Podere Ciona Semifonte and Chianti Classico

Posted on May 2, 2023 by thewineraconteur

Lorenzo Gatteschi was holding court, as we used to say, at my local wine club and store The Fine Wine Shop in Livonia, Michigan.  Lorenzo Gatteschi is not only the owner and winemaker of Podere Ciona from Gaiole in Chianti, but he is what we called a “Gentlemen of the Old School.”  He answers all of the questions, and I am sure some of the questions are repeated several times over the course of the day, when new tasters arrive at the allotted times.  While the shop is not large in area, the loyal followers and customers always make it work and have a great time, as they enjoy their wine tastings. 

The first red of the tasting was the Podere Ciona Semifonte Toscana IGT 2018.  This happens to be one of my favorites consistently from the winery as I think it offers a great bang for the buck, as we used to say when I was young.  The soil of the vineyards is a mix of sandstone, clay schist and marl. Depending on the vineyard the vines are between seven to eighteen years in age.  The wine is seventy-five percent Merlot and twenty-five percent Alicante Bouschet.  They still maintain hand harvesting and initial fermentation is in Stainless Steel for about ten days with extended post-fermentation maceration on the skins for about a month, followed by malolactic fermentation, and then aged in French Oak for about eighteen months, finally refined for twelve months in the bottle.  This light-ruby colored wine offered notes of red fruits and spices, and on the palate fresh fruit, soft tannins, and a velvety texture from the Merlot with a nice medium finish of fruit and terroir.

The next red and in fact, all the rest of the wines were reds, was the Podere Ciona Chianti Classico 2019.  Their winery is in one of the oldest parts of the Chianti region on a south-facing hill and the estate has thirteen acres of vineyards, two acres of olive groves and one-hundred acres of woodlands, plus assorted fruit trees, chickens, vegetable gardens and soon apiaries.  The Podere Ciona Chianti Classico 2019 is the winery’s basic Chianti wine and they still maintain their desire to only produce one bottle of wine per vine.  Depending on the vineyard the vines are between seven to eighteen years in age.  The wine is eighty-nine percent Sangiovese, nine percent Merlot and two percent Alicante Bouschet.  They still maintain hand harvesting with manual destemming grape by grape for inspection.  Initial fermentation is in Stainless Steel for about ten days with extended post-fermentation maceration on the skins for about a month, followed by malolactic fermentation, and then aged in French Oak for about eighteen months, finally refined for twelve months in the bottle.  This light-ruby colored wine offered notes of red fruits and spices, and on the palate fresh fruit, soft tannins and a velvety texture from the Merlot with a nice medium finish of fruit and terroir.

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Lorenzo Gatteschi Conducts Another Tasting

Posted on April 30, 2023 by thewineraconteur

It was a great way to spend a couple of hours at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan with Lorenzo Gatteschi of Podere Ciona pouring and discussing his wines.  He was a bit distraught, as he and his wife lost their luggage courtesy of the airlines and connecting flights, and unfortunately, I hear more and more stories about this recently.  Despite such a problem, he was still able to function with his usual poise and his ability to keep the crowds happy, along with his wines; all the while someone at the wine shop was checking on the luggage in real time.  While I was there, I never did hear if the errant luggage came to Detroit, but I do hope that it was a good story ending.

All of the above rambling of mine leads me to my most recent wine tasting with Lorenzo Gatteschi, winemaker of Podere Ciona in Gaiole, Tuscany; who was there hosting a tasting of his family’s wines. I was reading the history of the winery on their website “Franca and Franco Gatteschi were looking for a place in the countryside to retire to, after many years of working in Italy and abroad, when they came across a small, beautiful, albeit run down property: 100 acres of land, mostly wooded with 10 acres set aside for cultivation, of which 2.5 acres already had vineyards; a house from the 18th Century, abandoned for more than 40 years; and, above all, a view without equal on the Chianti hills, with Siena in the distance.”  It really sounds idyllic and makes one ponder how this property was neglected and ignored for years.  “They purchased the estate at the beginning of 1990 and they immediately started the reconstruction work on the main house (it took nearly three years). They also set up a small but well- equipped wine cellar for making wine. In 1996 they permanently moved to live on the estate and the following year, the great 1997 vintage, saw the birth of the first “official” wine of Podere Ciona: A Chianti Classico DOCG Riserva.”

