It is time to add more wines to the cellar, this time from northern Michigan. 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. 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. In their Twentieth year, they were honored to receive the 19’th Annual Canberra International Riesling Challenge (CIRC) -Best Wine of the 2018 Challenge and only the second time an American wine came out on top. It has only been about four years or so, that we joined their club, which we had no intention of doing, but we went there to purchase some wines, after having them at a Michigan resort and we were dazzled by the enthusiastic and professional wine representative that was pouring some wines for us to taste.
The first two wines that I grabbed out of the shipping carton was the Black Star Farms Vintners Select Red Table Wine Michigan NV. The Vintners Select collection is a blend of different vintages of all small lots with unique characteristics. The wine carries a Michigan appellation as eighty-three percent of the fruit is from the Leelanau Peninsula and seventeen percent is from Old Mission Peninsula. This wine is a blend of Cabernet Franc, Teroldego, Merlot and Petite Pearls. The wine is aged in a blend of newer French, European and American Oak. It is described as a full-bodied red with dark fruit flavors and hints of cocoa and spice.
The other two wines that I unpacked was Black Star Farms Pinot Noir Blanc Old Mission Peninsula 2020. I am sure that this wine was completely done in Stainless Steel and eight-hundred cases were made. They had mentioned that this white wine is made from red grapes, and the slight pink hue comes from the skins breaking during the crush. The wine offers floral notes with bright fruit flavors of pomegranate, raspberry and watermelon. Sounds like the perfect summer wine.
Definitely not mine or my Bride’s, but one of our grandchildren and he had several false starts, before he selected the venue for this dinner. I have to admit that it was a bit of an adventure for me, as he had selected a barbecue style restaurant and this was my first venture into such an establishment. To me, a barbecue was when you went out into the backyard and fire up some coals, got them white hot, put a couple of steaks on the grill or some skewers of shish kebab, grab a Molson’s Canadian or two and wait for the meat to cook, bring it into the house and eat. Today, it is a little different, no reservations, look like Paul Bunyan and everything smells like smoke. I also felt like a rube, when I asked for a menu, the waitress said it was on the table, but I was looking for one of those black and white cards that you had to photograph on your phone and instead it was multi-color.
There were six of us and for sure four and possibly five of the six, knew what to expect. I was a fish out of water. Some appetizers were being ordered and for the table there was something called Pig Candy that looked by a bacon rasher by three widths marinated with Can Sugar and Chipotle and smoked and then was served dangling from a wire and using old-fashioned clip-style clothes pins like what we used to use to hang wet laundry in the backyard during the summer; it was tasty. We ordered a Guacamole platter with the smallest allotment of Guacamole I have ever seen. My Bride had Pulled Pork with a side of Beans and Sweet Potato Mash. I order Ribs, after I was assured that I would not have to pick up the Ribs and gnaw on the bone with a side of Beans and Broccoli. The food was good, but the two old folks needed heartburn pills after dinner, but we survived.
I looked at the wine list and chose for the two of us, what I thought would be best with the barbecued (smoked) food and selected Lagaria Italian Style Pinot Grigio Delle Venezia DOC 2020 by Empson & Co. wine producer and importer. Empson & Co. have been exporting Italian wines since 1972. I am not sure what Italian Style meant, but it did carry the Delle Venezia DOC which was good. I could not find anything on Lagaria the winery, but the fruit is harvested from the Lagarina Valley on a clay and sand soil and the age of the vines are from five to twenty-five years. The fruit is hand-harvested and destemmed and cold maceration for a few hours and then fermented on the lees for ten days and then aged for a few months on the lees in Stainless Steel. A pretty light straw color with notes of citrus and floral, on the palate offerings of tree fruit like apricot, apple and pear and a short finish. The was a bit sweeter than I had expected, but with the smokiness of the food, I thought it worked well and I am glad that I didn’t get a red. A unique experience and there will be one of the chain locations coming to our region soon, in case we are taking out our grandson to eat.
