Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 21, 2013 by thewineraconteur

We had a very quiet dinner at home on Valentine’s Day.  It is not that I do not like to be out with my Bride, as I think my articles would differ with that assumption.  I do not like going out, when the rest of the world feels that they must go out.  I have found that evenings of this genre produce mediocre food and strained and poor service from the additional crowds.  There is also the potential for problems when people think they have to drink to excess, so I tend to avoid these scenes.

Project Happiness Syrah Lodi 2011

 

My Bride surprised me, with the suggestion of a pizza.  I don’t have pizza that often and that sounded like a nice change of pace, and she could relax and not have to worry about cooking or cleaning up.  So she brought home a pizza for us to have at home.

 

 

So then I had to decide what wine, do we have that would pair with a pizza in the cellar.  I looked at a few bottles of Chianti from Italy and then I remembered the wine that I had received from our friend at Christmas time.  So I went to the area in the rack where I have miscellaneous red wines, and there it was.  Project Happiness Syrah 2011 from the Oreana Winery in Lodi, California.  I thought here was a wine that might be interesting for our casual dinner at home.  I was impressed with the wine, as I swirled the wine in the glass I noticed good legs on the side of the glass.  The first glass of wine when I tasted it straight from being uncorked had a fruit forward taste and a heavy alcohol “heat” for a lack of a better term.  I am not fond of listing multiple tastes, especially when some of the images are very esoteric or ethereal.  As the wine opened up the heavy fruit and “heat” both softened and a very nice glass of wine was there.  My Bride who is not as fond of a California Syrah, but she adores a glass of Cotes du Rhone was happy with the wine.  In the bigger picture of life, that is important and then there is “Happiness.”

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Declaration, Cold Mountain and a Cold Chardonnay

Posted on February 20, 2013 by thewineraconteur

We were going to have dinner at 82 Queen in the evening and we were walking around the downtown area.  When we got to Queen Street it was cordoned off for a movie.  They were filming a scene from the film Cold Mountain which starred Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger and Philip Seymour Hoffman.  The street was covered with straw, but the buildings and street otherwise looked like the rest of Charleston.  Since there was no filming at the moment, there were no celebrities or even crews to be seen.

SC Declaration Copy

We walked around some of the other areas, to soak up more of the ambience of Charleston, and as we were discovering little shops and that, we saw a large bus.  This bus was the Declaration of Independence Road Trip, and there was an original copy of this great document inside the bus.  This bus was on a three and half year road trip, to allow as many people as possible to see it.  I hate to say it, but there was not a long line when we encountered the bus and we were able to see the Declaration of Independence quite quickly.  What a wonderful item to see in this city of history.

SC South Battery PC

We continued on our stroll down by the South Battery and admired the grand homes and beautiful architecture. Every where you looked there was a grandeur and a feeling of the Old South.  You realized that a character like Rhett Butler would have certainly hailed from this fair city.

SC 82 Queen PC

When we got back to Queen Street to eat at one of the famed restaurants in Charleston, 82 Queen, which is their address, all signs of filming was gone and the street was not cordoned off anymore.  This restaurant was noted by the locals as the place where the theatrical and artistic crowd went, and they were also known for all of the culinary awards that they have received.  When we arrived for our reservation we were asked if we wanted to sit in the walled garden area or in the restaurant proper.  We chose the restaurant, just to escape the humidity.

 

82 Queen prides itself on serving cuisine of the “Lowcountry” and the cuisine reminded us of the French Quarter in New Orleans.  Queen Street is part of the French Quarter of Charleston, so it was a good mix.  We were finally able to partake of the signature dish of Charleston, we both enjoyed bowls of She Crab Soup, and it was well worth the wait.  My Bride enjoyed an entrée of Jambalaya and I opted for a duck dinner.  I cannot remember what we ordered for dessert, but I am sure that it was as excellent as the dinner was.

