Having Some Wine in a Department Store

Posted on November 8, 2021 by thewineraconteur

Ms. Yoga was in town for a few days and like a Swirling Dervish, all things came to a halt, so that we could have some fun and a change of pace.  There will be a few stories and of course, some wine.  One of the days, we were going to meet some others at a restaurant and it was going to be a dry dinner, and there are dinners like that.  The restaurant that we were all going to end up meeting at has a stellar reputation for good quality food, and they do have a bar, but in deference, we refrained that evening for the other couple. The restaurant is also famed for not taking reservations and of course, we still are experiencing limited seating unless, we were dining with the governor.  We had a two hour wait to get a table, and being at a major shopping mall, that could be dangerous, especially when Ms. Yoga and my Bride get together. 

Fear not, they both were on a shopping moratorium and we went to one of the anchor stores at the mall.  This anchor store was a real powerhouse, until the state attempted to kill retail, and it was rather sad to see how sparse the racks were, for such a large store.  I grew up in retail, I guess you can say, as I did it from high school, then retail paid for college (I had to pay the difference of what my scholastic scholarship didn’t cover; of course, back then, it was expected that if you went to college, you paid for your college.  When I got out of college, there was a huge economic plunge and I figured that I had a job, and a diploma would be useless collecting unemployment checks, and back then, unemployment was odious to the working middle class that I was brought up in. All of this is to say that when I was in retail, there was an old adage “that you can’t sell from an empty wagon.” Anyways, I remember the glory days when department stores were like J. L. Hudson’s and were grandiose, alas, this was not the way it is now.  I mention this, because we went and got a table at this department store in their restaurant, and we were going to kill some time until the restaurant called us for a table.

We decided that the three of us were going to share a bottle of wine, before we had dinner.  We ended up having a bottle of Simi Winery Sonoma County Chardonnay 2019. Simi Winery is located in Sonoma County and it is one of the longest continuously running wineries in California.  It was founded in 1876 by the brothers Giuseppe and Pietro Simi and they started off being known for their Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay wines.  With their long existence they had some influence about wine not only in Sonoma, but in California.  Isabelle Simi (Giuseppe’s daughter) took over the winery in 1904 and was able to keep the winery intact during the first of the Federal governments attempts to create a Nanny State, when they tried to ruin the country with the Volstead Act or usually referred to as Prohibition.  While she had to sell some of the property, she was able to keep roughly five-hundred-thousand cases of Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel wines during Prohibition.  Simi Winery was also operational during all this time by producing wine for sacramental and “medicinal purposes,” and the Volstead Act all but ruined most of the wineries, breweries and distilleries in the country.  And by being allowed to maintain the wine in barrels, it gave Simi Winery a running start when smarter heads prevailed and decided that the government should not dictate social mores. In 1946, Isabelle founded the Sonoma Grape Growers Association, and she eventually sold Simi Winery in 1970, but continued an association with the new management. In 1981, Simi Winery was bought by Moet Hennessey and since then it is now owned by Constellation Brands.  The Simi Winery Sonoma County Chardonnay 2019 that we had was a blend of ninety-nine percent Chardonnay and one percent other.  I will venture to say that this wine was fermented in Stainless Steel for a short period of time.  The nose offered baked apples and some citrus, and on the palate, it was well balanced with a touch of tangerine and shortbread with a short finish.  It was an easy drinking wine for the three of us to enjoy, by itself while we had a lively conversation.

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Raventós i Blanc Blanc de Blancs

Posted on November 6, 2021 by thewineraconteur

I have been making asides about changes at the chateau, but more about that when the time comes.  In case you are wondering, my Bride hasn’t come to her senses, so I am not being thrown out with the bath water.  Needless to say, that I have been living in Wonderland, or has everything had a price explosion in the last year?  I will get into all of this at some point, as everyone knows that I tend to ramble, especially when I am having a good time.  Suffice it to say at the moment, that we have been scurrying around to find some replacement cabinet hardware, and we finally found part of our search, and the store did not have some of the pieces, but they went online and found us what we were looking, and we thought that they were going to order from their warehouse, but they actually searched some third-party distributors and printed us off a sheet with all the information, for us to order when we got back home.  That was great service, so we decided that while we were out, we would stop and have dinner.  Eight hinges and two cabinet latches to replace our old set, ended up costing more than our dinner and a bottle of wine.

