Ms. Yoga Returns for Christmas

Posted on December 21, 2023 by thewineraconteur

Ms. Yoga has arrived for one of her business trips and she had a chance to have dinner with some of her former business acquaintances, who have joined the ranks of retirement.  She came into town the other days, saw some of her family, went to have some appointments, met us all and then she was going to the west side of the state for more business.  She is always on the go.  She had asked me to make a dinner reservation for eight people at three on a Monday afternoon, and where she wanted to go, was not going to happen.  Since our state is still recovering from draconian shut downs, the restaurant industry has not recovered and everyone is still on abbreviated hours, as there are no longer employees left in the industry.  I finally found two places that would work logistically, and she chose one of the two.  She then went shopping the day before with one of her nieces and tried the restaurant ahead of time.

My Bride and I got to the mall, where the restaurant was, and we walked the premises upstairs and downstairs to get some our “steps” in.  We got to the restaurant about ten minutes early, but they wouldn’t seat us, until the specific time and after there was a few more to arrive for our party, as they had allotted us two hours for the dinner.  I thought it was rude of them, but I stayed civil.  We were finally seated and everyone tried to make some sense of the menu and we started out with some appetizers. To begin with, I ordered a bottle of Hess Select Chardonnay Monterey County 2021, part of the Hess Family Estates of Napa, which is now Hass Persson Estates; as Ms. Yoga loves Chardonnay.  Donald Hess began the saga in 1978 with an original purchase of nine-hundred-one acres of land in what is now Mount Veeder in Napa Valley and with land to remain underdeveloped in support of local wildlife.  In 2008, it was one of the first ten wineries to receive a Napa Green certification and they have continued to strive for other designations since them.  They have survived the Napa Earthquake, fires and mudslides, which all led to renovations and upgrades to the winery, the visitor center and the art museum for the now renamed Hess Persson Estate, to acknowledge his daughter Sabrina and husband Tim Persson.  They created the Hess Select division when they entered Monterey County.  This wine is a blending of their Chardonnay grapes, using seventy-five percent aged in Stainless Steel and twenty-five percent in new French Oak.  I have been a fan of Monterey County for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines, because of the ideal climate of cooling fog, coastal breezes and a longer growing season.  A pretty golden-yellow color that offered notes of pineapple, star fruit and vanilla.  On the palate there were notes of peaches, golden delicious apples with great acidity and balance, a crisp wine that proclaims Monterey and not Napa.  It was very refreshing and tasty, especially for a popular priced wine.         

For the main dishes, it was across the board from burger and sliders, to steaks and salmon.  Though for dessert, the flourless chocolate cake seemed to be the winner, and the coffee was done French-press.  My Bride is fond of this restaurant, as it is one of the restaurants that she meets her friends, as they go to the mall for their walking regimens.  I also ordered a red wine to go with all of the dinners, though this restaurant is very beer oriented.  We had a bottle of Franciscan Estate Cornerstone Cabernet Sauvignon California 2021.  Franciscan Estate was established in 1973 by Justin Meyer, who was the winemaker at Silver Oak Winery and with the help of Augustin Huneeus, owner of Quintessa Winery.  They began with two-hundred-forty acres in what is now the Oakville appellation, along with contracts across the Napa Valley.  They are famed for their flagship Magnificat Cabernet Sauvignon blend.  The winery is now owned by E&J Gallo who has become a buyer of quality properties these days.  I couldn’t find any production notes for this wine and because it carries a California appellation, I will surmise that it is a bulk wine production, but I was pleased with the wine.  It was a deep-dark red wine that offered notes of blackberry, plum and touches of black tea, and clove.  On the palate, a rich “jammy” wine of black fruit with a touch of caramel and chocolate and a decent finish of fruit.  For a popular priced wine, I found no objections to it, and the people at the table all seemed to enjoy it.              

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Fine Wine Source December 2023 Club Selections

Posted on December 18, 2023 by thewineraconteur

As everyone is getting ready for the Holiday Season, I had to make a stop at my local shop, The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  Once a month, I enjoy getting the curated wines that they select for the club as well as to admire some one-of-a-kind wines that they occasionally get, that would get any wine lover excited.  The club membership, besides the monthly pair of wines, also gets the member case-pricing on any purchase, which is a great perk.  Plus, the staff is so knowledgeable, it is always a pleasure to stop there. 

