A Franciscan Cab at the St. Croix Shop

Posted on August 16, 2021 by thewineraconteur

Almost my entire working career I was a clothier, not a haberdasher, but a clothier.  Over the years I have met some individuals that will always be a clerk.  There was a certain status of being a clothier and it was a respected line of work, especially to the clientele that required a gentlemen’s eye for detail and quality.  I can remember when the store that I was at, for the majority of my career, first started carrying St. Croix knits and it was a momentous occasion.  Knitcraft Corporation, the parent company began in 1960 making the finest “Old World” quality knits in Winona, Minnesota.  The founder of the company had a great statement “you cannot, at any price, from a source in the world, buy a better sweater.  You can only pay more.”

My Bride and I were having an all-day date of shopping, dining and of course some wining as well.  We were in Birmingham, Michigan a city that we often go for a myriad of reasons and we ran into the Sales Representative of St. Croix at the St. Croix Shop and he recognized me, so even with the extra weight that I acquired during retirement, I guess I still looked like me.  We had fun, for sure I did, I probably went over board with the shopping, but I don’t do it that often.  Plus, my Bride was there to make sure that I bought enough.  Well, when it was all over, I had some beautiful sweaters and cardigans, some classic Italian sport shirts, belts, hosiery, trousers and a leather jacket.  My Bride also got excited to get a Chenille scarf for herself while we were there.  I really think the real fun, was reminiscing with the Sales Rep, as he was the Sales Rep that I had basically worked with for years.  Of course, my Bride didn’t think that I would ever leave, especially when I start talking about the old days.

We stayed a little longer, because my old friend the Sales Rep brought out a bottle of wine and he started to apologize, thinking that I must only drink First Growths, I corrected that misconception.  Franciscan Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Monterey County 2018 was the wine that we were drinking.  Franciscan Estate was established in 1973 in Oakville and their first vintage was in 1975 by Justin Meyer, who was the winemaker at Silver Oak Winery.  The winery is now owned by E&J Gallo and the wines produced are now beyond Napa Valley, as this wine is from Monterey County.  Even with the wine being poured into plastic glasses the nose offered dark fruit and spice, so even with no winemaking notes, I have to presume that the wine did some time in oak.  The wine itself offered notes of cherry and plum, with hints of vanilla and pepper and some integrated tannins noted on the finish.  A very easy drinking wine and perfect for offering to customers in the shop.  My Bride and I had such a great time shopping, that after lunch, we loaded up the car with our purchases, and since we were going to a party later in the day, we had a cooler in the trunk filled with ice and wines, we took two different Vinho Verde bottles of wine to the store before we left Birmingham. 

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Cuvee Kristin and Sweet Isla

Posted on August 14, 2021 by thewineraconteur

The first official winetasting at The Fine Wine Source was coming to an end for us, but it was going on for another day at the shop.  Korbin Ming did an excellent job, even with his flying in that morning on the “Red Eye.”  The Fine Wine Source had contacted all of their wine club members and tried to book times for everyone, so that there would not be a problem with “social distancing” and there wouldn’t be a mob at any given moment.  My Bride always says that she doesn’t enjoy the tastings as much as I do, but when she does attend with me, she always has a great time.

We had two different bottles of Korbin Kameron Proprietary Red Wine Cuvee Kristin Moon Mountain District 2012 and 2015 and both were Estate Grown.  While the winery at Moonridge Vineyards was named after the sons, the daughter has the special blend.  The wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Merlot and Cabernet Franc.  The wine is aged for eighteen months in French Oak, of which seventy-five percent is new.  There were two-hundred cases produced of the 2012 and one-hundred-twenty-four cases of the 2015.  The 2012 vintage offered a nose of bramble fruit, florals and spice, and delivered black cherries, good tannins and a medium finish, for this wine, I thought it was a bit light in the chewy-ness factor, my non-technical term for big wines, because I like to chew the wine when I am tasting it.  The 2015 had a nose of blueberries and vanilla beans, and rich dark cherries, silk tannins and a longer count on the finish.  This wine was rich and full and very chewy, a delightful wine.

