AIX and Ethel M

Posted on November 5, 2022 by thewineraconteur

 As we continued to graze and taste at the Las Vegas Food & Wine Festival at Tivoli Village, we were just having fun.  We were talking about wine and food and comparing notes with total strangers, but that was part of the charm of the evening and the event.  Almost all of the food tables we sampled, and if I didn’t, my Bride did; as she is much adventurous than I am about food (I guess I had a sheltered childhood). 

One of the booths was for Ethel M., a fixture in Las Vegas, but you will have to excuse me, even though I love their candies I always think of Lucy Arnaz and Ethel Mertz at a conveyer belt in a chocolate factory, and how they attempted to keep pace with production.  The Ethel M. that I am talking about is Ethel Mars and her candy kitchen that dates back to 1910.  Her son Forrest Mars Sr. created the company in his mother’s honor and you can actually visit and tour the factory on the outskirts of Las Vegas and discover this oasis of chocolate bliss.  All small batches of candy, with no mass production to this day, they still grind the nuts and make the caramel with no chemical preservatives.  With our glasses in hand, we tried a few delightful confections and then we were guided to another table to where they were offering chocolate and wine pairing suggestions.  Who could resist?

After having our sweet tooth sated, we continued on our quest to discover more wines.  We had a couple of glasses of a wine that I have read about and seen, but have never tried; we had Maison Saint Aix Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence “AIX” Rosé 2021.  The region was originally known as Coteaux du Roy René and was granted a VDQS in 1956 and became Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence AOC in 1985.  The district is considered a key appellation of Provence. The region produces rosé, red and white, but it is the rosé that is the major wine of the district.  The region is referred to as Mediterranean, as the vines are not farther than twenty miles from the sea, with long dry summers that usually ensure great harvests.  The soil for the region is of limestone, either as clay or as stones and the region is considered the birthplace of rosé.  Maison Saint Aix is one of the largest domaines in the region and they also enjoy one of the highest elevations in the region.  The wine is a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault, which is considered the classic blend for the region; and the Grenache vines are fifty to sixty years of age.  The domaine has been actively in the past ten years acquiring state-of-the-art equipment as in new harvesting machinery, temperature controlled Stainless Steel tanks and pneumatic presses.  The wine is a lovely salmon-pink color and offers notes of red fruits, peaches and florals.  On the palate lush citrus fruit tones with crisp and delicate acidity, that calls for the next sip and the wine finishes with a medium count of fresh fruit and terroir.  This was a wine that we found to take to the kids for a dinner at their house, my Bride was totally excited about it.                   

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Two From Daou Vineyards

Posted on November 3, 2022 by thewineraconteur

Wandering around the Las Vegas Food & Wine Festival at Tivoli Village was a great time, especially since we could walk back to our casino hotel.  I know that I have mentioned the wines so far, but there was plenty of food to graze on, as well.  Several restaurants represented some of the talented chefs were very visible and offering quick bites and some were so excellent, that I had to go back for seconds and thirds. 

We found another table pouring wines and my Bride had a glass of Daou Vineyards “Bodyguard” Chardonnay Paso Robles 2020.  George and Daniel Daou, two brothers who were originally in the IT industry purchased part of the Hoffman Mountain Ranch in 2007 and in 2012 purchased the other part of the ranch and they now had two-hundred-twelve acres.  Stanley Hoffman with help from Andre Tchelistcheff created the first modern commercial winery in Paso Robles after Prohibition.  The winery has four tiers or collections and the amount of aging in new French Oak is determined by the collection.  The “Bodyguard” which is offered in a red and a white is from their Expressions Collection.  All the estate fruit is hand-harvested and Daou Vineyards are certified sustainable by SIP (Sustainability in Practice).  This wine is pure Chardonnay and underwent cold fermentation.  The wine was aged for ten months in a mix of thirty percent new French Oak, thirty percent new American Oak and forty percent neutral French Oak.  This was a nice example of a classic California Chardonnay with a soft gold color.  There were notes of apples and pears, spices and a floral bouquet.  On the palate tones of ripe fruit, including secondary tones of tropical fruits, spices and honeysuckle in a buttery feeling with fresh minerality and a nice finish of terroir, curd and a touch of pineapple.  A very refreshing wine on a beautiful Autumn evening.

