going on.  After our drink at the bar, the three of us went to our table to have dinner, and our friend received a phone call from her friend.  He told her that he had run into me on the way to the Mart and that he and I were going to have dinner together.  She did not say a word that I was sitting across the table from her and when she got off of the phone, she was visibly upset by the conversation and wanted to leave.  We finally talked her into staying, but the ambience of the evening was ruined.  I know that we had appetizers, salads and I believe we all had filets, but the actual menu has been lost to me, as I remember the fiasco that we were watching unfold in front of us.

 IL Harvest on Huron MB

I know the wine that we had that evening, because of my notes from that night.  We enjoyed a bottle of Penfolds Regional Shiraz Limited Release 2003, with the majority of the grapes from one of the Coonawarra Vineyards.  The Coonawarra region is a famed wine growing area of South Australia on the Limestone Coast.  Coonawarra is an Aboriginal word for Honeysuckle.  In the early days Coonawarra was famous for the Shiraz varietal, but now the area is famed for growing Cabernet Sauvignon.

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“Somewhere Beyond the Sea” Chateau Latour 1961

Posted on July 4, 2013 by thewineraconteur

This article was actually published yesterday on a fellow Blogger’s Page “The Winegetter.”  He and his charming wife are off on holidays, and he has asked a group of wine writers to submit a couple of essays on his page while they are away.  I do not feel that this is a reblog, as I am the author and I am not copying some other writer’s work, but then I am still new to the art of blogging, so if I am wrong, please will someone explain the nuances to me.   So with out further ado I offer:

“Somewhere Beyond the Sea”

These are the opening words to the lyrics of a song that Bobby Darin immortalized years ago.  Some may ask who Bobby Darin is or was, but that is not germane to this introduction or article, but it is how my brain works, in a “stream of consciousness” style of writing that I tend to do.  Allow me a brief moment, to introduce myself, I am John and I am guest writing this article, as a favor to a new friend Oliver “The Winegetter” who has become an old friend, which I have met since I have started writing my own blog “The Wine Raconteur.”  If the readers have not met me before, that is understandable, and they may ask, what a “Raconteur” is in so many words.  Words have fascinated me, and I first learned this word, from an old board game, I played as a child, and one of the characters was called the “Raconteur” and I had to look up the word, and it means a teller of stories or tales, and I liked the word, and it has remained in my vocabulary ever since.  Meanwhile, back to the lyrics, that is the theme that Oliver gave me, in his request, and I shall abide.  As I pondered the words, I presumed that he would like for me to discuss a wine that is not domestic product, and that is fine, since the first wines I encountered were from overseas, which started me off on a tangent that I have never left, the enjoyment of wines.   I am not as eloquent, erudite or as professorial as Oliver, so I shall write this, in my own humble style.

 Chateau Latour Pauillac 1961

My Bride, a sobriquet that I have endeared to my Wife, recently returned from a visit to her Sister and her family.  As she was going there, I made a small request, that she photograph an empty bottle of wine from a grand Birthday party, that we had the good fortune to attend, my Sister-in-Law’s fortieth birthday.  The young lady had the good fortune to have been born in 1961, which is considered by most wine authorities as being the third best vintage of the last century, especially for the wines of the Medoc.  Her husband had amassed three of the great Medoc wines in anticipation of this event, and he had a small party of ten to celebrate the event.  I must admit, that all of the revelers for this occasion were lovers of wine, so we all had something in common.  My contribution for the event was to bring all of my decanters, and to decant the three wines that were used for three of the six courses of the dinner.  Their favorite Chef was brought in, as well as his Sous-Chef, another assistant and a waiter to make the dinner as enjoyable as possible.  Each course of the meal was designed to go with a particular wine, which my Brother-in-Law and the Chef pondered until they found the proper pairing for the evening.

