A Couple of Forgotten Reds

Posted on November 9, 2020 by thewineraconteur

With the longest thirty days in this year and still counting, people have had a chance to do some extra cleaning and straightening and it is probably still an ongoing endeavor, as so many people are still working from home.  My Bride is still working as hard as ever from the home office, in fact she created a new command center and took over the half of the library and I am still attempting to adjust to retirement.  As I have reported, my Bride has been experimenting with new recipes and I think that we have been enjoying the fruits of the cellar, especially after I had made an inventory of what is down on the main wall at least, and all the while maintaining my writing and all the extra duties that it entails.

One of the older wines that was totally forgotten about, and I checked to see if I had even mentioned it, on my original article and I had, but there was no mention of it on the print out from the winery.  I found a bottle of Prager Winery and Port Works Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 1995, and it was purchased in 1999.  Prager Winery and Port Works was founded in 1979 by Jim and Imogene Prager who thought and proved that world class ports could be produced in Napa Valley.  His first releases were a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Chardonnay and his original Noble Companion Port and the total production was only one-hundred-twenty cases, and he is now up to four-thousand cases.  With his wife and seven children and some in-laws, it is still a family affair and I can still recall all the fun we had tasting the wines all for the princely sum of five dollars, of course time have changed and it is now forty dollars for a tasting and you keep the glass.  We had Jim Prager doing the pouring that day.  I can find no production notes on this wine, but I know that we liked it, because we had basically bought a couple of cases of assorted Ports and this one bottle.  For being a quarter of a century, this wine still had the color, nose and taste of a much younger wine and it probably had another ten years before it would have started showing its age; that is the joy and the sorrow of having a cellar and only one bottle of a particular wine.

The other oldie, but goodie that I found was a Tommasi Valpolicella Classico Superiore “Rafael Vineyard” 1993 and the funny thing is that later that evening one of the other bloggers that I enjoy had mentioned that he had opened a similar bottle only twenty years younger.  Tommasi Viticoltori is one of the largest wine producers in the Veneto and they are known for their Amarone dell Valpolicella Classico wines.  The winery was founded in 1902 and today there are multiple members of the fourth generation in the company.  They are based in the Piedmont, in the heart of the Valpolicella Classico zone.  Valpolicella means “the valley of many cellars” and some liken it to be the Italian Beaujolais, because of all the versions and how at one time it was pushed and expanded in its production.  The wine is probably known in importance as falling after Chianti, Barolo and Brunello for name recognition, quality and quantity and was awarded a DOC in 1968.  The grapes used for Valpolicella in its many versions are Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella and Molinara.  The term Superiore may be attached to any of the wines of the Valpolicella region if the wine has final alcohol proof level of eleven percent or higher and if it has been aged for at least a year prior to commercial release.  When we had this wine, it was feisty out of the bottle with a strong nose and then it opened up and blossomed in the glass during dinner.  It was a pleasure drinking it and it was much better compared to plenty of the wines that we have encountered in restaurants today.  Unfortunately, we didn’t finish the bottle with dinner and the next day, even though I had sealed it using a pump, the life was gone and thankfully there was not much left to lament.  The good news is that we have been having some great fortune with some of the older and forgotten bottles in the cellar. 

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One More Birthday Dinner

Posted on November 7, 2020 by thewineraconteur

Every year for a series of months, I get to say that my Bride robbed the cradle and then for a series of months, I stay quiet.  Do I like to tease? Of course, I do.  If I don’t tease, I just put up with someone and I have been like that forever.  Anyways, we were going to have dinner at one of her favorite restaurants and it is the same restaurant that we went to for my birthday, a little while ago.  It seems that they have an unwritten rule that your dinner tab is half off on your birthday, and they were closed on my birthday and when we went there it was two days after and they said no, but we had a great dinner, so we survived.  Before we left that evening, my Bride checked her calendar and discovered the same thing would occur and we were told that it would be honored the day before, under that situation, so we booked a reservation the day before her birthday. 

We were out in Ann Arbor again and going to The Earle and normally one has to give more travel time to get there, but the state is still in a quasi-lockdown and traffic was light, even in Ann Arbor.  We got there with time to spare and we were going to go have a cocktail, but the main street was much different and we didn’t recognize most of the venues, so we just walked around, which meant that I had to have a mask on the make my Bride happy, even though we were outside.  I was extremely glad to get to the restaurant to breath enclosed air.  I am not sure how it happened, but for all the times we have been there, I guess I missed that they had Creamy Garlic Salad Dressing and I am really old school about salads, and as they say, “no great story started with I was having a salad.”  My Bride decided that she wanted one as well, though she is healthier than I am, and has the dressing on the side and I want the entire salad tossed with the dressing.  My Bride didn’t even bother looking at the menu as she wanted her traditional dinner there, which is Coquilles St. Jacques al crème de Xeres, or sea scallops sautéed with mushrooms and garlic, pan-sauced with Sherry and cream with rice.  I wanted something different and since The Earle prides themselves on both French and Italian dishes, I went Italian.  I had Veal Scallopini lightly breaded and sautéed with garlic and mushrooms, then deglazed with marsala and finished with cream, just something light, because I am watching my figure.  We also shared a Chocolate Mousse in honor of the occasion. 