The first club selection representing the Old World is The Furst Cremant D’Alsace NV which is produced by Cave Vinicole de Kietzenheim-Kaysersberg.  Cave Vinicole de Kietzenheim-Kaysersberg is a cooperative of one-hundred-thirty landowners in the villages of Ammerschwihr, Kientzheim, Kaysersbert and Sigolsheim and covers one-hundred-seventy hectares of vineyards.  This cooperative is part of a much larger cooperative of successive merger and is now called Bestheim.  Cremant d’Alsace is an appellation created in 1976 covering the sparkling (Methode Traditionelle) white and rosé wines of the Alsace region.  The wines must spend a minimum of nine months maturing on their lees, before disgorgement and the dosage; all vital and required steps to comply with the appellation.  The Furst is produced in concert with the Dopff au Moulin Estate with seventy hectares of vineyards, and currently in the thirteenth generation of wine makers.  The Estate is located in the historic Riquwhir at an altitude of 300 meters in the foothills of the Vosges Mountains.  The Estate is also credited with the creation of Cremant d’Alsace and the creation of the distinctive tall, slender Alsatian wine bottle.  This wine is a blend of fifty percent Pinot Blanc and fifty percent Pinot Auxerrois.  The wine is described as having cidery aromas notes, and that on the palate the tones of apple, pear, lemon zest compliments a delicate mousse, and ending with a savory finish.

The second wine representing the New World is Peirano Estate Vineyards The Heritage Collection Petite Sirah Lodi 2020.  In 1879 Giacomo Peirano, a grape farmer from Genoa, Italy immigrated to San Francisco in hopes of becoming a gold miner, he realized that he was too late and moved to Lodi, home of many mining camps.  He opened up a shop to cater to the miners’ needs, he was successful, and went back to Italy to fetch his wife and brought back Italian Zinfandel cuttings as well.  He bought a three-hundred-acre farm and planted seventy-five acres of vines.  The family has been successful to this day with five generations.  The wine is pure Petite Sirah and the fruit is hand-harvested and it undergoes a rotary fermentation, which constantly blends the skins and pulp with the juice to extract all the flavor of this variety.  After the Initial and Malolactic Fermentation is done, the wine is transferred to French and American oak barrels, of which fifteen percent are new; for about thirteen months.  The wine is described as inky-black and offers notes of blackberries, boysenberries, and dark plums.  On the palate the tones of blueberries, plums, blackberries, and dark chocolate blend with harmonious tannins ending with a finish evoking more blueberries.    

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Ciao Italian Bistro in Fenton

Posted on December 15, 2023 by thewineraconteur

We were meeting The Caller and his charming wife at a new location, this time at Ciao Italian Bistro in Fenton for a leisurely lunch.  Now The Caller lives out in the wilds of Michigan, where even the GPS on our phone system, let alone the phones always work.  So, we try to meet somewhere in between and this was a new restaurant for us to try in the city of Fenton.  It was funny, because my Bride and I, both have the same iPhone and the same phone service carrier and our GPS gave us two different routes to get to the restaurant.  Usually, she teases me that my iPhone knows that I like roads, instead of freeways, but the route was the same in the beginning using the freeway, but they diverged when we got on the roads, two different routes, same travel time, and we did get there.  We even got there early before the reservation, so she wanted to go to a bakery, since we had time.  As we started to walk to the bakery, The Caller yelled out to us from the parking lot, to get him a cherry pie, so we became a delivery service as well.  They went in and got the table, and they started with out us with cocktails. 

The restaurant had two parts, a long narrow bar side with booths, and the adjacent restaurant with tables and booths; we sat in the restaurant at a table and commandeered a booth to hold all the stuff we had bought at the bakery.  We are very casual diners and food tends to get shared, so we just ordered a couple of appetizers to start off with, along with the bread.  We had an order of Shrimp Luca, jumbo shrimp lightly breaded and flash-fried topped with a lemon garlic cream sauce and an order of Calamari, flash-fried and served with homemade aioli sauces.  We then all ended up with pasta orders; Pasta Rustica with sautéed Italian sausage, red onions, banana peppers and spinach in a roasted garlic marinara sauce tossed with penne pasta; Lobster Ravioli with claw meat stuffed saffron pasta, tossed with shrimp, spinach, and roasted tomatoes in a Sherry cream sauce; Pasta Primavera, penne pasta sautéed with onions, tri-color peppers, mushrooms, and cherry tomatoes tossed in a garlic, olive oil, fresh herbs and lemon sauce; and Shrimp and Sausage Scampi with sautéed jumbo shrimp and Italian sausage with artichokes, asparagus tips, sliced garlic and fresh herbs in a white wine lemon butter sauce on fettuccine pasta.  All followed by sorbets and “Baked Alaska” with Neapolitan ice cream center.