The three Medoc wines that I decanted and later enjoyed with each meal were; Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, Chateau Margaux and Chateau Latour.  Chateau Margaux is from the Commune of Margaux in the Medoc, while Chateau Mouton-Rothschild and Chateau Latour are from the Commune of Pauillac.  Chateau Margaux and Chateau Latour have always been First Growths of the Medoc, while at the time Chateau Mouton-Rothschild was considered the first of the Second Growths, a consideration that did not sit well with them, blaming it on the politics of the day, and they never even mentioned the classification system, until they were finally elevated to a First Growth in 1973, where most people had agreed that they belonged from day one.  During the courses of dinner, every wine was wonderful and fully enjoyed by all that were there for the occasion.  When we arrived at the final entrée which was Grilled Tenderloin with Green Peppercorns and a Marsala Wine Sauce, something occurred which caused everyone to be taken aback.  The Chateau Latour 1961 was opened prematurely, as it was still too feisty in its youth, and this fact marveled every guest at the table, as well as the Chef.  Forty year old Claret, which still needed more cellaring time to reach its full maturity, only a few wines could achieve such a testament to the skills of the winemaker.  My Brother-in-Law smiled at me, and told me, that he still had one more bottle of Chateau Latour 1961 in his cellar and he would open it up for his Wife’s fiftieth birthday (and as a side note, since we were not there on that evening, he informed me that the wine had finally matured and was so mellow, that he hated to finish the bottle of wine).

This long rambling story, leads me back to the beginning as to why I asked my Bride to photograph an empty wine bottle, in her Sister’s cellar.  I have collected almost every label of every wine I have tried since I first started discovering wines.  I have the labels from all of the wines from this great dinner and occasion, save the Chateau Latour 1961, which my Brother-in-Law wanted to maintain for sentimental reasons, and rightfully so.  When I first wrote about this dinner, I had to use a different Chateau Latour label from another vintage for representation sake.  I can now proudly add this wine label, albeit a photograph of it, in my own article, but I am waiting until this article is published, so as not to steal the thunder from Oliver, who is abroad with his charming wife on holidays.

 Beyond the Sea DVD

“We’ll meet, I know we’ll meet.  Beyond the shore.”

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An Uneasy Flight

Posted on July 2, 2013 by thewineraconteur

I am joining a group of assorted Wine Bloggers that have taken the challenge to write an article combining wine and transportation.  Our esteemed writer “The Drunken Cyclist” came up with this theme and just from the name of his Blog, the concept of transportation should come naturally.

 Rubicon

My first thought was to piggy-back onto a discussion of the film “Bottle Shock,” but I thought this would be too easy and too expected.  Then I thought about the many road trips we made to the wine country in Northern Michigan and how I would manage to pack and repack the trunk of our vehicle to accommodate our and our friend’s wine purchases plus the entire luggage that a trip requires.  The more I thought about that, the more boring and prosaic a five hour road trip and lesson about maximum usage of packing sounded.

 Cain Five 1995

Then I thought about our first trip to the wine country in California and to Napa Valley in particular.  We had a wonderful holiday in Napa Valley.  We had rented a home up on the mountain overlooking the whole valley, and I might add that it was a fine vista every morning to enjoy a cup of coffee and look at this fabled valley of wine.  I have written about this trip in many different installments because of the wonderful wineries and restaurants that we had the good fortune to visit during that trip.

 PlumpJack FR

Of the wineries that we visited were: Cain Vineyard and Winery, St. Supery, V. Sattui Winery, The Hess Collection, Joseph Phelps Vineyards, Prager Winery and Port Works, Niebaum-Coppola Estate, Duckhorn Vineyards, Opus One, PlumpJack, Peju Province, Caymus Vineyards, Domaine Carneros by Taittinger, Mumm Cuvee Napa, Domaine Chandon and Sterling Vineyards.

 Caymus Special Select

We ended up buying cases and cases of wines, the bulk of these purchases were wines that were not readily available back home.  Some of the wineries offered to do the shipping for us, and for the balance of the purchases, we were on our own and had to go to a third party shipper, one firm was recommended several times as the best for handling wine.  My Bride was in agreement with this arrangement, but she was concerned about shipping some of the better wines, so I had a “Plan B.”  Just before we took all of the cases to the third party shipper, I pulled several of the pricier bottles that we had purchased.  I had to devise a way to repack our suit cases for our return flight, as my carry-on suitcase which was to be put in the overhead bin would now be a wine carrier.  I have to mention that this trip was prior to “9-11” and liquids were allowed to be carried in your suitcases.