We decided to dine, not far from our first stop and ended up at Diamond Jim Brady’s Bistro Bar.  I am not sure if I can actually determine which of the “Jim Brady’s” is the original, without getting a Boston barrister involved.  I guess there must have been a breakdown among family ties, as my Bride and I can remember going to such establishments on opposite sides of the Detroit area, before we ever met.  We lucked out and got there before the dinner crowd got there and they offered us either dining indoors or outdoors, and while we opted for indoors, we could observe the outdoors which was basically an enclosed and heated patio, that they must have created to survive the draconian rules levied towards restaurants, but I am happy to say that they survived.  My Bride had a special of Pistachio encrusted Walleye with Shaved Brussels Sprouts with bacon and Balsamic and their “best in Michigan since 1954” Caesar Salad (you knew that she was going to go with that) and she said that it was one of the best salads excluding her own house-made dressing, which is high praise.  I was going to get a burger, which they are known for, but they had a Lobster BLT on the menu with house-made chips, and I had to try it.  It was not a Lobster Roll; it was a Lobster Salad tossed in a Lemon Mayonnaise dressing.  I thought I was going to need a box, the sandwich was that big, but it was delicious and it disappeared and my Bride even enjoyed the chips as well. 

They had a nice collection of wines on their carte, most were available by the glass, so I had to act quickly and I found a nice sparkling wine from Spain, and those are two “buzzwords” that attracted my Bride’s attention.  We ordered a bottle of Raventos i Blanc Blanc de Blancs Conca del Riu Anoia 2017.  The Raventos family has a wine making history going back since 1497, five centuries of working ninety hectares of vines and twenty-one generations of winemaking. In 1872, Josep Raventos Fatio went to Champagne and then made his first sparkling wine with secondary fermentation in the bottle, using only native estate grapes.  Josep Maria Raventos i Blanc, was the promoter and creator of the Cava DO, and in 1986, he produces the first estate Cava.  They are striving to have the region Conca del Riu Anoia, classified, it is a small geographical area centered around the River Anoia Basin, between the Catalan Pre-Coastal and Costal Ranges.  The wine is a blend of thirty-eight percent Xarel-lo, thirty percent Macabeo, twenty-six percent Parellada and six percent Monastrell.  The wine was made in the classic traditional method with the disgorgement (secondary fermentation in the bottle) done in October 2020.  A delightful bottle of wine, that just made it through the dinner, with its tiny bubbles in a pretty gold color.  I find sparkling wines harder to describe especially since I am not partial to descriptors, but this wine was fresh with a youthful excitement, for a lack of better words.  It was slightly sweet, as I am not partial to bone-dry sparkling wines and we both enjoyed it, and it would be very easy to order it again, it was that nice.    

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Les Allies

Posted on November 4, 2021 by thewineraconteur

It was my Bride’s birthday, a day for celebration and after reading about how I stretch the celebration out, she is very low key.  She would have been happy with making a dinner at home, even for her birthday.  I had a couple of ideas where she would want to celebrate, but as I have mentioned often, she is a creature of habit and once she has decided that she likes a location, it is like pulling teeth to get her to try somewhere new.  She is also the Royal Exchequer and she has decided on a new project that will not only be expensive, but it will be hours of manual labor, but that is for a future story, if I survive to tell you about it. 

We were going up north, at least in feeling, as we were going to see the Kodiak bear, no we weren’t going to the Detroit Zoo, but only a couple of miles away to Rocky’s.  As I have also mentioned, that we started going to Rocky’s before it was Rocky’s and it was Northville Charley’s and it had the feel of a hunting lodge up in Traverse City or other points in the northern part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Rocky was the chef there and he eventually took over the establishment and we have been frequenting Rocky’s ever since, and we even supported him during the longest fifteen days of lockdown that destroyed many restaurants in the state, but Rocky’s survived.  My Bride went true to form and had the Black Bean Soup for starters and then she had the Potato Encrusted Whitefish with Pilaf and Fresh Vegetables.  I veered a little bit and had the Crock of Onion Soup and had the Tenderloin Tips in a Wine Reduction Sauce with Smashed Red Skin Potatoes.  And to celebrate the annual event, she went with the Detroit classic dessert, a Sander’s Hot Fudge Cream Puff with Vanilla Ice Cream and two spoons. 