While I had their Daou Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Paso Robles 2021 from their Discovery Collection which is bought-in fruit.  The fruit for this wine is from the Daou Family Estates, which is family owned and operated and all hand-harvested.  The goal is to craft Bordeaux style wines that combine Old World tradition and New World techniques.  The wine is a blend of 80.4% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11.5 Petit Verdot, 7.8% Merlot and 0.3% Cabernet Franc.  After fermentation the wine is aged for ten months in half new French Oak and half neutral oak.  The deep purple wine offered notes of black fruit, sandalwood, tobacco and some eucalyptus.  On the palate there were tones of black cherry, raspberry, pomegranate, soft tannins and a medium count finish of red fruit and graphite (terroir).  A very nice wine for early consumption, it struck me as a wine not for the cellar, but quickly to the table.       

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Honey Bubbles Sparkling Moscato NV

Posted on November 1, 2022 by thewineraconteur

We were walking around at the Las Vegas Food & Wine Festival with our empty wine glasses, but at a festival like this, the glasses do not stay empty for long.  We came up to one of the booths that had one of those Kodak moments (at least that is the name that I can conjure up) with the logo of the company emblazoned all over the backdrop.  In fact, some of the photos for this series of articles came from the official house photographer, and my Bride and I happened to appear in a few of the photos. 

As we walked up to the tasting booth/ table/ Kodak moment background my Bride was leading the way.  The gentleman at the booth asked “Have you ever had an Italian Sparkling Moscato” and my Bride, kind of shrugged and replied that she doesn’t like Moscato wines.  Of course, by that time, I got there, and introduced myself and naturally began talking about wines.  Honey Bubbles Wine not only makes a wine, but they are donating proceeds to help combat “Colony Collapse Disorder” which is a malady affecting Honey Bee populations around the world, in fact in 2014 twenty-three percent of the American Honeybee Colonies died per the Huffington Post.  Bees are lauded as the cross pollinators of crops and their survival is crucial not only for viticulture, but for all plants.

Honey Bubbles Sparkling Moscato NV sources their fruit from Asti and Veneto in Italy, but during my research I discovered that originally the company was based in New Mexico, USA.  The wine is a blend of fifty percent Muscat Canelli (Muscat a Petit Grains) and fifty percent Muscat of Alexandria.  The sparkling wine is made using the Charmat Method which is very common in the region.  A prolonged tank fermentation results in less residual sugar (half of most Moscato wines) and a higher alcohol by volume (double of most Moscato wines) which makes Honey Bubbles a semi-sweet sparkling wine.  The soft-rose colored wine offered notes of citrus and tangerines and florals.  On the palate tones of a sparkling mousse body with some sweetness, excellent acidity and a rather nice long finish of peaches and orange zest.  I had to smile, because my Bride started gushing about the wine and how much she enjoyed it, and she made me look it up to see if we could buy some while we were in Vegas to share with the family, but every store that we found listing it, did not have it in stock.         

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Ragtag Wine Company Malbec

Posted on October 30, 2022 by thewineraconteur

Immediately after getting a VIP bracelet to allow us to wander around the Las Vegas Food & Wine Festival with our crystal wine glass in hand, looking very lonely and neglected, because it was empty, we found our first wine to sample.  The gentleman touting and pouring the wines, asked a very simple question “would you like to try a Bordeaux varietal made in Paso Robles?”  I must say even my Bride was intrigued.  Not to mention they had the perfect six-pack wine carrier, which was perfect for the “swag” that was offered at different tables, and we were off to a great start.

In 2016, a dream was born by a sister and her younger brother.  They even created a tasting room in Downtown San Luis Obispo.  Sarah Brewer is an entrepreneur and owner of multiple SLO based business and a self-proclaimed winery muse.  Jeff Huskey, began his career in the local SLO wine industry and graduated with a degree in Wine and Viticulture, with concentration in Enology. Together they had a dream, then a goal to create a winery, but in their words “something meaningful.”