Then we had Korbin Kameron Late Harvest “Sweet Isla” Moon Mountain District 2018 and it is Estate Grown.  The last wine of the tasting and it was getting rather hectic in the shop, so I didn’t ask any questions about the wine, in anticipation of checking technical notes or trade notes on this wine at their website. I was able to get in touch with Korbin Ming and he was able to give me some information. The wine is late harvested Sauvingnon Blanc with an addition of fifteen percent Botrytised Semillon. One week cold soak and fermented on the skins for an additional two weeks to pick up extra color and flavors, called phenolics, which was a really long and cool fermentation for intense aromatics. The wine was aged for eight months in neutral oak. .  A beautiful wine that was just magnificent and reminded me of a French Sauternes with a nose of honeysuckle, a silky texture offering notes of sweet lemons, apricots and marmalade with a nice long count in the finish. Is it any wonder that we had to take advantage of this wine, it was perfect and I am sure that it will age nicely in the cellar.  Now alas, the first official winetasting is now part of history, but it was a great adventure.

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Five Cabs from Korbin Kameron

Posted on August 12, 2021 by thewineraconteur

I was about midway in the first official winetasting after some eighteen months at my local wine shop The Fine Wine Source.  The tasting was held by Korbin Ming, the winemaker at Korbin Kameron at Moonridge Vineyards.  The nineteen-acre estate was planted in 2000 and it sits on the ridge of Mt. Veeder on Mayacamas Mountain Range and straddles the Napa/Sonoma County line at 2,300 feet in elevation.  The majority of the estate is in Sonoma County and they can look out and see Santa Rosa, Sonoma Mountain and on a clear day the Pacific Ocean.  Then if you turn around you are looking at Oakville and Rutherford, below the fog line.  That is the beauty of a mountain winery and one of the added benefits is a couple of hours of extra sunlight for the vines.

We had a nice vertical of three different Korbin Kameron Cabernet Sauvignon Moon Mountain District wines of 2010, 2011 and 2015.  It was interesting to match my notes, because back in 2020, I had a chance to taste a vertical run of this wine of the vintages of 2006, 2008, 2010, 2014 and 2015 and true to form, we ended up with the 2006, because I just enjoy a mellow aged wine over a feisty youth.  All the wines from both tastings averaged about eighteen months of aging in French Oak with half of the barrels new, and about six-hundred cases of each vintage was produced.  This time as we tasted and took notes, we found the 2010 vintage to be very subtle, almost shy for a Cabernet Sauvignon.  The 2011 vintage was alive and kicking and was what everyone would expect from a Cabernet Sauvignon.  The 2015 vintage was perfect, the color was beautiful, the nose offered the dark fruit, the notes of black cherries and spice was wonderful and it ended with a nice long count of terroir.

Then we had two different Korbin Kameron Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon wines.  The first was Korbin Kameron Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Moon Mountain District Sonoma County 2016 and this was a rich wine, big in the nose, taste and the finish.  The second wine was a Korbin Kameron Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder Napa Valley 2016 and this wine was even bigger and chewier, which is one of my favorite descriptions for a big Cabernet Sauvignon, with even more tannins and a longer finish of terroir.  The Reserve wines were aged for eighteen months, but in all new French Oak barrels and about sixty cases were made of each of the wines.  Both of the wines were great, but if I had a choice, I would go with the Mount Veeder, as the other side of the ridge was that much more striking and noticeable.     

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A Merlot and a Cabernet Franc

Posted on August 10, 2021 by thewineraconteur

We still had the good fortune to do a tasting with Korbin Ming of Korbin Kameron Vineyard at The Fine Wine Source of Livonia, my go-to wine shop.  Mitchell Ming first started drinking California wines in the Seventies and fell in love with the area after his first trip to Napa Valley.  Unlike others, that only dream, he took his family out there and settled on a homestead high up on Mount Veeder and now has one-hundred-eighty-six acres for his family endeavor.  His home over looks acres and acres of rolling hills and so high that it is sometimes above the clouds.  Out of this, he created Moonridge Vineyards and the winery is named after his two twin children Korbin and Kameron.  The third child Kristin, who is the Director of Design has also been remembered at the winery as well.