My Bride wanted something bubbly and festive and we looked at the carte and finally found a wine that we had not had before.  I mean how many times should I write about the same wine?   Well, we found a bottle of wine that was very affordable even in a restaurant.  We had Les Allies Sparkling Brut Rosé France NV and that which is on the label is all that can be ascertained from this enigma of a bottle of wine.  It is from France.  Grapes are not listed, and I can readily state that this sparkling wine has been produced by the bulk Charmat method.  It was a pretty pink/coral color with surprisingly consistent rather small bubbles.  A nice nose of strawberries and raspberries, which continued on the palate, with a short finish of fruit.  For a very affordable bottle of sparkling wine, it was quite agreeable, and I have to say that I have had worst sparkling wines over the years, and I would have this wine again. 

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Three Big Reds from Ixsir

Posted on November 2, 2021 by thewineraconteur

We were coming down to the wire and a much-appreciated surprise was tossed into the mix, at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, as we were tasting wines from Ixsir Winery.  Our guest host was Etienne Debbanne the Co-founder and Chairman of the winery and a pleasure to hear him talk about the wines.  I also got to meet the distributor of his wines in Michigan, that I had learned about him from another winery in France.  The world is not that large and it was a pleasure to be able to talk and taste wines in a casual setting.  We are not talking about a large group with a sit down and a speaker at a podium; it was a man, our host, at a wine barrel converted to a table just pouring wines and talking about the wines, without losing a beat, as new people would show up.  It was more of a family affair, instead of a cold-sterile environment.  It was fun, as someone would say “should I get six?” and the response was “no, get twelve, they won’t be here long.”

The penultimate wine of the tasting was Ixsir Winery Grand Reserve Red Batroun, Lebanon 2013.  The wine is a blend of fifty percent Syrah, thirty-nine percent Cabernet Sauvignon and eleven percent Arinarnoa.  The wine has been aged for twelve months in French Oak, one third new, one third used once and one third used twice.  I had to research the grape Arinarnoa, it was created in Bordeaux in 1956 and was originally thought to be a cross between Merlot and Petit Verdot, but further DNA testing has proven it to be a cross between Tannat and Cabernet Sauvignon. It is found in the Languedoc and now in Lebanon, it is being used.  This wine was already aging and it was quite mellow, with a fine nose of dark fruit and spices, and the taste has already matured, layered and textured and still offering fruit and a nice finish of terroir.

The last wine of the tasting was the Ixsir Winery EL Ixsir Red Batroun, Lebanon 2016. This is a big wine and a blend of forty-five percent Syrah, forty-five percent Cabernet Sauvignon and ten percent Merlot.  This wine was aged for twenty-four months in French Oak of which fifty percent was new and fifty percent were used once.  It was an elegant deep purple/red wine with a nose of red and black fruits, with some spice and cedar.  The palate is velvety and textured with a nice long finish of terroir that can be laid down in the cellar for some time.  I thought I was done and then they added another wine to the tasting.  We had a chance to compare it to the Ixsir Winery EL Ixsir Red Batroun, Lebanon 2014 and the technical information was the same.  With the two additional years under its belt, the wine had an extra richness that only comes with age, and unfortunately most wines are consumed young, especially in a restaurant setting.  The great news was that this wine was priced the same as the 2014 vintage and it was a real winner to me, that it could be enjoyed sooner. 

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A Rosé and a Red from Ixsir

Posted on October 31, 2021 by thewineraconteur

We were up to the middle two wines of a flight of six, poured and discussed by Etienne Debbanne the Co-founder and Chairman of Ixsir Winery of Lebanon at my local wine shop, The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  For a winery that was founded in 2009 in the mountainous region of Batroun in Lebanon, they have embraced sustainability and a sense of green, being recognized by three awards including the “greenest building in the world.” They started from the beginning, doing it the new way, so they didn’t have to change any bad habits.