We started the evening festivities with glasses of Ragtag Wine Company Malbec Margarita Vineyard Santa Margarita Ranch AVA Paso Robles 2018.  Santa Margarita Ranch AVA was established in 2014 as one of the designated sites within the much larger Paso Robles AVA.  The region basically is the valley floor from the Salinas River to the Santa Lucia Range, named after the historic Spanish mission outpost of Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa.  Margarita Ranch is the southernmost vineyard of the new AVA.  The fruit was harvested, destemmed and inoculated with a classic Bordeaux style yeast strain.  Upon completion of the malolactic fermentation the wine was aged for seventeen months; twenty percent new American Oak, twenty percent once used French Oak and sixty percent neutral barrels.  There were fifteen barrels produced, ten barrels bottled and two-hundred-forty-three cases made.  A nice deep color for a Malbec with notes of blueberry, currants, raisins and cloves.  On the palate it was a nice big wine with blueberries, currants and spices; a chewy wine with full tannins, nice acidity and a good medium count finish of terroir.  The evening was just getting started.             

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Las Vegas Food & Wine Festival

Posted on October 28, 2022 by thewineraconteur

It was quite happenstance or serendipity, but this vacation of ours was planned quite some time prior and only about a month or so prior to our leaving, did I find out about this event.  Through the wonders of social media, I have met some wonderful people and I have made some great discoveries.  Some people go out of their way to call themselves “influencers” and some don’t need to bother, and of the latter group is one of the gentlemen that I have met.  Earlier, I saw several teaser postings of the Festival and I immediately mentioned it to my Bride, that there was a festival being promoted at Tivoli Village, which is one of the areas that we always include in our morning walks.  Then, there was actual mentions of the festival, and even a mention of tickets, if one was interested.  Eventually, I put two and two together, and realized that we would be there, that Friday evening.  I inquired about tickets for my Bride and I and the next thing I knew we had two VIP tickets. 

Where we originally envisaged in our mind’s eye where the festival would be held, we were wrong, it was in the back half of the Village, and every morning during our walks, we kind of watched as the festival was taking shape.  The general admission for the festival was from 10:00PM to 11:30PM, while the VIP tickets got us in at 8:00PM and we were there as the doors or gates opened.  I had never met the individual that was our benefactor, though over the course of a couple of years, we had some conversations.  I recognized him immediately and went to introduce myself, while my Bride capture the moment, of course, she took the photo, before I got a chance to smile for the camera.  We then received a woven embossed lace bracelet that was put on our wrists, in case any of the guards thought that we were gate-crashers and we each also received a crystal wine glass to taste the wines.

The event reminded me of other culinary events that we have been too, of course those did not have the glamour of Las Vegas.  It was a great evening, and I am glad that our children and grandchildren allowed us a night of our own.  We immediately stopped and had our glasses filled at the first wine table, we encountered, as I mean, an empty wine glass at the Las Vegas Food & Wine Festival almost sounds like a sin.  Then we gave a once over of the grounds and watched as an official festival photographer was doing his job.  There will be plenty of articles as we had fun and notes and photos of the wines were taken. 

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Shopping and Wining in Summerlin

Posted on October 26, 2022 by thewineraconteur

This was the first time that both of us were retired and in Las Vegas, actually, it was the first trip as Senior Citizens, and we definitely ignored any retirement budget that we haven’t created.  We were still on Detroit time, and we were doing our 5K+ walk, basically getting out there before sunrise.  Even though it was warm, especially compared to Detroit, in the dessert before the sun comes up, it is chilly, but as long as we kept walking at a good pace, it was fine.  We kept talking about having breakfast at this one location, but they opened too late for us, but there was another one that just would be opening as we got there at seven in the morning.  Great coffee and we would split a huge breakfast, we will make great Seniors.