We were going to start with a white wine and then go with a red, but all interest was leaning towards a red and we ended up getting two bottles of Vietti Castiglione Barolo DOCG 2019.  Vietti is a wine producer in Piedmont, known for their Barolo and Barbera wines, along with being one of the proponents of resurrecting the Arneis variety.  The estate began producing its first wines with the family name in 1919 and they were one of the original wineries to ship Barolo to the USA. Most of the Nebbiolo grapes come from the vineyards in the Castiglione Falletto which is a mix of sand, chalk, and clay soils.  The Castiglione Barolo is their traditional Barolo interpretation and the vines are between ten and forty-five years old.  The grapes are hand-harvested, separated by individual cru locations, then gently pressed, and the juice is fermented for almost a month on the lees for about a month in a Stainless-Steel tank.  Malolactic Fermentation takes place in wood, during the thirty months in large barrels and a small portion in barriques.  Each cru is vinified separately and assembled before bottling.  The wine was a dark ruby color that offered notes of plum, black cherries, blackberry, and secondary notes of rose petals and tobacco leaf.  On the palate tones of the black cherry was prominent and blended nicely with smooth tannins and a touch of classic leather, ending with a medium to long count finish of fruit, spices, and terroir.  We look forward to our next meeting with The Caller in the spring.          

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A Tasting with Tom Celani Part Two

Posted on December 12, 2023 by thewineraconteur

There I was ready to enjoy four more wines from Tom Celani’s Celani Family Vineyards at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  Tom had a busy day and while he was autographing wine bottles and regaling the wine tasters, his assistant Vanessa Thomas was pouring the wines at one of the tables in the shop.  The wines are made from estate grown Merlot, Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc and the Cabernet Sauvignon comes from select vineyards in Coombsville and Mount Veeder.  A perfect afternoon for any wine lover, and the shop was full and more people were coming through the doors, even though people were making appointments, others were coming in early, didn’t make an appointment, or some even came in to buy other wines and weren’t even aware of the tasting.  Regardless, I am happy to report that everyone was well taken care of, and having fun.  Now, if they could only get rid of the guy in the sport coat and hat, taking photos and asking arcane questions.

We had a chance to taste two vintages of the Celani Family Vineyards “The Family” Napa Valley 2018 and the Celani Family Vineyards “The Family” Napa Valley 2021.  The production notes for both of these wines were similar.  They were aged for twenty months in French Oak of which ninety percent was new and bottled without fining or filtration.  The 2018 was a classic interpretation of Cabernet Sauvignon with deep garnet coloring and offering notes of black fruit, violets, and graphite.  On the palate the black cherries and blackberries led the parade of flavors, with hints of cardamom, cigar box, dark chocolate, blending with fine tannins and a good finish of fruit and terroir.  This wine was drinking perfectly and still had fifteen to twenty years of cellaring to even get more complex.  The 2021 was just released and we were the lucky recipients of having the first taste.  My notes led off with terroir.  This dark garnet wine offered notes of black and red fruits, violets, and terroir.  On the palate the wine was big and powerful with tones of black cherries, cassis, and then secondary tones of tobacco, almonds, cardamom, and licorice and then finally ending with more terroir and fruit.  It may be that this wine is so young, that the terroir led and really impressed me, not a cookie-cutter Cab, by no means.  It will be interesting to try this wine over the next twenty years to see how the tannins merge with terroir and fruit.

For our last two wines, we once again treated to trying two different versions of the “Ardore” wine, one from a magnum, and one from a standard bottle.  The “Ardore” also evokes Tom Celani’s passion for a great cigar, as the label reminds one immediately of a cigar wrapper.  We tried the Celani Family Vineyards “Ardore” Napa Valley 2018 and the Celani Family Vineyards “Ardore” Napa Valley 2019 and this is their flagship wine.  The production notes are the same for the two vintages.  The wine is made from a careful selection of ten barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon from the most exceptional vineyard sites in the Coombsville AVA.  The wine is aged for twenty-two months in pure new French Oak, and the wine is never fined, nor filtered.  The 2018 vintage which came from a magnum is a dark garnet wine that offered notes of blackberries, strawberries, cassis, black tea with hints of violets, tobacco, mocha, and graphite.  On the palate the tones of the fruits have merged smoothly with the velvety tannins wrapped up in supple oak and finishing with a long count of fruit and terroir.  A powerful wine, that is totally drinkable now and could cellar for twenty-five to thirty years.  The 2019 vintage of “Ardore” immediately caught my fancy, as the first word that I wrote was “spectacular” and then I went back to being my quiet self.  This dark garnet wine offered notes of blackberry, strawberry, currents, raspberries, followed by chocolate, cigar box, leather, bramble, and graphite.  On the palate the dark fruits were elegant and supple, blending with very fine tannins and ending with a very long finish of fruit and terroir.  While easily drinkable now, another twenty years in the cellar would not be out of the question.  After I sneaked in second taste of each, while the 2018 was big, the 2019 really appealed to me, with its more ethereal qualities that truly finished this tasting.             