The Ixsir Winery Grand Reserve Rosé Batroun, Lebanon 2020 was a wine that made Etienne Debbanne extremely happy to pour for us.  It was selected as the best Rosé by the Robb Report.  The wine is a blend of Mourvedre, Cinsault and Syrah and was created in Stainless Steel tanks with almost no aging time to create a fresh and lively wine.  A pretty color with floral notes and a crisp, fresh and balanced wine that offered a nice finish with terroir.  It was big, and in hindsight, I now understand why this wine was tasted after the whites and before the reds, as I might have wanted to start off with this wine. 

We then had the Ixsir Winery Altitudes Red Batroun, Lebanon 2016.  The wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Caladoc and Tempranillo.  I will mention Caladoc, first produced in 1958 and is a cross between Malbec and Grenache.  It is not sanctioned in the AOC regions of France, but it is being used for blending in several areas quite successfully, for the richness of color and with flavors and nose of wild berries, balsamic and eucalyptus.  This wine was aged in French Oak for six months, with fifteen percent new.  The wine had a nose of black fruit and oak, and offered flavors of black fruit and currants with a silky finish.  It was a very easy drinking wine. 

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Two Whites from Ixsir Winery

Posted on October 29, 2021 by thewineraconteur

It was a delightful experience to be regaled by Etienne Debbanne, the Co-founder and Chairman of Ixsir Winery at my local wine shop The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  Ixsir Winery is considered to have the finest terroirs in Lebanon from Batroun to Jezzine, and it is a mountain wine that culminates at 1,800 meters and is the highest mountain winery in the Northern Hemisphere.  The grounds are clay and limestone soil, old respected lands only recently discovered and utilized again.  The total area of the estate is one-hundred-twenty-hectares, and the winery also has contracts with other immediate vineyards, which they oversee all aspects of the lands and pays them to allow Ixsir total control of the vines for their vision and products.

The first wine that we tasted was Ixsir Winery Altitudes White Batroun, Lebanon 2019.  The wine is a blend of Obaideh, Muscat and Viognier and was aged for three months in Stainless Steel.  Obaideh is a Lebanese grape that has been used in blends, now being done as a varietal and traditionally used in the production of Arak, the famed Anise liqueur of Lebanon.  Obaideh is high in sugar, low acidity with a creamy texture with notes of honey and lemons.  This wine offered floral notes, subtle flavor of grapefruit with some spice, balanced and a moderate finish.  A very fresh wine, that would be perfect to start off a meal or just nibbling on mezza.    

The other white wine that we tasted was Ixsir “EL Ixsir” White Batroun, Lebanon 2016.  This wine is a blend of seventy percent Viognier and thirty percent Chardonnay and was aged on the lees for twelve months in French Oak, of which a third were new.  This was an elegant white wine with floral notes, a full bodied dry white offering white fruits and spices, and a nice long finish of terroir. A wine that would hold its own with opening courses or pairing with dinner as a stand-alone.  It offered depth and complexity, that one expects from a good white, and I have been finding that Viognier is great for cellaring as this five-year-old was totally fresh.   

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Etienne Debbanne and Ixsir Winery

Posted on October 27, 2021 by thewineraconteur

There are days that are more memorable than others, when I set food in my local wine shop The Fine Wine Source of Livonia.  I mean they are all great days, but the other day I had a chance to do a tasting with Etienne Debbanne of Ixsir Winery.  Etienne Debbanne is the Co-founder and Chairman of Ixsir Winery.  He holds a Master’s Degree in Agriculture from Reading University of the United Kingdom.  He has a passion for wine and his native home of Lebanon, and he co-founded the winery with a group of friends.  He is also a well-known business figure in the Middle East and one of the administrators of the Debbane-Saikali Group which is a majority shareholder in several companies and corporations.  The best part, is that he was a charming, urbane gentleman who enjoyed talking about his wines, and he remembered plenty of past customers that came to taste his wines on a prior occasion, that unfortunately my Bride and I missed, but we made it a point to attend this tasting.