I also studied the wine carte online, before we got there, because they have sixty pages to go through and when you have to do it on your iPhone it is a pain in the neck.  Since the lockdown began most restaurants are making you download the menu and wine lists through the camera setting on your phone.  One or two pages is easy, but not sixty.  Since it was her day, I decided to surprise her with her favorite grape.  We had a bottle of Couly-Dutheil “La Coulee Automnale” Chinon 2015 from the Loire Valley and it is Cabernet Franc.  The winery was founded by Baptiste Duthiel and his son.  The estate is three-hundred-twenty-one-acres of gravel, clay and chalk and is predominately planted with Cabernet Franc and some Chenin Blanc.  This wine is aged until the following fall and is one of their more popular wines, it was very fresh and flavorful and had the terroir that reminds me that it is Cabernet Franc.   We both survived another round of birthdays and we are back to our normal life again.

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A Creepy Halloween

Posted on November 5, 2020 by thewineraconteur

It was one of those perfect nights for Halloween, a Saturday with a nice temperature and no rain or snow.  I remember as a kid my Mother sewing us costumes that would be able to fit over slickers or snow attire, and they usually were biblical in appearance, so that the church had costumes for the Christmas pageant, even if we weren’t performing in it.  For the last twenty-five years we watched the attendees for the Trick or Treaters slowly dwindle down in numbers.  My Bride always wanted to give out candy and she liked to talk to the children about their costumes, I guess Moms never get tired of Halloween.  She also had to get good candy, so if there was any left overs, I wouldn’t complain about the caliber of the candy that she bought.  This year our Son and his wife wanted to take both of us out for dinner for our birthdays and he wanted to do it on Halloween night as his children are all grown and the numbers of children in his area had dwindled as well.  Also, who wanted to decide if the state or the community standards approved of children having fun this year and if there was going to fallout, because of it.  It also worked out that our next-door neighbors were having their annual bonfire and Halloween night party on their driveway, they had a real neat portable bonfire contraption, and in case my Bride reads this, we don’t need one.  Since, they were going to give candy out to any participants, we gave them our bags of candy that we had bought in anticipation that we would have be at home making the trick or treaters happy.

I had thought of a neat restaurant that was a little out of our way, but rather convenient for our hosts, a perfect combination of good food, good wine selection and reasonable pricing.  It turns out that they were going to be closed on Halloween night.  We had a discussion and then decided on Cucina Bigalora, an excellent more casual restaurant, but quality food, and a tight good wine list; it was also equidistance for all of us.  If my Bride and I go out for dinner, we usually don’t have appetizers or desserts, we usually order dinner and take off, but this was a leisurely dinner, so we enjoyed.  Everyone had appetizers and my Bride had Prosciutto e Grana, a platter of Prosciutto di Parma, Gran Padano, arugula and focaccia; while I ordered Fried Shishito Peppers with Sea Salt and there was enough that everybody could try the other dishes as well. My Bride ordered one of the house specialties, a personal size pizza called the Capricciosa which was the House-blend Mozzarella, Italian Ham, fresh mushrooms and artichokes.  While I went with an order of Rigatoni Bolognese with grass-fed beef, Pancetta and Grana Padano (it wasn’t my sauce, but it was very tasty).  For dessert my Bride had Sorbet with a lit candle and I went old-school with a Cannoli. 

Well the birthday recipients had a slight thirst that evening.  We had a bottle of Tiefenbrunner Pinot Grigio delle Dolomiti 2018, from the South Tyrol of Italy, and I had ordered it, because I know that my Bride likes this grape and you should have seen her, when she thought I had ordered a Pinot Noir for the dinner, but she calmed down quick enough.  Christof and Sabine Tiefenbrunner represent the fifth generation running the Tiefenbrunner Castel Turmhof Wine Estate which was registered in 1848 and making it one of the oldest wine estates in the South Tyrol.  The terrain for the vineyard is hillsides on chalky-gravelly soil.  The wine is pure Pinot Grigio and it is fermented in Stainless Steel and then aged for four months in concrete vats on the lees until the time of bottling.  A very refreshing wine with just a touch of terroir to make it fun.  It was a very interesting and very different Halloween evening. 