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A Tasting with Tom Celani

Posted on December 9, 2023 by thewineraconteur

It was a pleasure to go to my local wine shop, The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan as I knew that Tom Celani was conducting another wine tasting and he would be autographing bottles while he was there. I joked with him, that it was truly a Tom Celani Day, as I was hearing him being interviewed on the radio for his matching funds for a food drive for two local charities called “Hunger Free in the D,” as I was doing errands, before attending the wine tasting.  Since my earliest days as a clothier, I had stopped listening to music on the radio and listened to the top news radio station in the Detroit area, so that I, as a clothier could speak rather intelligently with the customers, a trait that has been lost, I have noticed among the clerks that I now encounter.  I lead in with this introduction, because for years I had heard Tom Celani and all the philanthropic work he has done in the Detroit area, long before he had a winery.  Tom Celani is lauded in the Detroit area for his largesse for charitable organizations that he helps in a grand manner.  He and his father ended up creating one of the largest Miller distribution companies in the United States along with other beers and wines.  Tom Celani fell in love with wines, first as a drinker and a collector and finally acquiring a Tuscan-style estate with seventeen acres of grapes and one-hundred-twenty olive trees in the foot hills of the Vaca Mountain range in Napa Valley.  As the proprietor of the Celani Family Vineyards he has chosen to bottle wine without costs becoming a consideration, to him wine is about quality and not quantity.  In fact, he was joking that he is not sure if the winery, will ever truly show a profit, because of his concern about getting the best wine each and every time.

The tasting began with Celani Family Vineyards Chardonnay Napa Valley 2022 from the Oak Knoll District.  The Chardonnay comes from estate grown Wente 2A clone grapes and was whole-cluster pressed and fermented on its lees for ten months using thirty percent new French Oak and seventy percent in self-stirring egg-shaped concrete fermenters. To maintain the natural acidity of the Chardonnay, malolactic fermentation was inhibited.  The wine was a nice soft golden color and offered notes of apple, pear, tropical flowers and brioche and some soft notes of spices and jasmine.  On the palate there were tones of fruit and floral flavors with crisp acidity, balanced and with a very decent length finish of oak and roasted nuts.  This Chardonnay was big and impressive and they feel that it will cellar for about ten years. 

The following wine was the Celani Family Vineyards Robusto Napa Valley 2019.  Tom Celani really enjoys a great cigar, and Robusto is a classic shape cigar, and one of his other charities that he hosts is “Cars and Cigars.”  The original Robusto was a Proprietary Red Wine, but it now is pure Merlot and aged for nine months in a mix of French Oak barrels.  I have never denied that Merlot is one of my first loves, back in the Sixties and Seventies when I first started learning about wine.  This estate wine is just a deep inky wine with notes of red and purple fruits, pepper, and secondary traces of new leather, licorice, and a dash of orange peel.  A nice wine with balanced tannins and on the palate tones of cherry, plum, pomegranate, currants with a nice medium finish ending with some fruit and graphite terroir.  Another wine that is touted for ten plus years of cellaring, and I believe it, though I may never know.  I drink Robusto before meals, as well as during meals, it is great with appetizers and conversations, and I like it with pizza, as well as fancy elaborate meals, this is one wine that we try to keep an inventory of in the house, as well as a guaranteed hit when we are dining out.     

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Post Thanksgiving at Bigalora Cucina

Posted on December 6, 2023 by thewineraconteur

We all decided to get together for dinner at Bigalora Cucina in Royal Oak.  The crowd has met at several of the different locations of this local pizzeria chain over the years, because they can accommodate our crowd.  I think that we had twenty-two show up, which is a great showing.  Two were AWOL who went to see the Michigan State football game (alumni and son).  Also, two spouses of the next generation skipped the festivities as well.  I think that the restaurant had hoped that we would take over the second-floor loft, but the steps were too difficult for a couple of our crowd.  This chain and a couple of other restaurants are owned and managed by a talented chef, that my Bride and I discovered when we first got married, as his first place was near our home.  We basically ate there every Saturday night, as our date night, with the same table and the same waiter.  We still continue going to his other restaurants as well, but they are a bit more dear, compared to the original venue, but life goes on.

