The Earle With The Caller

Posted on August 21, 2020 by thewineraconteur

We were in Ann Arbor for the first time in ages meeting with The Caller and his charming wife.  It is the first time that I can think of, where driving in Ann Arbor was free and easy, as it tended to be more of a white-knuckle experience in the past.  It was even easy to find a parking lot and spaces near the restaurant, and yes I had my mask in one of the interior pockets of my sport coat;  I think that is why I enjoy wearing sport coats so much, because it makes it easier to carry the little things that one needs and not to have bulging pockets or a handbag.  What really surprised me, was that basically everyone was walking outside in the fresh air with a mask on; my Bride and I walk every morning outside without a mask on, and that concept has been even blessed by the powers that be, but the minions must have missed the memo.  As I got to the outside door I hastily put on my mask and went in to secure our table as I think all four of us were looking forward to this evening.  As we were crossing the street, The Caller had honked his horn at us, so my Bride waited outside for them, while I got our table. 

We had requested the French Room, which is our favorite spot in The Earle.  I have to explain that the Earle in the basement of a building, so it is not we are asking for a table with a view, actually the only ambience to the room is some large wall decorations utilizing corks, and I am sure that they have a large supply of them and the several arrangements of empty, dusty vintage wine bottles that I or any wine lover would enjoy having.  It seems like whenever other diners are taken to the French Room, they request a different table, I don’t know why, but it is always the case; and I know that I had showered before getting dressed for dinner.  I am not sure how long The Earle has been open, but if it means anything, we own a book of matches from there and they have had The Wine Spectator Award since 1999.  They offer 1,100 different wines with an inventory around 19,500 bottles including splits and magnums. 

The Earle offers dishes with an emphasis on French and Italian offerings.  We all started off with some orders of Roasted Garlic, crostini and with assorted sides, and the perfect way to start the conversation off on the right foot, as there was so much to catch up on.  The Caller and his wife both had salads after the appetizers, while my Bride and I just get the conversation going.  The two women both had repeats of one of The Earle’s top dishes, 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.  The Caller went with Chicken Saltimbocca, lightly breaded chicken breasts with Prosciutto, pan-sauced with white wine, lemon and sage.  The Caller made my decision a little easier, by telling me that he could handle whatever wine I wanted to order with his entrée, a true gentleman of the old school.  I had to order a dish that I have missed ever since the lockdown began, as we don’t have it at home.  I had the Sautéed Duck Breast, boneless and prepared medium rare, pan-sauced with Applejack Brandy, Cider, apples and brown sugar with rum plumped raisins served with a potato-turnip puree.  I was a bit concerned about the dish, as I was afraid that it might be too sweet, but our waiter assured me, that it was savory instead of sweet (and he was right).  Afterwards there was an order of house-made Basel Sorbet with four spoons, as you can see, we practiced social distancing.

The Earle was using the computer icons for their menus, where you hovered the camera of your phone over the icon and the menu appeared on the phone, and that worked perfectly for the menu, but it was not a good idea for the wine list, which is very extensive, and eventually they brought me a wine menu in a loose-leaf binder with each page in plastic, so that it could be wiped down, because I am such a pain-in-the-arse.  I knew that as soon as I started looking at the wine list, that they were all going to gang up on me to get a bottle of the Maison Chanzy Bouzeron Clos de la Fortune Monopole 2015, but alas they did not have any more of that wine.  I found a white wine that I thought would be very interesting and then the women could finish it off with their entrées.  We started with Domaine Fourrey Chablis Premier Cru Cote de Lechet 2015.  The Cote de Lechet Premier Cru is on the west bank and is a non-official designation, but non-the-less highly regarded and esteemed climat of Chablis Premier Cru. Domaine Fourrey is twenty-five hectares of vineyards that has been in the same family for four generations.  The wine was a beautiful and crisp dry Chablis with a finish of flint in the terroir, that we all found fascinating.  The second wine, was ordered as soon as the Chablis was opened and four additional wine glasses appeared for this wine after it had time to open up.  We were sharing a bottle of Domaine Blain-Gagnard Chassagne-Montrachet 2015.  Domaine Blain-Gagnard is a producer in the village of Chassagne-Montrachet and founded in the 1980’s.  They cultivate eight hectares of vineyards with a mixture of young and old vines, and they produce three Grand Crus and eight Premier Crus.  The Pinot Noir crops are harvested prior to the Chardonnay crops and the red grapes are destemmed and macerated for about two weeks, before they start harvesting the white.  The Pinot Noir harvest and wine production accounts for twenty percent of the crops.  The wine was excellent, affordable, and dare I say, without sounding totally selfish, perfect for the duck breasts.  It was appreciated by all at the table, because it was what a good Pinot Noir should be.  Unfortunately, the evening ended, but we already have our next date planned and it will be a special dinner, even if I do say. 

