Easter Eve 2023

Posted on April 20, 2023 by thewineraconteur

I know that you think I have totally lost it, but I have a cousin that has decided that the best way to keep all of the cousins in contact, is to have an Easter Eve dinner.  When I was young, I remember my grandmother having all the holidays with her children, in-laws, grandchildren, nieces and nephews all crowding into that two-bedroom flat for spectacular meals and a wonderful time was had by all.  After she passed away, her three children took turns having the holidays, but eventually it became a major undertaking, because now all the grandchildren that had moved up to the parent’s table, had children and sometimes grandchildren on their own.  And those children had much bigger homes compared to that warm and cozy flat, but then you must add in new in-laws and more cousins and friends and the holidays were getting splintered.  That is where my cousin had the brilliant idea to have Easter Eve and bring in all the core cousins and their families for a get-together on a night that really wasn’t reserved. 

We arrived at her new home, my Bride had already been there once for a girl’s night, and as we were walking up from the street, my Bride wondered if we should go through the front door or one of the garage doors was open, and it smelled wonderful.  As we entered the garage, we saw a man cooking on two large Shawarma devices as we were bringing in some wine and a cake that my Bride had ordered.  Just as we were getting to the side door, my cousin showed up and laughed and said that we were front door guests, but I really wasn’t concerned and I was a bit nosy anyways from the delightful smell that was emanating from the garage. We walked by a whole island of appetizers, and after taking off our coats and hat, I went to check on a glass of wine, I know I have no shame, but my Bride was a bit parched as well.  I did not bring any white wine, and there was none to be seen and the last time the whites were in overabundance.  I opened a bottle of Korbin Kameron Merlot Moon Mountain District 2015.   The Korbin Kameron Merlot Moon Mountain District 2015 is an Estate Grown wine and Merlots have been one of my favorites since I was a teenager.  The Moon Mountain District AVA was awarded in 2013, so it is still basically a new designation from Sonoma County.  This wine was aged for eighteen months in French Oak, of which half was new, and they produced two-hundred-ninety cases of this wine.  I think the extra couple of years in the bottle really changed my mind, but then I am very partial to older reds.  The 2015 was now showing me the virtues of good breeding that a Merlot needs, and it paid back with the nose of red fruits and spices, a taste of rich cherries and a charming silky tannin finish.

Eventually it became time for dinner and another island of food appeared, with a lot of our classic Armenian food, and we also had to go out to the garage to get either a plate or a sandwich or both Shawarma that was still being cooked and carved off the rotating spit. I always thought that the Armenian word that became generic for a barbecue spit in the Middle East was “sheesh” and I thought it sounded nicer.  As for me, after all the appetizers I really attacked the Armenian Pilaf and the legendary “Hot Ham” that my father created and no one has been able to totally duplicate.  I went to the bar area, and I saw that the Merlot was gone, and one of the young ladies was attempting to open a bottle of wine and she was going to brutalize the cork.  I took the bottle from her and tried to assure her, that I have opened a couple of bottles of wine.  The bottle that I saved from destruction was a Ruffino Riserva Ducale Oro Chianti Classico DOCG 2016.  This is a wine that one usually sees on menus as Ruffino Gold Label (Oro) and it is not issued every year, only when it is a great vintage. This wine comes from the demarcated zone known as Chianti Classico and Ruffino uses their famed Gretole and Santedame Estates for the fruit in the sub-region of this area known as Castellina. Naturally with this wine eighty percent is made from the Sangiovese grape and the other twenty percent is rounded out with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The grapes are aged in an assortment of oak, Stainless Steel and concrete and aged for thirty-six months, twelve months longer than required by law for a Riserva from Chianti Classico and then it spends additional time in the bottle before it is released.  The garnet-colored wine offered notes of cherries, and graphite pencil sharpening.  On the palate cherries, spices, and strong tannins with a nice medium count finish with some terroir.  This wine is excellent and I have enjoyed it over the years, but I was surprised that I thought it came a weak second after the Merlot, but I made the most of it.      

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A Last Visit

Posted on April 18, 2023 by thewineraconteur

It has been a bittersweet several months.  My Bride’s mother passed away last year, and my Bride had picked a most opportune time to retire, as she immediately spent her new free time with her mother, as she decided that she wanted the service of hospice and to join her late husband and all her sisters and brothers.  She made my Bride promise to handle her estate and keep the family together; I asked my Bride what terrible thing did she do to her mother, for her to get such an onerous job bequeathed upon her.  I was not aware until this all happened that the house must be sold in a year, or the estate is hit with Capital Gains, just another way to tax the dead.