It seemed so odd, not to see my Bride checking in at the office several times a day.  We also had a few hours to kill, before we could do anything, as it was still too early for retail.   We had a big day planned as we were going to take our grandson who graduated from high school out for a special dinner later on; our fourth one and only four more to go.  We went to Downtown Summerlin to go shopping, which is probably about twenty square blocks of retail, entertainment and restaurants.  I think she may have finished the Christmas shopping, which is good.  We decided to stop at Grape Street Café, Wine Bar and Cellar.  One of our usual haunts.  My Bride surprised me by getting a Jameson Orange Cocktail and I have to admit, it was very tasty.  Jameson is the largest Irish blended whiskey manufacturer and the third-largest single-distillery whiskey produced in any country.  The company began in 1780 and by 1805 the Jameson family was in full control.  At its peak, the distillery covered two hectares and over three-hundred employees.  The standard blend is aged for a minimum of four years.  There have been a couple of mergers and now the parent company is owned by Pernod Ricard.    

As for me, I had a glass of wine, as if you are surprised. Domaine Vacheron Cuvee Belle Dame Sancerre Rouge 2018.  Domaine Vacheron is a highly regarded producer, now run by third generation winemaking cousins and considered one of the best in the region.  One of the few that produce both white and red wines.  The estate is almost fifty hectares on silex soils (clay and limestone based, topped off with flint). This wine is pure Pinot Noir and Sancerre overlooks the Loire Valley.  They adopted complete biodynamic practices in 2005, in fact the only fertilizer that they use is compost.  The fruit is hand-harvested and Stainless-Steel tanks are used for fermentation, and the winery uses a minimum amount of oak, though I have seen publicity photos of this Cuvee in French Oak barrels. This ruby-red colored wine offered notes of red fruit and smoke.  On the palate the wine had tones of red cherries and plums, full tannins, saltiness or salinity and a beautiful finish of terroir.  It was probably being served too young, but that is life.  An excellent red wine in a land of white wines.    

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The First Night Was at Grimaldi’s

Posted on October 24, 2022 by thewineraconteur

The logistics of getting us, our children and the grandchildren is an almost impossible task, in fact it was.  While we were on holidays, our children were working, and our grandchildren were students and part-time workers as well.  Our first night was the best as we only were missing one college student.  We all ended up at Grimaldi’s Coal Brick-Oven Pizzeria; after all, who doesn’t like pizza?  Grimaldi’s has become of our traditional spots for dinner, and one of the times that we were there, I took a great photo of real snow on the palm trees in the middle of the dessert.   It was funny, I was showing the group photo to my older cousin and he immediately zeroed in on the Old School pizzas and called them mouthwatering.  And, we could walk over there from our hotel. 

Grimaldi’s Coal Brick-Oven Pizzeria began with their first location under the Brooklyn Bridge over a hundred years ago.  The kids all got excited watching the pizza dough being tossed up in the air to stretch, as this is not a conveyer belt, hot lamp pizza franchise.  Since, there were so many of us, we ordered a couple of large Antipasto Salads, and a couple of Caesar Salads for the table.  We had a Margherita for the cheese lovers, and then a couple of extra-large Pies with an assortment of meats and veggies that we sent down to the end where all the kids were sitting.  And then one extra large Pie with pepperoni, mushrooms, green olives, ham and anchovies at my end with my Bride.  Everyone thought I had gone overboard on the ordering, but as I said “who doesn’t like pizza?” There was one little to go box of mixed salads, and I think three slices of pizza left for leftovers.

I had to try their new house wine Rocca delle Macie Mille Gradiº Rosso Toscana IGT Sangiovese 2019.  The Grimaldi’s Food and Beverage team returned to Italy to select a new vintage of their house wine. The name of the wine means “one-thousand degrees” in Italian as a complement to the brick-ovens in their pizzerias.  The wine was created at Rocca delle Macie estate in collaboration with the owner Sergio Zingarelli in Castellina in Chianti. The wine is pure Sangiovese.  Rocca delle Macie was founded by Italo Zingarelli, a television and film producer in 1973 when he purchased La Macie Estate and their two hectares.  La Macie Estate is still the heart of the company, but they now have several additional estates and forty-two hectares of vineyards. The wine is vinified the entire time in temperature control vats and is bottled in the Spring after harvest.  The ruby red wine offered notes of red fruits, and on the palate tones of red cherries and soft tannins with a moderate finish.  It was a very easy drinking red from Tuscany and perfect with the pies.