Posted in Dining, Wine | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Giving a Lesson on Zoom

Posted on August 19, 2020 by thewineraconteur

We have been doing Zoom sessions quite a bit these days, along with probably the rest of the country that has been under lockdown.  It is a great way for the families to keep in touch, and we have sessions from four people up to about twelve or thirteen, sometimes the screen resembles an old show called Hollywood Squares, though without the clever repartee.   Even though we can now start seeing people and visiting without the concern of neighbors potentially reporting us to the authorities, we are still maintaining the sessions.  Outside of the usual conversations, I was asked if I could give a lesson on the proper way to open a bottle of wine, as one of the nephews just got a job working at a private country club.

Earlier that day, I had sent his Mother a photo of a “Waiter’s Corkscrew” and suggested that he invest in a good quality version, as the most important part is the corkscrew itself, as I have had some where the screw ruins a cork as it attempts to screw into the cork.  There I was teaching a lesson in wine service etiquette at the table, not that I have ever been a waiter, but I have certainly had enough wine bottles opened for me over the years.  Explaining each step using the tool, seemed like overkill, but I thought it was necessary, especially since it was being done on a video screen, instead of being in person.   There have even been times when I have offered to do the service, when I realize that the waiter or the waitress is a novice.  Everyone has to learn it sometime, and who wants to carry a bulky battery powered new-fangled one in their pocket, when a Waiter’s Corkscrew is so sleek and elegant. 

Well since, I had to demonstrate, and even though with dinners at home all the time, we have a collection of bottles of wine opened and at various levels of volume, I did need another fresh “lamb for the slaughter” I guess you could say.  I went and grabbed one of the newer white wines that have been chilling, I didn’t want an older one in case the cork started crumbling, as I figured that would not happen at the country club.  I went and demonstrated on a bottle of Reserve de Castelnau Entre-deux-Mers 2017 from Chateau de Castelnau.  Entre-deux-Mers translates to “between the two seas,” but here the two water ways are the Garonne and Dordogne Rivers of the Bordeaux region, and the area is one of the hardest to keep track of, because it has several small appellations, and the region grows red and wine, dry and sweet, and then some of the wines go under the generic listing of either Bordeaux or Bordeaux Superiore.  The appellation for Entre-deux-Mers is actually for white wines made from Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Muscadelle and Ugni Blanc.  This particular wine was sixty percent Semillon, thirty percent Sauvignon Blanc and ten percent Muscadelle.  This was just a pretty and enjoyable wine, especially for the Summer time and it was refreshing for both of us, especially, because my Bride was such a kibitzer during the presentation of opening the bottle, that she had worked up a thirst as well as I had.  

Posted in Wine | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Darioush Chardonnay 2000

Posted on August 17, 2020 by thewineraconteur

With the situation as it is, I have been trying to keep busy and away from the essential worker in the house.  Writing a blog, is still fun, and it probably is a God-send, because I have been so used to working for all of these years, that I have to give myself goals, so that I don’t get lazy.  We get up and walk about two miles in the morning, and we water the lawn while we are walking, and it may be the first time that we are actually growing more than dirt, but there are a couple of patches that just seem to defy our attention.  We try to have our three meals each day together, which is almost a new experience for us.  After breakfast she begins work, and I have created blocks of time to get certain jobs done.  The most interesting thing is that I have actually now gone through the entire main wall of the cellar, and am moving the white wines to the wine vault in the family room, and I have been slowly boxing and re-boxing cartons to make the wines ready to be re-inventoried, and it has allowed me to see what has been totally forgotten about.  Sometimes good and sometimes bad.  For years, we ate out so much, that I rarely drank wine in the house, now that has all changed, so it has been fun chronicling the older wines that we have been enjoying. 