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What a Great Idea

Posted on November 3, 2020 by thewineraconteur

Let us ask Sherman to take us into “the wayback machine” to just maybe January or February when the world was unchanged.  My Bride worked for a company, just like the majority of Americans did, and she would go to the office at least five days a week.  Her company periodically would have “health” challenges for the employees with little incentives to sweeten the pot, so to speak.  They were sponsoring a program by Weight Watchers and there were several different ranks of perks offered, depending on the success of the individual.  Weight Watchers is not a diet company, though I guess they do sell food items, but the main thrust of the program is to make you reprogram your eating habits to become healthier.  I guess depending on parameters for each individual, one is assigned daily points and you can eat almost anything you desire, but once you hit the total for the day, you have to stop eating, or just eat the fruits and vegetables that have zero points, if you start the day off with Bananas Foster and Mimosas.  My Bride is very competitive, especially with these challenges from her company and over the years she has done quite well.

I didn’t think she was heavy, but once the gauntlet was laid down, she jumped on it with full support and she achieved better results than she had originally hoped for and she has maintained it.  Since the challenge began, the world changed and people were stuck at home, and some people went on eating binges out of frustration and the gyms and spas were shut down.  She persevered and changed some of her culinary techniques, learned new recipes, because we were home together all the time, though she continued to work, but now from home.  Her clothes all had to be put away or given away, as she went down several sizes, and women’s sizing is still a mystery to me. Now you may be wondering what all this rambling is leading to, well as you may know, we happen to like wine in this household.  Red wines and white wines and whether it is a three ounce pour or a five or six ounce pour have point values and if you want a glass of wine with dinner, you may have to forgo a dessert, to maintain the points.  The 3K walks we do in the morning is also a leveraging device for the point counts.  We took a commercial grade wine glass and made markings of three- and five-ounce pours, and periodically we would have to remark the glass, because repeated washings would start making the lines disappear.  This is where the great idea comes into this narrative.  Weight Watchers was selling these wine glasses that were much more elegant that had subtle ounce markings etched in the glass in a decorative motif, so that it didn’t look proletarian. 

They arrived and were immediately pressed into service.  The first dinner with the new glasses was Panko encrusted Salmon with sides of fresh asparagus and diced and roasted sweet potatoes, followed by Chocolate Pudding.  For the wine we have been still experimenting and chilling some of the older white wines that have been forgotten about, or relegated to second place, because some other wine may have been the hot wine at the moment for us, and that is normal for almost any category of items, it is just human nature.  I found several bottles of Conundrum California White Wine 2008 by Caymus which is their “Proprietary Blend.” The wine is bottled at the Caymus facility in Rutherford, but the wine is a California AVA, because the fruit is harvested from Napa, Monterey, Santa Barbara and Tulare Counties.  The wine is a blend of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Muscat Canelli and Viognier, but the percentages and production are a secret.  The color of this twelve-year-old was quite a deep gold, but it was delicious and in fact we almost finished the bottle during a Zoom session, it was that flavorful.  My Bride has had very good success with the program and a completely new wardrobe as well; too bad that I have not, through osmosis, actually I have, but not to her extent.

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October 2020 Wine Club Selections

Posted on November 1, 2020 by thewineraconteur

The month is almost over and I am just getting to discuss the wines from my local club, the Fine Wine Source of Livonia, Michigan.  I am happy to say, that I was concerned that with the lockdowns and everything else, that I thought I would have to stop writing about wines.  Some businesses had to cease operations, while others struggled and a few were allowed to exist.  My wine club, I am happy to say has survived so far, and that is because of his reputation and his work ethic, two principals that seem almost quaint and antiquated especially in my state capital.  The Fine Wine Source does not sell food, or bulk wines, liquor or lottery tickets and he survived by offering curbside pickup or delivery to his customer either by personal delivery or using world-wide agencies.  He has dismantled part of the custom wine rack in the store, in anticipation that wine shops will once again be allowed to do tastings, allowing for “social distancing” and he needed more floor space. 

Each month there are two wines to be picked up, if one belongs to the club, the first wine is from the Old World and is Chateau L’Eglise Saget Bordeaux 2016.  Bordeaux is one of the legendary areas of France for wine and probably the first region one thinks of for this country.  This chateau is located in Mourens village and was built in 1885 by former generations and is owned by Gaec Bouffard et Fils and son Eric is overseeing the estate.   There are seven hectares for vineyards and though it is not located in one of the famed communes, the vintage is recognized as potentially being a very strong year, and it is the winery more than the vintage that determines a fine wine.  The wine is a blend of sixty percent Merlot and the balance is Cabernet Sauvignon.  The tasting notes suggest the fruit and velvety finish of the Merlot and structure and tender tannins from the Cabernet Sauvignon with layers of complexity and flavors of tobacco and cedar with a smooth finish. 