 Opus One 1996

I have to admit, that this was the heaviest suitcase, I had ever had to maneuver around the airport and onto the plane.  The worst was having to lift the bag up and place it in the over head compartment, without making it look like I was transporting dumb-bells or anvil samples.  I remember that return trip, as I was a nervous wreck.  There were bottles of Cain Five, Caymus Special Select, Rubicon and PlumpJack Private Reserve all over head like my own personal Sword of Damocles.  What if my suitcase was too heavy for the compartment?  What if the latch on the compartment came loose from the strain of the weight?  What would happen if the latch and door popped open?  What if the suitcase’s weight caused the overhead compartment to crack or worse yet, what if the suitcase came crashing down on our heads or someone else’s head?  All of these thoughts consumed my entire return trip, and perhaps with the new rulings on air travel, I may never have another flight like this.

 BottleShock

By the way, I am happy to say that none of the worse-case scenarios occurred, and the worst thing was trying to lift the suitcase out of the overhead compartment after the flight, without letting it crash to the aisle.  So this is how I best connect wine and transportation together, and I do look forward to see how others wrote about this theme. And I may find that I am totally off on a tangent from the others, but I guess a raconteur is allowed some leeway.

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Coco Pazzo in Chicago, Illinois

Posted on June 30, 2013 by thewineraconteur

Chicago has long held a steady hold on the Midwest as a place to go for a nice weekend.  Especially when one had to go there on a business trip, as I did several times a year for years.  It was even a better trip, when I could take my Bride with me and we would make the most of it.  While I was working away at a trade show, my Bride could visit her cousin or visit some of her girlfriends or business associates, or sometimes she just shopped or made a combination of the two.

 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano Boscarelli 2000

While we were there we always made it a point to have a couple of dinners while we were there.  Since I was not expensing any of my dinners, as they were not included on a per diem, because of my reputation for dining, the choices were endless.  One time we went and had dinner at a restaurant my Brother-in-Law had recommended, and since he had similar tastes in food and wine, we looked forward to trying out his suggestion.  We went to Coco Pazzo, which is on Hubbard Street, they have since opened up a second location, but we went when there was only one.  Coco Pazzo is a very upscale Italian restaurant, the dishes are for the most part are very classic interpretations, the difference is that they use all fresh and quality ingredients.  One may pay more, but the quality is very obvious and you know that you are not in a “pasta joint” and there are times when that time of restaurant does fit the bill, but not when we were out on the town.  We started off with my Bride enjoying an Ahi Tuna Carpaccio dish, while I had a Chicken Liver Pate, a dish that I have enjoyed for years on end.  My Bride is much more adventuresome and she had a Monk Fish entrée, while I went with a Grilled Rib Eye steak with an Italian twist to the presentation, and I do remember getting a side of Mushrooms and Garlic, which was enough for the two of us to share.  They also had a great cup of Cappuccino and a wonderful warm flourless chocolate cake with white chocolate gelato for dessert, which we shared.

 IL Coco Pazzo MB

Even though we had a hard dinner to try to pair a wine with, my Bride enjoys a robust red wine with some of her fish choices.  Especially when I was going to order a Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, we enjoyed a Boscarelli 2000 that evening.  A lot of people confuse a Vino Nobile di Montepulciano with a Montepulciano D’Abruzzo and the two are as different as night and day, even though they both share the word Montepulciano.  A Montepulciano D’Abruzzo is made from the Montepulciano varietal, whereas the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is made from a minimum of 70% Sangiovese and usually blended with Canailo Nero and Mammolo varietals and aged for two years in oak barrels (three years if it is a Riserva, which alas this bottle was not).  What more could one ask for than a great wine, with great food in a wonderful town for a little get-away, even if I was working the weekend.

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Excalibur in Las Vegas, Nevada

Posted on June 28, 2013 by thewineraconteur

My Bride and I have been blessed with children and now we have grandchildren, which is a double blessing.  Two of our children live out in Las Vegas, Nevada.  This is not my first choice to reside, but it is their choice for a myriad of reasons.  Call me old fashioned, but I still think of Las Vegas in the old days, when it was a “family” run town and not a “family destination” as it is today.  When I think of Las Vegas I immediately think of “Bugsy” Siegel, The Rat Pack and dressing to the nines just to go out and give the casinos my money.  Those days I now lament, as the new Las Vegas is unrecognizable to anyone that has not been there for twenty years.  I guess that is alright, as all things in life are dynamic, and if they do not change they will wither and die.  This is so true for Las Vegas.