There are plenty of wines from the cellar that are on the critical watch list and I have been stocking extra white wines in the one refrigerator, just in case one wine is bad, we have a backup ready to go.  Unfortunately, this was the case and I am sure there will be other such incidents, as we slowly go through the cellar and update what we have.  We had a wonderful experience years ago when we were in Niagara-on-the-Lake to attend a wedding, we took an afternoon off to go visit some wineries and one of the wineries was Hillebrand, which is part of the much larger Andrew Peller Limited.  In fact, at that time we went first to Hillebrand to do some tastings and then we went to Peller Estate for some more tastings.  It appears that Hillebrand and Trius have been merged together, as the two are usually mentioned at the same time on a search that I just did for some updated information for this article.  At the tasting we were really impressed with the Hillebrand Artist Series Limited Edition Sauvignon Blanc Niagara Peninsula VQA 2010.  Alas, this wine did not age gracefully, and I am afraid that we may still see more examples in the future, as we drink more wine at home.

The second and back-up wine that I had chilled was a Darioush Chardonnay Napa Valley 2000, and I was praying that this wine would be fine, as just a few weeks earlier, we opened up a bottle of Darioush Viognier Napa Valley 2001 and it was a delight. History repeated itself and shows the dedication that this winery has, for a relatively newcomer to the wine scene.  This wine was pure Chardonnay that had a late harvest, and underwent whole cluster pressing to small barrels for primary fermentation and then inoculated for malolactic fermentation.  The juice was then aged Sur-Lies for eleven months in French Oak barrels from the Burgundy region of France, and then the wine was bottled without fining or filtration.  A beautiful bottle of wine was enjoyed by my Bride and I with a dish of Chicken breasts with Capers and Artichoke Hearts.  The wine was totally mellow and reminded me of some excellent aged white Grand Crus I had a chance to try as a kid back in the early Seventies.  So wine, like life is a bit of a “crap-shoot” and I am going to the give the benefit of the doubt to each and every bottle that has been resting, and for those that don’t make it, there are always the memories. 

Posted in Dining, Wine | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Dead Canyon Ranch Red Blend

Posted on August 15, 2020 by thewineraconteur

It wouldn’t be right, if I didn’t write about the domestic offering from my wine club, the Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan and this is one of the July offerings, even though I know that we are in August.  Who would have ever thought that I would have an abundance of articles to write, even with this lockdown that I guess will never leave us?  I am always glad to see the tenacity of some businesses that just won’t roll over and die, because at least here, the major players got the breaks and the little guys were ignored.  I would probably roll over and die, or at least cease writing, and maybe no one would notice, if I had to get my groceries and wine (God forbid) from big box stores like Walmart, because I have never set foot in one.  I guess working my entire career for small independent merchants, I just have a natural loathing for anything big in structure. 

Mercer Estates planted their first wine grapes in the Horse Heaven Hill is 1972.  They have taken advantage of the rich soil and the desert climate to produce some elegant tannin Cabernet Sauvignon wines, as well as other wines along the way.  They had their first vintage year in 2005 at Prosser, Washington.  They have a state-of-the-art winery giving the winemakers the luxury of temperature control and the ideal settings for fermentation.  Their barrel rooms allow for long and varied aging, so that everything is not cookie-cutter and rigid by-the-book production methods.  They have seven different brands, and this particular wine is not even on their web page.

Mercer Estates Dead Canyon Ranch Red Wine Blend Horse Heaven Hills AVA 2017 is the wine that I will talk about.   Horse Heaven Hills AVA is part of the much larger Columbia Valley AVA in Washington State.  The region was granted an AVA in 2005, but it has the distinction of being the home of Washington’s oldest Cabernet Sauvignon vines that were planted in 1972.  The wine is a blend of fifty percent Syrah, twenty percent Cabernet Sauvignon, seventeen percent Merlot, eight percent Malbec, three percent Petit Verdot and two percent Mourvedre.  The tasting notes mention dark fruits like blackberry, blueberry jam and ripe plums, along with notes of sage, sweet smoke and vanilla in a balance wine (and you know that is not how I tend to describe wines, that old school methods of mine.  With all that Syrah, I have to think of this wine for barbecues and more exotic meats like game or big roasts.  I just have to find the right moment and dinner.     