The New World offering is Tortoise Creek “The Revivalist” Merlot Clarksburg AVA 2018.  Tortoise Creek is part of the much larger Masterwines group which currently has six labels.  Masterwines was started by Mel and Janie Master in 1990 sourcing wines from the Languedoc.  Masterwines now produces wine in France, Italy, California, Washington and Oregon.  Tortoise Creek is a line of single variety wines and they were originally in the Lodi region of California and the majority of the wines are certified sustainable.  Starting with the 2009 vintage Tortoise Creek has partnered with the Chelonian Research Foundation and they donate a portion of the proceeds to benefit and the conservation of turtles and tortoises, and the Foundation was founded in 1992 to support worldwide turtle and tortoise research.  Clarksburg AVA is located east of San Francisco on fertile flat lands and well known for their Chenin Blanc wines, while there is plenty of fruit harvested there, most are transported to other locations for blending purposes, so Clarksburg AVA is not that common of a designation to be found on labels.  This wine is eighty percent Merlot, five percent Cabernet Franc, five percent Cabernet Sauvignon and ten percent Petite Syrah.  The wine is described as having a deep color and aromas of black cherries and plums with the addition of herbs and spices with soft tannins and a silky finish. A toast to two more wines to add to the cellar and prayers that all will be over soon and more businesses can get back to doing what they do best. 

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Hagrid and Toothsome

Posted on October 30, 2020 by thewineraconteur

We basically lost a day at Universal Orlando, because back in January when we bought our holiday package for October when we redeemed our purchase, the airline had eliminated our return flight and moved us to an earlier flight, basically eliminating our last day.  My Bride was undaunted by bureaucracies, unconcerned help desks and the likes, after our last night dinner, which I will discuss shortly, we took the water taxi to our hotel and packed so that we could leave our luggage with the Bell Captain, until our airport shuttle arrived to start our return trip.  We packed early, because we were going to be the first in line to get into the park to ride on “Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure” as that every time we had attempted to go there, I think the line was almost to Detroit.  We got down to the water taxi port and they were not open, so we walk from the hotel to the City Walk and all I could think of, was, what if there were alligators lurking in the waterway on the grounds, because we were the only people out that early in the morning, and I was also a rebel and walked in the fresh air without a mask and it was refreshing.  My thoughts were that we could get a fast breakfast before the park opened, surprise, the park was locked up at a gate outside of the CityWalk.  Eventually the gates were unlocked, we walked through some metal detectors and then we walked to the entrance of the park, and we were the first in line at one turnstile, but I think we had a rookie, as she couldn’t get the thumbprint reader to work, also my Bride’s catch-all purse exploded from all of the stuff, that she could never find in it, and I was instructed to go straight to the admission gate for the ride, as I was passed by runners and joggers, it seemed that everyone at that early hour, only had plans to go to the ride.  I finally got to the line, yes, there was already a line, and I had to step aside and wait until my Bride showed up, and she had bought a “fanny-pack” contraption, but got everything to squeeze into it.  Somehow, we still ended up getting into the first wave of riders as we followed the maze that was set up.  I am glad that I did not wear my hat that morning, as it was the G-forces of the ride blew the head band right off of my Bride somewhere on the grounds of the ride.  The ride was awesome, exciting and my Blood Pressure and adrenaline survived the test and we were both alive at the end, even though there were some pretty scary moments, especially with me strapped into a motorcycle, and my Bride had more security in the sidecar.  Everyone said that it was the ride to do, we did it, and I must agree, and we will probably not go on another rollercoaster ride, unless it is with potential great-grandchildren in a kiddie park.  We had time left to go and have a mediocre breakfast at the hotel, and I found a secluded sofa near a closed bar in one of the lobbies of the hotel and took a short nap, I am such a great world traveler.  The next thing I knew, we were home, and that is when I began writing about the trip, as I have never understood the compulsion the tell the world on Social Media that my house will be empty, because we are on holidays.