Biga, if you do crossword puzzles, refers to the pizza dough.  The chef went to Italy and researched plenty of local pizzerias and small eateries to find the dough that he wanted.  His quest was to find a dough that would not be heavy on the stomach as some could be, he wanted one that would be easily digested.  After trial and error, as he has a complete kitchen in his headquarters, where he can experiment with new dishes or tweak older classics.  The pizzas are perfect for two, or for one hungry individual.  The other caveat is that he feels that the dough, because of its texture should only have a couple of toppings on each pizza.  The other secret ingredient, which is right out in the open in each of his pizzerias is a large wood-fired oven for intense heat and flavor, this oven is so important that he has the same oven installed on two travelling busses that he rents out for parties.  Down at our end of the table, a Pinot Noir was requested to start with.  We had a bottle of Nielson Wines Pinot Noir Santa Barbara County 2021, which originally was called Byron Winery.  Nielson Wines pays homage to Uriel J. Nielson, who in 1964 planted the first commercial vineyard in Santa Barbara County, against the common collective that the region was too cold for grapes; fifty years later, there are about a hundred wineries and thousands of acres of vineyards there.  The vineyard is located eighteen miles from the ocean and is one of the first districts that witness the fog burn-off each morning.  The winery is Certified Sustainable and they use small-lot techniques, such as hand-pruning, block by block harvesting, barrel fermentations and aging on the lees.  A garnet-colored wine that offered notes of red fruit, and a touch of tea leaf.  On the palate tones of red fruit permeate, with a bit of sweet caramel and a soft finish of terroir.      

As we were looking at the menu, my Bride heard that they had a Butternut Squash soup, so that was how she wanted to start off.  I got us a plate of Prosciutto di Parma, Grana Padana, arugula, and Focaccia bread, that we shared.  We then shared a Pepperoni Pizza with House-blend Mozzarella, House-made tomato sauce and Oregano.  There was no “doggie bag” for us.  As we were getting closer to food time, I switched the wine over to something Italian.  We had a bottle of Marramiero Dama Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOC 2020.  The winery was begun by Dante Marramiero in the early 20th Century and followed by his son Enrico on land from Gran Sasso through the hills of Rosciano to the sea planted with vineyards and olive groves.  The wine is pure Montepulciano, basically from the Rosciano vineyards which are deep, rich, and basically clay.  The first year of production for this wine was in 1994.  Fermentation begins in Stainless Steel vats with a long maceration, the wine goes from Stainless Steel to barriques an then in bottle for a total of eighteen months of aging before being released.  A deep purple wine that offers notes of black fruit, spices, and licorice.  On the palate there were tones of black cherry, oak, soft tannins, and plenty of spiciness with a decent finish of fruit and some leather.      

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Thanksgiving 2023 Part Two

Posted on December 3, 2023 by thewineraconteur

Since the earliest days when I first met my Bride, Thanksgiving was her holiday, plus whatever other holidays she could get, being one of five sisters.  She always thrived making dinner plans and she was prepared, as she had dishes for twenty-four before I even showed up.  I grew up, where holidays were already brokered among the family, the adults ate in the dining room and the kids ate in the kitchen.  It was kind of a rite-of-passage when we slowly joined the ranks in the dining room.  Of course, back in those days, the food took the prominent position, and we grew up with beer and cocktails as the beverage of choice.  I just remember that everyone thought that I had hollow legs, because I could eat, walk away from the table for a minute and then I was ready to start again.  Back then, all the food would be on platters in the middle of the two tables.  Now, we have all of the food and it is placed on an island and it is like a buffet line, and you hope the kids don’t spill their plates.  I kind of prefer the old way, because it didn’t seem like you were eating that much, and you could keep nibbling, because the food was there in front of you. 