One of the most famous idioms, if people still use them; is it still taught in English classes; is English still taught? We hosted a nice dinner party for my sister to celebrate her birthday and naturally the question always arises “what can I bring?” and the response is always “just yourselves.” Good manners I hope will always survive or we may as well just become barbarians. I mention this, because we were given a host and hostess gift, which was totally unrequested and unnecessary. Actually, I am impressed, because most people say “I wouldn’t know what kind of wine to buy for you.” To tell the truth, we are always gracious whenever someone is so kind and considerate.
The first hostess gift was Villa Sonia Pinot Grigio delle Venezia DOC 2019 and that is varietal that always catches my Bride’s eye. Venezia is the Italian name for Venice, as well as the province and for a DOC designation that was granted in 2010. It is an appellation that follows a grape as in Prosecco or Glera or in this case Pinot Grigio and seventy-five percent of this DOC is in white wines. It is amazing that this is considered the second largest selling Pinot Grigio in the district and the winery does not have a website. I will venture to say that the wine is probably produced in Stainless Steel and very little time for aging to produce a crisp fruit forward wine. Some of the reviews I have seen list this wine as a soft pale straw color, with notes of floral and citrus, while on the palate, soft citrus and a touch of lilac with a slight finish of flint (terroir).
The other hostess wine is Canoe Ridge Vineyard “The Expedition” Merlot Canoe Ridge Vineyard, Horse Heaven Hills 2018 of Walla Walla, Washington. Canoe Ridge Vineyard is one of Washington states most recognized winery brand and it was established in 1989 and in 2014, they celebrated their Twentieth Anniversary. The name of the ridge was actually named by Lewis and Clark in 1805 as they journeyed down the Columbia River. This winery has a website, but lacks any production notes, but I eventually found out that this wine is ninety-one percent Merlot and nine percent Syrah. The wine is described as having notes of dark berries and on the palate flavors of currant, cherry and candied violet, with a silky finish.
Not only were we having a dinner party to celebrate my sister’s birthday, the evening was also “Open That Bottle Night” one of those wine drinker and wine writer holidays. The concept was created by Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher who were wine columnists for the Wall Street Journal and they picked out a night in February, one of the darker and colder months, to go into one’s wine cellar and open up a bottle that one has been holding onto, just for the right moment. A very worthwhile idea, because we are all guilty of saving some bottles of wine for a special moment, that just never seems to occur. I think the main reason that I don’t always participate in it, is that I tend to be rather unorganized when it comes to such things. We tend to have a couple of bottles of wine open in the house most days, but they are our “go-to” basic wines that don’t require a lot of fan-fare or hoopla, but somehow, I even joked at the end of the gathering that 2020 was actually an OTBN every night, especially for people like my Bride and I that sometimes think that a bottle is too good, and sometimes we just totally lose track of the wines.
After the appetizers and the Jean Bourdy Cremant du Jura NV in the living room (a wine which also could be counted towards OTBN we all went into the dining room for the rest of the celebration. Some of you, may think that we are quaint, because we maintain a living room and a dining room, but my Bride and I enjoy it immensely. We started off with my Bride’s Caesar Salad, which is now requested by some of the other cousins, when they have parties, and which I brag about all the time; in fact, I seldom even get a Caesar Salad when we go out (her version is that great). My Bride made three pork tenderloins that she marinaded in garlic, rosemary and olive oil. She also made Armenian Rice Pilaf and one of her favorite new sides of Fennel and Onions. My sister had wanted a Strawberry cake for dessert, but we found a bakery that made us a Strawberry Flan for the party.