Posted in Wine | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Thierry Delauney “La Vignette” Rosé

Posted on August 13, 2020 by thewineraconteur

My wine club at the Fine Wine Source in Livonia is not that far away, but they have very limited hours at the moment as they are still adjusting to the mandates of trying to run a business and not go out of business.  The world is still topsy-turvy and getting to my local wine shop has been just as difficult as anything.  I just picked up recently the July club offerings and as usual there is an Old World offering and a New World offering.  I am just glad that he has a great business and loyal customers that are not wanting the wines at the corner market or the grocery store.  Each time I have been there, because he has condensed hours, so that he can deliver wine orders, it has been hectic.  There are usually a couple of wine sales reps there, and I am sure that they are glad that they are still getting the chance to process orders.  I know that my old industry that I retired from is suffering terribly, so I am glad to see when businesses overcome adversities that have been imposed upon them, as if business is not hard enough as it is.

The Old-World offering is a Rosé wine from the Loire Valley, which is a major wine producing area that lives in the shadow of some of the other wine regions.  One of the main reasons that this area is over shadowed, because all of the wines are more nuanced and delicate, instead of big in-your-face reds that so many of the wine critics prefer these days.  White wines are what most people think of when they think of the Loire, they think of Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc.  Though red wines are increasing and Cabernet Franc is the star, but followed by Gamay, Pinot Noir and Malbec (known locally as Cot).  Touraine is located in the center of the wine region of the Loire.  With the Touraine appellation the wines may be white, red, rosé or sparkling (and in all three-color variations).  The red wines of Touraine are led by Gamay and then Cabernet Franc and Malbec.  Rosé wines account for about ten percent of the production and they are dry in style, and the three main red grapes are the major players as well. 

Thierry Delauney “La Vignette” Rosé Touraine 2019 is from an estate that is twenty-one hectares situated in Pouille above the banks of the Cher, the very center of the appellation. The vineyards have been cultivated and tended by five generations of the same family and the first wines that were bottled at the Domaine was in 1971.  Through the years they have worked to increase the quality and the reputation of the winery and in the process have also entered into the négociant trade.  The wine is made using Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Malbec (Cot).  The fruit is harvested from across the Touraine and the wine is aged on fine lees in Stainless Steel. The notes for this wine are that it is a salmon pink hue, with a spicy nose of red currants, strawberries and raspberries.  The wine is described as balanced with a lovely acidity and offering a creamy finish on the palate.  It is recommended as the perfect wine for salads, and pink meats, charcuterie and soft cheeses. 

Posted in Wine | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Hello Dahling”

Posted on August 11, 2020 by thewineraconteur

We were going to meet our one son and his wife at Tallulah Wine Bar & Bistro in Birmingham, Michigan, and it is a place that we have mentioned often and never gotten there, that is how life works, sometimes.  Well anyways, my mind often runs in several different directions.  When I hear Tallulah, I immediately think of Tallulah Bankhead, more famous on the Great White Way, because for one generation she is more known for being in the movie “Lifeboat” and it was always rumored that she made the film without wearing underwear, to another generation she was known as the Black Widow on the Batman television show.  She might have been one of the reasons that the term “camp” was created, because she was so theatrical privately and publicly.   We once saw Kathleen Turner in a one-woman play “Tallulah” and it was basically her classic lines recorded by the press.  And in the opening scene of “A Pocketful of Miracles” it is Bette Davis as Apple Annie who roars out “Tallulah” as they had a rivalry for decades.  Her lifestyle probably did not help her memory, but she was able to remember lines for the stage, but not for names, so everyone was “dah-ling.”

So, as you can tell, I had a lot excess baggage with me, just because we were going to Tallulah Wine Bar & Bistro, but it was all good.  When we arrived, we had booked a reservation through their requested service and our reservation was before they were actually opening up, what with the turmoil of what has happened to the restaurant business, they never changed the protocol.  It was fine, and they let us come in and have a table and we began the evening.  Rather, then have throw away menus, they had the information in a square emblem, I have no idea what the proper name for it is, and you took your phone and photographed the square and the menu appeared on your smart phone.  I guess if your phone was not smart enough, they did have some throw away menus.  We got a couple of appetizers to share for the table.  One was a platter of Artisanal Cheese, and I cut a small chunk of Manchego and some fresh honey and left the rest for the others.  We also had Sardines with fennel, beets and Remoulade Sauce, we were expecting small sardines, but these were so big that they were fileted tableside, but still concerns about bones, and unfortunately not much flavor to this dish.  My Bride had the Sea Scallops with corn pudding, honey crisp apples, crispy bacon and Campari tomato and cooked to perfection.  I had the Rohan Farms Duck Breast prepared three ways, with carrot puree and black beans and it was great, it also made me realize how long it has been since I have had a duck dinner.  The other plates were a Mushroom Cauliflower Risotto with Shiitake, Portobello, Shallots and Thyme Butter and an order of Lamb Ragu Pappardelle with house-made pasta, poached egg and Parmigiano Reggiano.  Then there was a couple of orders of desserts, but I refrained from having sweets.