The first wine of the afternoon was Podere Ciona “Ciona Rosé” Toscana IGT 2019.  While Lorenzo may have been flustered about the luggage, I must confess that he still remembered this Raconteur that attempts to through off the rhythm of the tasting with my photography and my questions and my hieroglyphics that I jot down on the paper for my notes.  The Rosé was made entirely of Sangiovese in the saignée method.  The vines are from six to nineteen years of age and planted on quartz, clay schist and marl.  The fruit is harvested manually in small baskets and then de-stemming, berry by berry for a slight crush in Stainless Steel vats for ten to twelve hours of skin contact and no Malolactic Fermentation. The wine is then aged for about six months in Stainless Steel and then further fined and bottle aged for six months before distribution. There was about one-hundred-eighty cases produced of this wine.  A pretty salmon-pink color with notes of fruit and spices, just a well-balanced light and easy drinking wine with a nice medium count finish offering terroir.  I did have this wine, the last time I saw Lorenzo and this wine with a bit of age had more nuances and character compared to when it was an ingenue; and it was the last of the inventory. 

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Thirty Years

Posted on April 28, 2023 by thewineraconteur

Not the age of a wine, but the number of years my Bride has put up with me, since we met.  We always celebrate this day.  Even the Ritz Carlton in Michigan didn’t last this long.  I told her that I was going to marry her, that first night and periodically, I am sure that she wonders why she didn’t run at that moment.  I did get her out of her comfort zone, easier than she did with me.  When we met, she only had fish and white wine, basically Chardonnay.  She has discovered the pleasure of a well-prepared steak and a full-bodied red.  I have discovered fish, we always had seafood and I now have a much better appreciation of white wines, oh and I do eat salads, especially her house-made Caesar.

We went to Café Cortina in Farmington Hills, Michigan which always gets voted as the most romantic restaurant in the area.  The restaurant began in 1976 on the grounds of a former apple orchard, when this area was considered rural on the outskirts of Detroit.  I don’t know why, but as soon as we entered, the hostess began speaking to me in Italian, and in English to my Bride, but believe it or not, that happens quite a bit.  We started with Gamberoni alla Grigliaall’Olio or Grilled Gulf Shrimp with a Citrus Basil Aioli and Spicy Arugula, which we shared and our waiter created two dishes for us, from the one order. Then we had the House Salad with their House Dressing, which got me nervous as he said it was a buttermilk base, neither of us could prove it, and there I was enjoying a salad with fresh baked rolls.  For our entrées we both were going to order one of the specials of the evening and share our version of a Surf & Turf, our waiter created four plates and two servings.  We each had two large Scallops on Soft Polenta all on a bed of Red Pepper Purée.  We had Patrizi Gavi del Comune di Gavi DOCG 2021 from Cantine Manfredi. Four generations ago, from a family estate the winemaking began and by the end of the Thirties, the winery was delivering wines in Cuneo and in Liguria, and now they deliver around the world.  This is a famed Comune that is known for the production of the varietal Cortese and dates to the 1600’s.  The press likes to call this wine green and flinty, because it is so fresh and vibrant.  While there were no production notes, I think that it is safe to say that this wine was fermented and aged in Stainless Steel to maintain the fruit and freshness. A pale straw color offering notes of white flowers, lemons, and green apples.  On the palate this is a terroir driven wine that is bone dry with fresh acidity, plenty of minerals with a touch of honey and a nice finish of almonds.

Our waiter then brought us each a small dish of lemon sorbet to cleanse the palate and then he brought us the last special that he also divided into two plates.  Our waiter said that he only had two goals, the first to make the patrons happy and the second was to drive the chefs crazy.  We shared an order of Braised Short Ribs with an Amarone wine reduction with Cipollini on a bed of Saffron Risotto; and at first, we weren’t sure if there would be enough to share and we were told that it was at least eight ounces without the bone.  This was followed by their noted Millefoglie al Caffe e Cioccolato, sixteen layers of Chocolate crepes, with an Espresso Chantilly Cream and two cups of spectacular decaffeinated Cappuccino with optional sugar water.  For the last course I just had a glass of the house wine DeAngelis Campo di Marte Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOC 2021. Montepulciano d’Abruzzo has been one of our favorite wines almost from the time we met, and it is a good thing, because I could not find anything about this wine, not even from the local distributor.  Montepulciano d’Abruzzo is also one of the most popular wines in Italy and abroad, because it is easy to drink and very food-friendly wine with notes of black cherry, a little tobacco and some spices.  On the palate, the black cherry and spices were still young and vibrant, not forward, gentle tannins and a very short finish, but the Short Ribs made the wine seem fuller and lush.        

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It Could Have Gone Either Way

Posted on April 26, 2023 by thewineraconteur

There are times when we all have to gamble on a bottle of wine, if you have a cellar, and are absent-minded like me.  Some people cannot have a cellar for a myriad of reasons and they only buy for immediate consumption, and they will only know the sadness of pouring a wine down the drain, if a bottle is corked.  We found some wines during the Great Lockdown that had seen better days, and I know that we have a few more waiting to be discovered.  The other evening, we were having a casual dinner at home, just the two of us, and I went into the cellar, some may call it a glorified closet as I cannot turn around in the aisle.  I went to the lower left-hand column of French wines and I thought I would grab an older bottle.