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Surviving Over a Week in Vegas

Posted on October 22, 2022 by thewineraconteur

When you go to Las Vegas to visit your children and not to gamble, it is a different mindset.  The kids live in Summerlin and that is where we stay, about ten miles from The Strip.  In 1952 Howard Hughes bought 25,000 acres in Las Vegas Valley.  He never developed it, and after his death in 1988, a master-planned commercial and residential community was designed and by 1990, the first areas were built.  The project is named after Jean Amelia Summerlin, Hughes’ paternal grandmother.  We have been staying at the same hotel, since My Favorite Daughter got married there, and I have to say that I think we have only twice not had a view of the casino rooftop, but we are not there as I said to gamble.

The complex, all of our kids refer to as a Senior Citizen Casino, which is fine and the room has a television with a very limited selection of channels for my Bride, a desk for me, a safe for our valuables and a refrigerator for wine.  My Bride goes out and gets a limited selection of groceries and she bought some wine.  The first bottle of wine was Shenandoah Vineyards Sobon Estate Viognier Amador County 2021.  Shenandoah Vineyards in Plymouth, California was founded in 1977 by Shirley and Leon Sobon.  They moved from Los Altos, where Leon was a Senior Scientist with Lockheed Research Lab, and an amateur home winemaker.  They planted a vineyard and converted an old stone garage to become Shenandoah Vineyards.  The Viognier vineyard is on a hilltop that was planted in the mid 1980’s on well drained granite and loam soils. They use natural and sustainable farming methods.  The wine is fermented and aged in Stainless Steel, except for ten percent that is aged in used American Oak barrels; just over a thousand cases were produced.  The soft golden-yellow wine offered notes of hibiscus, honeysuckle and vanilla.  On the palate tones of peaches, bananas in an off-dry creamy finish ending with a crisp slate terroir.

Besides wine, she also bought munchies, bottled water (Las Vegas is in the dessert), some cheese, crackers and Foix Gras Pâté.  The good thing is that we can actually get most of our supplies during our daily 5K walk in the neighborhood, except the water bottles are excessively heavy.  The hotel supplied to-go cups for in house coffee and fine plastic glasses for our wine.  The second bottle of wine that she initially got for us was Famille Bougrier France Chenin Blanc IGP Val de Loire 2020.  The Bougrier Family has been producing wines in the Touraine region since 1885 and now in its sixth generation.  IGP Val de Loire basically covers the entire Loire Valley that is not in classified regions.  I have also seen this label with the large “V” for Vouvray which is the star wine of Touraine.  This soft yellow wine offers notes of green apples, honeydew melon, nectarines and lemon zest.  On the palate tones of tart fruits, a rather dry wine with acidity and a finish of lemon-lime.             

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Wining at Detroit Metro

Posted on October 20, 2022 by thewineraconteur

Perhaps if we flew First Class, I might enjoy flying more, but the system has definitely made me a curmudgeon.  We get there so early, to park and get a shuttle to check-in and check our luggage; I also enjoy watching TSA go through the motions of using their wands on ninety-year-old women, some in wheelchairs, because they must fit the description of terrorists to the powers that be.  At least Detroit has a couple of decent sit-down restaurants with bars, compared to our return flight from Vegas, where we could not find a similar concept.  The airport in Vegas is named properly for a useless politician, if you saw the movie Casino about Old Vegas, the weaselly politician’s dialogue in court was used verbatim from this politician.