The night before, we had reservations for dinner, courtesy of the grand customer service attention of the manager at Mythos restaurant in the park. We were going to Toothsome Chocolate Emporium & Savory Feast Kitchen and it was a structure that one could not miss the first time we took the water taxi from our hotel to the CityWalk. It was a huge imposing structure and in my mind’s eye, I envisioned Gene Wilder coming down the steps surrounded by Oompah Loompas, but that was not a Universal film. We started off by sharing an order of Baked Brie en Croute with Raspberry Marmalade, fresh fruit, toasted almonds and Chocolate Almond Bread and fresh-baked Lavash. The Chocolate Almond Bread was wonderful, so I tried to use the Lavash to allow my Bride to enjoy the bread and it was a great starter. There was an assortment of entrée dishes, pastas and flatbreads or pizzas. My Bride had the Toothsome Nicoise with Citrus-crusted Tuna, Fingerling Potatoes, olives, eggs, asparagus, tomatoes, red onion and a Citrus Vinaigrette. I had the Braised Short Rib with Aged Cheddar Grits, roasted carrots, natural jus and Cocoa Gremolata. The dishes were delicious and yes, in a restaurant espousing Chocolate, we had dessert, a Chocolate Crème Brulee and the last time we had such a dessert was also in Orlando some twenty years ago, so we were very pleased.

Of course, what good is talking about the food with out something liquid to accompany the food with, and I wanted a wine that could work with fish, meat and potentially some chocolate.  We had a bottle of King Estate Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2016.  King Estate Winery was established in 1991, when Ed King Jr and Ed King III bought a one-thousand plus cattle farm in the Willamette Valley and made it into a vineyard.  It was an organic practiced farm since day one, and it is one of the largest single-block organic vineyards to this day.  They are best known for their Pinot Gris, but they also do Pinot Noir, Riesling, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah.  Pinot Noir is the second-most planted varietal on the property.  The wine has been aged for ten months in French Oak, after initial fermentation in Stainless Steel.  It was a perfect wine for the table with a nose a black fruit and offering black cherry in the taste and finish.  On our way out we refrained from purchasing from the chocolatier, and I begrudgingly put back on the shelve a beautiful pith helmet, not a Groucho Marx or African Safari style, but more like a Douglas Fairbanks Gunga Din style, but it was close, but packing it, would have be troublesome.  We had a wonderful meal and some great memories, even if I did get to tease my Bride a bit, but that is my nature. 

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The Forbidden Journey, Gringotts and Mythos

Posted on October 28, 2020 by thewineraconteur

When one is at an amusement park, I guess one goes on rides; I guess I am one of the few that worries about what I am going to eat.  Of course, when you write a wine blog and couple it with whatever is occurring with that meal, you can understand my concerns.  While we were staying at a hotel on the grounds of Universal in Orlando, we had an “express pass,” but found that certain rides and exhibitions were exempt from getting preferential treatment.  We survived, and it was fun, though I guess my days of roller coasters or whatever these new rides are referred to are a bit discombobulating to us at our age, and we did it, though I am not sure if we need to do it again at our age.  I guess having a knowledge of the Harry Potter lore helps, I am sure if you don’t know it, the rides are still exciting, but if you are like me and know the films, there are parts of the rides that kind of reenact scenes, and if you are a maven like my Bride, who has even read all of the books, it is more exhilarating.   The first ride we did was just off Diagon Alley at Gringotts Bank and called “Escape from Gringotts”; of course traversing the lines to get to the rides is longer than the ride itself, but if you get there at the right moment, the line is not that bad and once in the structure of the ride, there is even to look at, to keep the average person interested.  This ride is based on one of the later books/films where the heroes break into the bank and there are plenty of scenes from the movie that are brought to life and culminate with a dragon.   The other ride that we did was based at Hogwarts and called “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey” and even places the riders in a quidditch match.  One even got to observe some of the paintings of past illustrious wizards and witches having conversations from their paintings on the walls of the school.  One also gets to see certain of the characters from the films portraying themselves in different parts of the rides, so it is all in good fun. 

In between the two rides we had lunch in another part of one of the parks, set in Greek and Roman mythology.  We had been touted that the restaurant was an award winner for themed park dining, and as I mentioned in another article, when we tried to have lunch, we were told it would be a couple hours for a seating, so we made arrangements to have lunch there the next day.  The restaurant is called Mythos, and the conceit of the restaurant is that you are in a grotto underneath a mountain and it gave the appearance of being cavernous.  The restaurant was supposedly Mediterranean in scope, but there were exceptions.  My Bride had Pad Thai which was rice noodles, mixed vegetables, chicken and shrimp tossed in a sweet and sour Peanut Sauce and she enjoyed it.  I had the Brick Oven Roasted Chicken which was done lemon-herbed, with Rosemary fingerling potatoes, rapini and pan jus.  I started to eat mine and someone came by and asked me how I liked the new chicken entrée and I said that it was dry like cardboard.  The next thing I know the manager appeared and switched out my order for my other choice which was Wild Mushroom Barley Risotto with Braised Beef Loin Tips, chopped wild mushrooms, Red Wine Bordelaise and Shaved Parmesan, and it was excellent, even my Bride liked it.  We were also talking with the manager about our dinner at The Palm, which she had not eaten at, but told us, that almost all of the other restaurants in Universal were owned and operated by Universal, including some of the chains.  She also asked where we were going to have dinner that evening and we said that we were going to try a place, she took our information and the next thing we knew, we had a confirmed reservation for the evening.  It was magical.