Of course, it would not be Thanksgiving without a turkey.  Evidently this was not a good year for turkeys, because they were all anorexic and the largest turkey, my Bride could find was fourteen pounds, as we usually get one around twenty-four pounds, so she also bought a turkey breast as well.  Then there was a question about stuffing, so we ended up with two; one based on Ritz crackers and the other using bread.  We also had Armenian Pilaf, which was a basic requirement for me, but I think now, they would be an uproar if it was not part of the meal, not to mention that it is one of the hotly debated topics of who is taking the leftover Pilaf.  We started off with a Pinot Noir, as one of the guests, brought one, even though there are plenty downstairs.  We had a Samuel Robert Winery Pinot Noir Vineyard Reserve Willamette Valley, Oregon 2021.  Samuel Coelho was born in Modesto, California and moved to Oregon as a young boy with his family during the early growth years of the Oregon wine industry.  He grew up with hands-on knowledge and went to school for business management.  He helped his family grow Coelho by 400% in five years; during this same period, he began a negociant wine business named Plush Wine Company, and 99% of Plush’s production was sent to the emerging wine market of China.  In 2011 Samuel and his wife Bryn created Samuel Robert Winery, along the same lines as Plush, but by 2014, he realized that he had to purchase his own vineyard, because of the demand for wines of Willamette Valley.  In 2018, the growth was over 500% and he bought additional vineyards, and started another winery Conscious Wines highlighting environmental awareness.  A purple wine with dark pink accents that offered notes of red fruits and a touch of vanilla.  On the palate, a light Pinot Noir with tones of red cherry, strawberry, a hint of vanilla, very smooth with soft tannins and a dry finish. 

We also had Roast Tenderloin with a light marinade of lemon and garlic.  There was also many assorted sides of vegetables and salads.  After dinner we also had about eight cakes and pies for dessert, as we also celebrated three birthdays along with the Thanksgiving festivities.  I went down to the cellar to find something interesting and returned with a St. Supery Merlot Napa Valley 2001, this wine was still one of their main offerings, before they really got into the single vineyard wines.  St. Supery was one of the first wineries that we visited and they are located in Rutherford where they have an estate and they also own another much larger estate in Napa Valley as well.  The original proprietor Robert Skalli came to Napa Valley from Corsica, where his grandparents founded the winery, Terra Vecchi. In 1982, he purchased the Dollarhide estate, a 1500-acre cattle ranch in the northeast corner of Napa Valley. He also purchased 56 acres in Rutherford, where the winery was built and still stands today. The first vintage of wine was produced in 1989 and the wines began to gain acclaim.  The Skalli family sold the winery to the large fashion corporation Chanel in 2015; which makes me wonder if my “Lifetime Pass” will still be honored, but I haven’t thrown it away.  I am glad to report that this wine was far from being over the hill, it was very mellow and drank like a Grand Cru, so no complaints from my Bride or myself or anyone else that tried the wine.  I have always had a soft spot for Merlot from my student days.  This wine was a rich purple with tinges of red and no browning or foxing at all and it offered notes of dark fruits, tobacco, and a trace of anise.  For a twenty-two-year-old this wine was still bright and lively and not ready to roll over, with tones of black cherry, blueberry and still very supple tannins with a nice decent count finish of fruit and terroir. 

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Thanksgiving 2023 Part One

Posted on November 30, 2023 by thewineraconteur

Thanksgiving was originally created as a holiday in America by Abraham Lincoln to be celebrated on the last Thursday in the month of November, FDR attempted to change the date, but the populace created a backlash and the holiday went back to its original day of celebration.  I mention all of this, because the day before Wednesday is the artificial day that my Bride uses to mark the end of Christmas; not that we celebrate it for eleven months, but she shops eleven months.  The day before Christmas all presents are wrapped, and bundled by family, the Christmas and Chanukah cards are filled out, newsletters enclosed and posted, along with all cartons that are to be shipped to celebrants that we will not see for the season.  This worked great during my years in retailing, because if I had free time, it was not spent shopping, and that by the time Christmas Day occurred, all the bills for the holiday were paid off and we could plan on a well-earned vacation in January or February, depending on business; I might add that she was doing this prior to the Raconteur days, but I whole heartedly accepted her planning.  The house is prepped for the crowd of twenty-four this year, so that requires a table in the dining room, the living room, the breakfast nook, and a few little tables in the family room, because invariably there is a little football game that is historically played in Detroit on Thanksgiving Day, after the annual Thanksgiving Parade, traditions are maintained in Detroit.