I am sure that there might be a little interest to discover what was selected for such an august occasion. One of our favorite wineries was selected and of course it needed decanting before the event even started. We opened up a bottle of Duckhorn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 1998. Dan and Margaret Duckhorn founded the estate in 1976 and their first vintage was in 1978 with eight-hundred cases of Cabernet Sauvignon and the same of Merlot. Duckhorn Vineyards may be the most famous Merlot producer in Napa Valley. This wine was produced with fruit from eight vineyards in Napa Valley. The wine is a blend of eighty-two percent Cabernet Sauvignon, fifteen percent Merlot and three percent Cabernet Franc. Twelve days of fermentation with extended maceration. Malolactic fermentation and aging for seventeen months in French Oak, of which fifty-five percent was new. This twenty-four-year-old was extremely mellow with still a rich deep color and no browning. The nose had soft cherry, fruit and spice, and on the palate the fruit and tannins were layered and silky and velvety and finished with a nice long count of terroir. I adore mature wines. My brother had brought a wine and he wanted me to open it next, in anticipation I guess of buying some more for his home, and I think he was surprised that I knew the winery as we had Podere Ciona Chianti Classico Riserva Gaiole in Chianti 2015. 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. This wine is ninety percent Sangiovese with some Merlot and a touch of Alicante Bouschet and all grown on a quartz, clay schist and marl soil. The fruit is hand harvested with initial fermentation on the skins for ten days in French Oak, followed by thirty days of Malolactic fermentation on the skins and then twenty-four months aging in French Oak with an additional twelve months in the bottle before distribution. The winery produced one-thousand-seven-hundred-ninety “six packs.” To me, this is a perfect Chianti Classico Riserva with its deep ruby-red color, notes of red fruits and on the palate rich fruit and already velvety tannins with a nice deep finish of terroir. So, we actually had three beautiful wines for the evening.
It is amazing, that we tend to realize that we get older daily, and it certainly beats the alternative. The problem is that it is easier to notice getting older for ourselves, but when others hit milestones, it is a bit jarring. My little sister turned sixty-five and somehow that just is surprising, even though we made arrangements to have a dinner party for the event. It seems like it was only yesterday, when one of the cousins pulled off a successful surprise party for her sixtieth birthday. Younger siblings, like children and especially grandchildren are not supposed to age. At least, that is the way it should be.
My Bride, became a Whirling Dervish again as she decided to have and host the party. We didn’t have the full compliment of cousins, because of prior business commitments and that happens, especially, because everyone wants to start travelling again, even if it is for business. Then we had debates here, as to which set of China to use, and of course I was all in favor of using our best set, just because that is what it is for. Though our second set, had more of the plates that we required for the dinner. We decided to start off with appetizers in the living room, and yes, we, especially me, are old fashioned and actually like using the living room for entertaining. We started off with two favorite Armenian appetizers that I have mentioned many times; Lahmajoon which are little individualized “pizzas” and Cheese Boregs which are “phyllo” dough stuffed with Brick Cheese. We also tried to duplicate our late father’s “Hot Ham.” A Krakus Polish Ham that is stuffed with as many cloves of garlic that can be inserted, then covered with cracked black pepper and red pepper flakes, baked on a pan, that is floated on a larger pan filled with water. The garlic roasts in the ham and becomes sweet and the pepper flakes add a lot of zings. It wasn’t quite the same, but it was close enough to make us happy.
What better way to begin the celebrations then with some bubbles? We started with Domaine Jean Bourdy Cremant du Jura NV, and they began in 1579 with generation to generation in the Jura. Consequently, Domaine Bourdy has one of the most extensive library collections of wine in the Jura. The appellation of Cremant du Jura was created in 1995 with a history dating back to the Eighteenth Century and was then known as vin mousseux. Cremant du Jura now accounts for twenty-five percent of the total wine sold by Jura wineries. The wine must be at least fifty percent Chardonnay and the remainder can be Savagnin for the white and the rosé must include Poulsard and Pinot Noir. Like all Cremant wines, they must be made in the Methode Traditionelle and aged in bottles on their lees for a minimum of nine months. The Jean Bourdy Cremant du Jura was pure Chardonnay. My Bride was enamored by this wine and we bought a case of it about seven years ago, and it has held up extremely well. The wine had a beautiful golden color with fine bubbles with notes of citrus, floral and yeast. On the palate apples and brioche with a nice medium length offering terroir (minerals). A great way to start off the festivities and also the evening is also known for wine lovers as “Open That Bottle Night.”