While I was looking at the wine list, I saw a wine that we were going to have the day before with lunch, but the restaurant was out, so we had it with lunch this time, just a little festive Prosecco on a very warm day, though in the grotto, it was very comfortable.  We each had splits of Cantine Maschio Prosecco DOC Brut NV.  In 1973 Bonaventura Maschio turned his family’s century-old distillery into a winery and it was even then considered a state-of-the-art winery in terms of technology and production and they actually produce the two biggest-selling wines in Italy, Maschio Chardonnay and Maschio Pinot Rosa.  The wines produced by Cantine Maschio have their fruit grown from the hills of Valdobbiadene and Conegliano and in the Piave Valley.  As this wine carries the Prosecco DOC, all production is by the books and it has to be at least eighty-five percent Prosecco (Glera) to get licensed and sealed with a banderole.  It was just a very easy drinking wine and we ended up having seconds before venturing out back in the sun and the crowds. 

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From Hogsmead to The Palm

Posted on October 26, 2020 by thewineraconteur

We were definitely traveling old school while we were on holidays; trains, boats and shoe leather.  The majority of the interest for the two of us was at King’s Crossing, Diagon Alley, Hogsmead and Hogwarts and to get there from the hotel was by water taxi, and then going from park to park by Hogwarts Express and then the rest was by foot.  A grand adventure and my Bride was totally immersed in the magic of the moment.  The Harry Potter exhibits were in full capacity with crowds and with staff, while some of the other parts of the two parks were much quieter.  It was amazing to see the lines for some of the rides had stretched out from one them park to another theme park, partly from distancing rules that were hard to really enforce and just from the crowds that wanted to experience the rides.  I did see my old alma mater “Wossamotta U” among other sites, and when we were in Jurassic Park, I felt like one of the dinosaurs.  We did see a ride that was functioning and when we got to the head of the line, we discovered that we were too tall (adult) to ride the attraction that was geared to the younger crowd, but it seemed so us. 

Thankfully, we had the pass that allowed us to go from park to park and to ride the train as often as we did, and we could start making plans of where to eat, because we actually had to book a lunch for the next day, because the waiting period was almost three hours for the next opening that day.  We were filling up the day with as much as we could squeeze in and then we had to take the water taxi back to the room, to freshen up for dinner, but by now you know that I am definitely old school and high maintenance.  I also had to get my sport coat for dinner.  We then took a water taxi to the CityWalk and then boarded another water taxi to get to the Hard Rock Hotel, a big pink hotel reminiscent of earlier Florida.  We were going to The Palm, one of the old guard steak houses from New York.  The Palm was legendary almost from the beginning for an Italian restaurant that served a great steak.  The business was so great that they had to open up a second floor above the original location, and eventually they bought the property across the street to open up a second location for all the spill over and then they started opening up a few other locations.  The walls were decorated with copies of the original and some newer drawings of celebrities that have dined there, not like at Sardi’s or the London Chop House where they were framed, these were just done on the plaster.  I happened to show our waiter a photo of a matchbook from The Palm from years ago, as I used to like including matchbooks as collateral images for my articles, and I lamented that they are no longer found or PC and asked him if he recognized the place and he remembered the New York location,  Later, he brought me a new version of the matchbook that I showed him, but with the Orlando location listed inside to add to our collection.  My Bride was excited, because she didn’t expect to have the chance to dine on Chilean Sea Bass Fillet with leaf spinach Aglio e Olio.  I was torn between having a great steak or having one of their classic Italian dishes from their roots, and the old soul in me chose an Italian dish for my entrée.  I had the Veal Martini with shallots, mushrooms, fresh and sun-dried tomatoes, white wine, Florio Dry Marsala wine and basil.  My Bride allowed me the honor of selecting a sharable side for the two of us, which like in most steak houses is more than ample for two, and I chose the Lobster Gnocchi; my Bride knew that I was going to order that dish, even though she knows that I know that is not partial to gnocchi, but I keep telling her that if it is made properly, it is very light.  When the dinners arrived, she thought that I had the better of the two entrée dishes ordered and she was raving and gushing about the gnocchi. 