The house was totally emptied of sixty-some-odd years of memories, furniture, papers, photos, and other possessions.  Getting the house fixed up, painted, and cleaned which all five daughters lamented that it should have been accomplished while she was alive to enjoy it.  Of course, everyone’s house and even some of the grandchildren are now surrounded by keepsakes and curios, and even furniture.  Almost all the participants have cleaned, scrubbed, stripped carpeting and paddings, caulked, did minor repairs, lugged materials to recycling centers, and filled dumpsters.  Then there were professionals that came in for painting, and new flooring.  This all culminated in having everyone visit the now empty house that has a realtor lockbox on the front door.  I do believe that all did get to the house, even the notoriously always late individuals.  I was sent out early to go get a restaurant to secure seating for about twenty people for dinner and drinks.  The amazing thing is that a couple of restaurants that we contacted would not try to accommodate us, I wonder what business college those managers attended.

It was rather unusual sitting at a restaurant table for ten, as they were working to get a table right behind me and one alongside of me to make sure that we would be able to make it work.  It was a nice family style restaurant with a bar only a couple of blocks away from the home, and my Bride had eaten there with one of her cousins.  We stopped earlier to get a feel from the employees and were given a go-ahead, and they did make some great Decaffeinated Spanish Coffees.  The crowd started coming in and everyone could order whatever they wanted off the menu.  Since, my Bride announced from the beginning that she would not take any payment for being executor, and if you ever become an executor, please do not be shy about getting a fee, she thought that this dinner should be paid for by the estate.  The food was good, the wine selection was easy for the bar, as all the wines were from Cupcake Vineyards, which was established in 2008 by The Wine Group.  The concept of Cupcake Vineyards is to offer value-priced wines from different regions like Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, Chardonnay from the Central Coast, Malbec from Mendoza, Riesling from the Mosel Valley, etc., etc., etc.  The wines are bulk produced, but a step up from jug-wines of yore. We started with the Cupcake Vineyards Pinot Grigio Delle Venezie DOC 2021.  This wine had notes of citrus fruits and melons.  On the palate a crisp wine of apple and pineapple that had a finish of honey and lemon zest; it was a bit too sweet for both of us.  The other wine was Cupcake Vineyards Chardonnay Monterey County 2020.  This wine offered notes of apples, melons, and almonds.  On the palate tones of apple and pears nice acidity and a short finish of fruit.  It may be the last time for all the sisters to get together, until maybe when the house is sold.      

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Match Day

Posted on April 16, 2023 by thewineraconteur

I guess I am rather naive about certain aspects about the medical field.  I mean all my life, I have had a doctor, first a pediatrician, then a General Practitioner or nowadays an Internist and the odd specialist along the way.  I know that they had to go for an Undergraduate degree, and then a Graduate degree in Medicine, and then a Residency and perhaps a Fellowship; but I never thought about the step from a medical degree to where they go for their residency program.  Match Day or the Match Week can be a day of excitement or grief, as it marks the time when medical graduates all over the USA find out if they have landed spots in a residency program from a slate of locations that they preselected.  For some it is exciting, because  they were chosen from their slate, and I get some may have to reapply.  All of this meandering is because we had a nephew that applied and was accepted by a hospital. 

His mother was devastated as she had ordered a personalized wall plaque announcing that he was a doctor.  She had ordered it, supposedly with an extra month before the moment, and it arrived the day before Match Day.  The name on the order, the purchase slip and the mailing label, all had the name spelled right, but the wall plaque was mis-spelled, so much for quality control and they could get a corrected one, but not in time, especially since they were a month late in a timely delivery.  My Bride, his aunt, took it upon herself to find something special and we went to some personalized businesses, to no avail.  Then she went to one of her favorite gift shops at a local hospital; she couldn’t find anything to personalize, but she did find a metal wine bottle holder that depicted a doctor, with a Gladwin Bag, stethoscope and clipboard.  Since he is partial to Riesling wines, I then had to go and find a Riesling that he might not get for himself and I found one with a Pradikat for him to enjoy. 