It was a hot day, and we continued our quest for something chilled for dinner.  We had a bottle from Famille Moutard, their Moutard-Diligent Bourgogne Chardonnay 2018.   They own a little over thirteen hectares of land deemed for Chardonnay.  The Moutard-Diligent label represents their Negocient range, as there are approximately three-hundred communes in Burgundy that can be used for this designation. The firm did not offer any production notes on their wines, but it was a good basic Chardonnay with a flinty finish and a great bottle for having with dinner.   While everyone was enjoying dessert, I decided to have my own dessert.  I had a glass of Les Vignerons du Terrassous Rivesaltes Ambre Hors d’Age 6 Ans Languedoc-Roussillon NV.  Rivesaltes is a famed wine with its own appellation for this dessert wine from the Roussillon and this wine was made from only Grenache Blanc.  This legendary wine that has been made from at least the Fourteenth Century and is termed Vin Doux Naturel is produced by settling of the must, pressing, partial fermentation in oak barrels with temperature control and then mutage, which is stopping the fermentation by adding wine alcohol.   Rivesaltes wines are made from all three Grenache grapes; blanc, noir and gris.  Rivesaltes wines are offered in several forms, distinguished by their color, depending on the grape and the ageing process.  These are Rosé, Grenat, Ambre and Tuilé, and fifth category Hors d’Age which is only applicable to Ambre and Tuilé wines that are aged for at least five years before being released.  This wine was a beautiful deep amber color, sweet and viscous, and offered nuts and caramelized fruit in the finish.  I think, that I had the best desert of the group.  We had a wonderful dinner, though we were getting razzed that we had a very early dinner from the kids.  And before I leave, I will offer two great and often repeated quotes of Tallulah, that can be used in proper society.  “Cocaine isn’t habit-forming.  I should know – I’ve been using it for years.” “Nobody can be exactly like me.  Even I have trouble doing it.”

Posted in Dining, Wine | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

An Afternoon in Birmingham

Posted on August 9, 2020 by thewineraconteur

So many people have gained weight, since everyone was forced to stop working and to change their lifestyle.  I have lost a five or six pounds, no big deal or worth a celebration, but my Bride is another story.  Just before everything imploded, where my Bride works, they promote different “healthy” programs periodically and one was Weight Watchers.  My Bride had to pay for the start up costs and if she was successful according to Weight Watchers, her company would later redeem her expenses, so it was a win-win situation for her, and she does like getting paid to do something healthy; she met her goals, so Weight Watchers, her employer and most of all, my Bride is happy.  Anyways, I have been very cruel and have made her go through and box up all the clothes that do not fit her, because they are hanging on her, and of course she has had to buy new replacement clothes, even though she has discovered plenty of “new” clothes that had been too small for her.

We were going to Birmingham, which is a nice northern suburb of Detroit, that has some very fashionable and trendy apparel shops, as well as some great restaurants.  She wanted to go shopping and it was a necessary trip, plus we made plans to have dinner with our son and his wife later that evening.  As I say, she was very happy, and as the old saying goes “Happy Wife, Happy Life.”  When she goes shopping, I normally just stroll the street, in case she calls for me to help her make a decision and in the old days I would enjoy a cigar.  Especially nowadays, because I am not partial to wearing a mask for extended long periods of time, and I guess that I retired at the right time, because I am sure that I would not enjoy retailing as much as I did, looking like Jesse James.  Anyways, right across the street was a restaurant and wine bar and I figured that I would get a chair out on the verandah and enjoy something chilled and wet while she was having fun.   No such luck, even in Birmingham, the restaurants and wine bars had shortened their hours of business, but my Bride was a quick shopper, made the right decisions and found me with a parched tongue.  We took a gamble and walked a couple of blocks to the Townsend Hotel, where they had both a restaurant and grille open, but also a bar.  We have been to the Townsend several times, and she has even been there more often, because of her job; for conferences and business meetings, and my Bride is considered an essential worker, so even with her home every day, we have not been bumping into each other.