We were early enough to have a five-course dinner, but we just relaxed and ate and drank at a new restaurant in Detroit.  We ate at Cat Cora’s Taproom and since I don’t watch television, I was unaware of her presence, but our waitress gave us a thumbnail sketch.  Cat Cora is a world-renowned chef, author, television host and personality, health and fitness expert and mother of six.   From Jackson, Mississippi to the Culinary Institute of America to two different three-star Michelin restaurants in France; who then began a career in television.  My Bride was happy and immediately went for a glass of Canyon Road Pinot Grigio California 2021.  Canyon Road Winery of Modesto, California offers all the basic varieties using fruit harvested from across the state and that is why they use the California AVA.  They make a decent popular price wine that is not designed for cellaring, but for instant drinking.  It is the type of wine that many restaurants and catering companies use as their “house wine” and give a decent bang for the buck.

My Bride was not hungry, she just wanted some wine and she figured that she could nibble around my order.  I had the Angus Beef Burger with Beer Cheese, Fried Egg, Roasted Tomato, Smoked Bacon and Twice-Cooked Fries, but our waitress touted me to upgrade to the Truffled Fries version.  I didn’t want the egg and my Bride asked if the egg could be served on the side, so that and a third of the burger and the majority of the fries fed her quite nicely (and she said that the egg was more poached than fried).  I enjoyed Noble Vines Collection 181 Merlot Lodi 2018.  Noble Vines is a value wine brand created by Delicato Family Vineyards which has vineyards in the Central Coast region.  They are very big in donating to a large group of charities from the proceeds of their sales.  The 181 Merlot refers to the Merlot 181 clone that was initially derived from cuttings of plants in Pomerol and is now the largest clone planted in California.  I have to admit that I have always been partial to a glass of Merlot, and I am becoming quite fond of wines from Lodi.  Lodi has a soil that makes the vines struggle with a “soil” that is stones over red clay.  The deep garnet wine offered notes of dark fruits and cloves.  On the palate tones of black cherry and black plums with spices and soft tannins leading to a moderate finish of fruit and some terroir.  A nice wine for instant gratification without the need to cellar.       

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Mixed Memories of Old Vegas

Posted on October 18, 2022 by thewineraconteur

“There was this kid I grew up with; he was younger than me. Sorta looked up to me, you know. We did our first work together, worked our way out of the street. Things were good, we made the most of it. During Prohibition, we ran molasses into Canada… made a fortune, your father, too. As much as anyone, I loved him and trusted him. Later on, he had an idea to build a city out of a desert stop-over for GIs on the way to the West Coast. That kid’s name was Moe Greene, and the city he invented was Las Vegas. This was a great man, a man of vision and guts. And there isn’t even a plaque, or a signpost or a statue of him in that town! Someone put a bullet through his eye. No one knows who gave the order. When I heard it, I wasn’t angry; I knew Moe, I knew he was head-strong, talking loud, saying stupid things. So, when he turned up dead, I let it go. And I said to myself, this is the business we’ve chosen; I didn’t ask who gave the order, because it had nothing to do with business!”

 I walk in and the sign says “Headlining: Shecky Greene.” I see there is a line waiting from the front of the place to the back of the place. And I start to cry. Literally cry.

I said, “I never knew the love and dedication of that audience.” I say to my wife, “Look at all these people waiting. It’s wonderful.”

We get to the front; it was the buffet line! From that point on I had them put “Shecky Greene $19.95 with baked potato” on the marquee, because the buffet did better than I did.

“And there was no one, ever, in the history of show business, that did the business that this man did from midnight until 6 in the morning.  You could not get into that club. That was really of the biggest thing that happened in Vegas.”  “It created people like Shecky Green.  All the lounge acts started with Louis Prima.”

“Prima, Smith, Butera and the Witnesses kept the joint jumping all night long.”

“We were the hottest act in the world.” Remembered Butera.  “People like Frank Sinatra, Sophie Tucker would be there, 5:00 in the morning, just to watch this act.”

“Performing five shows a night, three half hour shows and two forty-five shows, Prima brought his raucous New Orleans style of entertainment to Las Vegas and it mad not only them famous, but the Sahara became the late-night place to be.”

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