82 Queen California Chardonnay

The wine list was extensive as I knew it would be, as they had been listed by The Wine Spectator in their Restaurant Guide for the year.  That is always a good sign for choosing a restaurant when you are away, and it allows you to find establishments that are independent and give you the taste of the city where you are going, instead of a cookie cutter chain.  Out of all the wines that were available for our dinner, I chose a wine for the memory and the label. It was an 82 Queen California Chardonnay and it went well with our dinner and a change of pace from the previous two evenings of enjoying bottles of Sauvignon Blanc.

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Boone Hall Plantation, Magnolias in Charleston, South Carolina

Posted on February 19, 2013 by thewineraconteur

One day while we were enjoying the charms of Charleston, we became real tourists and took a trip to Boone Hall Plantation, which is one of the few working plantations in the South.  While it is not Tara or Twelve Oaks which were grand fictional plantations, it is a wonderful day trip to see.  While you are driving up to the plantation you encounter the Avenue of Oaks, which were originally planted by Captain Thomas Boone.  All of the people that you encounter during your guided tour of the plantation are dressed in the attire of the day.  There is an area where you can see how bales of cotton were set adrift and allowed the current to carry the cotton to Charleston, and from there they were sent to spinning mills in the North and to England.  It is also stressed that Boone Hall Plantation was one of the most humane plantations of its day.  The grounds were used for theatrical and television films through the years.  It was a wonderful way to spend a day in the old South.

SC Boone Hall Plantation Brochure

 

After returning to downtown Charleston, we enjoyed our wine tasting at the Inn, and then we changed for dinner.  We were going to a restaurant near the Inn called Magnolias.  I thought that it was the perfect name for a restaurant in the Old South, and Charleston by extension.  As we were seated at our table, our waitress was very gracious and informative about Charleston as well as about Magnolias.  We were telling her how much we enjoyed our dinner the night before at Cypress, and her eyes lit up.  She then informed us that both restaurants plus one other establishment were owned by the same gentleman.  She really made us feel at home.

SC Avenue of the Oaks PC

Magnolias was more casual of a venue, but they still offered a great meal.  We started off by sharing a shrimp and sausage appetizer with Tasso gravy over grits; I finally succumbed to trying them.  Then we enjoyed some blue crab bisque, we had still not had some of the legendary She Crab Soup that Charleston is noted for.  My Bride had a local fish dinner of Carolina Carpet Bagger filet with fried oysters, green beans with Madeira and Béarnaise sauces, while I enjoyed a sautéed Grouper with crab and artichoke topping, fresh spinach, a potato cake and lemon Beurre blanc.

SC Magnolias MB

 

As we were looking at the wine list for our meal, my trusty Bride zeroed in on another of our favorite wineries that we had visited in Napa Valley, namely St. Supery.  As this was a winery that we seldom encountered at that point, we ordered a St. Supery Sauvignon Blanc 2000 to go with our meal.  This wine paired very well with the courses, and was so refreshing from the humid weather we were encountering.

St. Supery Sauvignon Blanc Napa 2000

 

We had also ordered soufflé for dessert, when we had placed our other menu requests, because of the additional time to prepare a soufflé.  As we were having some coffee in anticipation of our dessert, our waitress brought over a gentleman to introduce us to.  He was the owner of the two restaurants that we had so far eaten at while in Charleston.  He sat down with us and started telling us his history and that he was originally from Michigan.  Well we had met another raconteur and we ordered a bottle of champagne to go with dessert and poured some for our new guest as well.  We had a bottle of Piper Sonoma Blanc de Noir champagne which added to the enjoyment as we were regaled by this gentleman and his tales of Michigan and of Charleston.  We also discussed other restaurants and wines that we had all enjoyed over the years, and I was surprised at the length of time, he sat at our table keeping us company.  What a wonderful evening my Bride and I had.

Piper Sonoma Blanc de Noir NV

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Fort Moultrie, Cypress and a Sauvignon Blanc in Charleston

Posted on February 18, 2013 by thewineraconteur

One of our day trips while we were on holidays in Charleston was to Fort Moultrie and the Fort Sumter National Monument, which is part of the National Park Service.  This fort defended Charleston Harbor from the Revolutionary War to World War II.  There was a lot of history to absorb while we were there.  While I was there, I couldn’t help but think that the structure of the fort reminded me of Fort Wayne in Detroit.  Both forts were designed to protect the water front, and both had a similar structure and feel to them.