There is a snide debate that my Bride and I have on Thanksgiving, during the craziness of food preparation.  She calls for appetizers for two and dinner at three; the debate is always about who the first guests would be and a what time, and when should we expect the last to arrive.  She starts the appetizers after the first guests arrive, and splits the appetizers in half, so that there is something new to pull out when the majority show up, usually just before the scheduled dinner, which we always plan on serving later.  The first bottle of wine that is opened is for my Bride and myself and she adores Sauvignon Blanc, and we tend to buy several brands in the handy-dandy economical multi-case packages.  I would venture to say that over the years, her favorite is from Famille Sichel and we have been buying it vintage after vintage.  This year it is Famile Sichel Sirius Bordeaux 2022.  Famille Sichel is a family owned negocient firm from 1883 in Bordeaux, as they were in the procurement process for their locations in Mainz, London, and New York.  In 1938 they even bought Chateau Palmer, which at the time had fallen on bad times and have since brought it back to all its glory.  The family does not believe in resting on their laurels as in 2001 they even built a completely new bottling and storage facility in the Bordeaux region.  This particular bottle of wine is a blend of the two leading white grapes of Bordeaux, namely Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc.  I don’t think that I would be remiss to opine that this wine was aged in Stainless Steel as there was plenty of fruit and very refreshing.  It starts off with a nose of citrus fruits and finishes with some terroir with a decent finish.  The wine is always fresh and needs a little time for the first glasses to breathe as they are very tight and still quite acidic.

Then as we got more of the crowd in for additional appetizers and there was demand for Chardonnay, I opened a bottle of Domaine Albert Bichot Bourgogne Vielles Vignes de Chardonnay 2020.  Domaine Albert Bichot is a major family-owned and run negociant house and estate owner in Burgundy, that began in 1831 and is now based in Beaune.  Their main focus is Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines and in their more southern holdings they also produce some Gamay in Beaujolais.  Alberic Bichot took over the reins in 1996 and is the sixth generation of family to run the holdings.  They own more than one-hundred hectares of sustainably farmed vineyards divided among six estates, and the majority are run organically.  The fruit is from the Cote de Beaune and the Haute Cote de Beaune and the vines are from twenty-five to thirty-five years of age hence “old vines.”  The majority of this wine has been aged for five to six weeks in mostly oak barrels.  A pale-golden colored wine that offered notes of pears, apples, and butter.  On the palate tones of white fruits, tinges of pineapple, honey, oak, and terroir with a soft finish of fruit.       

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Republica

Posted on November 27, 2023 by thewineraconteur

I have to admit that I enjoy eating ribs when dining out.  They may not be the healthiest choice, and neither am I.  I think back in the Old Country, ribs would not have been proper, because they are not listed as proper food in the Bible, and I think that being westernized brought about the other white meat in the diet.  I had discovered a great place to have ribs, courtesy of my dinner club, and over the years I have seen plenty of people that I know, that also don’t eat ribs at home, but enjoy them out.  I am also a pain in the arse, as you have already discovered by now, as I only want my ribs with light sauce and the meat should fall off the bone.  I want to eat my dinner with a knife and fork and not with my hands.  I was upset when my tried-and-true place closed, because of a kitchen fire. I sent out a plea among my friends on social media for a suggestion (not a chain).  Republica is the one that sounded the best and closest to my desires.  Though the restaurant became family owned in 2013, there was a unique display piece featuring businesses and services within the community from another era.

Little did I know, that my Bride decided to have a group dinner with some of her friends and suggested Republica, even though we had not eaten there yet, and we were going on my “say-so.”  One of the other spouses enjoys playing Devil’s Advocate and always finds ways to disagree with me, and frankly I had no desire to go, but the wrath of my Bride would be worse than someone at the other end of the table.  My Bride had the Lexi’s Loaded Caesar with avocado, Parmesan, bacon, tomato, croutons with a Lemony Caesar Dressing topped with Salmon.  I was there for the ribs and they were based on a famous “rib-house” back in the day, so I had the Mitch’s Famous Ribs with Fries and a side order of Onion Rings.  I mean go big or don’t go; but I did miss not having some creamy Cole Slaw.  I will definitely go back there again for the ribs, and my Bride enjoyed her non-classic salad. We were getting a bottle of wine, and we shared a glass with wife of the “advocate” and they had a glass of Bota Box Nighthawk Black Rich Red Wine California NV, the red house wine and owned by Delicato Family Vineyards.  It was a wine that came in a three-liter plastic bladder with a tap, nestled in cardboard box.  I could not find any information about the Rich Red Wine varietals.  Though the wine was written up by the winery on a page as “California-Rich aromas of raspberry, blackberry, caramel, and hints of vanilla.  Extending into lush flavors of fig jam, dark chocolate, toasted marshmallow, and baking spice, this smooth full-bodied wine culminates into a juicy, lingering finish.”

