We Had Visitors

Posted on June 12, 2022 by thewineraconteur

My Bride and I live in a suburb that was originally a township.  I am not sure what the definition of a township is where you live, but originally in Michigan in meant thirty-six square miles or six miles by six miles.  The old city planners were quite ingenious and created an industrial park that is six square miles through the city along the railroad lines, and this industrial park has always been beneficial to the homeowners when it came time to pay land taxes.  Even when the township became a city, to this day there are a couple of small farms, a turkey farm and at one time there was a mink ranch and a rabbit ranch.  The rabbits escaped and I would venture to say that there is a rabbit warren almost in every backyard here.  We have had pheasants, turkeys, rabbit, opossums, raccoons and the other day we had a young deer maybe checking out the real estate market here. 

We also had some of the family from Louisville for dinner, after they had lunch at my Brother-in-Law’s sister home and it had been a couple of years since he saw all of his family.  His sister probably only lives about five miles from our house, so, I just mentioned that my Bride should not even think of starting a dinner, until they showed up.  We just had a casual dinner with a Caesar Salad (are you surprised?), New York Strip Steaks and Candied Carrots.

I went into the cellar and grabbed something that I thought was interesting.  We had a bottle of Duckhorn Vineyards and Winery Decoy “Migration” Napa Valley Red 1997.  We still have some of the wines that we bought from our initial visit to Duckhorn, arranged through a customer of mine, one of the sons (when it was still a family-owned winery) gave us a private tour, and a private tasting in the back of a semi-trailer, as we sat on cases of wine, and on occasion we would have to get up, to open another case to try another wine.  Memories like that can’t be duplicated. The wine was a blending of different varieties and different contract and owner properties, back when Duckhorn Vineyards produced all of their wines in Napa Valley, now Duckhorn is one subsidiary and Migration is another subsidiary.  The original concept for Migration is that the wine could change from year to year.  This wine was produced from fruit harvested from seven different vineyards within the appellation.  The wine was fifty-one percent Cabernet Franc, twenty-six percent Merlot, thirteen percent Cabernet Sauvignon and ten percent Petit Verdot.  The wine was aged for eighteen months in a blend of sixty percent French Oak (ten percent new, sixty percent second and thirty neutral) and forty percent American Oak (all second use). I had my Durand corkscrew so the cork remained whole.  For a twenty-five-year-old the wine was excellent, with a beautiful deep color. The nose was vintage Right Bank, and on the palate the tannins were soft, but it was still a chewy wine with a good long finish; and for some odd reason there was no leftover wine for the next day. 

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An Eightieth Birthday

Posted on June 10, 2022 by thewineraconteur

You may think this is about me, but I haven’t made this milestone.  It was going to be a surprise party, but at the last minute, his wife thought the stress might be a shock, so she told him.  It was quite a successful surprise party, until that moment, considering how many people knew about it and never let it leak out.  We got at the restaurant before the designated time, as we were going to help one of the co-conspirators decorated the room.  They showed up at the designated time, but there was plenty of time for the decorations as the guest of honor was almost an hour late for his own party.

We thought it would be rude to start eating ahead of time, but we did order a bottle of wine for our table, but we were the only ones to celebrate in that manner.  We had a bottle of Bodega Abito Rosé Barranca, Argentina 2020. A winery that has decided that their emblem is an eye, to let the consumer realize that the wine is watching them.  Barrancas is a small wine region in the Maipu district of Mendoza in Argentina and they have probably the lowest altitude, and hence the warmer climate typically means that the wines are softer and riper.  The soil is alluvial and allows the vines to grow deep roots. This region actually began producing wines in the 1880’s, making it one of the earliest areas.  This wine is a blend of fifty-six percent Malbec, thirty-six percent Syrah and eight percent Cabernet Franc.  Twenty percent of the wine was aged in French Oak for months and I shall suppose that the balance was done in Stainless Steel.  The wine had a deep rose color with notes of red fruits.  On the palate, this wine was crisp and dry with tones of raspberry, strawberry and cherry with a short finish. The crowd finally showed up and my Bride ordered a Chicken Bibb Salad with Romaine, Sundried Cherries, Cinnamon Pecans with Grilled Chicken Breast with Raspberry Vinaigrette with a side of fresh fruit.  While I had the Key West Shrimp, sauteed Tiger Shrimp with Spinach, Roma Tomatoes and Shallots, flash flamed with Tequila and a hint of garlic (I asked for more than a hint).