I now look at the liquid in the bottle, after I have pulled it out of the cell that it occupied to see if there has been evaporation.  I know that when I am talking about a wine that we are drinking, I claim that the wine evaporates as we are talking with friends or having dinner, especially if it is awesome.  Though the evaporation that I am talking about is while the cork and capsule are still fully sealed and there is a gap of air between the wine and the capsule (that piece of metal or nowadays often plastic that goes over the corked-up bottle at the winery) as the wine is filled up past the capsule at the winery.  If there is any space of air, that space is called ullage.  Ullage is the Anglicized version of the French word ouillage and it has a couple of meanings, both kind of similar in the big picture with wine.  To put it in easy-to-understand layman’s terms, it is the amount of air space between the wine in the bottle and the cork that I am going to discuss, the other meaning is for the evaporation of wine in a barrel while it is aging, before bottling and normally the winery “tops” the barrels with additional wine to keep the barrels full, to prevent oxidation.  The more air space the better the chance that the wine has met air, as the cork and capsule are not air-tight any more.

The wine in question as Domaine de l’Oratoire Saint-Martin Reserve des Seigneurs Cairanne Cotes du Rhone Villages 1994.  The Alary family settled in Cairanne in 1692 and have been wine growers for ten generations.  In 1984, the brothers Frederic and Francois Alary took over the winery and they were pioneers of organic farming and biodynamic farming in 2008.  In 2020, their children did not want to take over the winery and it was sold to the Abeille-Fabre family, owners of Chateau Mont-Redon in Chateauneuf-du-Pape and wine growers for ten generations as well.  In 1936, when the AOC Cotes du Rhone was classified, Cairanne was part of the whole.  In 1967, the AOC Cotes du Rhone Villages was created and Cairanne became part of this subset, and finally in 2016 AOC Cairanne was designated.  Domaine de l’Oratoire Saint-Martin covers twenty-five hectares in Cairanne on a mix of clay soil, limestone, and red iron rich soil on the elevated steep hills of Saint-Martin.  The vines are for the most part about forty years of age, with some in the hundred-year mark.  The estate is about fifty-five percent Grenache Noir, twenty-five percent Mourvedre and twenty percent Syrah with a few old varieties of Counoise, Vaccarese or Muscardin and Carignan planted in small quantities for a touch of added complexity.  The fruit is hand-harvested and destemmed and then crushed; the Carignan is whole-cluster fermented.  The fermentation period is for about three weeks using wild yeasts, then the wine is aged in vats for about twelve months, bottled without fining or filtering.  The wine still had a nice red color (probably softened with age, but with no foxing or browning).  The nose still offered some dark fruit, but also strong notes of tobacco.  On the palate there were some tones of fruit and the tannins had softened and there was still some terroir in the finish.  While the wine was still enjoyable, I am sure that if we had opened it about five years earlier, it may have been a much bigger wine, and yes, I still have a soft spot for my Rhone wines.   

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Two Affordable and Delicious Red Wines

Posted on April 24, 2023 by thewineraconteur

The beauty of wine, is that if you know a little geography, you can make some excellent wine choices without breaking the bank, like these two wines that I recently had at my local wine shop, The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  One is an Haut-Medoc, and if the you know the pecking order of Bordeaux, from the top with the fine Chateau listings, you go to the Communes, and they are part of the Medoc, and the top Communes are all in the Haut-Medoc.  The other wine is from Tuscany and I think everyone has heard of what is called “Super Tuscans” and what the Italians simply term Toscana IGT.

Chateau La Lauzette-Declercq Haut-Medoc Cru Bourgeois 2019 is part of the wines from Frans & Liz Roskam.  The Brunot-Roskam family became the owners of Chateau Cantenac and they are now into the Fourth Generation of winemakers.  Before being named La Lauzette-Declercq during the Nineties, this Cru Bourgeois from the Haut-Medoc was known as Chateau Bellegrave with a Listrac-Medoc appellation.  M. Declercq, a Belgian owner, gave the winery its new name, and since 2005, the winery is managed by Frans & Liz Roskam.  Haut-Medoc accounts for two-thirds of the Medoc peninsula; and is famed for its famous four Communes of Margaux, Pauillac, Saint-Estephe and Saint-Julien as well as Listrac and Moulis and they account for the majority of the wine produced in the Haut-Medoc.  The soil for this region is basically thick gravel layers over heavy clay, which is perfect for Cabernet Sauvignon and as one gets further from the river, the soil is more clay which is ideal for Merlot.  AOC Cru Bourgeois is awarded to about two-hundred-fifty chateaus and the list may change yearly and since 2010, the list is published in September.  This term actually goes back to the Middle Ages, but was really defined in 1932 by the Bordeaux wine merchants to celebrate the wineries that did not make the 1855 Classification.  The wine is a blend of fifty-five percent Cabernet Sauvignon, forty-two percent Merlot and three percent Cabernet Franc and the vines average about forty-years of age.  After fermentation the wine is aged in oak barrels for twelve months.  This deep red wine offers notes of dark fruits, violets, vanilla, and coffee.  On the palate tones of blackberry, cherry, and blueberry with secondary tones of tobacco, good firm tannins, balanced and a nice lengthy finish of terroir.  A perfect affordable wine from Bordeaux. 