The Korbin Kameron Merlot Moon Mountain District 2015 is an Estate Grown wine and Merlots have been one of my favorites since I was a teenager.  The Moon Mountain District AVA was awarded in 2013, so it is still basically a new designation from Sonoma County.  This wine was aged for eighteen months in French Oak, of which half was new, and they produced two-hundred-ninety cases of this wine.  In 2020 I had the good fortune to try four vintages of the Korbin Kameron Merlot of 2007, 2009 2011 and 2015.  I was enraptured by the 2007, which we bought, but everyone else was in love with the 2015.  I think the extra couple of years in the bottle really changed my mind, but then I am very partial to older reds.  The 2015 was now showing me the virtues of good breeding that a Merlot needs, and it paid back with the nose of red fruits and spices, a taste of rich cherries and a charming silky tannin finish. We earmarked some of this wine to go home with us.  

The Korbin Kameron Cabernet Franc Moon Mountain District 2016 is an Estate Grown wine and my Bride’s ears perked up when she heard about this wine, as it is her favorite grape.  A mountain wine that spends eighteen months in French Oak, sounded just perfect.  It was not the finest example of Cabernet Franc that we have had.  We both thought that the wine was a bit thin, both in flavor and tannins, though the finish had some nice terroir, perhaps with some cellaring this wine will be totally different.

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Only 25 Cases Made

Posted on August 8, 2021 by thewineraconteur

Twenty-five cases of wine, is one barrel of wine, and we had a chance to try not one, but two different wines made in these numbers at the Korbin Kameron wine tasting at the Fine Wine Source.  For years, when I was just learning about wines, I would hear how some of the famed Medoc houses made a barrel or two of white wine for their own consumption.  I also heard how some of the great houses of Sauternes would make a barrel or two of dry white wine for their own personal consumption as well.  Years later, many of those wines are now being shared with the public, if one can find them.  Think of Pavillon Blanc du Chateau Margaux or Chateau d’Yquem “Y” Ygrec. 

Korbin Kameron Semillon Moon Mountain District 2018 is an Estate Grown wine. Semillon is probably one of the least known, major varietals in the wine industry.  It makes some of the greatest sweet wines and it also makes some of the greatest dry wines.  Its home is Bordeaux, though it is done extremely well in parts of Australia and among a few wineries in California.  A wine that starts in Stainless Steel and finishes in oak.  I actually had a chance to try this wine ahead of time before the actual tasting and I reserved some of the wine for my cellar, and I knew that my Bride would love it.  She did. This organically made wine used native yeasts and had a nose that I would call plush floral and citrus, and it brought notes of citrus and ripe pear with a nice lingering long count finish.  In fact, we knew someone that was going to the tasting on the next day, and they had pulled the wine from the tasting group, as there were only three bottles left of three hundred.  We bought the three and I contacted my friend, to see if he wanted them, without a taste, and he took my word for them, and we will make arrangements for him to pick them up.  I knew that we could somehow, find room for an extra three bottles of this caliber.

Korbin Kameron Malbec Moon Mountain District 2016 is an Estate Grown wine.  Malbec tends to be one of the forgotten grapes of Bordeaux, the important grape of Cahoors and Argentina. Here is a wine that was aged for eighteen months in French Oak and half was new. The wine was an inky dark purple, the kind that stains your teeth so easily.  The nose was a mix of dates, plums and some chocolate (which is one of the ethereal notes that I seldom notice).  It was fruit forward with flavors of dark bramble fruit and very concentrated flavors and tannins with a softer finish of terroir. This was a wine that my Bride was gushing over and usually not about a Malbec, so it is very easy, just to jot down numbers as you try to figure out your order. It is not often that I find such wonderful wines, especially in such limited production of three hundred bottles and I really can’t wait to see what some cellar time does to this wine.   

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Korbin Ming Returns for a Tasting

Posted on August 6, 2021 by thewineraconteur

At least a year and a half, some sanity has returned and my local wine shop The Fine Wine Source is helping to lead the way.  A general public winetasting was announced, because for the last eighteen months, it has been private wine tastings by appointment.  While private tastings are nice for the one-on-one attention that you receive, there is just something more wine-like of an experience when there is a crowd all enjoying the wines.  The wine shop did control the crowds by limiting the many wine tasters, so that everyone could have some space between, and I might add, the space was much greater than the space on a commercial airline.  I have to admit that the day was so special, that even my Bride came with me.