You might be surprised to find out the wine ran out, before the food, and way before the desserts.  So, we had to get something festive for the occasion and we went with splits.  One of the splits was Famiglia Zonin Prosecco DOC NV. Casa Vinicola Zonin SPA is based in the Veneto region of Italy with wineries across Italy and the USA.  They were founded in 1821, and in the 1960’s began an expansion starting in Friuli and Chianti Classico and finally the Barboursville Vineyards in the State of Virginia.  There was not much to find about this particular wine, but it probably is marketed to food establishments.  It is Prosecco DOC, so it is Prosecco and probably made in the Charmat Methode.  It was just an easy-going wine with a nice golden color, medium size bubbles with a very soft nose and a slightly sweet finish.  I liked it, just the way it was, and I think that it would be too sweet in a Mimosa, and perfectly priced for the majority of restaurants.

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Those Model T’s Are Fast

Posted on June 8, 2022 by thewineraconteur

There are some days when plans are changed the last minute, and I was going to be alone for the day, and then my Bride was free.  I took advantage of the information and decided that we were going to have a date, right then and there.  We have season tickets to one of the finest educational sites in North America; The Henry Ford.  When I was a kid and I used to ride my bicycle there it was known as Greenfield Village and The Henry Ford Museum.  A few years ago, some marketing guru decided to combine the two under one name, the old names are still being used for the two entities.

Greenfield Village is a town setting of historical buildings that Henry Ford had dismantled from their original sites and moved to their new location at the Village.  I am sure that he saved plenty of buildings that could have been torn down, because of “progress.”  Some of the structures are very spartan, like homes from the 1600’s, blacksmith shops, even slave quarters from a dark-time in the not-too-distant past. There is Menlo Park where Thomas Edison had some of the most brilliant minds creating all kinds of inventions and new ideas, even Edison’s Florida laboratory was moved as well.  The Wright Brothers bicycle shop is there, where they originally tinkered and created their airplane.  Surrounding all of this are vintage trains and coaches that circle the village, there is an old River Boat plying one of the man-made lakes, and of course there are motorized tours available in chauffeured and curated Model T’s, the car that mobilized man affordably.  One actually had to keep alert because the Model T cars loaded with tourists moved at a pretty good clip, of course the paved streets are well maintained and are not maintained by our governor.  After walking the entire Village, we went and had a quick lunch.  My Bride had a French Onion Soup and a salad.  On a hot day, the perfect wine that they were offering was Kris “Artist Cuvee” Pinot Grigio delle Venezie IGT 2020 from the Winebow Group.  The label is the work of Riccardo Schweizer, a friend of the winery owner, a native of Northern Italy and a student of Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro.  Delle Venezie is one of the best-known designations of Italy, because of all the Pinot Grigio wine.  In 2017 the name was transferred to a new DOC and the IGT changed its name to Trevenezie, but if the winery doesn’t adhere to the rules of the DOC, it can still use the IGT designation.  There were no production notes on this wine, but I think it is safe to say that the wine was made in Stainless Steel to keep the fruit and the acidity as fresh as possible.  The nose was very light and so was the wine, it was what we call a quaffable wine and perfect for a hot day.

The Henry Ford Museum which is housed in a building that looks like Independence Hall is a collection of all types of gadgets, because Henry Ford liked gadgets.  There one can see furniture, small appliances, electronics, airplanes, trains and of course, automobiles.  It is fascinating, and it still holds my attention after a lifetime of visits. We could have done another tour of the Museum, but we were only going in to have lunch at their newest restaurant run by Plum Market, a specialty market with several locations in the Metropolitan Detroit area.  Plum Market also employs Madeline Triffon who was the first female Master Sommelier in America, as their In-house Sommelier.  After being in all of the fresh air, a Bratwurst on a bun, just sounded so enticing.  I washed it down with a glass of Black Star Farms Arcturos Sur Lie Chardonnay Michigan 2020.  Black Star Farms is rather unique in that it has vineyards and tasting room facilities on both peninsulas, so that they are kind of surrounding Traverse City which is kind of the focal point for all of the wineries in the area.  The fruit for this wine came from vineyards from both peninsulas and hence the Michigan AVA.  In 1998 Black Star Farms purchased Sport Valley Farm which was a one-hundred-twenty-acre equestrian facility, and the stylized black star was part of the architectural décor in the main house.  This was a nice medium bodied wine done in Stainless Steel.  It offered notes of ripe citrus, and some floral and finished with a bit of terroir.  And after lunch the only Model T cars that we saw were on exhibit and parked, so all was good.