There were actually two chairs at the bar, in fact that is all that there was in these days of social distancing and from my era and outlook, two chairs at a bar seems so sterile and uninviting.  Since, there were only two of us, and we haven’t practiced social distancing between us, all was good.  We had some time to kill before seeing the kids and my tongue was still parched.  My Bride had a glass of Giocato Pinot Grigio Goriska Brda, Slovenia 2018.  Giocato in Italian means to play or to have fun.  Giocato was a joint endeavor between Slovenian winery Edi Simcic, their lead winemaker Aleks Simcic and the United States wine importer Small Vineyards-August Wine Group, along with their Italian counterpart Collio.  The wine is hand harvested and fermentation and aging are done in Stainless Steel.  Goriska Brda is the northern sub-region of the much larger Primorski wine region in western Slovenia and the name is actually two towns that are divided from each other from the dust that settled from the political intrigues of Italy, Trieste (both Zones) and Yugoslavia.  Goriska ended up in Italy and is known as Collio Goriziano and Brda is in Slovenia.  Political intrigues aside, this was a very nice Pinot Grigio with some brightness and notes of green apples.    I had a glass of Maison Simonnet-Febvre Chablis 2018, and they were founded in 1840 and are one of the oldest wineries of the area.  They produce a wide range of wines showcasing the terroirs of Chablis and Grand Auxerrois, in 2003 they were bought by Maison Louis Latour and it is run as a separate enterprise with its own style.  Chablis is the large general appellation for the area and this wine was fermented for around six months on the lees and then aged for around two years, all in Stainless Steel.  This really was a tasty wine with a fruity nose and a finish of minerals in the terroir and a real crispy wine.  Even though my Bride has been on a Pinot Grigio kick, she did opine that I had the better of the two choices.  After enjoying the wines, it was time to go to the restaurant and meet our son and his wife.   

Posted in Wine | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Two Old Reds from the Cellar

Posted on August 7, 2020 by thewineraconteur

In a sense I feel like the old Aesop Fable “The Ant and the Grasshopper” when it comes to finding wines that were laid to rest years ago.   I have been writing about wines that I have discovered in the cellar and so far, only two have been passed their prime and they have both been white wines.  I have slowly, but surely been methodical about trying to rearrange the wines in the cellar and moving the whites up to a wine vault in the family room, in hopes that the whites won’t be lost again, but I do keep finding stray bottles and if you are like me, you tell yourself that you will remember putting a wine in a certain spot, even with a neck tag on it, so it won’t get lost.  I am only mortal.  Also, in the early days there might have been discussions that a certain wine is too nice for the moment and it gets forgotten about for another time period.  It seemed that it was forever, before we could go out to eat, by mandate and we ate every meal at home.  There was nothing wrong with that, as my Bride is an excellent cook, but I still miss the ambience of dining out, especially with friends; and for awhile that was another mandated no-no.  I am still finding some fun stuff, even after five or is it six months that this has been going on.

The two reds that I am going to discuss I actually found mixed in with some white wines in the main structure in the cellar, and rather than let them get misplaced or lost again, I brought them up, knowing that we would be needing some red wines.  The first wine is Trefethen Family Vineyards Double T Red Wine Napa Valley 2007.  Trefethen Family Vineyards is located in the Oak Knoll region of Napa Valley and they produce a good selection of wines all from their estate from a Dry Riesling to their flagship Halo Cabernet Sauvignon.  Eugene and Catherine Trefethen moved to Napa Valley after his retirement in 1968 from the construction industry.  At that time there were less than twenty wineries in the valley and some had been neglected since the last big “Nanny State” mandate called Prohibition.  They purchased six farms, including the 19th century Eschol Winery with the intention of selling the grapes to other producers; their son John had a different idea and the first commercial vintage was in 1973.  The Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley AVA covers 8300 acres of the valley floor and received the recognition after a slow up-hill battle for the vineyards in 2004.  The area was originally planted with vineyards during the Gold Rush days of the 1850’s.  The recognition is because the area is much cooler compared to the other parts of the valley and the growing season can actually extend for sometimes up to eight months.  Double T is named for the quadrilateral cordon trellis, commonly called the “Double T” and it is also a nod to the generations of the Trefethen family that has worked to build the vineyard and winery.  The wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.  The wine is aged for fifteen months in a mix of French, American and Hungarian Oak.  A lovely wine that hides under the humble name of a Red Wine that was not even showing any age for a thirteen-year-old and it was wonderful with her house made cheeseburgers with grilled onions. 