Match Day was also on Saint Patrick’s Day, but his parent’s had booked the back room at one of their favorite restaurants and took plenty of the family out to celebrate and have dinner.  We all toasted to the event with Bosca Verdi Spumante NV.  Bosca is a wine producer based in Canelli in the Piedmont region and famed for their sparkling wines made with Moscato and Glera (Prosecco) grapes, as well as a popular vermouth.  Pietro Bosca registered his first winery in Canelli in 1831.  This is a sparkling wine made with the Charmat Method and using Moscato Bianco.  A soft yellow-gold with large medium spaced bubbles offering notes of tree fruit, melon and citrus.  On the palate semi-dry wine offering tones of apples, pears, and melon with a bit of a sweet finish.  I think I would have preferred it with some orange juice.  After the toast, the mystery was announced and he was accepted at the hospital where he did his internship and he will stay in the Detroit area, which definitely made his family happy.   

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Saint Patrick’s Day 2023

Posted on April 14, 2023 by thewineraconteur

One of these days, I may actually get my blog into real time, at the moment I will be happy when I have my blog and Instagram on real time, that may be more doable.  We had an extremely busy day that day, and in the old days, it was not a day that one wanted to be driving all over town, but I guess with the advent of a new generation that doesn’t drive, and all of these “hale systems” it isn’t that dangerous.  It is also an easy day to remember the birthdays of one of our grandsons and one of our in-laws. 

We went to a tavern to have lunch and if it is important to you, that this year the Saint Day was also on a Friday during Lent.  Some of the Archdioceses around the country made exceptions and other’s didn’t and some left it to the local priest, who might come up with an alternative way for atonement on that day.  My Bride is Old School, though she doesn’t go to a Latin Mass, she also doesn’t condone Communion for hypocrites, unless it is for Last Rites.  She had a Tuna Salad Sandwich, because the other fish dishes were fried.  I don’t have the same rules for Lent, so I decided to have a Corned Beef and Swiss with a side of Breaded Onion Rings.  The Onion Rings were enormous, and the sandwich was the smallest example I have ever seen, it was like three shavings of meat.  I showed our waiter the meme I had made for the holiday with the directions to make a “Black Velvet” cocktail.  It fell on deaf ears, as it seemed that our waiter did not even know that some people really celebrate the day. 

Later that evening we were meeting for a big family celebration and not for Saint Patrick’s Day and one of my wife’s sisters had ordered a special personalized gift for her son (next story), the order, the invoice, the packing slip and the address label had the right spelling, the personalized gift was mis-spelled and it took almost a month to get.  My Bride was on a mission to find something, and she did, and we stopped to get a bottle of wine to take to her sister’s house until we all went out for dinner.  I saw a bottle of Vietti Roero Arneis DOCG 2021 and my curiosity was piqued.  Vietti is a famed wine producer in the Piedmont, receiving plenty of accolades over the years and they began producing under the family name in 1919.  Vietti was one of the first to send Barolo wines to America, and one of the first to create single-vineyard (Cru) wines in Barolo.  He is famed for his assorted Barolo and Barbera wines and is regarded as the “Father of Arneis” as he basically single-handedly restored interest in the almost lost and forgotten variety in the late Sixties.  This wine is pure Arneis in the heart of Roero region, around the village of Santo Stefano Roero on soils of calcareous marl (with a high count of marine fossils) and the vines are an average age of thirty years.  The fruit is hand-picked, destemmed, and gently pressed.  The Initial Fermentation takes place in Stainless Steel to maintain the fruit aromas and flavors.  Halfway through the fermentation process, the tank is sealed to reabsorb a small quantity of natural CO2, and does not undergo Malolactic Fermentation.  It is aged in the Stainless Steel tanks on fine lees, until they determine it is ready to be bottled.  The wine was a pretty straw-yellow color and offered notes of melon, citrus, flowers, and minerals.  On the palate tones of mixed fruit, a tinge of almonds, and minerals in a crisp and balanced wine with a decently long finish of terroir and salinity for a refreshing glass of wine, that beckoned for another glass.     

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Fine Wine Source Club – April 2023

Posted on April 12, 2023 by thewineraconteur

I hope that everyone that reads my little articles, actually belong to a local wine club, and if so, I hope that it is like my local club, The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  I believe in local independent merchants, who truly appreciate your patronage, but unfortunately one periodically encounters a third generation run business, where the management is arrogant and has forgotten that the customer is king.  If you find a well run local wine shop, it is a blessing and thank them, because the wine is not an SKU item, where it could easily be a box of nails or nuts and bolts.