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Sometimes, We Get Touted

Posted on June 6, 2022 by thewineraconteur

Periodically, we get touted to try a restaurant, and a most of the time it happens to be a chain and I just don’t get that excited.  I guess it was all the years of being an independent retailer, so chains operations are not my cup of tea.  Some people feel very comfortable with chains, because there won’t be anything novel, in fact a lot of them are cookie-cutter designs, just like as if they are a fast-food carry-out joint.   Eventually that may be the way of the world, as when we travel, I do like to eat at local restaurants to get the flavor of the city, but just like nowadays most retail establishments are the same from city to city, so are most restaurants.  It also gives me a point of reference, so that I can see if there are any trends that I may have missed, and there are plenty, because of my avoidance of chains of any type.  My Bride does say that I can be a real pain-in-the-arse, and she probably is telling the truth.  I think that I have done quite well, considering that for decades, the City of Lincoln Park, was designated back in the Fifties as the perfect cross-section of America by a survey conducted by Amy-Joy Donuts and then for years every chain attempted to win over the populace of Lincoln Park, but I digress and ramble as I am wont to do at times.

My Bride surprised me and decided to get a “tower” of “BLT sliders.”  I know that sliders are all the rage now, but I think of them as a student’s cure for hunger when I was a kid, and some local establishments would sell like a dozen sliders for two dollars.  Granted, I used to joke that sliders were concoctions of little buns heated on greasy grills, sprayed with essence of meat, chopped and fried onions with a slice of American cheese and pickle slices.  My Bride got this elaborate dish (tower) where the BLT sliders were impaled on a built-in spear perpendicular to the dish that was covered with well-done and spiced French-fries.  The sliders were Brioche buns slathered with Lemon Aioli, Roma Tomatoes, Lettuce and their “Millionaire” bacon which was thick, spiced and candied. It was a very nice dish and she enjoyed it.  She had a glass of McManis Family Vineyards Pinot Grigio River Junction AVA 2021.  McManis Family Vineyards is a family-owned wine producer based in Ripon, near Modesto and founded in 1990.  The estate has thirteen-hundred acres all in the River Junction AVA, one of the smallest AVA designations in California and the designation was awarded in 2001 with only one winery.  The fruit for this wine was night harvested on the estate.  The grapes first have a gentle crush and then the must is pressed again and is cold fermented in Stainless Steel.  The wine is a blend of seventy-six percent Pinot Grigio and twenty-four percent Chenin Blanc.  This straw-colored wine offered notes of lemon, lime and grapefruit.  On the palate the citrus fruits were crisp and had a nice medium finish with some terroir thanks to the sandy loam of the AVA.   

As for me, I was debating between a burger or ribs, but when I heard that the meat falls off the bone, I had to have the ribs, with the well-done and spiced French-fries and Cole Slaw, which is just the perfect combination for me.  I went with a Pinot Noir for some fruit in hopes that it would pair with the barbeque sauce.  I had the Imagery Estate Winery Pinot Noir California 2020 which was designed for experimentation in winemaking.  The original winemaker was Joe Benziger and the second winemaker is his daughter Jamie who took over the reins in 2017, as she grew up between her family’s two Sonoma wineries and she also went away to learn at other wineries as well.  In 2019 she was named Best Woman Winemaker in the International Women’s Wine Competition. The wine is Pinot Noir, except for five percent Petit Verdot.  The deep colored wine offered notes of strawberry and cherry and on the palate, it offered tones of a blend of jammy red fruits, a touch of oak, soft tannins and a soft finish of fruit.  I did enjoy it with the ribs.    