 

SC Fort Moutrie Guide

We then returned to our loft, and got ready for dinner, as we had to change into attire fitting for dinner, as this is our habit, even on holidays.  We were going that evening to a restaurant called Cypress.  The restaurant was on the main drag as I recall of the downtown area.  We started off with crab cakes and lobster bisque and both were well made, rich and creamy.  I was going to have braised short ribs, but when I saw that they were accompanied by grits, I passed on one of my favorites and ordered a salmon dish that came with a very rich sauce and well prepared root vegetables, while my Bride ordered Wasabi Tuna with the usual accompaniments. We tried each other’s dishes as well, and we were both very satisfied.  After dinner while we were enjoying some great coffee and a Grand Marnier Soufflé, we were both in heaven.

SC Cypress MB

 

The wine list at Cypress was just as impressive as the menu.  After being out at the fort as tourists during the day and getting overheated, when my Bride saw that they had Duckhorn Sauvignon Blanc 2000, she could not be persuaded to try anything else.  Since our trip to the Duckhorn Vineyards, I do have to agree with her, that they do make an excellent product.  I did think that the Sauvignon Blanc went better with her tuna entrée, then with the salmon, and it made me understand her predilection for red wine with salmon, but that was a minor matter at the end of the day.

Duckhorn Sauvignon Blanc Napa 2000

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Charleston, South Carolina

Posted on February 17, 2013 by thewineraconteur

This was a city that we had to visit.  One of the most famous characters in literature hailed from this hallowed city of the South; Rhett Butler, one of the most famous men of print and cinema, and a man, that most men admire, not to mention the ladies.  My Bride was eager to start making plans for this trip, on one of our holidays.

GWTW

 

We were going to stay at the legendary Charleston Inn, but just before we booked the hotel, we discovered a smaller hotel that offered a loft apartment in the downtown of Charleston.  It sounded so quaint, that we had to book it.  Our room had parlor and the bedroom was up a flight of stairs over looking the parlor.  The Ansonborough Inn was where we ended up staying and they had breakfast in the morning, wine and cheese in the afternoon.  They had a little English pub, and then they had a terrace on the roof which looked out onto downtown Charleston.

SC Ansonborough Inn Flyer

 

As we wandered around, on a self guided walking tour of the downtown, three things stick out in my mind to this day.  As you walked down the streets and looked at these stately homes, with some of the most beautiful doors you have ever seen.  What is even stranger is that these doors are actually entrances to the front porch of most of the homes, as they were built perpendicular to the street to handle the sea storms better.  The second most unique thing that I noticed was there were house painters everywhere.  Between the high humidity and the salted winds off of the ocean, the houses were in constant need of fresh paint to maintain the proper look.  The third thing that I remember most was that all of the bars had the little airline bottles of liquor on the shelves.  I was told that it was the state law, which the bars had to pour from individual bottles for every drink ordered.  If you walked into a package liquor store, then you could purchase a fifth of your favorite libation.

SC Charleston Walking Tour Book

 

I mentioned the humidity; well it reminded me of New Orleans.  As soon as you stepped out the door, you just walked into a standing wall of water.  It was so humid; it was even difficult to enjoy my cigar, while my Bride did her shopping strolls through the town.  Not that she or we needed anything, but she just likes to shop.  Of course we would stop at a little sidewalk café and we needed something to fight the heat, like this split of Calera Chardonnay 1998 from the Central Coast of California.  That day it just hit the spot, and I am sure that it would again.

Calera Chardonnay Central Coast 1998

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Belly Dancers and Wine

Posted on February 16, 2013 by thewineraconteur

For years, one of the popular niche types of entertainment in the Metro Detroit area was Middle Eastern Music with “Belly Dancing.”  This type of entertainment seems to have vanished from the landscape and has been replaced with over sized television monitors which I do not find entertaining.  Be that as it may, one of the last of this venue was Mitch Housey’s restaurant.