Le Volte Dell’ Ornellaia Toscana IGT 2020 is from one of the most famed producers in the Bolgheri appellation of Tuscany.  It was from these Bordeaux-style blends that created the term “Super Tuscan” instead of using the famous Sangiovese.  Wines that do not make the cut to become Ornellaia become the winery’s second wine Le Serre Nuove Dell’ Ornellaia with more Merlot and less aging.  Their third wine is Le Volte Dell’ Ornellaia which is also more Merlot based.  Ornellaia was founded in 1981 by Marchese Lodovico Antinori and the first vintage was in 1985.  From 2002 to 2005, the estate was co-owned by Robert Mondavi and Marchesi De Frescobaldi, but since 2005 Frescobaldi has owned it outright.  The wine is a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese.  Each varietal underwent Initial Fermentation separately in small Stainless Steel tank, and followed by Malolactic Fermentation also in Stainless Steel. The wine was then aged for ten months, partly in barrique used previously for Ornellaia and partly in Concrete tanks.  The ruby red wine offered notes of red fruits, tobacco, and spices.  On the palate a sexy silky wine with tones of cherry, cassis, Mediterranean spices, lively acidity, tight tannins and a nice medium length finish of terroir and fruit.  An easy drinking wine with or without food, but definitely with friends.             

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Easter Dinner 2023

Posted on April 22, 2023 by thewineraconteur

We were celebrating Easter dinner at our house and my Bride was up early getting the dinner started, and we also had some surprise guests as our son from Las Vegas came in with his family.  He also came in for his wife’s side, for a night of music and to see some of his friends from school.  We set up a bar in the library and I kind of stayed low and out of the way, because once she is in full blown catering mode, I tend to get in the way.

She started it of making appetizers plates of fruits, vegetables, and cheeses, while the whole house was filled with the aromas from the kitchen.  This Easter she baked a Brie with an Onion Jam, and served a Horseradish Cheddar and some Lemon Ricotta; this time the Lemon Ricotta was the favorite.  Our one daughter-in-law brought in a platter of Deviled Eggs.  My Bride and I always play a game as we try to figure out, who would be first to arrive and we were both wrong this time.  I thought I would make my Bride happy and open one of her favorite wines Famille Sichel Sirius Bordeaux Blanc 2019.  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 amiss 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.    

She was roasting a leg of lamb with carrots, mushrooms, rutabaga, parsnips, and completely stuffed with lamb.  She also had a ham (next week there will be some great soup made from the bone). She made garlic stuffed roasted cauliflower, Armenian Pilaf, roasted potatoes, and mashed potatoes.  After, there were all sorts of desserts and of course the obligatory birthday celebration with the addition of the family from Las Vegas.  We had a bottle of Podere Ciona Semifonte Gaiole in Chianti Toscana IGT 2018 that I tried at a tasting that I have not even wrote about yet, which will be soon.  Franca and Franco Gatteschi were looking for a place in the countryside to retire to, after many years of working in Italy and abroad, when they came across a small, beautiful, albeit run down property: 100 acres of land, mostly wooded with 10 acres set aside for cultivation, of which 2.5 acres already had vineyards; a house from the 18th Century, abandoned for more than 40 years; and, above all, a view without equal on the Chianti hills, with Siena in the distance.”  It really sounds idyllic and makes one ponder how this property was neglected and ignored for years.  “They purchased the estate at the beginning of 1990 and they immediately started the reconstruction work on the main house (it took nearly three years). They also set up a small but well- equipped wine cellar for making wine. In 1996 they permanently moved to live on the estate and the following year, the great 1997 vintage, saw the birth of the first “official” wine of Podere Ciona: A Chianti Classico DOCG Riserva.  I will include the production and tasting notes when I discuss the latest tasting of the winery’s offerings.  Suffice, it to say, that tomorrow, I have to go to the Fine Wine Source and pick up a couple of cases of wines for some of the people that enjoyed the wine. 

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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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