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Podere Ciona Riserva and a Super Tuscan

Posted on June 4, 2022 by thewineraconteur

Lorenzo Gatteschi, a family member and winemaker at Podere Ciona was at my local wine store, The Fine Wine Source conducting a wine tasting.  The owner of the shop and Lorenzo have become fast friends over the years and when he is town, he even stays with the owner at his home, and they have dinner at his restaurant after the tasting session is concluded.  Not only that, but Podere Ciona has some guesthouses on the property that date back to the 18th Century and fully modernized and can be seen on their website. Since the property is between Florence and Siena, it is the perfect location for a vacation and a chance to do enjoy some wonderful wines. During the tasting sessions there were people that were also making inquiries, which I am sure also make Lorenzo happy.

We had a chance to taste the Podere Ciona Chianti Classico Riserva 2015. I think that when most people think of Tuscany, their first thoughts are a traditional Chianti Classico and if they can get a Riserva, all that much better. The wine is estate grown on their quartz, clay schist and marl soil.  The wine is a blend of ninety-five percent Sangiovese, seven percent Merlot and one percent Alicante Bouschet; and the vines are between fifteen and sixteen years of age. The fruit is all hand-harvested and the initial fermentation is for about ten days in Stainless Steel.  Then malolactic fermentation of the juice on the skins is for about a month in French Oak.  With this being a Riserva, the wine is then aged for twenty-four-months in a mix of French Oak of which ten percent are new, and then an additional twelve months in bottles, before being released.  There were about eighteen-hundred six packs of this wine made. From my notes for 2015, this was a powerhouse vintage for Chianti and this deep ruby-red wine offered notes of plenty red fruit.  On the palate, the cherry and other fruit was excellent, was well balanced and velvety tannins and a nice lingering finish of terroir.  This bottle will cellar well and it needs at least an hour to breath before serving.   

Then I was poured the Podere Ciona Le Diacce Rosso Toscana IGT 2015 and Le Diacce is the estate’s flagship wine featuring their finest Merlot grapes and a touch of Alicante Bouschet.  Outside of Chianti Classico Riserva, Toscana IGT is the other famous designation of Tuscany, and Toscana IGT is the most famous of all the IGT designations in Italy.  Back in 1984 when Sassicaia was granted it very own title of DOC Bolgheri Sassicaia, instead of Vino de Tavola, the floodgates were opened for Toscana IGT and whatever the winemaker can create.  This wine is ninety-seven percent Merlot and three percent Alicante Bouschet.  All hand-harvested and the best grapes are selected for this wine and the initial fermentation was for ten days in French Oak.  This was followed by post-fermentation maceration on the skins for about thirty-five days and Malolactic fermentation in French Oak.  The wine was then aged in French Oak for twenty-four months, and then another twelve months in the bottle.  There were three-hundred-thirty-three cases produced.  A rich deep purple-red wine with notes of red fruit, chocolate and nuts.  On the palate deep tones of cherry and red fruit (very fruit forward), totally balanced and lush with a nice long finish of fruit and terroir.  This was a second tasting of this wine and my notes were stellar both times.         

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Podere Ciona Chianti Classico and Semifonte

Posted on June 2, 2022 by thewineraconteur

Lorenzo Gatteschi of Podere Ciona was hosting a tasting of his wines at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  The estate is located in the original and oldest part of Tuscany’s Chianti wine-growing region and the area is still romantically symbolized by the Gallo Nero or Black Rooster from days of yore.  The estate is on a south-facing hill and there is over a difference of four-hundred feet comparing the highest and lowest altitudes of the vineyards.  The estate is comprised of thirteen acres of vineyards, two acres of olive groves and one-hundred acres of woodlands.  They also have fruit trees, chickens, two vegetable gardens with beehives coming soon.