Chateau Auguste Bordeaux 2017 represented the Old World for this month’s selection.  Bordeaux is the big picture of the region and maybe along with Burgundy, the two main regions of wine making that even non-wine drinking individuals can identify as wine names  Bordeaux covers the gamut of wine making from red, white, rosé and from still to sparkling, and from dry to dessert wines.  From the famous Communes of the Medoc, to the affordable wines of the Cotes and Entre-deux-Mers, Bordeaux is for every taste and wallet; as there are twenty-two sub-regions of Bordeaux.  Chateau Auguste is a seventy-four-acre Bordeaux Superieur estate on the right bank region, within the Entre-Deux-Mers appellation or between the two seas e.g. the Garonne and Dordogne rivers.  For centuries the two rivers have deposited sand and gravel, creating layers of limestone and a very fertile region for grapes.  The Romans began planting the grapes, followed by the Monks in the Middle Ages.  The estate is organically farmed.  The wine is eighty percent Merlot, ten percent Cabernet Sauvignon and ten percent Cabernet Franc.  The tasting notes accompanying the wine says that the wine offers notes of black and red fruits and soft florals.  On the palate tones of dark fruit, with a medium body, balanced acidity, dry tannins and a nice medium count finish with terroir.    

Broadway Vineyards Keanu Chardonnay Los Carneros Sonoma 2019 is representing the New World. In 2002 a prime property was found just 2 miles south from the Historic Square in downtown Sonoma and purchased by Jim and Marilyn Hybiske. Six of their wine loving friends joined forces to develop a small vineyard and produce exceptional Sonoma County wines exclusively for their family and friends. Work was begun on the vineyard in the spring of 2004 and in 2006 the first harvest produced very promising fruit and Broadway Vineyards began to thrive. An experienced winemaker was hired to craft three wines that express the terroir of the Carneros Appellation. As the reputation of the vineyard and wines grew the Broadway partners decided to make their wines available to the public. The six friends celebrate the harvest every year. They are now sharing their bounty with a limited amount of wine lovers who are lucky enough to have access to the Broadway cellar.  The wine is pure Chardonnay, using Dijon clones.  The tasting notes say that the wine is made in the French Burgundian style.  The wine offers note of hay, pine, jasmine, lily, plum and licorice and then opens up to ocean air and oysters and a touch of coconuts.  On the palate tones of pear, vanilla, apricot and pineapple with bracing acidity and a long finish of ripe pear and a hint of banana. 

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Happy Easter 2023

Posted on April 10, 2023 by thewineraconteur

My Bride and I would like to wish you a Happy Easter.

More wine and stories coming from your humble raconteur. 

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Meeting Friends for a Birthday Dinner

Posted on April 8, 2023 by thewineraconteur

In 1889 Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem “East is east, and west is west –  and never the twain shall meet.” He may have been writing about Detroit, because there is a definite delineation and a mindset between the two, at least in popular folklore; of course, my Bride and I have proven this theory wrong, without having to involve the Capulets and Montagues.   And while I am off on a tangent on geography, before I even get started writing about wine; both the group Journey and the Library of Congress are wrong, as there is no South Detroit, unless you are referring to the Detroit River or Windsor, Ontario, Canada which is the only place the Canada is south of the American border, if you ever want to get people riled up about border rhetoric.

I mention all of this, because I tagged along with my Bride to celebrate a birthday of one of her classmates way back when schools were not politicized and the “Three R’s” were still being taught.  We were all meeting at Fishbone’s Restaurant, and it gave me a chance to brush off, one of my old matchbooks, which I still think was the best advertising medium for restaurants, plus a cool keepsake.   We were all having different versions of seafood, which was good as it is Lent and it keeps my Bride safe and happy.  My Bride had their Pasta Orleans which was Fettuccine sautéed with shrimp, crab meat, crawfish, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes and scallions in a Pesto Cream Sauce with Parmesan cheese.  I had the Crawfish Etouffee a “smothered” stew of crawfish tail meat, onions and peppers served with rice.  I can’t say that we had anything quite like them in New Orleans, but it had the concept and we were there for the fun and friendship.