They had a very nice and tight wine carte and I thought we should get something a little different, since our selections were more unique.  We had a bottle of La Scolca Etichetta Bianca Gavi del Comune di Gavi DOCG 2018 and Etichetta Bianca translates to White Label, because La Scolca also makes a Black Label which is sourced from young vines in the Rovereto vineyard.  The La Scolca estate was purchased between 1917-1919 and it is now in the fourth generation of the same family and the family name is Soldati which translates to soldier, and La Scolca comes from “sfurca” or “look off into the distance” as the farmhouse that stood on the property was at one time a lookout post.  The family’s intention was to plant the Cortese grape in what was once an area of red grapes.  La Scolca is considered the oldest winery in the area for continuity of management by the same family and also considered the most modern.  The Cortese grape is the only varietal allowed for the Gavi region and the Rovereto district is considered akin to a Grand Cru.  La Scolca has been making this wine since the Fifties and they have about fifty hectares in the Rovereto district.  While Gavi is part of the Piedmont, the culinary traditions are more Ligurian that Piedmontese, including the wine which is lighter and fruitier.  While Gavi is the crown jewel of the Piedmont for white wines, only the Cortese grapes from Gavi can be termed Gavi di Gavi and the area received DOCG status in 1998.  Cortese has been recorded in the area since the 1600’s and is famed for the acidity and bone-dry character with a flinty mineral finish noting the terroir of the district.  This wine was offering floral notes, lemons and green apples.  While the wine has a lower proof rating, with the high acidity it is know to age quite well.  Without bragging, it was a great choice for the evening and the only thing that I can think is that it must have a high level of evaporation, because the wine seemed to disappear much to quickly.  A wonderful dinner and then we caught our two different water taxis and made it back to our hotel to enjoy another day. 

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From King’s Crossing to San Francisco

Posted on October 24, 2020 by thewineraconteur

We were at King’s Crossing railway station at Gate 9¾, getting ready to board the Hogwarts Express and I was traveling with a wand carrying woman.  If none of this makes sense you have probably ignored one of the major literary and later cinematic series of stories to emanate from England since Dickens was first published in serial form.   We edged our way to the train around luggage carts loaded with steamer trunks and owls in cages to go to Hogsmead Station, and in actuality we were going from one amusement park to another and all part of Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.  We were assigned seating in an enclosed booth on the train car and there was a show to observe both looking out the window or by watching through the translucent windows and door to the aisle way of the train car.

All the while, my Bride and sometimes myself practiced using the wand and reading enchantments.  She had bought the wand ahead of time and it came in handy throughout Diagon Alley and Hogsmead as there were places to practice magic with the wand for added enjoyment.  Though after some debate and even though it would have been a learning experience, we both refrained from having a draught of Butterbeer as well as any dining establishments in either of the Harry Potter environments.  We actually took the Express back to King’s Crossing and decided to go and have lunch in the wharf area of San Francisco.   

While it sounds like we did a lot of traveling that morning, the streets of New York, including cinematic favorites of Louis in the Bronx and Genco Olive Oil was just around the corner from King’s Crossing and if you looked across the water, you could see Beverly Hills and San Francisco tied the two communities together.  The last time we were there, before there was a Harry Potter there was a delightful restaurant in the Beverly Hills/Hollywood district called the Brown Derby and they even duplicated some of the famed dishes from that famed eatery.  Alas, the younger generation had no idea of the Brown Derby and it had been converted into a hat shop, but with tourism being curtailed, this was one of the shops that had been closed down at least for the moment. 

We decided to have lunch at Lombard’s Seafood Grille, I had looked at the possibility of having dinner there, but when I saw the hours for the parks and that the restaurant was in one of parks, so it was only available for lunch.  It was a large establishment on two floors overlooking the water and there was a number of dishes we could have really enjoyed, but we actually had dinner reservations and we wanted to leave room for that meal, even though we had walked across half of the world by that time.  The interior reminded me of how Hollywood would portray San Francisco during the Gold Rush Days and the Gay Nineties with the arches and color.  We decided to order two smaller plates and share between the two of us, which would hold us over until dinner.  My Bride had Blue Crab Cakes that consisted of Blue lump crab that were pan seared with a Mustard Caper Aioli.  I went with the Lombard’s Lobster Roll on a toasted split roll with Dijon Mayonnaise and shredded lettuce with house-made chips.   The two dishes were much better than I expected, especially in a tourist attraction and we were both very happy.  