The Podere Ciona Chianti Classico 2018 is the winery’s basic Chianti wine and they still maintain their desire to only produce one bottle of wine per vine.  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 eighty-nine percent Sangiovese, nine percent Merlot and two 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 Podere Ciona Semifonte Gaiole in Chianti IGT 2018 and is termed a Tuscan Rosso wine.  Toscana IGT is the most famous of the IGT designations and it actually has three sub-regions already, and there are ten provinces that are allowed this designation.  Tuscany is the home of Italy’s most famous IGT category, but it was where this category forced the hands of wine classification for a new designation, because some of the wine makers felt constrained by the current rules, and originally had to use the lowly Vino de Tavola or Table Wine designation for their new wines.  Finally, in 1984, Sassicaia was granted its very own title of DOC Bolgheri Sassicaia and the floodgates were opened.  IGT is Italy’s version of the Common Market’s designation of IGP.  This particular wine is seventy-five percent Merlot and twenty-five percent Alicante Bouschet, the same varietal that they add to their Chianti Classico.  This is a high-altitude Merlot planted on a mix of quartz and clay of vines that average about nineteen years of age.  The initial fermentation was for ten days in Stainless Steel with post-fermentation maceration on the skins for about a month and has been aged for twelve months in French Oak and then cellared for twelve months in the bottle, before being released.  There were about two-hundred cases produced and according to The Fine Wine Source they have the lion’s share of the production.  The bright purple-red wines offered notes of plums and herbs and on the palate a smooth well rounded wine offering layers of cherry and red fruits with spices and a medium finish of fruit and terroir.   Since, I always mention how much I enjoy Merlot, I guess I am already biased towards this wine.    

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Lorenzo Gatteschi and a Wine Tasting

Posted on May 31, 2022 by thewineraconteur

By now, if you have read any of my articles, you realize that I am a creature of habit and I tend to visit my local wine shop The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  I am an old war-horse from the retail industry and I can appreciate an old pair of well-formed slippers as well as a pair of brand-new brogues, in fact sometimes the slippers are preferred.  I have been to many wine shops in the past fifty years; and some have been so snooty that I have not wanted to buy a bottle of wine, all I wanted to do was to get out of the building, establishments like that are what give the wine industry a bad name.  Most of the shops are just retail stores, just like going into a clothing store and the clerks pretend that they are knowledgeable, but they are useless, they may as well be selling ten-penny nails at the local hardware store.  Let us say that I do put retail under a fine microscope, because it was what I did, until I realized that being a gentleman is a lost cause.  That is why I appreciate The Fine Wine Source, they don’t attempt to let you know how smart they are, but when you ask a question, they can answer it, that is important, especially since you can not find any of the “popular” wine brands there, like you find at the drug store, grocery store or gas station.

All of the above rambling of mine leads me to a wine tasting with Lorenzo Gatteschi, winemaker of Podere Ciona in Gaiole, Tuscany 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.”

Not only am I treated as an old friend by The Fine Source, but Lorenzo Gatteschi greets me and every other person there as an old friend, he even remembers little bits of information from past conversations.  Lorenzo is a fine gentleman of the “Old School” and was very gracious, in fact each time that I have met him, I get the same feelings.  After dealing with the public for fifty years, I think I have developed a keen appreciation for the qualities of a gentleman.  We started off with Podere Ciona Rosé Toscana IGT 2019 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.

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Another Gathering of Shamrocks

Posted on May 29, 2022 by thewineraconteur

I was attending a reunion of the Shamrocks, the name of my Bride’s high school’s nickname.  They were trying to get a group together, and since my Bride is not on social media, I had to request a membership to a closed group, identifying myself as the husband, using my Bride’s maiden name.  I was accepted and I had to relay all the information to my Bride about potential dates and locations.  It all worked out, in the end, and I bit the bullet and tried a glass of Yellow Tail Pinot Grigio Australia 2021, while my Bride was being a social butterfly and reintroducing herself to some of the people that showed up, as I am sure that no one still looks like a teenager.  While I was trying the wine.  I also secured a table for five of us to have dinner.  My Bride pulled herself a way for a bit, to try the wine, as the restaurant only carried wines by the magnum, or double bottle, and the price of a magnum for any of their wines was the price I have paid for a glass of wine in some locations.  I tried the Pinot Grigio, for my Bride and for the record, the wine was a soft yellow, with floral notes, on the palate a bit of fruit (citrus?) and a very short finish of almost rubbing alcohol. It could be, just because the magnum only had perhaps one more glass left, and who knows how long it was between pours; it also didn’t help that the wine glasses were the old-fashioned restaurant utilitarian glass where the wine is filled to the brim.