Korbin Ming returned once again to conduct the wine tasting at the shop, as he represents Korbin Kameron Winery and Moonridge Vineyards.  Korbin Ming wears many hats, as he is the General Manager, the Vineyard Manager and the Assistant Winemaker and probably wears other hats that may be required at a moment’s notice. He has a Master’s Degree from UC Davis in Viticulture and Enology.  He worked harvest in Bordeaux, Sonoma, Sierra Foothills and Napa Valley, before joining Korbin Kameron.

We began the tasting with Korbin Kameron Sauvignon Blanc Moon Mountain District 2017 and 2019.  Which immediately caught my Bride’s attention, as she has seemed to have become a huge fan of this particular grape and we always seem to have some chilling in one of the refrigerators.  Moon Mountain District AVA is a relatively new sub-region of Sonoma Valley and is distinguished by its volcanic soil, and it is one of the warmest regions in the valley, as well as having one of the longest growing seasons. As it gets more attention, you will probably see it more often, instead of the wineries using Sonoma Valley.  It was interesting to taste the two vintages, as they both began initial fermentation in Stainless Steel and then finished off for four months in oak, eighty percent neutral and twenty percent new.  They both had similar soft straw color, noses of lemongrass, with notes of lemon, honeydew and citrus and a finish of terroir.  There were three-hundred cases of wine produced for each vintage.  The 2017 vintage was softer and the 2019 vintage was much bigger.  We were there for the first day of tasting and the 2017 sold out while we were there.                                                                              

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One Fun and One Serious

Posted on August 4, 2021 by thewineraconteur

You may not have noticed, but I enjoy wine, and my range of wines is getting wider as I am trying more and more varietals and styles of winemaking.  My local wine shop and wine club, The Fine Wine Source, is always asking me, if I spot any trends or interesting wines from looking at other sites and writers.  Though, I am sure that he is way ahead of me, on all categories.  Earlier this year, he touted a Gazela Vinho Verde that has a natural petillance and I thoroughly enjoyed it, bought a case and then wondered how my Bride would take to it, and she fell in love it, as well.  Trust me, we have bought several cases of it, and the summer and hot weather are not even close to being over.  Well, I discovered in my readings and perusing, that there is a Gazela Vinho Verde Rosé, and I mentioned it to the owner of the shop and he brought some in.

Gazela Vinho Verde Rosé NV is made by Sogrape Vinhos of Portugal, and it appears as if in the future this wine will also be labeled as “Aire.” Vinho Verde has developed its own coterie of followers and I think the group gets larger every year, as it is just an easy wine that is perfect for hot weather and with water nearby, either a pool, lake or ocean.  Portugal, it is often said, has had a rather foot-loose and fancy free about grape varieties in certain areas, as even the winemakers cannot state for sure what has been planted over the decades, if not centuries.  In the Vinho Verde region there are over fifteen thousand hectares planted and seventy percent is white.  Most of the Vinho Verde Tinto is for domestic consumption, but I guess they are exporting more, since the white has become so popular.  To give you an idea about the grape varieties that may be encountered just for the Tinto, the ones recommended are: Azal-Tinto, Borracal, Brancelho, Espadeiro, Padeiro-de-Basto, Pedral, Rabo-de-Ovelha and Vinhao.  Other permitted varieties are: Alicante-Bouschet, Docal, Espadeiro-Mole, Grand-Noir, Labrusco, Pical, Touriga-Nacional, Trincadeira-Preta and Verdelho-Tinto. The wines are made in Stainless Steel and the malolactic fermentation takes place in the bottle, which causes the natural petillance or effervescence of the wine.  This wine was frothy and plenty of big bubbles appearing in the glass after pouring.  The wine had a nose and a taste of watermelon and strawberries in a raspberry color.  Very easy and definitely quaffable, in fact my Bride said that she likes this wine even more than the white. 