Some background information is that Ixsir Winery was founded in 2009 in the northern part of Lebanon in Batroun which is a coastal area.  They are a mountain winery, and one of the highest in elevation for the Northern Hemisphere.  The name Ixsir derives from the Arabic word “Iksir” the original Arabic word for “elixir.” History has recorded that man has searched for the perfect elixir for eternal youth and for love.  The winery is very progressive and has been named one of the greenest buildings in the world.  The winery owns one-hundred-twenty hectares in the Batroun with several different vineyards capitalizing on the terroir.  The winery grows Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Tempranillo, Caladoc, Cinsault, Merlot, Obeidy, Viognier, Muscat, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Semillon.  Quite impressive for a young company, as far as I am concerned.

We have quite a collection of Ixsir wines, but one of the most interesting wines, and I still have the three-pack intact is EL Ixsir Cuvee X’eme Anniversaire Red Non-Vintage.  It was number sixteen of an issue of one-thousand, and the box held three bottles of this special edition wine as well as a beautiful “coffee-table” book The Wines of Ixsir.  The EL Ixsir Cuvee X’eme Anniversaire Red Non-Vintage is a special bottling of three very recent vintages of their EL, which is their top cuvee and a blend of fifty-five percent Syrah, thirty-five percent Cabernet Sauvignon and ten percent Merlot.  Each of the wines had aged for twenty-four months and then had been blended and aged in French Oak, of which half were new barrels. The concept of having the three bottles in the case was that the first bottle should be tasted in five years, and then at least ten years for the second bottle and the last should be held even longer.  As a reference point, this wine was issued 30 April 2019 and the Wine Advocate awarded it a score of 93 Points and a suggest “Drink Date” of 2022-2040.  When we tasted the wine, we were told that the 2014 vintage which was the real powerhouse of EL was leading this wine and it was big and inky and really overpowering; it was way too young and feisty to be properly enjoyed and there was real merit in cellaring this wine. I will discuss the six wines in the articles to come.

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A Reception at Planterra

Posted on October 25, 2021 by thewineraconteur

It was time for another wedding and a symbol that people could get back together.  We had to survive a period in history, where weddings were outlawed, just like going to a restaurant like the French Laundry and dining indoors.  OK, some were allowed to dine indoors, but I didn’t hear about any weddings.  It was a time to celebrate and it was a beautiful wedding held in an Armenian Church and the priest went and explained all the symbolism and traditions for the non-Armenian attendees.  It was a beautiful ceremony and there was time in between the ceremony and the reception to allow for the formal wedding portraits and family portraits.   My Bride and I took advantage and stopped for some food and drinks on the way to the reception, A practice that I have done for years. 

The reception was at Planterra Conservatory, which was a new venue for us.  The facility is actually a huge greenhouse, as they are a leading provider of interior landscape services and plant rentals.  When I was a kid, my science classroom in elementary school had a little greenhouse built on the back of room.  One saw small greenhouses for eccentrics like Nero Wolfe or in The Big Sleep, but this place was huge and because of the nature of a greenhouse, they only rent out the facility at certain times of the year for events like this reception.  It was beautiful and they were offering appetizers and Pomegranate Margaritas as you entered into the facility, or you could go to one of the bars set up.  At the dinner, they started off by serving everyone flutes of Dark Horse Brut NV for toasting and to accompany the Michigan Salad of mixed greens, dried cherries, walnuts, cheese and a Champagne vinaigrette.  Dark Horse Wine is a brand and owned by E. & J. Gallo and they offer many popular varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Chardonnay among others.  This sparkling wine is produced using the Charmat Method or the Bulk Method and it is perfect for sparkling wines used for toasts.  The entire (The Original) Dark Horse wine collection is popular priced California wines that one can encounter in many restaurants and in grocery and convenience stores.  This was a festive wine, and to be truthful not everyone drinks sparkling wines, so I had a couple of extra flutes at my table setting (another reason that I tend to eat something before going to a wedding).     

The entrées for the evening were a filet and shrimp with sides and it was very well prepared.  Our table was also perfectly situated for watching all of the toasts and the cutting of the wedding cake.  We started out with Cardiff Wines Chardonnay California 2019 and then we finished our dinner with Cardiff Wines Cabernet Sauvignon California 2018.  I can find no real information about this winery other than it is one of the least expensive California wines on the market. We have only encountered this wine in hotels or by catering companies.  The Chardonnay was far superior to the Cabernet Sauvignon.  The dinner was much more impressive than the wines, but that is fine.  The wedding was very nice and enjoyable and the hall was very interesting. Though I didn’t see any orchids and that would not have pleased Nero Wolfe or General Sternwood.