Eventually all five were seated at the table, as the waitress was coming around to take the orders, and this was a family-owned restaurant that has over fifty years of continuous business, which is impressive.  My Bride and I were going to split an Antipasto Salad and the waitress assured us that the Small would be adequate for us, and she was right, as we let others have some of the salad as well.  The waitress did ask me what type of dressing, and I thought for an Antipasto, that Italian would be the best.  Then we also shared an order of Veal Scallopini, and my Bride had our bowl of Minestrone Soup and we also shared a side order of Mostaccioli with a Meat Sauce.  There was definitely enough food for the two of us, and the other people at the table agreed.  I was surprised that one of the others at the table has to have a Gluten-free diet and at this Italian restaurant they had Corned Beef and Cabbage and Potatoes and she was totally happy.  To finish it off, we all had a slice of the specially decorated sheet cake for the event. 

There was a group of us, and since the price was so safe for a magnum, I made a mental decision between a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Merlot, and of course with my predilection, we ended up with a bottle of Yellow Tail Merlot Australia 2021.  Yellow Tail is a major single-variety wines, as well as sparkling and rosé wines with value pricing. It is now one of the largest selling wines by volume in the world. The Casella family began history in wines back in Italy in the 1820’s.  They moved to Australia in 1957 and began making wines in the 1960’s. The Yellow Tail brand, which depicts a wallaby was formed in 2000, from the juice that they used to produce and sell to other wineries and the bulk of the wines carry the appellation of South Eastern Australia, but the winery and facilities are located in Yenda, New South Wales. By 2003, Yellow Tail was the number one imported wine to the United States of America.  The wine had a nice deep garnet color with mild notes of dark fruit.  On the palate a small taste of red fruit, mellow and a very short finish.  This wine was not the worse red wine that I have tasted, and if it has the ability to eventually get people to try other wines, then I applaud the results.  The odds are that I won’t be attending my high school reunion, even with the monumental number, but I am sure that I will live.   

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Ladder 4 Wine Bar

Posted on May 27, 2022 by thewineraconteur

We went to a wine bar in a rehabbed firehouse called Ladder 4 Wine Bar. When I was a kid, even before kindergarten, I can remember my mother taking me to see my dad at work.  He worked for Police Communications, but he was not with the Police Department, he was actually with the Public Lighting Commission, we all know that city administrations can be screwy.  He repaired traffic signals, teletypes, the blue boxes on poles that police could call in for updates in their precinct and the red boxes that sent the fire departments off and running to put out a fire.  I remember all of this, because his machine shop and warehouse, was on the grounds of Detroit Fire Academy, where future firefighters learned how to put out fires.  I mean as a kid, how could you not get excited about visiting a working firehouse with all of the equipment, the neat old- fashioned helmets, a chance to slide down the pole and once they even opened up the big window on the second floor and had me jump into the trampoline-like net that you used to see in the cartoons.  As a kid, you don’t really have any fears, especially when you are surrounded by firemen and your father to go ahead and do it, and have fun.  I mentioned all of this, because these are the memories that filled my head, as we pulled up to park in front of this unique wine bar, not far from the academy, and even though the buildings official signage was removed, it was a firehouse, just like in my old neighborhood, which wasn’t even that far away.

As we walked in, the first thing that we were asked, was if we could show our vaccination papers, and we weren’t even going to fly, thankfully my Bride has all of that stuff filed on her phone.  Ladder 4 firehouse was built in 1910 and it was only in 1860 that Detroit started having paid and professional firefighters, instead of volunteer bucket brigades.  The firehouse was designed by famed local architects of both residential and commercial buildings.  The new firehouse was the home of both Engine 10 and Ladder 4, which were located elsewhere, but grouped together in 1910.  Ladder 4 was also the home of the Rockwood, which is a solid brass tip on the end of the firehose and they were the last station to still use it.  Ladder 4 was closed in 2000 and Engine 10 was closed in 2012.  The Cadariu brothers in 2015 bought the building and restoration work began in 2019 with the concept of making it a wine bar, potential restaurant and a venue for live music, all on the grounds.  We had a self-guided tour and admired the wine bar and the wine shop.  We also saw other people enjoying a bottle of wine up on the side rooftops, that are being renovated for seating purposes for the future music productions.