The restaurant had a limited wine carte, so I went with something very basic to go with my ribs, and my Bride could make it work with her salmon.  We ordered a bottle of Daou Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Paso Robles 2022, with the intention of sharing the bottle, but we were the only ones enjoying the wine.  Daou Vineyards is famed for their Cabernet Sauvignon, and their Bordeaux-style blends; as well as Rhone styles and Burgundian style wines.  Their wine portfolio is divided into four tiers at different price points.  The top-level is their Estate Collection, which made from estate-grown fruit and “Soul of a Lion” is their flagship wine.  The estate was established in 2007 by brothers George and Daniel Daou, who previously had a successful IT business.  The initial purchase was for part of the Hoffman Mountain Ranch, and in 2012 they purchased the balance of the estate and now have two-hundred-twelve-acres of vineyards.  The Hoffman Ranch was the first modern commercial winery in Paso Robles after Prohibition.  It was established by Stanley Hoffman with the help of winemaker Andre Tchelischeff.  The wine is a blend of seventy-eight percent Cabernet Sauvignon, fifteen percent Petit Verdot, six percent Merlot, and one percent Cabernet Franc.  After the fermentation the wine was aged for eight months in French Oak, of which fifty percent was new.  A pretty ruby colored wine that offered notes of black fruits, sandalwood, tobacco, and spices.  On the palate tones of black fruits, figs, spices blended with light tannins and a medium count finish of fruit and vanilla.

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A Recent Dinner Club Adventure

Posted on November 24, 2023 by thewineraconteur

My dinner club that I write about on occasion recently had a “Dutch Treat” meeting, which is an old way of saying that everyone pays their share for the meeting.  Most of the meetings are hosted dinners, and once a year, myself and two other members are the host.  Our newly installed President for the year, tried to get us at a different restaurant, but their private room was taken.  The club is almost one-hundred-fifty years in age, and originally the meetings were held at a member’s home with dinner.  I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t have a formal dinner at my home for thirty plus men, years ago the founders were able to.  The club survived the Great Depression, but by then the meetings were held at a residential hotel’s banquet room in Detroit.  Finally, as the members were mostly living in the suburbs, the hosts began having their meetings at restaurants.  About twenty years ago, there was an upheaval and some of the members objected to paying for the drinks, because they didn’t drink, and nowadays the members pay for their own bar tab.  Of course, it was amazing that members that used to drink “single malt Scotch” now drink “well Scotch.”  I found a silver-lining in that if there was another member that enjoyed wine, we would just share a bottle of wine.

The restaurant that was chosen was what I would graciously call an Italian restaurant for Americans.  The entrée choices were Lasagna, Angel Hair Provençale, Chicken Milano, Fettucine Alfredo, Mama Pasta Boat, and Broiled Salmon with a Dill Sauce.  Instead of a salad, everyone got a cup of “Italian Wedding Soup” and for dessert we had a Hot Fudge Sundae.  There was some grumbling as there was not a steak offering, but since we all receive notification of the menu ahead of time; I made sure that I had a late lunch, as I didn’t expect much from the restaurant, and I almost have to go, as I have a quasi-officer role for the last thirty years.  I guess that I should mention that I have been a member for forty-three years and when I joined, I was definitely the youngest member, as we had a member then, who had joined in 1928. The funny thing is, that age wise, I am still one of the youngest members.  Though I do anticipate that there will be one other change soon, as we have a dress code that requires a coat and tie for dinner.  It has been relaxed for the summer meetings to “Country Club Chic” and I figure the dress code will be abolished soon.  

As for the beverage of choice for the meal, I was by myself as a wine drinker, but there wasn’t anything special of the few choices by the bottle, so I just had a glass of wine.  Alas, the wine hadn’t been poured probably for several days, and they only use the cork, and the wine had turned.  They did open a new bottle.  I was drinking Cantine Melini Borghi D’Elsa Chianti DOCG 2021 from Tuscany.  The estate began in 1705 in Pontassieve, east of Florence.  In 1860, Adolfo Laborel Melini began bottling the estate’s wines in the classic “fiascha” straw-wrapped bottles that eventually became synonymous with Chianti.  Near the end of the 20th Century the winery was purchased by Gruppo Italiano Vini and relocated to Gaggiano in the Chianti Classico region with modern facilities and four stories of production.  Borghi d’Elsa takes its name from the villages that line the Elsa River.  The soil of this region is a blend of albarese limestone, and marl.  The wine is created in a traditional Tuscan style, where the grapes are macerated for ten days with frequent punching down.  Aging take place over a period of six months in a combination of large oak casks and Stainless-Steel tanks.  The wine was a deep ruby in color and offered notes of red fruit, ripe grapes and violets.  On the palate a dry wine with tones of raspberry and cherry, soft tannins, and cloves.  Easy drinking and not made with the concept of cellaring.  It was one of the few Italian wines offered and more mellow compared to the homemade “Dago Red” of my youth.         

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