MI Mitch Housey's MB

During the period that Mitch Housey’s was in business, ethnic food was not as popular or a staple of the restaurant business as it now.  This restaurant catered more to business people and couples looking for a nice dinner and a get-away.  Consequently that did offer quite a few dishes from the grill, like steaks and fresh fish, and a few Middle Eastern dishes.  As a rule, because I have enjoyed a lot of these dishes growing up, made by members of my family, I tend to shy away from commercial variations of the dishes that I know.  This was a great place to enjoy a steak dinner and to watch the entertainers dance for the pleasure of the audience.

Tommasi Valpolicella Classico Superiore 1993

The wine list for the red wines tended to be skewed towards Italian wines, which work well with beef dishes.  One night I opted for a Tommasi Valpolicella Classico Superiore 1993.  I have discussed my favorable bias towards Valpolicella wines many times.  The term Classico refers to the fact that the grapes come from the original controlled designated area for this varietal and the Superiore means that the wine has been aged for at least a year and that the alcohol content is at least 12% by law.  I have found that when one orders a varietal that has extra “words” like these, that the wine is fuller and richer, which adds to the enjoyment of the wine.

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An Art Fair and Portofino in Wyandotte, Michigan

Posted on February 15, 2013 by thewineraconteur

My Bride and I like to attend some of the art fairs that are very popular around the state and seem to be always held on the hottest days of the year, when we attend.  It also seems that we are always going right after work, so we always have business attire, which makes attending these shows even warmer.

MI Portofino MB

 

One of the art fairs we do like attending is the one in the city of Wyandotte, and it is also one of the largest of this genre.  After walking around the many blocks of the show and looking at the different types of art and crafts, we work up an appetite and a thirst.  Since these shows are held in the summer, with the extra heat, our thirst increases.

 

 

Most of the time, these fairs are so dense with people, that we look for better venues for dining, as some of the restaurants have lines of people standing outside.  We walked a little farther away from the crowds and decided to have dinner at Portofino, which is right on the water, in fact they have docking facilities for boaters, which guarantees them more action (one would presume, and here it was most prevalent).  The restaurant also has very large areas of glass to look out onto the Detroit River, which is very pleasant to have as a background during dinner.   We both ordered some fresh water fish dishes, which this restaurant prides itself on, and we were not disappointed.

Yalumba Viognier S Australia 2005

 

Since this was such a warm day and evening, and we were ordering fresh fish, we enjoyed a bottle of Viognier wine.  We have always found this type of wine to be refreshing in the summer months and enjoy the floral nose that this varietal always seems to deliver.  This particular evening we had a Viognier from South Australia made by Yalumba Winery.  They proudly proclaim that that are Australia’s oldest family owned winery.  The afternoon and evening was a day of enjoyment, further enhanced by our choice of wine that day.

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Peppina’s in Lincoln Park, Michigan

Posted on February 14, 2013 by thewineraconteur

I guess that I am getting a little nostalgic and have been thinking of some of the old restaurants and watering holes from my youth, and the early days of discovering different wines back then.  One of the places that I remember was Peppina’s in Lincoln Park; they had a drive-in service on the side with carhops and a neighborhood Italian restaurant as well.

 

 

In those days I would go there with a large group of the guys from the old neighborhood and we would venture into the suburbs to eat and drink.  Some days we would end up with a table of twenty brash young guys all wanting to have a good time and Peppina’s would serve our insatiable appetites at the time.

 

 

They had a big room, and in the back there was a special room called the Amethyst Room.  As I recall the walls and displays were covered with large rough amethyst stones and geodes.  I also seem to recall that they had some amethyst jewelry that they sold near the cashier stand, probably made by a local artisan.

 

 

We would all go there for some of the best pizza, and they also had homemade pasta.  There would be little squabbles over what was better the spaghetti or the gnocchi, and the debate would never be decided.  It was the type of food that all of us would just chow down and eat with a fevered relish.