I was surprised that we were the only ones drinking wine and I saw a wine that I had not had from a winery that I knew.  They had a bottle of Donati Family Vineyards “Sisters Forever” Un-oaked Chardonnay Central Coast 2021.  Well, I am used to more attentive wine service and the waiter unscrewed the cap and started to pour and I stopped him, and said that is not the wine, as I am used to seeing their wine with their logo.  He took it back to the bar area and returned and showed me the winery name on the back label.  I was fine, it is just that one gets used to a certain look from a winery and they toss you a curve ball. The Donati family started arriving in the Paicines region of the Central Coast in 1998, when they purchased the land that would become the family estate and vineyard.  Since then, they have planted the vineyards and built a state-of-the-art winery.  Paicines is the southernmost AVA in the San Benito County and in the 1980’s and 1990’s the area was associated with the production of bulk wines, but a few wineries are attempting to correct that image.  To this day, much of the fruit is grown and then sent to wineries in other parts of California.  It is still home to the five-hundred-acre Vista Verde Vineyard that was previously owned by Almaden Vineyards, before the company was sold and split up in the 1980’s.  The sandy soils of gravel and limestone have forced the vines to develop deep root systems, because of the good drainage and has strengthened the vines.  The wine is ninety-five percent Chardonnay, three percent Viognier and two percent Albarino.  Fermentation and Aging were all done in Stainless Steel to maintain the integrity of the fruit.  It was a pretty soft golden color wine that offered notes of tropical fruits and white florals.  On the palate stone fruit and lemon zest, balanced, fresh and clean; a nice simple wine for seafood. 

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Comanche Cellars Tempranillo 2020

Posted on April 6, 2023 by thewineraconteur

The last bottle that I pulled out from my shipment from “A Taste of Monterey” is Comanche Cellars Tempranillo San Antonio Valley 2020.  This will be the third bottle of wine that I have received from them.  The first was a Pinot Noir with a production of one-hundred-thirty-five-cases.  The second was a Petite Sirah with a production of eighty-nine cases.  I think that is a major plus from this club, because on occasions there are some really small production wines that would never find their way to Michigan.  

Michael Simons, in his own words started as a love affair and turned it into a passion for producing small lots of very handcrafted wines from neighboring vineyards.  The winery is now up to a production of eighteen-hundred-cases of wine.  Comanche was the name of the horse, he used to ride when he was ten years old.  Now, he laments that he hardly has time to ride a bicycle.  But he enjoyed his time with Comanche that much, that he has his name and shoes on every bottle of wine.  Since he is on the Monterey Peninsula, he has had the good fortune to have friendships and contracts with many vineyards: Pierce Family Vineyards in San Antonio Valley (Monterey), Chareva Vineyards above the Arroyo Seco, Mesa del Sol Vineyards in Arroyo Seco, Cedar Lane in Monterey, Siletto Ranch in Monterey, Hahn Family Vineyards in Santa Lucia Highlands, Chateau Pinette in the Sierra Foothills, Graziano Vineyard in Mendocino County,  Massa Estate (formerly Heller Estate) in Carmel Valley,  Tondre Grapefield in Santa Lucia  Highlands and Zabala Vineyard in Mendocino County.

Comanche Cellars Tempranillo San Antonio Valley 2020 is a wine that I will look forward to.  The fruit came from the Pierce Ranch Vineyards, a small family-owned operation in southern Monterey’s San Antonio Valley AVA.  San Antonio Valley received their AVA designation in 2007.  The fruit was aged for twenty-eight months in French Oak, of which thirty-five percent was new.  There were thirty-three cases produced.  The tasting notes for this famed “Spanish grape starts with bold, spicy cranberry on the nose.  With its wonderfully smooth mouthfeel, this single varietal brings aromas of tart cherry, smoked meats and a long satisfying finish that creates a beautifully balance glass of wine.”   