The wine list was quite nice and there were several bottles that we could have enjoyed if we were going to have made lunch the focal point of the day, but since we were dining light, we both enjoyed a glass of wine and the air conditioning, as it was in the sweltering nineties that afternoon.  My Bride had a glass of Emiliano Natura Sauvignon Blanc Casablanca Valley, Chile 2018.  Emiliana Organic Vineyards is a leading Chilean wine company, and one of the leading producers of certified organic and biodynamic wines around the world.  They are famed for some of their blends as well as their varietal driven wines.  They own about three-thousand acres in the country including properties in Colchagua, Maipo and the Casablanca Valley.  This was a very pretty wine and it had a green and flinty taste and finish and very refreshing.  I had a glass of the Halter Ranch Rosé Adelaida District, Paso Robles 2018.  Halter Ranch is a vineyard and winery founded in 2000, and the ranch covers twenty-two-hundred acres of which two-hundred-six acres are certified Sustainability in Practice, they also have fifteen acres of walnuts and ten acres of organically certified olives.  The wine is a blend of Grenache, Mourvedre and Picpoul Blanc.  The berries were lightly crushed with twenty-four hours of skin contact then pressed and fermented in Stainless Steel tank.  Multiple tanks of Rosé were blended in different proportions after the initial fermentation to create the final blend, which was aged for two months in Stainless Steel, with no oak barrel aging and no malolactic fermentation.  Tropical fruits and a mineral terroir finish with some nice acidity made this wine very friendly with our quick meal.  Then it was back out to enjoy more of what the day and the parks had in store for us. 

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Lt. Dan Makes Some Good Ribs

Posted on October 22, 2020 by thewineraconteur

We were finally on vacation, officially at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida and this was our first venture without a rental car, so the shuttle bus dropped us off at the hotel.  Since we were staying on the grounds our room keys were even souvenirs and allowed us to get into the park earlier and on some rides to get preferential admission.  My Bride was all excited and chomping at the bit, but from the time that we booked the trip in January to today, the world changed and the parks had shorter hours.  After we unpacked, we wandered around our hotel a bit and we didn’t have any dinner reservations for the first night, as I wasn’t sure how to schedule the time, between luggage pickup, getting onto the hotel shuttle and checking in.  We decided to go and check out Universal’s CityWalk.  There were two ways to go to the CityWalk from our hotel, we could either walk a path or take one of the many water taxis that connect all of the ground’s hotels with the park.  The CityWalk was on both sides of the waterway and at the entrance to the amusement parks.  We took one of the water taxis and we had to go through a metal detector, just another sign of the times; and we also had to have a mask on while on the grounds, though there were times when I was a rebel, though when you are at a tourist destination it is rather difficult to find safe havens from people and it must have made it difficult for smokers.  

We wandered around the CityWalk which was full of restaurants and shops and basically all geared for families.  The restaurants were popular priced with a mix of chains and non-chains locations; later on, I found out that almost every restaurant on the grounds was owned by Universal or were in partnership with them there.  There was Sushi and Mexican food, and of course a Margarita at Margaritaville, which sounded very tempting, but we have eaten at a couple of their restaurants elsewhere and we wanted someplace new.  We decided to go to a place that we almost went to once on the island of Maui, but opted to go to the Ritz instead, I guess the Raconteur is a bit of a food and wine snob or can be when he gets a chance.  We were very tired from all of the day’s activities, but we made it.   We went and had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. a chain that is based on characters from the film Forrest Gump.  My Bride had the Shrimp New Orleans, which was grilled shrimp with a “New Orleans sauce,” garlic bread and steamed rice.  I had the Lt. Dan’s Surf & Turf, which was Baby Back Ribs, grilled shrimp and French fries; after I was assured that the ribs would fall off the bone, and yes, I am a pain, no matter the restaurant.  I also decided on the dish, because I admire all of the dedicated charity work that the actor, who portrayed Lt. Dan has done on his free time. 

I contacted another person that I know through Social Media to find out if Florida has a similar law like in Michigan as to whether one can take an unfinished bottle of wine after it has been resealed out of the restaurant.  She wasn’t sure, but she checked and found out that it was possible and even sent me a synopsis of the law on a legal site.  That made me happy to learn and we took advantage of the ruling to have some wine back in our room, since we had a refrigerator, and in comparison, wine is cheaper than Coke or Pepsi on the grounds of Universal.  So, we had a bottle of Fetzer Sundial Chardonnay California 2018.   Fetzer Vineyards maintains a large selection of varietal wines from California and they were early pioneers in sustainable practices.  The family originally bought a ranch in the Redwood Valley in 1958 and eventually converted the barn into a winery and they had their first commercial vintage in 1968.  They were also the first winery to run entirely on renewable energy, and they also produce the organic wine label Bonterra which is vinified at Fetzer.  In 1992 the Fetzer family sold the winery and label to the Chilean wine corporation Concha y Toro.  In 1999, they moved to a facility in Mendocino County, but almost all of the wines that they produce carry the California appellation.  This wine was fermented in Stainless Steel with a mix of new French and American oak which allowed completed malolactic fermentation.  For an affordable wine, it offered a nice mix of toast and buttery finish and paired quite nicely with our meals, not to mention it was nice back in the room as well.  I am glad to say that my Bride was able to sleep the night through and was ready for a couple of days of magical adventure.   

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