Lambrusco Fratelli

 

It was a time of beer and some wine.  We would just order bottles of wine to put on the table and drink at our leisure.  Of course the few of us, that did prefer the wine would get some remarks questioning our manhood, as beer was the preferred drink at the time.  What can I say, we were all young, rowdy and there for a good time.  We would get bottles of Lambrusco wine, which was very popular at the time.  This wine is from the Emilia-Romagna area near Bologna.  The wine is made from the Lambrusco varietal, which tends to have a “grapey” taste as opposed to the nuanced tastes that can be found in other varietal wines.  At that time in my life I was still discovering wines, so each wine was an adventure and a memory.

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A Pleasant Surprise

Posted on February 13, 2013 by thewineraconteur

We were celebrating our monthly birthdays, and the venue this time was not at our house.  My Bride though, was doing the catering.  We loaded up our car with the assorted dishes and a birthday cake that she had prepared, as well as some wine and beer for the guests.

 

When we arrived at our destination, we started unloading the car and my Bride commandeered the kitchen to finish preparing the food for the party.  I was getting the wines ready to open, when my Brother-in-law, who’s house we were at, suggested that we drink some of his “swill.”  He then proceeded to go into the dining room and grab a bottle from a rack.  He proceeded to then rinse the bottle and clean it of its patina of dust.  He said I don’t know if it is still good, and I told him, there is only one way to find out.

 

The bottle was a magnum of Woodbridge Cabernet Sauvignon 1999.  The Woodbridge line is a very good set of blended wines under the Robert Mondavi umbrella of wines.  I was so impressed with the Woodbridge line, that when my Bride and I got married, we served an assortment of different varietals from this group at our reception.  Though, I knew the pedigree of the wine, I was not sure that a thirteen year old bottle that was stored in a dining room was going to be palatable, as this was not an ideal place to store wine.

Woodbridge Cabernet Sauvignon 1999

 

We proceeded to open up the bottle, and the cork came out in one piece, which was a good omen, as I was afraid that it may crumble from lack of proper storage.  When I opened the bottle, I poured some into a glass to see, if we could serve it.  The color was still amazingly dark as one would expect a Cabernet Sauvignon to be, if it had been younger.  The initial nose was a bit “dusty” from being bottled up, but as I swirled it in the glass, the nose began to open up and it had a positive aroma.  The final test, was the taste, and as I “chewed” the wine, I was happy to report that the wine was indeed, very drinkable.  The guests that wanted some wine were very happy with the results.  Just goes to show you, that you can never presume or pre-judge a bottle of wine, no matter the age or the ranking of the wine.  This was a very good showing, I felt for the popular priced line from the Mondavi family.

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La Trattoria Restaurant in Dearborn, Michigan

Posted on February 12, 2013 by thewineraconteur

This was a delightful little restaurant right across the street from the City Hall of Dearborn, in what is referred to as East Dearborn.  It was always a busy place of good homemade pastas and a small, but nice menu of classic Italian cuisine.  It was the kind of restaurant, one would think of as a good neighborhood eatery.

 

 

At lunch time, it was always packed, because of the local government and all of the businessmen that frequented Dearborn.  We used to go there in the evening, when it was much calmer and you could enjoy a serene, leisurely dinner.  It was a place where you would start out with an antipasto salad, a rich soup, a side plate of pasta and then one of several different dishes for your entrée.  They had a couple of good veal dishes, that were always prepared properly, and then you would finish off with a cannoli and some good coffee.

Bolla Valpolicella 1992

 

The wine list, of course was heavily weighted towards Italian choices, which made perfect sense as that is what paired with the cuisine.  The restaurant carried good basic wines, which were well known.  A typical selection for dinner would be a Bolla Valpolicella 1992.  Bolla is a very big Italian shipper and blender of wines; they have become a brand unto themselves.  In fact Bolla is one of the largest shippers of Valpolicella wines for the valley just north of Verona.  This a very deep colored and full flavored wine made from the Corvina Veronese, Rondinella, and Molinara grape varietals.  The wine that I am showing is the base Valpolicella wine, as there are other classifications of it offered as well.

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