I also tried Mulderbosch Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 from South Africa.  Mulderbosch Vineyards was founded in 1989 in the Koelenhof region of Stellenbosch.  The winery makes still and sparkling wines from estate fruit, as well as with growing partners in Stellenbosch and the Coastal Region of South Africa.  They began with twenty-five hectares of vines that they converted over from a run-down fruit farm.  They began with Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, then Chenin Blanc and then their Rosé of Cabernet Sauvignon was a trailblazer in that category.  The winery was acquired by Terroir Capital in 2011.  The Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards are farmed to achieve high acidity, as they are only used for this wine style, and then when harvested, the fruit is treated like Sauvignon Blanc, using cold fermentation and natural yeasts and very short aging to maintain the fresh fruit.  The wine is a soft blush-pink color with a nose of sweet cherries, watermelons and pomegranates.  The wine had those flavors comingled in a dry crisp finish, along with notes of aromatics and a delightful finish of terroir.  A very enjoyable and much more serious wine to be enjoyed, especially with foods.

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Amore da Roma

Posted on August 2, 2021 by thewineraconteur

You have to realize that I am an old dinosaur especially about old haunts in Detroit, which has always been my stomping ground.  Some of the restaurants in Detroit were legendary and are part of the history of the town.  We have gallon bottles filled to the brim with matchbooks that we saved from almost every restaurant that we ever ate at, and plenty of them are curios of days gone by.  Of course, matchbooks are curios of days gone by, but I always thought that they were a great keepsake, especially if the restaurant was great.  There are plenty of restaurants that have not survived over the decades that I remember, and that is normal for the restaurant business.  Some have been resurrected by family members, some banking on the foggy memories of people and some have continued, even as they have changed hands. 

Amore da Roma is one that has changed hands as it was Roma Café for ever and was always found on the outskirts of the Eastern Market, where it is still found. The building was built by the Marazza family in 1888 and it served the vendors and farmers of Easter Market, and officially became the Roma Café in 1890. In 1918, it was purchased by John Battaglia and Morris Sossi, and continued with the Sossi family until 2017. The Executive Chef for four years at the Roma Café, bought the business and renamed it as Amore da Roma and continued the menu that kept people going there forever, so it seems.  There was a group of us having dinner there, that could appreciate an old Steak and Pasta joint, as I would call it.  The dishes are not pretentious or frou-frou, but you leave fully sated, as the meals have always been designed to please the hard workers at the Eastern Market and any one else that could appreciate honest Italian food. We started with dishes of Calamari and Escargot.  We followed that with soup and great breadsticks.  My Bride had Broiled Lake Superior Whitefish and I went with Shrimp Scampi, I mean one of us had to have an Italian dish. 

They had a very interesting Italian White Wine from a respected winery, but even though the computer said that they had two bottles of the wine, they could not find either one.  They offered me another wine at twenty percent off the wine carte price for the inconvenience and I agreed to it.  It was not as interesting, but it was a very sound wine.  We had a bottle of Louis Latour Pouilly-Fuisse 2018 from the Maconnais. Maison Louis Latour is a major negocient producer of red and white wines of Burgundy and was founded in 1797 and is still family owned and operated.  Not only are they a negocient, they also own seventy-two acres of Grand Cru vineyards, and also the largest holder of land in Burgundy and produce wines in all price ranges; and one of the most widely recognized names worldwide for the region.   Pouilly-Fuisse is the finest appellation for white wines in the Maconnais, and there are four communes that are part of the appellation.  There are no Premier Cru designations for the region, so one goes with the reputation of the maker.  The area was drawn around 1922, but officially recognized in 1936 and only Chardonnay grapes can be used, and the best of the wines offer a terroir showcasing limestone in the finish of this crisp wine.  The vines for this wine average about thirty years of age and the are planted in vineyards of heavy clay and limestone. The wine is aged about ten months in Stainless Steel.  It was a pretty golden color with a floral nose and notes of melon and almonds with good acidity and a decent finish offering some terroir.  Just a traditional place to still get a great meal without breaking the bank.     

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From Sesame Street to Delle Venezie

Posted on July 31, 2021 by thewineraconteur

Most people think of Detroit as a dingy rust-bucket town of automobile manufacturing and a murder rate that rivals Chicago.  There is a lot more, but if you only pay attention to the headlines and media, you may miss out.  There is a lot of culture, way beyond even my beloved Motown, that I grew up with.  One of the premier museums in the United States of America is The Henry Ford, and the two main parts are The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village.  There was a group of us going and it was quite a hot day, so we went to the Museum to especially see the special exhibit on the puppet artistry of Jim Henson.