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Wrath Estate Pinot Noir 115/667 San Saba Vineyard 2019

Posted on April 4, 2023 by thewineraconteur

The second bottle of wine that I pulled from the “A Taste of Monterey” wine club parcel was Wrath Estate Winery Pinot Noir 115/667 San Saba Vineyard Monterey 2019.  Wrath Estate Winery is located in Soledad, California and they are a winery where production is limited, but not the quality, and since we have been there, they have opened a satellite tasting room in downtown Carmel.  The winery produces Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah, Falanghina and Sauvignon Blanc from their estate vineyard and some very respected private vineyards in the Santa Lucia Highlands.  This is among the top ten most highly rated Monterey wines by Wine Spectator and based on critic scores and price, this wine represents great value.  The earliest wine that I have had from Wrath is their Pinot Noir, San Saba Vineyard 2010.  The soil

The Estate’s San Saba Vineyard is set in a sheltered nook, just below the Santa Lucia Highlands.  The estate is seventy-two acres divided among five varietals.  It is a cool site, with very little rainfall and one of the longest growing seasons in the world.  The soils are a mix of Arroyo Gravelly Loam and Hanford Gravely Sandy Loam provide a low-vigor, well-draining, disease and pest-free medium for the vines; as well as a subtle mineral quality to their wines.  They are accredited as Certified Sustainable (SIP) farming program.

The Wrath Estate Winery Pinot Noir 115/667 San Saba Vineyard Monterey 2019 refers to the mix of two distinct clones; sixty percent Clone 115 and forty percent Clone 667. The grapes are hand-picked and hand sorted; and the Clones are kept in separate lots during fermentation.  Twenty percent of the wine undergoes whole cluster Initial Fermentation.  After fermentation the wine is aged in an assortment of different size French Oak barrels and twenty-five percent is new to create additional complexity.   The barrel aging is for about eleven months, and then bottle rested for an additional twelve months before release.   Just a shade under seven-hundred cases were produced.  The tasting notes that were furnished “has a distinctive spicy character that energizes the dark cherry and mineral tones in this bottling.  Made in a fresh, lively and pure style with loads of character.”

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Bernardus Rosella’s Chardonnay SLH 2021

Posted on April 2, 2023 by thewineraconteur

We just received our Spring 2023 shipment from our old wine club A Taste of Monterey and we have probably been members for around twenty years, one day I should probably ask. In fact, I called and they returned my message that we joined 10 February 2003, so I guess I guessed right.  We found the club by accident as were wandering around the Cannery Row district of Monterey, because we had a reservation at The Sardine Factory.  We were intrigued, especially since they said that they could ship to Michigan, which at the time was a felony state for personal wine shipments.  It took the famous Granholm v. Heald decision from the Supreme Court to show the error of the governor and is considered a watershed case for Direct to Customer sales of wine.  We joined their Reserve Wine Club, as we figured that it would probably be the only way to get some excellent and limited production wines from Monterey County, and we have been happy ever since.

Bernardus Winery and Vineyards was founded by Ben Marinus Pon about twenty-five years ago with the intention of creating premier wines in the Carmel Valley.  His intent was to produce single vineyard designated wines and a Bordeaux blended wine.  Bernardus has three estate vineyards: Marinus planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec; Featherbow planted with Petit Verdot and Cabernet Sauvignon; and Ingrid’s Vineyard planted with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.  All fifty-four acres of estate vineyards are in the Carmel Valley AVA.  To compliment the estate vineyards Bernardus also has contracts with vineyards the Arroyo Seco, Santa Lucia Highlands, and others in the Monterey County. I am sorry to say, that Mr. Pon passed away in September of 2019 and his vision will be continued by Robert van der Wallen the current owner, who also understand the passion that Mr. Pon had for his winery.

The first wine out of the carton was Bernardus Winery Chardonnay Santa Lucia Highlands Rosella’s Vineyard 2021.  Rosella’s Vineyard is located in the heart of the Santa Lucia Highlands and was planted by Gary Franscioni, a fourth-generation farmer and the vineyard is named after his wife Rosella.  The vineyard is famous for their Pinot Noir, but just as impressive is their small block of Dijon clone Chardonnay, which is considered by many to be the finest Chardonnay in the Highlands. This wine is produced in the Burgundian tradition.  The grapes are hand-picked and gently whole-cluster pressed and Initial Fermentation using specially selected yeasts.  It then undergoes complete Malolactic Fermentation and each barrel is hand stirred every two weeks until shortly before blending and bottling for about eight months.  They use only French Oak barrels and one third new.  There were four-hundred-twenty-five-cases produced.  The tasting notes provided are for a golden colored wine that offers notes of ripe white fruits and baking spices.  The palate has tones of ripe peach and tropical fruits with secondary tinges of subtle caramel and a long crisp finish. 

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