We were finally coming to the end of the tasting, though in actuality I rearranged the wines to make the articles flow more, while I was at my local wine shop The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan. The tasting was rather eclectic, as more wines were opened and some interesting discussions. One thing that I have learned over the last fifty years of tasting wines, is that I am still learning, and I have stopped trying to presume anything about a wine, until after I have tasted it.
Chateau Auguste Bordeaux 2016 was an interesting wine. This seventy-four-acre estate is located on the Right Bank of Bordeaux in the Entre-Deux-Mers appellation, which means between the seas, or in this case the Garonne and Dordogne Rivers that create this triangular region. I wonder if they go by the much larger Bordeaux appellation, because it is more well-known? The Bordeaux appellation actually accounts for over a third of all wines in the region. Chateau Auguste is now certified 100% organic. The wine is a blend of eighty percent Merlot, ten percent Cabernet Sauvignon and ten percent Cabernet Franc. The wine had a rich Claret color with notes of dark fruits, licorice and cedar; I mention the licorice, because others mentioned it, but it seems to be the most elusive descriptor, as I have never detected it in a wine. On the palate the wine offered blackberry and black cherry, with soft tannins and a good balance with a decent finish. To me, a great first red wine with a dinner, to build up to the main entrée.
Chateau Du Parc Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2015 is a Right Bank Bordeaux wine, and Saint-Emilion is the oldest wine making district of Bordeaux and the first region to export the wines; it is also near and dear to my heart, because as a student I purchased more wines from this region, because of affordability and for taste. When I was just learning about wines, Saint-Emilion was considered the more feminine of the region, because the wines were more elegant. The wine is eighty percent Merlot and twenty percent Cabernet Franc and the estate has two distinct fields, one is more gravely and one is more limestone and the vines average about twenty-seven years of age. The fruit is hand harvested and fermentation takes seven to ten days in oak vats, followed by fourteen to eighteen months of French Oak barrels, both new and used, and then another year in the bottle before it leaves the estate. A nice deep red color offering notes of boysenberry and raspberry, and on the palate jammier red fruits and spice, soft tannins with good balance with a more modern feeling and taste and a medium finish of terroir. A refreshing take and surprise to what I was expecting from one of my favorite old districts.
While tasting wines at my local shop, The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, I also got a chance to try two wines from the same winery, as they were making decisions for both the shop and for their restaurant Vertical in Downtown Detroit. Chateau du Gaby is located in Canon-Fronsac. This appellation is for red wines in a small section east of Bordeaux and a smaller part of Fronsac. There are two-hundred-forty hectares of vineyards in Canon-Fronsac of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec with a small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Chateau du Gaby Canon-Fronsac 2010 was the first wine that we had from the estate. The first vines were planted in the 1600’s and the Chateau is a beautiful Eighteenth Century building, that looks like what one would equate with a chateau. The wine is eighty percent Merlot, ten percent Cabernet Franc and ten percent Malbec and the vineyards are on a limestone and clay soil. Fermentation takes place in a mix of concrete and oak vats. Then the wine is aged for twenty-four months in French Oak, of which half is new. The wine had a nice deep Claret color, with notes of dark fruits and spices. On the palate, the wine offered ripe fruit, soft tannins with a balanced taste with toasted spiciness and a nice medium count finish with some terroir. A fine affordable wine with dinner, or even just noshes with friends.
Chateau du Gaby “Cuvee Gaby” Canon-Fronsac 2014 is the winery’s premier wine, as it is at least three times more expensive compared to their basic wine. This wine is eighty percent Merlot and twenty percent Cabernet Sauvignon. I have to surmise that the production notes must be similar, with perhaps a longer aging period. The wine had a similar color with notes of dark fruits and spice. On the palate, the fruit was jammy, with silky tannins, but the finish left a lot to be desired; the finish was rather thin and it had a rather odd aftertaste, that I could not identify, one person thought it was thyme. With such a price difference and the unusual finish, this wine didn’t make the cut, for me.