I thought that I had appreciated Jim Henson from the time my children were watching Sesame Street and then the Muppets in their various television shows and movies.  I discovered that I had actually started appreciating his magic in my youth going back to 1963 on the Jimmie Dean Show and his Rawlf/Rowlf the dog and later on The Hollywood Palace.  So, I predated Kermit the Frog and most of his other creations.  It was a beautiful exhibit featuring films, drawings and of course the puppets.  I also got very nostalgic as there was a huge continuous montage of perhaps a hundred different episodes going on at the same time, so that you could not concentrate on all the actors and actresses that appeared on The Muppet Show, and of course each clip had to end with Statler and Hilton.  As I looked around, I think that I realized that the parents were having more fun compared to their children that they had in tow. 

We stopped for a quick snack at a new eatery in the Museum, the last time I was there, they were still working on it.  The restaurant is run by Plum Market, a specialty grocer in the Detroit area, and they were offering pre-made salads, snacks, sandwiches as well as hot dishes like braised rib tacos.  Plum Market also employs Madeline Triffon who was the first female Master Sommelier in America, as their In-house Sommelier.  On a hot day, the perfect wine that they were offering was Kris “Artist Cuvee” Pinot Grigio delle Venezie IGT 2019 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.    

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The Vault on First

Posted on July 29, 2021 by thewineraconteur

I am not doing a takeoff on an old Abbot and Costello routine.  I heard about this restaurant as it was being built and then I heard more about it, after it had its grand opening.  My Bride and I are not Mr. and Mrs. First Nighter, so we usually wait until the dust settles and the help gets acclimated.  This is not the first restaurant that we have been to, that was formerly a bank.  One place we went to, actually had a table for diners in the vault, and the ceiling of the vault had been removed, so no one would get claustrophobic.  The vault at this restaurant basically greeted us, as we walked in.  We were in downtown Wyandotte, Michigan and the restaurant used to be the National Bank of Wyandotte.

We started off with a charming basket of fresh bread and breadsticks with salted butter, and I seldom if ever have bread at home.  My Bride was debating between a salad or the soup, which was a Curried-Ginger Carrot Puree, but she went with a Poached Pear Salad of field greens, roasted candied pecans, bleu cheese and an herbed balsamic vinaigrette.  I, as you have learned over the years, am not a salad fan and I didn’t care for either of the salads offered or the soup, but our waitress, created me a basic salad of field greens, heirloom tomatoes, English cucumbers, shaved radishes and an Italian dressing, and I was pleased.  Not only was our waitress, capable and could think on her feet, she also brought a small dish of the soup, so that my Bride could see, if she had missed out. My Bride then surprised me, by ordering the “Dillinger Burger” which was a char-gilled Wagyu burger infused with Chorizo, caramelized onion and roasted Fresno Chile with Pepper-Jack cheese, but she by-passed on the Brioche bun and had a side of grilled asparagus.  I had a sixteen-ounce cold-smoked Tomahawk Pork Chop that was char-grilled with a Marsala fig compote, and a side of “Potato Jennie” (roasted and spiced diced potatoes) and a side of grilled asparagus.  Our waitress was great, and later I found out that she was from my old neighborhood in Detroit, but of course, she was much younger, as is the case with most people that I meet.  She put our faith in the next generation, as we had poor service in the retail sector, just before we had dinner.

The only fault that we had was that I ordered a “Gran Reserva” and they brought me a Reserva, so, I switched and requested a bottle of Matanzas Creek Winery Sauvignon Blanc Sonoma County 2019.  I knew that I could make it work with my dish, it may not have been perfect for my Bride, but she is really into Sauvignon Blanc these days.  Over the past forty years, Matanzas Creek Winery has been tweaking their wines, even using different vessels for aging and they are now a certified sustainable farm.  This particular wine was aged on fine lees for a couple of months, with occasional stirring in Stainless Steel to maintain the fruit of the juice.  The wine was a pretty pale straw color with a floral nose that also suggested melons and passion fruit.  It offered notes of honeydew and ripe pear and a bright acidity that made you want to have another sip.   We had a nice dinner at Vault on First, and yes, “What’s on Second and I Don’t Know is on Third.” 

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