 Yellow Tail Shiraz 2004

Well I have grandchildren that live out there, so what can I do, but find things to do with the grandchildren while we are there.  We do try to make the most of each trip and to spend as much time as possible.  One night the ten of us went to the Excalibur Hotel for a dinner show.  Now let me preface this by saying this is a hotel that I normally would not go to, as it personifies all that has changed in Las Vegas for the worst, in my humble opinion.  Be that as it may, we were going to the Excalibur for the dinner theater.  I must say that the arena that was built for this show was very impressive, as it was a show in the round centering on the Knights of the Round Table.  There were jesters and jugglers, kings, queens and wizards and there were jousting matches with charging steeds.  All in all it was a fine show and the grandchildren had a ball.  They also enjoyed the dinner part of the dinner show.  Normally we take the families out for a night of dining, where they have to be dressed and eat like young gentlemen and ladies.  Here the food was brought out to be eaten, as if everyone was Henry the Eighth.  The kids were ecstatic as everything was designed to be eaten with the hands.  My Bride and I requested service ware, as we did not want to eat with our fingers.  Please beg my indulgence that I cannot remember what was served, as this was not in the realm of my comfort zone, but the children were in their glory.

 Yellow Tail Shiraz Label

I do remember ordering the finest wine that was offered by the bottle for our dinner, as our children and their spouses were content to order cocktails.  We had a bottle of Yellow Tail Shiraz 2004 which is made in South Eastern Australia.  Yellow Tail is a major “brand” in the wine industry, and Shiraz is a varietal that has blossomed and excelled in Australia.  I do remember that this was the best part of the dinner, as far as I was concerned.

NV Excalibur MB

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Ceramic Wine Bottles

Posted on June 26, 2013 by thewineraconteur

A friend of mine’s son is the Cub Scouts and they recently had a big fund raiser for the pack.  He found three ceramic wine bottles, that still were sealed and he thought of me.  I went and picked them up to do some research for him.  These ceramic bottles are something I remember seeing in the stores when I was a youth, they are similar in concept to the Jim Beam Bourbon bottles that people collect, only more ornate, at least these three are.

 Casa Vento Ceramic Bottles

Two of the bottles are from Casa Vento winery from Italy.  The decanter with the hunter and his dog is Casa Vento Chianti, but there is no black cockerel on the bottle.  The other of a Falstaffian individual sitting on a couple of wine barrels, while he holds another wine barrel above his head with the tap open is a Casa Vento Vino Santo Duca d’Asti.  Both of these bottles have no vintage years on the labels, so I can presume that the wine was bulk table wines made for immediate drinking, and the decanters were more costly than the wine.  Both of these wines were imported by Vento Wine Import Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio, and I wonder if this was a vertical structure of the winery at one time.  I did a search of the import company and the last listing I could find was 1972.  There is a Casa Vento Winery in Italy at the present, but I could not verify, if this is the same winery on the decanters.

 Casa Vento Labels

The third ceramic wine bottle which also has the cork intact with the wine enclosed is of an inebriated Fiddler with one hand holding a Wicker Chianti bottle while he is trying to keep a lamp post erect.  The label on this decanter says Vino da Tavola Rosso which just translates to as Red Table Wine.  There is also an importer’s label of the General Trading Company of Detroit, Michigan.  I could not find any information about this wine distributor.

 Vino da Tavola Rosso Ceramic Bottle

I would not even attempt to open these bottles, and for sure I would not try the wines that they hold, but they are great curios of past marketing endeavors.  I am sure they were marketed for the non-wine drinking masses, who thought that it would make a charming gift.  I did see some other examples of these decanters being offered on EBay for amounts that I am sure far exceeded the original price of the wine bottles, when the wine was fresh.  Sometimes it is just fun to do the research.

Vino da Tavola Rosso Label

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