While I was doing a tasting at my local wine shop The Fine Wine Shop in Livonia, Michigan, I had a chance to try three wines from the same estate in a region that I have only written about four times in almost ten years, so it is usually below my radar, for no apparent reason other than it doesn’t get much attention from the distributors. I am talking about Provence, in the south-eastern part of France, and in particular Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence, the second largest appellation of the region. Originally the region was known as Coteaux du Roy Rene (Rene D’Anjou, a 15th Century King of France who was very partial to wines), in 1956 it was granted VDQS status and in 1985, it was granted AOC status. The long dry summers make it ideal for vineyards, and the entire region is basically limestone.
Chateau de Calavon Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence 2013 is located in the center of the region in Lambesc, and the Audibert family has been making wine there for five generations. The estate is sixty hectares and was originally cultivated as vineyards by the Prices of Orange, broken up during the French Revolution, and slowly reconstructed. The vineyards are basically small terraced plots that were configured about three centuries ago. The estate has been certified Organic Agriculture since 2013 (Ecocert). The wine is a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. The fruit is basically hand-harvested and goes through a long maceration in concrete tanks, and then is matured in a mix of Stainless Steel and wooden barrels for a minimum of two years. The wine had a nice deep garnet color with a great nose offering black fruits, pepper and spices. It was a nice full wine offering dark fruits and it was ready to be enjoyed with a nice medium count of terroir to finish off the experience.
Chateau de Calavon “La Reserve” Coteaux D’Aix-en-Provence 2012 is a blend of Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache. The vines are cultivated to have a low yield with a long growing season. After a long maceration, the individual juices are selected, and blended in French Oak for one year. They feel that this wine needs at least four years in the bottle to fully appreciate the potential of the wine, and this wine is made for cellaring. Considering that this wine is already ten years of age, the garnet color was intense with notes of dark fruit and terrain. The wine was fruit forward and jammy, and the tannins were very elegant and a nice long count for a finish of terroir. A great wine for a big red meat or game dinner.
Chateau de Calavon “Tradition de Calavon” Rouge 2015 was the third wine from the estate. The nearby village of Lambesc, hosted the General Assembly of the Villages of Provence and was known as “The Little Venice of Aix,” and has an historical and economic reputation. There were no production notes to glean about this wine, but it is a blend of Grenache and Carignan, which they refer to as “the forgotten grape of Provence.” A pretty garnet colored wine with notes dark fruit and terrain. A rather jammy wine with some spiciness, very silky and supple with a medium finish of terroir. A different wine from the other two that I had.
I am totally spoiled these days, with impromptu wine tastings at The Fine Wine Source. All of the wines that they carry have been curated by the owner and the staff, and sometimes guests. They don’t compete with gas stations, party stores, convenience centers, grocery stores, department stores or big box stores. It is a pleasure to speak with knowledgeable people, who can even direct you to some new unknown mystery that will be totally satisfying.
We were enjoying Vignobles Verzier Cave de Chante-Perdrix La Madone Syrah St. Joseph 2018. St. Joseph is the largest appellation in the Rhone Valley and encompasses both red and white wines. It was designated in 1956 and originally had six parishes, and in 1969 the boundaries were extended to twenty-six communes and along thirty miles of the Rhone. The Verzier family has owned the farm estate since 1828, and of the current family Philippe at the age of nineteen took over the estate and even planted some terraced vines overlooking the Rhone and next to the Madone statue. In 1988 he stopped sending his harvest to the cooperative and created his own wines in his converted cellar. Now some of the vines in the Madone vineyard are around fifty-years-old. The family plot called Chante-Perdrix, a singing partridge, is where they grow the Viognier. The fruit is hand-harvested, destemmed for maceration in either concrete or Stainless Steel. The fermentation takes between eighteen and twenty-eight days using natural yeast. For La Madone they use a mix of medium and heavy toasting of the barrels for longer aging. The wine had a nice deep color with floral notes, leather, smoke and pepper. The flavor was deep with black fruits, earthy and savory with a medium count finish and definitely Old World in taste.