The other red wine that I found was one of favorite wineries after we discovered them in our trip to Napa Valley and to boot, it is my Bride’s favorite grape to this day.  We had a bottle of Peju Province Winery Cabernet Franc Napa Valley 1996 and all we could wonder is why didn’t we buy this wine by the cases.   Peju Province Winery was founded in 1983 by Tony and Herta Peju, he originally came from Provence to California and had a very successful florist business.  Peju is located in Rutherford, near Mondavi, Beaulieu and Inglenook.  Peju has grown from the initial twenty-two acres in Rutherford, as they now own another twelve-acre vineyard in Calistoga and two vineyards in Pope Valley with an additional one-hundred-sixty acres.   They also source some fruit from Sonoma and Mendocino and they offer a complete rage of wines from sparkling to dessert wines.  This twenty-four-year-old was sublime for a lack of a better term.  It was everything I want and expect from a Cabernet Franc, especially the long finish that says terroir to me.  I don’t know if it is to everyone, but I find that Cabernet Franc expresses terroir better and easier compared to most varietals and it is even apparent in popular price examples when one can find it.  So, all of the diligence of our being worker ants in the cellar, has kept us from singing to the moon during over extended lockdown period and has made it as tolerable as it can be.   

Posted in Dining, Wine | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Back to Butch’s Dry Dock

Posted on August 5, 2020 by thewineraconteur

We were making the most of our time in Holland, Michigan and it was a hot one as we walked up and down the main street of downtown.  We had to stop several times to quench our thirst, but alas as I have stated, my new phone froze and I lost about a month’s worth of photos and potential future articles, so I guess I shall have to persevere and drink some more wine.  I basically stood outside while my Bride would put her mask on and go shopping, in the old days I would have had a cigar outside while she shopped, but instead I was just happy breathing fresh air unhindered and away from the maddening crowds.  I ended up talking to a lot of people from the suburbs of Chicago, which is not surprising as the western shore of Michigan from the Indiana border up to Traverse City has become a vacation hot spot for the people of Illinois, who have discovered “Pure Michigan,” even if there is no longer a budget to advertise the charms of the state and this occurred before virus from Wuhan.  In the afternoon we went walking out to the waterfront and had to walk through an open-air farmers market that was going in operation and there were was a lackey at the entrance to that block checking to see if people had a mask on to walk in the street; and as a side note it has been over two weeks that we have returned with no complications, so all is good, and I hope that part of the state is not penalized again.

We really wanted to go to Butch’s Dry Dock again, and the name is appropriate, because a boat would have to be dry, if it was anywhere near the location of the restaurant, because it is in the middle of the downtown area and away from Lake Michigan.   The last time that we ate there it was for an anniversary and they gave us a wonderful table up by the windows, so that we could do some people watching, and we had the same table again without a congratulatory message that we had the first time.  I had first read about the restaurant, because it has maintained the Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence and I still use the magazine issue of that magazine if we are going someplace new, or if I have to try to help someone find a restaurant.  It is the type of restaurant that you can see people going out on a date, family dinners and also plenty of grandparents taking their children and grandchildren out for a quality meal.  It really is a pleasure to be in such an institution, or maybe, because I still enjoy dressing for dinner, especially with my Bride.  We started dinner off by sharing an appetizer of Smoked Salmon Dip with house made pita chips and fried capers.  My Bride had Sea Scallops with jasmine rice, coconut curry, caramelized onion, red pepper and basil.  I had to have the Braised Short Rib with cherry chutney, glazed green beans and crispy potatoes.  To balance out the evening we shared an order of Crème Brulee for dessert.