As we had dinner reservations for later on, we only stopped by for a drink and to check it out, as I had heard about it from others, and of course, I am never Mr. First Nighter.  They had a limited number of choices of open wines to try, so I thought I would get us something interesting and more esoteric, we enjoyed Domaine Pecheur Cotes du Jura Poulsard 2020.  Domaine Pecheur began in 1976 with one hectare and today they are just shy of nine hectares of vineyards.  Cotes du Jura received its appellation in 1937 and is basically a terroir of limestone and marlstone and encompasses over one-hundred communes.  The varietal Poulsard is a mainstay for the region, it has thin skin and a pale color and is used to make white, rosé, red and sparkling wines and is known for having long fermentation periods to extract color and flavor, as some reds are presumed to be rosé at first glance.  The vines are about twenty-five years of age and the fruit is hand-harvested and destemmed.  The juice is considered delicate and historically does not do well in small barrels, so part of this wine was done in a six-hundred-liter demi-muid and the balance in Stainless Steel and is aged for a year.  This very soft red colored-wine offers notes of red fruit and pepper, and on the palate offers tones of cherry and strawberry and pepper, a round and pleasant tasting wine with a nice finish of spice and terroir.  The Ladder 4 will be a great place to go with some friends and enjoy a bottle of wine or two in a distinct setting.

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“Mixtape” and “Green”

Posted on May 25, 2022 by thewineraconteur

We were coming down to the wire for the last two wines to taste at The Royce and curated by the winemaker and owner Mike Laing of both Mawby Sparkling and bigLITTLE Wines.  During the entire time, he was also trying to explain the concept of making sparkling wines and why Michigan was perfect for it.  He was also explaining the different ways to make sparkling wine.  While he was discussing the concept of riddling the bottles, I automatically envisioned in my mind’s eye the boards with holes in it, that are slowly ratcheted and tilted further and further down, until the bottles are upside down to facilitate the disgorgement and the addition of the added liquid for the final fermentation that makes Methode Champenoise.  I said that I had heard that it was one of the highest paying jobs in the Champagne region of France, because of the danger of exploding and breaking bottles.  Mike Laing explained that it is all done at the winery by automation with almost no breakage encountered at all.  I found that very interesting, but I may have been the only one.

The penultimate wine for the tasting was bigLITTLE Wines “Mixtape” Leelanau Peninsula 2020.  One of ways in the old days to make a collection of music that one enjoyed to hear over and over, was to record the music on tape, way back before computers made everything so easy and this was named to honor how this wine was made.  This wine is a field blend of grapes that are grown and picked together at their Sylt Road Vineyard.  The wine is a blend of Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris.  The wine is fermented slow and cold and bottled with residual grape sugars for an off-dry white wine and there were four-hundred cases made of this wine. The pretty soft straw-colored wine offered notes of fresh fruit and on the palate tones of pink grapefruit, with a mix of sweet and tart, and bright acidity; a charming still wine with a touch of sweetness, and refreshing.

The last wine of the tasting was Mawby Sparkling Semi-Dry “Green” American NV. This is the only wine from Mawby that we had that is produced by the Charmant Method or the Tank Method, a more economical way of producing bulk wine that is used around the world.  This wine is made from seventy percent Cayuga and thirty percent Riesling and the fruit is sourced from Michigan, California and Washington State. The grapes for this cuvee are gently pressed, as they only use the juice from the first pressing for this wine and after initial fermentation the secondary fermentation is done in the tank.  The soft, pale gold colored wine offered notes of citrus and florals and on the palate tones of apricots, lemons and tropical fruit in a slightly sweet wine with high acidity and a crisp finish.  I guess “Green” as in a fresh and young wine and very easy to drink, as we were leaving The Royce, I ran into a fellow Instagram blogger and his wife, who I recognized and I introduced myself, by my nom-de-plume which he recognized, as well as my Bride.    

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