Then trying a totally different French wine was Chateau Bourdieu Blaye Cotes de Bordeaux 2019. The story goes that Luc Schweitzer used to pass by this property on his way to his boarding school and the property goes back to 1464. Eventually he followed in his parent’s footsteps and became a winegrower and he bought this property in 1993 and has worked to add and expand the estate to where it is now one-hundred-eighty-five acres. The winery is run as a sustainable agriculture vineyard with modern methods of farming and no reliance on chemicals. When I was in my teens, they use to joke that in music one often hears of the three B’s, off to the side of Bordeaux is another set of three B’s. The Cotes de Bourg, the Cotes de Blaye and Bergerac are productive wine districts on the wrong side of the Gironde (which encompasses Bordeaux). These two areas were producing wines before the Medoc was even planted. They are classic made wines known as Claret. They unfortunately have been totally eclipsed by the Medoc and even the Bordeaux wines. The Cotes de Bordeaux appellation was created in 2009, to put all the “cotes” under one banner; Blaye, Cadillac, Castillon and Francs. The wine is a blend of eighty-seven percent Merlot, ten percent Cabernet Sauvignon and three percent Cabernet Franc with vines averaging thirty-five-years in age, and aged in Stainless Steel. The wine was a ruby red, with a nose of red fruits and black currants, on the palate red and dark fruit with integrated tannins and a medium finish.
I never get tired of trying new wines, and my local wine shop The Fine Wine Source helps me stay happy. I mean most of the wines that I try there, have already been curated by the owner and his staff, to make sure that you are getting the best wines in the Michigan market. So, when I had a chance to try some wines that may possibly be found on the shelf there, or at Vertical, their restaurant, I was more than eager and pleased.
We tried Bodegas Nexus & Frontaura “Nexus One” Ribera del Duero 2018 and this wine making family goes back to 1840 for their original estate. In 2000, the winery had a weather station installed in their Pago de Valdelacasa estate. In 2008 the Nexus project was completed with one-hundred-twenty-hectares devoted to the wine production of Tempranillo Tinta de Toro. The vineyards useRihe wine is aged for eight months in French Oak. The wine was a nice dark red with notes of red fruit, flowers and walnuts. On the palate the wine was fruit forward with spices, balanced and silky with a nice medium count finish.
Also enjoyed some Ca’ del Bosco “Maurizio Zanella” Rosso del Sebino IGT Lombardy 2017. Ca’ del Bosco is most known as a sparkling winemaker in Franciacorta DOCG in Lombardy, but they also make still wines using classic Italian and French grape varieties. The estate had their first wine produced in 1972 and they have one-hundred-eighty-four-hectares of vineyards. The estate was developed and grown by Maurizio Zanella for his family, and though it was acquired in 1994 by the Marzotto family’s Gruppo Zignano, Zanella still manages the estate as an independent entity. Sebino IGT designation was created in 1995 and covers both red and white wines in Lombardy and allows great flexibility for the winemakers. This particular wine is fifty percent Cabernet Sauvignon, twenty-five percent Merlot and twenty-five percent Cabernet Franc, with the average age of all the vines being about thirty-years-of-age. Twenty-one days of fermentation on the skin, the juice is aged for three years in oak, seventy percent new, and then blended and aged for an additional thirteen months, and then another year of bottle aging. The wine had a nice ruby red color with notes of plums, vanilla and cigar-box tobacco. On the palate great rich cherry flavor, with elegant tannins and a long finish. An excellent wine with food or with friends.
The Wine Raconteur 