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Blanc de Morgex et de La Salle

Posted on October 23, 2021 by thewineraconteur

While I was enjoying some unique Italian wines at my local wine shop, The Fine Wine Source, I encountered a third wine from the same region.  The region is the Aosta Valley DOC, Valle d’Aosta DOC or just VDA DOC.  The third wine is a subregion or zone and it has its own DOC and its own grape.  The Aosta Valley is Italy’s smallest and least populous region in the mountainous region of the northwest corner where Italy abuts France and Switzerland.  These alpine regions are the some of the highest vineyards in Europe.

I had a chance to taste Piero Brunet Blanc de Morgex et de la Salle DOC Vallée D’Aoste 2019, with a fourth way of doing the larger district.  Morgex et de la Salle is the northernmost sub-region of the Aosta Valley, in the shadow of Mont Blanc.  Officially the region is the steep slopes above the valley that the Dora Baltea River flows, on south-facing slopes from the river’s edge to 1300m (4265 ft) between the two municipalities of Morgex and La Salle.  The vineyards are cobbled on narrow plots, surrounded by stone walls, on low height pergolas and between the stone walls and the gravel soil, heat is captured and slowly released throughout the day.  While this wine is still and dry, the region also is known for a dessert wine and some sparkling wine as well. 

The variety of this wine is the Prie Blanc is a light skinned grape that excels in the high altitudes, as in 3,900 feet above sea level, and the area is naturally resistant to phylloxera, and hence it is one of the few vines that is ungrafted and the average age for the vines is sixty-years of age.  The region is the home of the Prie Blanc since at least the Seventeenth Century.  The vines bud very late and usually well past the last frost, and is one of the earliest grapes to harvest.  With the age of the vines and the unique growing system, the yield is very low, and the juice is highly concentrated.   The wine had a very subtle floral nose and some herbs, a very dry wine that is very acidic and a long finish of terroir, in this case very flinty.  Since this region is a main route between France and Italy, the tourists usually consume the entire wine of the area, in fact the demand usually exceeds the supply, so very few wines are encountered here.     

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Valle D’Aosta

Posted on October 21, 2021 by thewineraconteur

Aosta Valley or VDA is the northernmost Alpine wine region of Italy and I was tasting some of these wines at my local wine shop The Fine Wine Source.  The valley is Italy’s smallest and least populous region and abuts France and Switzerland, and French is the official second language of the region.  Even though this area is small, and very hardy, they produce both red and white wines, and the most important red is the Picotendro, the local version of Nebbiolo.  While the Valle D’Aosta DOC contains no DOCG, there are some subzones in the region.  These wines are very popular domestically from the large tourist trade of the region, and hence there is very little that is actually imported, so it is not a common designation.

The first wine that I tried was Fuedo di San Maurizio Petite Arvine Valle D’Aosta DOC 2020.  I found very little about this winery though they do offer wines also made from Petit Verdot, Petit Rouge, Fumin, Humagne Rouge, Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay and Vuillermin.  Petite Arvine also known as Arvine is a variety that is basically found in Valais, Switzerland and Valle D’Aosta, Italy and has been recorded for the last five-hundred-years, but the origin has not been determined. A late ripening grape that requires sunny sites and dry soil, not two requirements that one would immediately think of for the Alpine region.   This wine had a grapefruit nose, and it was a big and sassy acidic palate with a saline (salty) finish and I just thought of fresh-water fish as the pairing for this wine.

The second wine that I had was Fuedo di San Maurizio Fumin Valle D’Aosta 2019.  The same winery, but using the indigenous variety of the valley, namely the Fumin grape, which is a red grape.  For years this grape was blended with other grapes for its deep purple-red color and was only recently brought back to prominence because of a few local winemakers.  It is the perfect variety for the region, as it is not fussy, buds late, ripens early and doesn’t require as much sun as some of the other local grapes may require. The wine was rather earthy with notes of dark fruits and spices for the nose, while the palate was more blackberry and high acidity and a medium finish.

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