The restaurant carries about eight hundred assorted bottles of wine, and the majority are priced at retail and then you pay a corkage fee, which sure beats the typical normal markup of three times retail. I had a charming conversation with the Sommelier before dinner as I was walking up and down the aisles of wines, just like in a wine shop.  I knew what we were going to have and I was trying to find a balance, though my Bride is always willing to have a delightful red, even with an order of scallops.  I found a bottle that looked interesting to say the least; Domaine Olivier Jouan Bourgogne Hautes-Cotes de Nuits Vielles Vignes 2017.  Olivier Jouan is a sixth-generation Morey-Saint-Denis grower and the first in his family to make wine commercially in 1999 after completing studies at the Lycée Viticole in Beaune.  He and his wife found a 17th century home with a cellar in the Hautes Cotes de Nuits and he is basically a one-man operation.  He has parcels in two Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Crus, Ruchots and Riotte, an acre of Grand Cru Charmes-Chambertin, an old vine parcel in the Chambolle-Musigny lieu-dit Les Bussieres and this forty-year-old vines on his Jouan Hautes Cotes de Nuits (which I have now discovered is considered an incredible value for the remarkable depth that he has achieved in this appellation).  I have to tell you, that it was only two days earlier that I saw a bottle of wine from Hautes Cotes de Nuit being talked about by another blogger that I have both admiration and respect for.  The Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Nuits appellation was created in 1961, and I actually went and looked at my old labels and could not find that appellation.  It is for the high slopes above the famous mid slopes of the eight communal and twenty-three Grand Cru appellations of the Cote de Nuits.  The majority of the Hautes Cotes wines are red made basically from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay is the grape found for the whites of this appellation and then there is a very small amount of Rosé wine made from Pinot Noir.  This wine was a doll, a beautiful affordable Red from an area where affordable is not usually mentioned.  It was so smooth and delightful that I thought that the bottle must have had a crack in it, because the wine disappeared by the time dessert came.  I am so glad that I take the empty bottles home after a meal, because this was another photo that I lost from this trip, but the memories are still just as precious.  

                                                                                                                                              

Posted in Dining, Wine | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Warner Vineyards

Posted on August 3, 2020 by thewineraconteur

We were enjoying walking up and down the main street in downtown Holland, enjoying the shopping, but you could tell that it was much quieter compared to the last time we were there.  Also, most of the merchants were terrified that governor was going to close that part of the state down again and the common belief was that the area could not handle the lockdown a second time. We could only find one location for breakfast and it was the same for all the other tourists as well.  We ended up having a late breakfast and not a brunch.  As we were walking up and down, we stumbled upon a shop that we missed the last time we were there. 

Warner Vineyards has a satellite wine tasting room in Holland, as well as in South Haven and Marshall, Michigan.  The vineyards are located along the Lake Michigan Shore appellation.  It was originally founded as Michigan Wineries in 1938.  In 1971 they acquired Honel Wine Company of Sandusky, Ohio, one of the pioneers in Midwestern sparkling wine making.  They are still using the techniques from the acquisition, as well as the equipment.  In 1973, they changed the name from Michigan Wineries to Warner Vineyards.   In 1976, President Gerald Ford, the first President from Michigan served their Warner Brut at the White House.  Warner Brut was selected as the official champagne of Super Bowl XXIII in 1982 and the Super Bowl XL in 2006.  The Warner Brut continues to the their most prestigious wine. 

Wine tasting has changed since all the new rules have taken affect.  I went to “belly-up” to the bar, for a tasting and I was chased to a table.  The wine was poured into small plastic glasses that could be thrown away.  I took photos of each wine, but alas with my iPhone that froze, I lost all the photos from the trip. Thankfully the family chronicler, AKA My Bride had taken some photos on her own.  We were allowed to try five of twenty-seven wines.  We started with two white wines.  The first was the Pinot Grigio and it was a very light wine with a soft nose and a short finish, I have to say it was not the most interesting bottle of wine that I ever had.  The second wine was their Chardonnay Reserve with a Lake Michigan Shore appellation which had more body and a soft buttery finish.  The next two wines were reds and we were touted to try these.  The 2Cab/Merlot Lake Michigan Shore 2017 was a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot that had been aged for twelve months in Hungarian Oak.  The nose was off and the finish left me tasting alcohol.  The next wine was their Cabernet Franc Lake Michigan Shore, aged for six months in Hungarian Oak and I thought there was some terroir to be noticed, but at $34.99, I could not get excited about it, as much as our server was getting excited about it.  The last wine that we tried also was highly touted and it was their Port, that was made to emulate the wines of Portugal, and this wine was a blend of Chancellor and Chambourcin and to us, it was the best of the five wines that we tried.  We didn’t try any of their sparkling wines or their fruit wines.  I would try their wines again, perhaps in a real wine tasting setting with actual glasses, and I think that it might have been better, if they sold a tasting glass, and allowed a rinse between tastings, but then again that may be against the dictates of governor. 

Posted in Wine | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments